TOTAL IMMERSION. NORTH OF ENGLAND

[Stanley]

TOTAL IMMERSION. NORTH OF ENGLAND

MARCH 2002.


If I say that one of the most rewarding aspects of the human condition is the fact that we can be shocked by the new I give myself away immediately. Any fellow junkie will recognise me as a change-aholic. I freely admit to the charge. One of the threads I recognise in my own life is the ability, not only to accept change, but to actively seek it out and grasp it. I also recognise that the outside world, observing this trait, sometimes stands back and says ‘What the hell is he up to now!’

It’s a good question and on a superficial level I can give good, rational reasons. Accepting change leads to the acquisition of experience, knowledge and personal growth. If I dig deeper, (I am an Aquarian after all!), I suspect there is more to it than this. A cynic could say it is the product of a low threshold of boredom but I suspect there is a much simpler explanation. In its most noble guise, it is, as Mr Pirsig would have said, the pursuit of excellence. This was his definition of quality in ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’. Robert M Pirsig was, in the world’s eyes, occasionally mad, eventually his Grail Quest killed him. He carried his enquiry too far and it became to uncomfortable to bear. I do not choose to emulate him but I recognise the fact that there is a price to be paid for change. As Susan Obler once advised me when talking about further education, ‘There is a price to pay, it can be anything from a gall-bladder operation to a mental breakdown.’ The pursuit of excellence can be a lottery, we gamble with life.

I once told my daughter Janet, as we boarded a plane for Canada, her first big trip abroad, that things would never be the same again. When we returned and were driving up the M1 towards the North she turned to me and said, ‘Everything looks smaller.’ It was a milestone, she had gained knowledge, her world view was changed. Travel is education, it is the pursuit of experience, knowledge and perhaps excellence. So, by my definitions, travel is a good example of quality.

I have a friend in Florida who is coming to stay with me for ten days in the North of England. She has never travelled outside the States before but has always had a yearning to visit England and see at first hand what she has learned from her books and atlases. I am writing this piece for her, to alert her to the possibilities, both good and bad. I am triggered into doing this by my memories of when I first travelled, how useful a mental road map would have been and how lucky I was to be in the company of friends who knew my deficiencies and were willing to give time to help me. I want to do the same for her.

So Danni, we get down to the meat! You are in for some surprises and it might help you to be aware of some of the differences, some of the adjustments you may wish to make. All that I say is a result of reversing my experience of the States, it should be fairly accurate.

The first thing that will strike you when you get out of the airport is the difference in scale. Compared to America, everything you see will be smaller. This doesn’t indicate any lessening of content, only that things are more compressed. The cars and roads are smaller. Even the car parking spaces will strike you as ridiculously crowded. When you get out into the country you will realise why this is, we are short of space compared to your home. Traffic will seem to be moving faster, in some cases this is true but most of the effect comes from the fact that you are closer to everything, rather like riding in a car which is very close to the ground, 30mph feels like 60! When we get on to the narrow country lanes this impression will be magnified tenfold. Take heart, we are not mad! It is simply a product of scale.

The next thing that will strike you is the colour. Your eyes will see nothing but green. Green fields of grass, green foliage, hedges, even the stones are green from the lichen which grows on them. In our part of the country you will see no plains, the landscape is undulating and there is always a hill or moor on the horizon. This restricts the views in terms of distance but enhances them in detail. One of the most rewarding ploys to adopt here is to stop looking and start observing. The best advice I can give is to look for disturbed ground and ask questions. Apart from some small and isolated pieces of moorland, everything you see has been shaped by the hand of humans. These are the bones of the land and the best evidence of its history.

You will see some modern buildings but the overall impression, particularly as we get nearer to Barlick, is that every building you see would be a Landmark Property in the States. The natural building material is stone, you will see scars on every hillside where it was extracted. The walls are thick, the houses low and squat. Many of them seem to be trying to hide themselves in a fold or depression in the ground. This is exactly what is going on, they are looking for shelter, they were built to get the maximum exposure to the sun and the minimum exposure to the weather. Even the roofs are stone and are either blue Welsh Slate on any house built after the advent of the railways or grey local stone on the older properties. Windows are smaller, warmth was more important than light until the advent of handloom weaving as a domestic industry.

