Tuesday, 23 June 2015

Walking the River Frome from Source to Confluence with the Severn


From the source of the Frome to its confluence with the Severn
November 2013 – Midsummer’s Day 2015

“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”

T. S. Eliot

From Climperwell Springs to Miserden
From Miserden to Edgeworth
From Edgeworth to Sapperton
From Sapperton to Rodborough
From Rodborough to Ebley
From Ebley to Eastington
From Eastington to Framilode


“For there we have the confluence of two springs, determined by the shape and content of sky and landscape, dropping down to Caudle Green. Here on a delicately balanced watershed, on the finest of lines, gravity's scales of justice direct some water west via the Frome, to the Severn and the Bristol Channel; other droplets drift eastwards via the Churn to Cricklade, then on to the Great Wen and the English Channel. Conjoined droplets of water, slipping apart to opposite points of the compass, yet still conjoined by history and language: the Celtic 'fra', denoting a 'brisk' river; the Celtic 'chwern', indicating a 'swift' flow.”


“When I saw Framilode first she was a blowy Severn tidy place under azure sky…Adventure stirring the blood like thunder, With the never forgotten soft beauty of the Frome, One evening when elver-lights made the river like a stall-road to see …”

Ivor Gurney


We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”

T.S. Eliot

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