And so the story begins.

This book is in the story box at The Jubilee Hut Webbers Post. The idea is simple, inside each of the six blue boxes are journals, and each is started by a different author, you read the story so far, add a little or a drawing, then leave for the next to carry the story on.

Last year these were very successful with nearly 1000 people touching the five boxes, so this year we are doing the same again with six, (or twelve if you want to include the Poetry boxes at Valley of Rocks, Lynton.)

This year we have Jackie Morris, Catherine Hyde, and Victoria Eveleigh, all published authors and illustrators, but we are not revealing which is where, that's for you to walk and hunt and find for yourself. The books are already filling very nicely, and I think this year we will build on last years success and get even more people interacting with the project.

So where are they, and will I have to walk the whole of the 51 miles to find them!

No, actually the extension from Porlock to Lynton, has happened since the project was agreed, so they are within the original 36 miles, but that is still a huge stretch. So Mr Jelley's website http://jelley.info has a Coleridge Way tab listing the project details, including a story box video and a map with pins suggesting where the boxes are located. 

Here is the long hand version.

The first is at Coleridge Cottage, the second, Watery Lane, Nether Stowey.

The third above East Quantockhead over looking the Church, the forth at The Notley Arms, Monksilver (you can drink and dine whilst reading this one!)

The fifth is at The Jubilee Hut, Webbers Post, and the sixth at the Visitor Centre in Porlock.

I'll be checking on and changing the books over these coming three months, June, July and August, keeping them fresh and posting images of book pages. Storywalks broadcasts on Twitter and Facebook channels, so follow and like and see where your story has gone, or better still get out there and add your little piece of magic to the trail.

Exhibition at Lynmouth Pavilion in September 2014 of both Poetry and Story books.

Note - Poetry Boxes are funded by Lynmouth Pavilion Project and the Story Boxes ARTlife's Coleridge Way Projects, and all are placed with full landowners permissions.

Plans are Afoot!

This year has been a great one for new works and new directions with the Coleridge Way, and as we head towards the darker months, it's a time of reflection and planning the way forward for 2014.

So what's in store? Well some of it is tightly under wraps, and will be rolled out and celebrated in due course, (so no spoilers here, sorry) other parts like the QR code poetry and the story boxes which were such a success are to be built upon, made stronger and more diverse. 

Along the trail of the Coleridge Way

The story box project went really well, we had a great deal of input from a diverse range of walkers, some just added a drawing, others just their name, but lots of people picked up the gauntlet of adding to the tale and then leaving for the next.

Here are a few sound cloud links from text written by multiple authors, it's really interesting how the thread runs through them all, and when a single voice reads them out they begin to flow and meld as one.

The new story boxes are due to go live in June again 2014, (with funding approval in January, fingers crossed) which will be fantastic. The boxes will again be started ready for your discovery and input, last year we had Jackie Morris, (Author Illustrator) and Taffy Thomas (the first UK Storyteller Laureate) There will again be opportunities for established authors to be involved - so please do get in touch it would be great to hear from you.

Here is a little film made in June 2013 about the story boxes, as they were being installed along the Coleridge Way trail.

There will also be more of the QR code poetry as we hope to engage with another three schools in Coleridge Country, and re install these back along the trail. Also a sample of the QR code poetry is being published in an anthology of Exmoor poetry which will be available in time for Christmas.

So what of the stone image higher up the page? Well this is a secret of the Coleridge Way, for those who walk it discover hidden gems and surprises along it's path. Some are marked on maps, others are more esoteric, a carved well head, a tree root which looks like a monks hood. The story boxes and the QR code poetry engage with these personal histories, these individual imaginative elements, or as Samuel Taylor Coleridge once said.

A poet ought not to pick nature's pocket. Let him borrow, and so borrow as to repay by the very act of borrowing. Examine nature accurately, but write from recollection, and trust more to the imagination than the memory.

So let us trust to the imagination.

. . relish the rain and sun in equal measure

     In a shady valley not far from here, where the river slides over cool rocks beneath muscular Oaks, the Last Queen visited once. A small courtage followed and everyone barefoot (by decree) till the edge of Paisey Pool. There she stepped lightly into the cool waters and even the birds were hush as she dipped beneath the water, her train billowing in the flow. But when she emerged but a heart beat later age had been purged from her limbs and her body was lithe and supple.

     She turned to the company and addressed the barefoot lords who waited.

'These are the new rules of my reign' and the scribe began to take notes.

'Firstly . . .

     We shall walk barefoot always, mirrors will be banished - our lovers, children and friends will reflect our beauty in all our transformations. 

We will dine on nothing but the finest, freshest fruits and berries. 

Celebrate each season, relish the rain and sun in equal measure. 

Have no need for clocks or time pieces other than the sun and the moon.

     We shall . .

Fragment from story book box at Webbers Post

Continuation of the story above.