The sky is more restricted because of the hills. It also changes constantly. The predominant feature of British weather is that we are in the grip of strong weather systems moving in from the Atlantic. They carry lots of water and move fast. If you don’t like the weather, wait twenty minutes and it will usually change. Another factor to bear in mind is that we are on the same latitude as Labrador. If it wasn’t for the Gulf Stream and the Atlantic winds, the British Isles would be much colder. There is an interesting side effect of this. The climate changes dramatically with height. A rise of 300 feet means you are in another world, far colder, wetter and more severe. This explains why almost all towns and villages are in the valley bottoms. Apart from exceptional circumstances, there are no old buildings on the hills.

When you reach Barlick itself you will find yourself in a totally different environment to anything you have ever experienced. It will seem to be incredibly compact. The stone houses huddle together in rows. Very few have access to the back from the front without either going through the house or going round the block and using the back alley. Some, like East Hill Street don’t even have vehicular access at the front! There is no road, only small gardens and a footpath. Even more surprising, there are some houses that only have one exterior wall and one entrance. They are built in terraces, back to back and will seem incredibly small to you. These houses have a great advantage in our climate, they have no through draughts and only one wall and a half roof to lose heat through. Building them would be illegal now but they are an ideal starter home for a couple or for old folks on their own. Cheap to run, easy to clean and cosy as long as you are used to lack of space.

These terraces lead to another phenomenon which is growing into a problem. There is nowhere to park cars off the road so the streets are lined with parked cars to such an extent that you could be forgiven for wondering how the emergency services can operate.

The shops will intrigue you. We locals bemoan the fact that the small shops are dying, killed off by the supermarkets and out of town shopping in this age of the car. However, you will be struck by the number of small specialised shops that survive. Butchers, fishmongers, greengrocers, chemists and a host of small businesses in tiny premises still managing to scrape a living. One big difference is the newsagents. There must be ten or a dozen shops in this small town whose main business is selling newspapers and magazines. We are addicted to news! Even the smallest shop will have a choice of at least half a dozen national daily papers. Add to this the local papers, specialist publications and magazines and you have a plethora of reading material. I have never come across anything like this in the States and it’s the thing I miss most when I am over there.

Then there are the inhabitants! I’m not even going to try to describe the differences for you. All you have to recognise is that this is a different culture. As you find your way through it one of the main differences you will identify is that people seem more reserved but paradoxically, open up more quickly if you bother to interact with them. It’s a product of living so closely with one another and, until fifty years ago, in a single industry town. Everyone could identify with everyone else because their life experience was identical. To a large extent this is still true and there is a very deeply rooted informal support system at work here. On the surface it is invisible, it doesn’t advertise, but there are some very powerful forces in there if you choose to investigate.

As for culture, I suspect you might find that on a local level, we don’t really do culture in Barlick! Many years ago, before the flood of home entertainment, there were three orchestras in the town and a variety of other public cultural opportunities. Now there are none apart from a few sparsely attended local societies. If your life revolves around theatre, opera or ballet, be prepared to travel!

That’s probably enough for starters. Nobody can give you a complete guide or explanation. After 60 years I still get surprises as I dig into the bones of my world. Come to think, that’s probably as good a definition of further education as you will ever find! So, welcome to the University of Barlick. I hope your stay is happy and productive. There will be questions later……….

SCG/23 February 2002

[Tripps]

Nice, perceptive, and well written as always. Thanks.

Would have been nice to get the other party's reaction after the visit. I enjoy speaking to 'foreigners' and seeing what they think of things we take for granted.

[Stanley]

Thanks for commenting David. The lady enjoyed her visit, it was the first time she had ever been outside the US. Quite a common thing with US citizens.....

[PanBiker]

A long time ago when I was about 17 and camping in the woods at Bowness we met an American lass who was 22 years old. She was amazed that we were allowed to do this at our tender age. She came across as a very sheltered individual and very naive despite a five year gap in our ages.

[Stanley]

One of the things that struck me in over twenty years visiting the States was the fact that so many people were street savvy but very childlike in their attitudes. This can be a partial explanation for so many things that puzzle us about the US.