SPARK #25: Window on Lindow

Artist and Lindow Art Trail curator Phil Barton will lead SPARK members on a guided trail walk around Lindow Moss. Phil will share information and insights into the formation of the raised bog, its history and future prospects through the artworks on show, including work by himself, Liz Ellis, Juliette Hamilton, Rupert Randall and Steve Sutton. At the time of the walk a multiple piece by over 700 local primary school children will also be partly installed. Phil will discuss the involvement of the local community and the role it is hoped that the Art Trail will have on the future of Lindow Moss.

The artworks, inspired by Lindow Moss, its past and its future, have been created for this new Art Trail which forms part of the Discover Lindow season. This is a celebration not only of the 1984 anniversary of the discovery of Lindow Man, now recognised as Britain’s most famous bog body, but the successful decade-long local campaign which resulted in the 2019 financial and planning deal to stop peat cutting and secure the restoration of this lowland peat bog; restoration started in 2022.

Peat cutting on Lindow Moss was commercialised in the 1950s and by the end of the 20th century its mechanisation caused immense damage to the bog. The Moss, one of the largest lowland peatlands in Cheshire, came to international prominence in 1984 with the discovery of an almost intact Iron Age bog body – Lindow Man. This is said to be one of the most visited exhibits in the British Museum. The start of restoration of Lindow Moss is a first step towards returning this landscape to somewhere that previous generations might recognise, a wetland landscape teeming with bog plants and fauna.

Phil Barton
The driver for my practice is the sixth great extinction ushering in the Anthroprocene Era crystalised by Gustav Metzger’s 2015 Worldwide Call for Action to Remember Nature. You can read the research paper I submitted for my Masters in Art & Science at Central Saint Martins which explored the development of ecoart interactive with nature and place on the one hand and the public and communities on the other. 

I build my creative practice on a 35-year career as a social entrepreneur in local environmental regeneration during which I established and built a number of not-for-profit organisations including Keep Britain Tidy, Groundwork, the Mersey Basin Trust as part of the 25-year regional Mersey Basin Campaign, the National Centre for Business and Ecology and the Community Technical Aid Centre in Manchester.
You can find out more about my motivation and creative practice in Joana Alarcão’s November 2023 interview with me here.

Based in Rusholme, Manchester, jointly with, and inspired by, my life partner Helena Kettleborough, an academic at MMU School of Management, I have established the Centre for Connected Practice and initiated Creative Rusholme.

https://philbartonartist.c4cp.net https://www.instagram.com/philbxyz/

Getting to and walking on Lindow Moss
We will meet at the railway sleeper on Rotherwood Road near the junction with Battery Lane. The sleeper stops traffic from entering the Moss from Rotherwood Road. The what3words location is craftsmen.risking.spectacle or here on Google Maps. (please ignore the map on this event page, it has been automatically generated by Ticket Tailor). 

Please be aware that this is a wild place! We recommend wearing sturdy shoes, boots or wellingtons and be aware that paths on the moss can be uneven. There is no shelter on the site, so dress appropriately. You’re a strongly advised to stay on established paths at all times and not to attempt to cross ditches where the water can be deep. If you have mobility issues, then the trail is probably not recommended. If wet, please wear suitable clothing. There is no shelter (or toilets) on site. 

By car
It is also a surprisingly remote site, with limited parking, and little or no parking on Battery Lane. There is room for half a dozen cars on Newgate, at the entrance to the nature reserve and on Rotherwood Road up to Springfield Drive to the south). Both are about ten minutes walk – from opposite directions – to the sleeper. We recommend car sharing or coming by bike.

There is some parking is on the right hand side of Newgate about 200m before you reach Newgate Kennels - postcode is SK9 5LL.

There is also parking on Rotherwood Road between Moor Lane and at the junction with Springfield Drive before you reach the White House when driving from the south (postcode SK9 6DR).

By train
Wilmslow is on the mainline from Manchester to Euston from where it is a taxi ride to Newgate Kennels or a 40 minute walk. Please consider car sharing if you can. The 10.30 from Piccadilly gets into Wilmslow at 10.49 – if you can give people a lift from the Wilmslow to the meeting point, please let us know!.

Unfortunately this event is not wheelchair accessible - it is on a peat bog and a lot of the paths are very uneven. There are plans to change this in the fullness of time.

SPARK
The SPARK network was set up by Castlefield Gallery in 2022 to facilitate a Greater Manchester/North West-based network of artists wanting to intervene in the climate crisis. The gallery initiated SPARK in response to the high demand for places on the 2021/22 SUSTAIN programme focussed on low carbon artmaking.

SPARK #25 follows on from the first twenty-four SPARK sessions at Manchester Art Gallery, Rogue, The Birley (Preston), Eccles Friends Meeting House, Manchester Museum, AIR Gallery, Paradise Works, Editional Studio, Cadishead and Little Woolden Moss, Gallery Oldham, the John Rylands Library and Dunham Massey. SPARK recently had a group exhibition, also called SPARK, and events programme at Rogue Studios.

Image: Phil Barton - ReCyclingTree 2024