Another parkrunday another new parkrun. NewARK parkrun to be precise. New ARK New ARK so good they named it – oh no hang on that’s not quite right is it. Also, stole that punnage from elsewhere. I do love a good pun! I don’t entirely know why I settled on this one. I have a list of parkruns that are on my ‘to do’ list for various reasons. Some are aspirational known big hitters (Bere Island parkrun anyone) some have iconic usps (Somerdale Pavilion with its Curly Wurly section) and others that are just doable, i.e. that are in reach of Sheffield and worth a punt. I missed parkrun last week on account of snow and ice and not being able to leave the house apart from to build a snowdragon (obvs) so was somewhat aggrieved by that, lovely as the snowy landscape was. Would be hard to miss another one this week too.
.
.
This week, I wasn’t entirely feeling the love if I’m honest. I’m getting mega frustrated by residual pain and feeling unfit and physically horrible really. A number of people I know have headed off for some fancy international tourism, and although I’m pleased for them, I do feel somewhat like the child left behind whilst all the grownups go off to play. Then I had insomnia culminating in that falling back to sleep again as soon as the alarm goes off, so ended up actually coming to somewhat later than originally planned.
I surfaced confused and needing to head off, feeling discombobulated and indecisive. I had a quick march about the garden and was hugely cheered by relatively mild weather, a noisy chorus of chirping birds and many newts diving about my pond. Admittedly, they were tucking into the frogspawn with some vigour proving once again that just as every cloud has a silver lining, every silver lining has its cloud. Nevertheless, circle of life and all that, and newts are pretty cool. The blossom was bursting out, daffodils swaying cheerily, definitely better to be up and about rather than rolling back under the duvet. Spring has sprung, or at the very least is gearing up to spring, clocks change next week, it’s all happening. Right then, where to go?
I plucked Newark as an accessible option somewhat at random. I did have a quick looksie at their Newark parkrun Facebook page page and was cheered by the profile pic, they look a jolly lot. It would be fine. Fun even. They are all jumping for joy in anticipation of fine fun times. Can’t wait to join the party! I mean just look at them, they can hardly contain themselves, this type of enthusiasm is infectious and intriguing, what secrets will Newark parkrun offer up to explain such unbridled joy I wondered. Come with me on my journey and maybe we’ll find out together…
.
.
It was quite liberating in a way, to head off with no idea what lay ahead. Sort of making my own adventure but without the expense, discomfort and carbon costs of getting on a plane. Admittedly, also without the new country flag on my parkrun profile, but what has Donaupark parkrun got that Newark hasn’t, parkrun is the same everywhere is it not. Well, it may have proximity to the River Danube but turns out (spoiler alert) Newark parkrun goes properly alongside the River Devon, which is basically the River Trent! I know! All the things. You want a river at your parkrun? A river you shall have!
I’ll do some of the reveal in a different order to that in which I experienced it. Let’s start with the official Newark parkrun website blah de blah.
The event takes place at Sconce and Devon Park, Boundary Road, Newark, Nottinghamshire, NG24 4AU.
We can learn that the course is described as:
The course starts with a 250m initial straight before turning right and beginning 3 anticlockwise laps of a loop, the loop consists of a variety of terrains. The run starts on the Tarmac paths leading down to the nature reserve area which consists of a soft bark path. The barked path then leads up some steps and onto the grassed football pitches. The runners will then follow the grass leading back onto the tarmac path to the start of the loop. After finishing the 3 laps you then follow the initial straight back to finish.
Join us for a parkrun special (a discounted offer for parkrun runners) in the Rumbles Cafe (directly in front of the finish line).
Location of start – From the main car park and the Rumbles Cafe there is a main footpath leading onto the park. The start point is approx 50-100m along this path, where there are some tree stumps and benches. The parkrun start location will be signposted; this will be visible from the car park.
