Enjoy reading and listening to my latest Letter from Beeston.
As the sunshine spreads its warm rays on us, memories come back to me. Family and friends visiting with stories to tell and share. Walking in our neighbourhood parks, fields and woodlands with natural beauty surrounding and embracing us.
For me and many others, nature and the environment inspire us to go forth, investigate and create. There’s magic out there. So look and peer around, lifting your heads high and breathe in those moments. Listen to the sounds, and see those castle turrets rising high. Climb the stone, spiral steps, and at the top, look over the walls at the green expansive scenes below. What do you see? How do you feel? Does it make you want to remember that moment and record it? Do you immediately want to hold up your camera, frame it and click it?
Beeston Lock and Canal sides. All photos by Janine Moore
I live in a town called Beeston in the land of Robin Hood. There’s magic here. I feel it under my feet, under the green fields and park lands. It’s like a sort of magnetism that pulls me along the ancient pathways. Are there ley-lines under here, I ask myself. They refer to straight alignments drawn between various historic structures and prominent landmarks. ‘Earth energies’ they call them. Well certainly Beeston has them. They seep up and invigorate me and my fellow walkers. They seem to inject spiritual spurts into me. You wouldn’t believe the wealth of creativity and community spirit that exists here. Those blood lines and genes go back centuries. The Bronze age settlers, Anglo Saxons, Vikings rowing up the River Trent, then those medieval stonemasons building our huge Lenton Priory (no longer existing) and worship trails. Nottingham Castle high up on the rock, caves underneath it and the old city, with the River Lean once close by. Then fast forward to the entrepreneurial Victorian industrialists, scientists and engineers. Our river Trent meanders, giving us stories of communities living close by it and farming the land.
Nottingham Castle Gatehouse - Tunnel - Robin Hood statue - Overlooking The Park estate. All photos by Janine Moore
We’re always digging here...carefully that is...the archaeologists and historic building conservators, digging for those lost, ancient stories to tell us...why this, why here, what for, who lived here, what did they do, what tools did they make, what did they wear, what food did they eat, and so forth. So much to unearth, so much to learn...and what stories to tell. The name ‘Beeston’ derives from the Saxon Old English words “beos” meaning bent or rough grass and “tun” a place or settlement - the place where the bent grasses grow. The earliest name of the settlement was Bestune, recorded in the Doomsday Book of 1086. The local pastures are still referred to in the name Beeston Rylands...and that is exactly where I live.
So remember . . . there's magic out there.
Marysia Zipser
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