Walking Post podcast 22: Trent Vale Trail and Finding the Wayfarer

This week, we’re talking about the completion of the Trent Vale Trail in Nottinghamshire, and a new book about walking called Finding the Wayfarers.

Interview times:

04:33 Trent Vale Trail

16:46 Emma Rose Barber

Trent Vale Trail

The Trent Vale Trail, a rural connectivity project led by the volunteer-run charity, Friends of Trent Vale Trail (FoTVT), is now complete.

More than £700,000 has been raised by the charity to deliver the 15-mile trail, linking Newark to the rural villages of Winthorpe, Collingham, Besthorpe, Girton, and South Clifton. This was achieved over several years, with grants awarded by various funders.

The trail is designed to be inclusive and accessible to all, including walkers, cyclists, equestrians, and users of mobility aids.

The latest phase of works includes: surface upgrades to more than 2,400 square metres of trail to ensure accessibility for all users; diversions and extensions of public footpaths to complete the route; and the installation of fencing and gates to accommodate landowner requirements and ensure safe passage.

The Trent Vale Trail has already become a valued amenity for over 50,000 residents in the Newark and Collingham ward, with usage expected to grow significantly following the completion of this final section. The project also aims to support the local economy by increasing footfall and encouraging eco-tourism in the area.

We spoke with John Ford from Friends of Trent Vale Trail.

Finding the Wayfarer

Through a series of walks, art historian and writer Emma Rose Barber follows in the path of the medieval wayfarer to see how this captivating figure developed from being seen as an indigent nuisance, much maligned, to romantic muse for artists and writers. The book brings the wayfarer to life.

Finding the Wayfarer, published by Tandem Publishing, is an exploration of the age-old tradition of wayfaring – the simple, often solitary journey on foot. Through a blend of historical enquiry, evocative place writing and memoir, the book weaves together the stories of wayfarers across time.

From the marginalised figures in medieval manuscripts, to the work of Charlotte Smith, Wordsworth and Hardy, the wayfarer has often been viewed with suspicion and fear. Yet, they have also inspired admiration, embodying melancholy and a deep connection to the natural world. Themes of illicit love and scorn through wayfaring are the themes of later writers and artists like Dickens, Samuel Beckett and Grayson Perry.

Emma Rose Barber is an art historian and writer. She lives in Sussex.

Finding the Wayfarer is available here.

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