Getting there by road – The park lies close to the B6166 Farndon Road which can be accessed via the A46 Farndon roundabout. The exit for the B6166 can be found next to the Lord Ted restaurant/pub. Follow the B6166 Farndon Road for 0.8 miles and take a right turn onto Boundary Road, follow Boundary Road for approx 200ft the park entrance can be seen on the right before the Holy Trinity School. The main car park is free and can be accessed from this entrance.
Post Run Coffee – Every week we grab a post parkrun coffee in Rumbles Café – please come and join us!
My bad for reading this late, didn’t know about the discount and bottled going for coffee, I rather regret this now, they were a friendly lot but, well I’ll tell you later…
and it looks like this:
.
.
so basically a badly drawn carrot with a big square bite taken out of it, or a weirdly shaped welders helmet thingy.
I headed off, postcode in, radio on and had a pleasingly contemplative drive. It was an easy run, taking exactly the 1 hour 11 mins predicted, no rain, and astonishingly I didn’t get lost and made my way straight to the handily located carpark about 8.40ish and parked up in one of the half a dozen or so spaces still available, in a spot from which I could see the reassuring sight of gathering volunteers and even a new dinky teeny tiny pop up stand, not far away but actually very small! Delightful.
.
.
I espied the rumblings cafe area, and from the people dodging in and out deduced, correctly, that here be loos. Hurrah. This is a parkrun with all your needs catered for. Easy to find, parking, clear start area and loos and cafe all in easy range of the start/ finish. Hurrah!
I wasn’t feeling socially confident, so hung back a bit, but did have an explore. This park is amazing. There is a lot of history from the Civil War linked to this space, which I had no idea about at all. Wooden carvings and helpful signs abounded. I wished I had a bit more stamina for a proper explore, you could easily spend more time here. Even just near the start were notices about wildflower areas, wildlife and a civil war trail. parkrun wise, there were permanent signs with the route of both the 5k parkrun and the junior 2k event, which is especially splendid.
.
.
To save you the considerable effort of conducting your own google search, I have done this for you, and can report that
Sconce and Devon Park
Surround yourself with civil war history and discover the very best of the great outdoors at Sconce and Devon park (NG24 4AU),
Enjoy the present in Newark’s largest open space, where you’ll find modern facilities including a children’s play area, fitness trail, cafe and a network of pathways suitable for prams and pushchairs.
And step back in time by exploring the star-shaped site of the Queen’s Sconce – one of the country’s finest remaining earthworks from the 17th century British Civil War. Signs and a trail around the park explain the history of the site.
The park has been awarded Green Flag status in recognition of its excellent range of facilities, maintenance standards and opportunities for community involvement.
All good to know.
Plus, if you check up wikipedia it tells you that:
Sconce and Devon Park is a park in Newark, Nottinghamshire, England. It is the location of Queen’s sconce, an earthwork fortification that was built in 1646 during the First English Civil War, to protect the garrison of King Charles I based at Newark Castle. It is a listed ancient monument. The park has a visitor centre, local nature reserve and it is part of a civil war trail through the town.
So now we know what a Sconce is, and be honest, we didn’t entirely before now did we? Admit it, at first you thought it was just a typo and you’d stumbled on a baking blog. Now we all now better, do please try to drop it into a conversation casually somehow, over the next week. It will annoy impress your friends and make you feel super smart – no, wait, sorry, I meant super self conscious, always getting those two experiences mixed up. It’s a burden.
.
.
Queen’s Sconce
Held by the Royalists, Newark-on-Trent played a major role in the First English Civil War, located on the last crossing point of the River Trent and at the intersection of the Great North Road and Fosse Way it was strategically important. The stronghold was centred on Newark Castle and was besieged three times before it succumbed, at the King’s instruction, in May 1646. The sieges resulted in extensive siegeworks built by both sides.[3]
Construction
The second siege of Newark had highlighted the weaknesses of the garrison’s defences and two new earthwork forts were constructed. The Queen’s Sconce was one of these with the other being the King’s Sconce. The Queen’s Sconce was built upon a knoll positioned to cover approaches to the town from the south. It was named after the wife of Charles I, Henrietta Maria of France. The Sconce is one of the few forts that still survive and was only left untouched because the victorious Parliamentary army fled because of fears of the plague.[4] The sconce measures 120m by 133m with a height of up to 9m, angle bastions project from the south, south west, north and north east. The corners of the ramparts are interpreted as platforms for firing artillery. The ramparts and bastions are enclosed by a ditch up to 21m wide and 3.6m to 4.5m deep. A counterscarp bank about 0.7m in height running along the south eastern and north eastern edge of the ditch shows the location of a palisade which contemporary accounts suggest originally enveloped the sconce.[5] It was built using gravel from the River Devon[2] and it is star-shaped when viewed from above.[6]
.
