The Remembrance path walks

As an eight year old boy living in Shrewsbury, Charles Darwin was grieving the loss of his mother. His grief led him on long solitary walks, often around the town walls of Shrewsbury.

As a response to this, artists Wren Miller and Ray Jacobs who both have recent experiences of bereavement invited the public to join them on a circular walk around the town walls, making the circular route twice daily from July 15 – 29th both in 2008 and in 2009.

 

 

‘We see walking as a chance to reflect, share, remember and be nurtured by the Shrewsbury Landscape’ (under the photo)

Walking is healing in itself and played a pivotal role throughout Darwin’s life, as a space for thinking, helping him cope with stress and ill health

Walkers on the remembrance path walk were invited to bring along 5 small stones to leave in places that ‘felt right’ during the walk: it may have been to signify a particular memory or thought emerging, or simply be a place that felt like the right place for the stone to be.

Darwin, as a child, was not given the chance to grieve the death of his mother, her name not being allowed to be uttered in his family home. He was left with no memories of his mother nor of the long solitary walks he went on while grieving her.

The artists felt that there was an opportunity to re-walk Darwin’s pathways in a spirit of presence and remembrance, to focus on the openness of remembering and sharing. This is a strong antidote to the silent, held-in grieving walks of Darwin.

At the end of each walk time was given for contemplation, to write, sketch, to find any way of describing the feelings or memories the walk revealed.

View the Wren and Rays artistic responses to the walk

View artwork and writings by those who have shared in the walks

Read in more detail about the thoughts and feelings of the artists as they walked the remembrance path Simple suggestions on creating your own remembrance walk