Harold’s Walk: A Walk to Remember
While creating Mulliontide (2016), I spent time with residents at Poldhu Care Home in Cornwall. Many spoke about places that remained vivid in memory: walks along the coast, coves they had swum in and the Cornish walls they had built.
One resident, Harold Potter, said to me, "When I kick the bucket I want my ashes scattered at Mardale Head in Cumbria."As Mardale Head is close to where I live, I offered to re-walk his remembered route on his behalf.
In January 2017, I followed Harold's walk, recording photographs, notes and a map before sending them back to him. The materials prompted conversations between Harold and the care home staff, bringing back memories of places he knew intimately.
Harold's remembered walk became the beginning of a much longer body of work exploring memory, walking and surrogate walking.
Harold Potter's remembered walks
Mardale Head, Kentmere and Greenholme, Cumbria
Re-walked by Louise Ann Wilson between 2017 and 2018.
Harold and I continued the project over several years. I re-walked further remembered routes while we spoke regularly by Skype about the landscapes he knew so well and longed to revisit.
In April 2018 I travelled to Cornwall to visit Harold. Together we walked around the grounds of Poldhu Care Home, talking, remembering and enjoying the wind and sea views.
Harold's Walk became the starting point for the later projects Women's Walks to Remember, Dorothy's Room, and Walks to Remember During a Pandemic, in which remembered walks, memory-maps and surrogate walking became central to my practice.
Harold Potter’s – Mardale Head Walk: ‘When I kick the bucket, I’ll have my ashes scattered at Mardale Head’
Mardale Head, Kentmere and Greenholme, Cumbria
Re-walked by Louise Ann Wilson, 2017
Harold Potter’s – Mardale Head Walk: ‘When I kick the bucket, I’ll have my ashes scattered at Mardale Head’
Mardale Head, Kentmere and Greenholme, Cumbria
Re-walked by Louise Ann Wilson, 2017
Photographs and maps from Harold Potter's first remembered walk: Small Water Beck waterfalls; Bridge over Small Water Beck; Bothies in the edges of Small Water.View back over Small Water and Haweswater Reservoir: Shelter at Nan Bield Pass and the view over to Kentmere Reservoir.
Photographs and maps from Harold Potter's first remembered walk: Small Water Beck waterfalls; Bridge over Small Water Beck; Bothies in the edges of Small Water.View back over Small Water and Haweswater Reservoir: Shelter at Nan Bield Pass and the view over to Kentmere Reservoir.
Conversations
Maps, Skype conversations and shared memories between Harold Potter and Louise Ann Wilson.
Conversations
Maps, Skype conversations and shared memories between Harold Potter and Louise Ann Wilson.
Draft memory booklet created by Louise Ann Wilson for Harold Potter's Mardale Head walk.
Draft memory booklet created by Louise Ann Wilson for Harold Potter's Mardale Head walk.