The thing is, whereas sometimes you read stuff about a place and you think ‘well, that’s all very well, but it’s not exactly obvious when you are here’ in this place they have done a quite brilliant job of curating it all so you do get a sense of what you are seeing, even just by taking part in the parkrun, it was extremely well signed and looked after, definitely a venue where it’d be good to allow a bit of extra time to go explore. It is a compact space, but screams historical interest, not in a ‘dull yawn, meaningless dates‘ way but in a ‘whoa I’d like to find out more about all of this cool and interesting stuff‘ sort of way
There is a whole interactive Civil War Trail, which looks interesting, I think it should be compulsory to complete this in full historical re-enactment garb, which is not to be confused with hysterical re-enactment although I daresay there is considerable overlap between the two. Supporting the volunteers were various wooden statues. I presume these are part of the trail, or at least reference the history, but in a rather lovely quirk of parkrun utility, they were stepping up to support the core team in delivery of the event. So one fine figure was trying to recruit volunteers for future weeks, whereas others were guarding – and indeed modelling – kit and bags left by parkrunners whilst out on their 5k. Much like Bing at Crosby parkrun has his own high vis at the turnaround point on the beach, one of the iconic Antony Gormley sculptures that together make up the – to me at least – poignant ‘Another Place‘ set. These wooden carvings seemed rather less desolate and more embraced by the parkrun community, each giving according to their ability to the main event. Nice inclusive touch there. The chap recruiting volunteers was particularly effective, good job, well played. He’s taken a pretty bad injury there, but just shows, you can still volunteer at a parkrun, even if you aren’t able to run due to missing a relevant limb or being constructed entirely of aging wood. Like I said, parkrun, at its best, is an inclusive place. Newark parkrun also had a pony! So really, it offered up a pretty much identical experience to that offered up in Vienna, they might have the Spanish Riding School and Pegasus on show, but Newark has a very lovely pony sufficiently earthbound you can actually go and say hello, so in some ways way better than Vienna where the flying horse is clearly out of reach. You don’t have to be flashy to be fabulous. Also, no cricks in your neck admiring this fine fellow though. See if you can spot which is which in the slideshow that follows! Good luck.
.
.
I busied myself with wandering about, squinting to see if there was anyone I recognised and bracing myself for the challenge ahead. I made a decision to try this parkrun without my stick. I’ve been wondering for a while now if I really need it, or am just using it out of habit. I no longer feel like I’m going to topple over, it’s just that I’m in pain all the time, but I don’t think having the stick reduces the pain at all, and I have been managing pottering around without it a bit more lately, I even left it behind somewhere one day, so logically I can’t be absolutely reliant on it. Of course, this meant that Red Ted, and indeed his fellow wonkies sat this parkrun out in the car, but I needed to test myself. I was a bit apprehensive, but thought it was best to just try it somewhere where nobody knows me so it would be less of a big deal, and as this is a three lap course, I figured worst case scenario I could bail, which would be gutting, but not catastrophic. Lucy Logic you see. 🙂
Diversionary photos included trying to get a couple of the ambience of people gathering, but it was harder than you might think. My camera really isn’t up to it. This however may be it’s final outing, as today was also the day when I was due to collect my new smartphone. I hope it is the phone that is required to be smart, not me. I am deeply apprehensive about this acquisition, but horribly aware that I’ve been missing out on stuff due to lack of one. It had to be done. Anyway, here are my pre parkrun photos for your delight, diversion and delectation, or not:-
.
