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Malmesbury River Walk (2)
20 Wiltshire Scenes (10b)
I've described other "virtual" visits to Malmesbury already... to the tallest and smallest churches - Malmesbury Abbey and Bremilham-cum-Foxley - as well as having a peep at the Naked Gardeners. It was a special town for me for a few years when I lived there and I put a lot of energy into my photography throughout the West Country during that time.
The years in Malmesbury were productive because I was working on two photo "part works" for different publishers, as well as freelancing for Thames TV all over the UK. I would always have one spare body loaded with film for my own files... and it is from those I am largely drawing now. The assortment of frames in the composite image above are from many hundreds taken in 1981 through 1983 wandering across one small meadow called "Conygre Mead", named after the rabbit warrens there, and which is flanked by the river Avon.
I could walk to the meadow in a minute because my house overlooked it... in the winter months the sun rose through the strand of poplars seen in the red and orange filtered shots. If I didn't dress and go out into the cold dawn air I could stay warm and photograph the meadow with a long lens from my study window - as in the shot of the sun peeping around the old Abbey House now owned by the "Naked Gardeners" - as the BBC has dubbed them.
But it was a place to explore... if you were prepared for frost-numbed fingers, trousers covered in sticky burrs and other seeds, plus soaked shoes and socks, then this was the place to start a one-hour walk that provided countless photo opportunities even if you only picked one lens for your camera. It's your eyes that see and the brain that thinks... the camera merely records one's visions and thoughts.
I checked for the latest information and updated map for the Malmesbury River Walk and the route is exactly the same as when I did it so many times over twenty years ago. You start on the site of the old railway station and follow the river... but from here on I'll recommend the report by Christopher Sommerville on his "Walk of the Month" in the Daily Telegraph...
"As I climbed the steps from the River Avon to Malmesbury Abbey on a beautiful spring morning, a woman hurrying to work fell in step alongside. "Visiting our town?" she cooed in the ripest of Wiltshire accents. It's like going back 50 years, Malmesbury. We're a quiet little place, but there's a lot to us, you'll find..."
During any season of the year this short, one-to-two-to-tree hour stroll, with pubs and cafés awaiting you in the town, is a delight... I used to see plenty of wildlife including rabbits, hares and fox... too many birds to remember from woodpeckers to kingfishers... and many varieties of flora I had no knowledge of as there are said to be over 100 different species including Burnet Saxifrage and the rare Whitemeadow Cranesbill. I did recognise the frosted Teazels though... the same patch may still there unless the land has been built on!
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