Yesterday I ventured out to the Jubilee Hut at Webbers Post with a little intrepidation, the last time I visited I removed a book which was full and replaced it with this one. It was only about two weeks ago, but the journal in question had become a visitor book, not a story book.

The concept of the story box is simple, find the box read the tale so far, add a drawing or paragraph but no more then leave for the next walker. So when it devolves into a guest book I feel a little saddened and hoped this one would not fall foul the same. I wrestled with putting a note inside saying 'This is not a visitor book, story only please' but I rile at that, my mind set is one of enablement, not of impediments. But once someone breaks the thread of a tale it drifts naturally into the visitor book mode. So with all that said, just before I set out I did print some thin book marks to tuck in the active pages to negate the drift.

Also last week I received an email from Katie Bourne who stumbled across this story box with her two year old and loved the project, she also mentioned 'the visitor book syndrome' and I knew she was looking at the newly installed journal which added to my anxiety. She went on to link to a Braunton project which she had managed a while back, similar to my storywalks work with GPS location triggered content, but Katie admits herself that some of the tech is already a little dated, but still worth checking out.

So yesterday I walked through the sun dappled trees at Webbers Post on the way to the Jubilee Hut which is where this box is installed. It is a stunning location, the crunch of pine needles, glimpses of deer (got close enough to pet two!) give me any excuse to go breath in the Exmoor tonic.

Illustration of Dunkery Beacon from this story box location

So I nervously approached the box, pleased it had not disappeared totally, (I am expecting to lose one or two over the summer). But the box looked perfect, with a good scuff on the lid (good, box in use), I opened it and found it well used in a relatively short period, but more to the point it was well used in the intended manner. Yes there are a few additions which wander off into the guest book cul-de-sac, but the meat is of tale, and more than I could have hoped.

Story Box on the bench next to the QR poetry project
at the Jubilee Hut, Webbers Post.

I added a little tale to the tale to gather some of the threads, took lots of pictures of the pages and then left the box once again to the wilds and whims of strangers. But when I checked my photo's at home last night, they were dreadful, so later that evening I drove out again with Davina (Walking Book Club), and not only did we see more deer, but a stunning sunset, and in that short time another visitor had added to the tale.

Brilliant.

So thanks to all those who have contributed, for me it recharges my faith in the creativity of strangers, the willingness to engage with the wilds of Exmoor, and add a little cumulative magic to the whole, just for the fun of it. 

I know that in years to come I will meet people who will remember stumbling across the story boxes, anonymously adding their mark or just enjoy seeing the of story grow there in.

The Story Box Story, or the tale and trail so far.

Story box  book at Watery Lane, Nether Stowey.

Nether Stowey, Watery Lane, the first proper stretch of the Coleridge Way, where you leave the tarmac and traffic behind, this is the first act in a 36 mile play of ruts and rises, tunnels and vistas, heath and heather, cutting and combe. What has struck me, having been along pieces of the Coleridge Way regularly over the past few months is how the mood changes and transforms. Whether it's a quick dash in a cool evening to the story boxes, or more of a walk and rest with pencil and patience, the atmosphere is dynamic, never the same, always transforming, evolving, which I suppose this is what a living thing does.

  

But more recently my main focus has been the Story Boxes which I placed along the trail early June time. So how have they been fairing? and if you are unaware of this project have a look at this link with a map and descriptions of locations.

Well judging by these images I think rather better than expected, there have been drawings, poems, and little ditties, with a very small amount of abuse (I only left pencils in the boxes) The Coleridge Cottage booklet has developed well, though the paints I left inside were useless, and they have just installed an interpretation post in the arbour itself. Which is brilliant but when you need to focus on writing, it's not easy doing so with Coleridge's 'Lime Tree Bower' weaving it's magic across you.

Horner Garden Tea Rooms has a relatively small amount of work in, though we are just on the cusp of holiday season, so that should pick up soon. But even with only a little inside, it has the most beautiful drawing of a campsite in a valley.

  

The Jubilee Hut, which has Taffy Thomas' story at the beginning, has funnily fared the poorest in my opinion, which is somewhat disappointing. It just devolved into a visitors book, with most inputs by Duke of Edinburgh Awards kids hiking through. The book in question has been visited a lot, as it's now full, but the majority of inputs have no story, or only tiny fragments of a tale which bare no connection to the task set. I have a mind to write a big note - This is not a visitor book - please write story or draw. I'll see how we go now that the D of E are out of the way, but they are by no means the only culprits, but did set the trend.

So dear reader my challenge is out to you, to gather your tales and head out to the boxes, restrict yourself to just the task in hand of adding a little to the story so far, doing a drawing but no more and then leaving the story box for the next to find and do the same. This blog I will keep short as I think the pictures speak the loudest, and at the end of the summer (September) the books are to be exhibited at Venue 23 in Dulverton for Somerset Art Week, and also Porlock Festival. So you still have plenty of time to hunt out the story boxes and add your little magic, I recommend you do as I have, and return again and again for this is how the Coleridge Way is rejuvenated.