Walking the Land is an artists collective that has been active in and around Gloucestershire’s Stroud Valleys since 2002. More recently our network has grown with active members from across the UK, Canada and Australia.
We link landscape, community and art through projects, research, exhibitions, installations, writing and shared walks with numerous artists, other professions and wider communities. We have
a common interest in the use of landscape for social change, public engagement, critical debate and creative forms of community activities.
Upcoming Events
Last Tuesday online Café, 19:45 hrs 29th September (London time).
Please join us in celebrating art and archaeology. We will hear from the Walking the Land artists engaged in the yearlong Salmonsbury Moot project: Zoe Ashbrook, Ruth Broadbent, Valerie Coffin Price, Andy Freedman, Amanda Steer and project lead Dr Caroline Morris, collections and education manager at the Corinium Museum. Caroline was awarded Developing Your Creative Practice funding from ACE to develop the project and as part of this invited others from Walking the Land to creatively respond to this landscape and archive.
We are delighted to have this opportunity to hear more about the history of the site and artwork created. Caroline will give an introduction to the history and background to this site and project, with the artists involved also being present to talk about their work.
An exhibition at the Corinium Museum, Cirencester, is now open until 11th October 2026. It marks the culmination of this yearlong project combining art and archaeology: a unique collaboration between artist, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, the Corinium Museum and Walking the Land.
Salmonsbury Camp is a scheduled site in Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire. There is evidence for activity from the Neolithic and Bronze Age. The camp itself is Iron Age in date with activity continuing into the Roman occupation. Excavations have found Anglo Saxon burials and Medieval Ridge and Furrow. The site was used as the meeting place for the court leet of the Salmonsbury hundred. It is now a farm and nature reserve. The paper archive at the Corinium Museum includes digs from the Thirties up to the 2000’s: also revealing some of the story of Helen O’Neill, a redoubtable female archaeologist.
Please reply to wtlcic@gmail.com by 22nd September, we will then send out final details and zoom link by 26th September. Please note and use this new email address for any queries regarding this LTC and to book your place.
October 2nd – First Friday Walk : This months walk will be lead by Zoë Ashbrook.
A Sense of Place – For October’s First Friday Walk Zoë invites us to participate in a series of mindful walking and creative observational exercises designed to focus attention and deepen sensory awareness to the landscape around us.
Through sound, touch, and close observation of the environment and found objects, Zoë will offer prompts to explore how slow, creative engagement with place can foster embodied learning and deepen understanding of the landscape. If you would rather engage with the landscape in your own creative ways that is absolutely fine too.
For those joining in person:
The walk will begin with a short steep ascent (20 minute approx.) of Churchdown Hill, Gloucestershire. We will visit the small patch of woodland that is the focus for Zoë’s contribution to the Walking the Land ‘Deep Encounters’ project led by Janette Kerr. There are 15 participating artists taking part in the project each working with their own small area of landscape. You can find out more about the project here: https://walkingtheland.org.uk/deep-encounters/
After a brief period of self-guided exploration of the site, Zoë will offer a series of drawing, photography, and writing prompts to encourage discovery and close attention to the woodland’s textures, sounds, and more-than-human characteristics.
Please note: All participants attend at their own risk. There are access points to the site with open areas for us to gather and work with fallen trees to perch on but it is mostly unmanaged and quite overgrown in places with rough and uneven ground underfoot.
Sorry – no dogs.
For those participating further afield:
The same prompts can be followed within any landscape as a means of deepening a sense of connection, empathy and understanding of place. Please reply to this email to receive a copy of Zoë’s creative prompts for the day.
To find out more information or to receive further prompts if you would like to walk your own route remotely, please email wtlcic@gmail.com asap and by Sunday Sept 27th to book your place and receive details of where and when we are meeting, plus lunch info.
To receive a regular monthly reminder in your inbox with details of future events please contact wtl@walkingtheland.org.uk