Location: Lincoln, England
range.badge.finds to parts.unrealistic.jams (what3words)
Sat:53.230551, -0.548961
23rd Oct 2017 is a cold Autumn day. Air is a mist of rain. That is, it’s damp. I pass through here on the way to the High Street or to cross the road bridge to Tritton Road roundabout and beyond.
From Foss Bank, I walk along Far Wharf and come to Holmes Road on the left before passing under the Brayford Way road bridge. That’s my most frequented route.
Emotion 25: Contented – in a state of peaceful happiness or satisfaction.
Emotion 11: Apprehensive – anticipating something with anxiety or fear. *
Holmes Road runs north/south from Carholme Road (north) to the water’s edge (south). The eastern side, the Brayford Way bridge has a concrete, solid edge with an area of brick-bound soft estate and, with a concrete footway, has a high albedo. The western side is almost all brick; Hayes Wharf and the much older building, College Mews, warming the road with the morning light.
Unlisted emotion: Traumoil – trauma induced turmoil.
Holmes Road has been truncated (or docked?) in a number of ways:
- Vehicle access is now limited in length to reach only as far as the rear of Haye’s Wharf student accommodation building. There are just two kerbside parking spaces. It is, however, perfectly legal to park anywhere in a city if two of the vehicle’s wheels are on a footway.
- Holmes Road is named after an area south of the waterway and at one time it connected to The Holmes (or Holmes Common) via a drawbridge, removed in 1996. The Holmes is the area now occupied by the main campus of the University of Lincoln. Previously an area of railway lines, sidings, sheds and warehouses. Before then, watery common land partly drained only by the delph drain.
- Energy once flowed north/south via road and bridge but is now blocked (or docked?) from crossing at a now complex pedestrian/cycle junction as Holmes Road reaches the water. Holmes Road meets Far Wharf and an unnamed thoroughfare that passes under the road bridge. With energy flow curtailed (or docked?) here, cyclists use the pedestrian-only Far Wharf and pedestrians walk in the cycle lane, so conflict can more easily be provoked and bike rage is not unknown having even led to one death.
A thorough movement assessment may be needed.
This is the point at which the waterway widens and at which it could well be claimed that the Foss Dyke Navigation (canal) becomes Lincoln’s inland port, the Brayford Pool.
Emotion 74: Lonely – sad because one has no friends or company; solitary; unfrequented and remote. *
Far Wharf is unmarked by name at any point, has a pedestrian only access, and has a concrete wall and the canal to one side with housing to the other. A local resident of 83, born and lived in the immediate area since birth tells us Far Wharf is known as Town End. One day we met while walking beside the Brayford Pool when she asked: “Is it true that the Brayford [Pool] doesn’t have a bottom?” I don’t know how to reply and say: Erm.” Our local resident takes this as a cue to continue: “Is it true that it goes on for ever?” I say that I don’t think it is very deep at all, perhaps only a few feet. She seems satisfied by this and doesn’t pursue it any further. But I am left thinking that, some 80 years ago, she was told this by adults to warn her not to go near the water and it had stayed with her ever since.
Jim Simm 2017
“Holmes Road was laid out in the 19th century and led to a public wharf and a drawbridge (removed in 1996) giving access to the Holmes.”
Lincoln Townscape Assessment, Brayford Inherited Character Area Statement, October 2008.
It’s replacement, the Brayford Bridge (Brayford Way) opened in 1997. Its 20th anniversary (2017) was neither marked nor celebrated.
Emotion 74: Lonely – sad because one has no friends or company; solitary; unfrequented and remote. *
* Emotions Defined from Mapping Weird Stuff blog with the additional emotion of ‘traumoil’ by Jim Simm
This is a Little Tract, part of the Little Cities project. Little Cities is an arts based,
deep-topographical, exploration of the edgelands of the City of Lincoln in England.
Little Cities projects include electronic music (Little Tracks) for battery powered synths by Jamie Crofts, actions in the form of walks (Little Treks) and word works by Jim Simm (Little Tracts). Jim Simm is an unreliable narrator.
Tract:
An area of land.
A publication, a brochure.
Little Tracts is a SOUNDkiosk
project. © 2017 Jamie Crofts.
For a hard copy of any Little Tracts, email Jamie Crofts: kiosk4sound AT gmail DOT com
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