Where / When – The ‘Zine

What ho!

At long last… it’s here!

So, welcome to the official launch of the new Glossop Cabinet of Curiosities magazine:

WHERE/WHEN – The Journal of Archaeological Wanderings.

“Whoopee“, I hear you cry! “Tell us all about it, TCG!” Well, the basic idea behind the ‘zine is to give a guided walk in the same irreverent, but academically sound, way the website does, but with added psychedelic and arty photographs and exploring weirder elements. This first edition – titled Ashes, Arches, and Harehills – is essentially a walk from Point A (The Friendship Inn) to Point B (The Oakwood), though some of the lesser known parts of Glossop (Ashes, Dinting Arches, Adderley Place, Roman and Medieval Roads, and a 1920’s bridge). Along the way, I add what I know about the history and archaeology of where we are walking, and filling out any hidden or overlooked bits and pieces. Simple, fun, and hopefully interesting.

This last word is important, as I want you to experience the place you are walking: to stop, look, and listen; to feel. To look at a track and ask “what’s down there?” Or pick up a piece of pottery or stone and ask “what is it?” Or better “why is it?”. Or to feel the past in a place, to experience it with your senses. Every part of Glossop has traces of the past on it – every building stone show multiple holes, carvings, fixings, splashes of paint, chips taken out, or repairs. And walls stop and start, or take odd angles for no reason; trackways bending to avoid something that is no longer there. Odd bits machinery or re-used stonework appear and disappear in the mist, and trees form shapes that may or may not be real. If we don’t stop to look, we miss them and we miss the experience.

I hope Where/When will get you walking and thinking, exploring and pondering… wandering. Which all sounds as though old TCG has lost his marbles, and that may well be the case, but our heritage is all around us, sometimes hidden, often vague or confusing: so let’s wander together and see if we can find it.

It is also most certainly the first in a series issues of Where/When, and I have already planned out several future editions, including No. 2 – Of Bulls and Bees, and No. 3 – Of Hives and Heads. These are a two part wander from The Bulls Head in Old Glossop to The Beehive in Whitfield, and back again, using only the preserved remains of medieval and post-medieval (17th century) trackways. I fully intend to offer an ‘event’ for this – let’s walk it together from pub to pub, and I’ll give a full rambling account. Well, perhaps not… don’t want to frighten the natives, what! But what’s not to love… a wander, some history, a pub, and the company of old TCG! Watch this space in the new year.

I also have an idea for some slightly more far flung editions (Alderley Edge for example, and possibly Chester), but let’s see how this first edition does. And I honestly have big ideas for this – it’s really quite exciting (drone flights? Podcasts, with old TCG’s dulcet tones accompanying you on the route? Guest spots?). Also, if any of you feel like you want to offer a wander to be published in Where/When, please drop me a line and we can talk it through.

The ‘zine is 40 full colour pages, filled with interesting words (in an order that broadly make sense) and some pretty awesome images – a perfect Christmas stocking filler for the Glossop people, or those in the greater Glossop diaspora! The price is £5.00 per copy, and it will be available from Dark Peak Book at 96 High Street West – the added bonus is that it might be me that serves you! Or you can also drop me an email and I can post one out to you, wherever you are. Or simply track me down, I’m not hard to find! Or you could even dig a hole in the ground and wait… like a moth to a light!

I have also added a download link to the Where/When section at the top of the website where you can download a free Pdf copy of the zine. It’s exactly the same zine, just in electronic form… and free! I’m also adding a ko-fi link next to the download button so you can buy me a glass of the stuff that cheers, should you wish to, but don’t feel obligated.

Where/When page here

Free Pdf here

Ko-Fi – Buy TCG a glass of the stuff that cheers here

There will be a regular post before Christmas, but I wanted to strike whilst the iron was hot and get this out there.

So until then, look after yourselves and each other – and happy wandering – and I remain, your humble servant.

TCG