The Helpston Walk September 2022

I long for scenes where man hath never trod

Pictures of the walk from Tom Dolby.  Commentary by Tony.  Church and John Clare images from Wikipedia.

Helpston is a village of around 1000 people and is one of those places which never quite knows where it is, being at times in Northamptonshire, sometime in Huntingdon and Peterborough, sometimes ini Cambridgeshire, and currently administered by the City of Peterborough.   

The parish church is dedicated to St Botolph of the 7th century, who is rather interestingly noted as the patron saint of boundaries, which obviously is of considerable interest to Ramblers.   His feast day is on 17 June (although Scotland has it on a different day).  And I think we ought to celebrate this next year, although I’ve not put the notion to the committee as yet.

Now the key thing people know of Helpston if they know anything at all is that John Clare, one of the great English poets, lived in the village.  Indeed the John Clare cottage in the village is open to members of the public thanks to money from the Heritage Lottery Fund.   The local primary school is also named after the village’s most famous resident.

Sadly the only thing many know of John Clare is that he had mental health difficulties in his life, and it is extraordinary how many know this but have not come across such poems as “I am” which contains that most wonderful line that should (in my view) be the motto of the Ramblers, “I long for scenes where man hath never trod”.

The full poem can be found at the end of this little piece.

So it is also well worth pausing at to take a look at the architecture.

But this of course is not a walk designed for those who want to remember ancient English poets whose work is largely forgotten by the nation, because the scenery around the village really is the Cambridgeshire countryside at its best.

And at this point I have to hand over the narrative to our venerable photographer who did indeed give us a picture that encaptured the scenery through which the walk progressed, as well as showing quite an interest in the local wild life.

I shall therefore pause in my notes to allow these pictures from the area to speak for themselves, below which you will find the words of our region’s greatest poet.