Inherited Coastlines. Odin Sitch. Tyne. Mersey

I stand between Odin Sitch and Dunscar Farm track, land & river tributary, inheritance & mythologies, my mother & father.

Odin Sitch, a tributary of the stream Peakshole Water that runs through this valley. Named for the norse god ‘Odin’ a god of wisdom, poetry, divination, in ancient norse culture. A tributary that once powered a thriving corn mill, that now stands derelict only housing a population of sheep and abandoned agricultural machinery. Follow the tributary through a visitor car park, vacant farmers field up to walkers crossroads leading to Odin Mine and Mam Tor. It is unnoticed poetry in this valley, a life source, a lands nourishment and the childhood ritual of feeding the ducks. It hold this valleys mythologies but they disappear with the current like lost memory.

River Mersey. North West. Mother.
River Tyne. North East. Father.

Inherited coastlines passed down in my parents accents and the black and white photograph that hangs by their bed. Last century my paternal grandfathers, great grandfathers, great uncles on a boat prepared to swim across the inky tyne. Boulder like bodies covered in grease swimming with the Tyne. Witnessing industrial success and decline.

The mersey, my maternal line. A great aunts departure for an Italian American dream, and a place of arrival for my Irish ancestors who brought with them family songs and an oak shillelagh. Rivers the places where family mythologies are carried across in unsteady boats, dangerous crossings and the enduring hope for a better future.