Here is the day 1 walk as seen from Richard White’s phone and tablet and from his Flicks account, so this pics are not always taken by him
Via Viewranger:
http://my.viewranger.com/track/widget/1582249?locale=en&m=miles
and via Social Hiking
this hooks up with a number of other walkers twitter feed and shows some of the tweets retweeted
Interview with her great granddaughter, Rebecca, at the Brutal Exposure exhibition in the International Slavery Museum, Liverpool
[vimeo 85248277 w=500 h=375]
Rebecca Seeley Harris from National Museums Liverpool on Vimeo.
This haunting exhibition presents what was probably the first photographic campaign in support of human rights. It documents the exploitation and brutality experienced by Congolese people under the control of Leopold II of Belgium in the 1900s.
Alice Seeley Harris lived much of her life in Frome. We will remember her work in bring slavery and genocide to the attention of world when we are walking on Tuesday. A local resonance.
The exhibition in Liverpool runs until June 7
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/exhibitions/brutal-exposure/index.aspx
Walker registration is now closed but there are still many ways in which you can support the project:
If you can help please contact us using the form on the front page of the website
….and yes we are still short of cash…..
The local resonances surface. The walk crosses another trail in the long struggle for human rights.
The Monmouth Rebellion of 1685 began in Lyme Regis and was crushed in the same year on Sedgemoor. Following a set back at Keynsham the ‘Pitchfork’ army headed east, they were refused entry to Bath and headed for Norton St Phillip. We walk towards their ghosts.
picture credit Geoff Williams.
The George Inn: in 1685, for a few days, the headquarters of Duke of Monmouth
On the throne in 1685, following the death of Charles II, was James II, Charles’ brother, a Roman Catholic. Charles had regained royal power following the collapse of the Commonwealth and quickly dismantled the political and religious freedoms established following the Civil War. Republican ideas were still strong in the country and the accession to the throne of James, was feared by many to be a further drift towards a return to absolute Roman Catholic rule. This was especially true in the West Country, The Duke of Monmouth, Charles II’s bastard son, hoped to lead a Protestant uprising and overthrow James.
Monmouth was supported by republicans as well as those supporting a constituional monarchy. People from Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire joined the rebellion some of them were nonconformist Christians who had suffered persecution under Charles II. Others were disaffected because of the economic recession which had recently hit the south west, most were labourers and artisans. Amongst their number were workers from the mills and workshops of Frome.
At Norton St Philip a further skirmish had this ‘Pitchfork’ army falling back to Frome, possibly along the roads we walk. Ultimately they headed off to Wells and across the Somerset levels towards their last stand at Sedgemoor.
A vicious and terrible repression followed, famously known as the Bloody Assizes, in Wells alone on a single day 500 men were tried and most sentenced to death. 12 executions took place at Norton St Phillip. Frome rebels are reported to have also been hung, drawn and quartered at Gore Hedge, just past the top of what is now Bath Street. Others were transported to the West Indies. The families of the Taunton schoolgirls who had presented a banner to welcome Monmouth had to pay a ransom for their release.
More info here: Monmouth Rebellion and Bloody Assizes
Productive planning/briefing meeting in Frome this week. Second generation survivors and liberators met: we heard powerful stories of survival and resistance:
A walk across Europe escaping the pogroms over a century ago from Oddesa to Palestine.
The retraced steps across Liverpool Street station of a family whose history begins at the arrival of the Kindertransport train.
Reminders on the network of the legendary yiddish advocate, poet and socialist Meyer Bogdanski.
And today a powerful Kurdish woman tells the story of a life in exile.
Join us for more on the walk, share your stories and lets see how this strange journey in the mind and walk on the ground will speak to us.
Frome Town Council today confirmed support for the project, amongst other things this will fund local briefings in Frome and a workshop for young people at Frome College.
The briefing for project supporters, prospective walkers and anyone interested in finding out more about the project will be on
Tuesday 17 March at the Cheese and Grain in Frome
Meeting Room 1: 4.00pm
and again
Meeting Room 1 at 6.30pm
Join artists Richard White and Lorna Brunstein to hear the story of the Forced Walks project at a briefing in the Cheese and Grain, Frome on Tuesday March 17. The briefing will run twice once at 4.00pm and once at 6.30pm in meeting room 1.
An opportunity to find out about the background to the project and to get involved. There are still places for those wanting to join the walk, come and find out more. The artists are continuing to reach out to local historians and human rights activists interested in being involved in this creative walk-in-witness. They are keen to meet descendants of veterans of the Somerset Light Infantry and other soldiers who may have taken part in the liberation of Belsen as well as those who may have family stories of exile to share.
I did a complete walk of the proposed route today almost 70 years to the day when Esther was forced on her march from the slave labour camp to Belsen. It was cold and there was a sharp wind but I just keep thinking how this was nothing to compare with what she experienced. I was well fed, I had had a nice breakfast and was armed with plenty of goodies to keep me going.
I heard woodpeckers and thought of machine gun fire, I trudged along frozen ground and through small settlement. I was consumed with thoughts about this parallel journey, the one in my head and the one I was walking. I kept thinking about the cold and Charles Wheeler’s newsreel images of Kurdish families at a cold and windswept at a mountain pass in some recent war came to mind.
As my body kicked in to remind me I forced myself to run and walk at pace to hear the voices in my head keeping me going. I could slow and relax at will though.
So for those thinking about actually doing the walk with us…day one is quite a stretch an all day walk including the ‘interventions’ which we can now start planning. Muddy with a couple of steppish climbs and descents. Walking boots definitely and maybe a stick for the slippy bits. All walkers are asked to register and will receive detailed updates about route and meet points etc