.
Please do remember, it is the thought that counts. If you squint a bit, some of them come into quite charming focus. Anyway, hopefully you will go and check it out for yourself one day, and then you can take your own super duper photos and not worry about whinging about my rubbishy ones.
I loved the elegance of the silver birch trees, but what was extra special, was that somehow this parkrun feels like it’s an organic part of the space. Everything fits together neatly, with statues and trees and signs all perfectly situated for maximum parkrun delivery cohesion. Very impressive indeed. It is refreshing to see a space where parkrun seemed genuinely welcome, it is part of the venue’s offer, and sits comfortably alongside many other park users, dog walkers, football players, walkers, civil war explorers all.
After a bit, a shout went up to gather any first timers. I really liked the way this parkrun was set up. It was clear where to gather, and the call was loud enough you really couldn’t have missed it. Plus it’s all in the same area really so if you have found the start, you have found the first timers’ welcome zone too. The Run Director did the briefing, with the visual aid of the maps of the routes. A boon indeed! Excitingly, there were at least a couple of parkrunners who were brand new to parkrun, I love that, and this was a really great parkrun to pick for a parkrun debut, it would have been interesting to know how they came to choose it, but I didn’t get a chance to talk to them and anyway, was a bit preoccupied with my own parkrun angst to be completely honest.
It was a great welcome. The usual course description – it’s changed a bit from the early days apparently, but I couldn’t tell you how. The main thing is up and out, turn right and THREE laps. Follow the person in front, unless you are the person in front, in which case look out for the marshals. One pause for thought was mention of the ‘dreaded steps’ Wait, what dreaded steps? I had a moment of doubt about whether it was wise to go stickless. I was imagining something like that whole Odessa Steps sequence from the Battleship Potemkin film only with everyone running up them rather than down, but with equal panic and mayhem. Gulp. There was reference to possible muddyness in a wooded section, a river, best not to fall in I guess, and a generic keep left on the narrow sections. People were encouraged to declare where they’d come from, and they had indeed come from near and far, a diverse gathering indeed, including I think at least one with a home run overseas. I’m sure there was a collective ‘ooh’ of appreciation from everyone when they declared, or was it Cornwall? No Holland, or maybe Johannesburg? Oh lordy, my short term memory seems to be completely shot these days. Anyway, the takeaway from this, is that it was all very welcoming, and the RD made a real effort to encourage people to interact as well as explaining the necessaries. All good.
.
.
Bit more wandering about, and then it was the official Run Director’s Briefing. Claps for volunteers, tourists, invitation to sign up to volunteer, a yay for the weather. All was delivered on some rather excellent steps, aided by a microphone and some speakers. It was easy to hear, and felt like a friendly and safe place. There was the usual pre parkrun buzz of people stretching, warming up, greeting one another and comparing parkrun stories.
,
,
It was a focused briefing and then ‘suddenly’ we were off! It was quite a wide start area with people approaching from all directions to form an arrowhead as they neared the official path. This wasn’t exactly alarming, because it was very good natured and the locals are probably used to it, but it did rather thwart my attempt to stand at the sidelines, get a start photo and then slot in the back, as I was in the midst of a river of runners flowing by and around me. It reminded me a bit of the mass start at Bushy Park in that the path couldn’t have everyone join at once so people have to start wide and narrow in after the first few metres. It adds an extra frisson of excitement for sure!
.
.
The start is glorious, because you scamper (or the hobbling equivalent) down hill and you can see the colourful stream of runners ahead of you dancing about like bunting at a spring fayre! It’s a route that really encourages you to want to go explore. You can see the intriguing bridge and earth structures ahead, the tree lined path entices you on to the green space ahead, it was gorgeous. The sun shone, the birds were singing the blossom was out. The early part of the route was compressed gravel, so a good surface, though some participants, like me, started off on the grass before joining in on the path as it thinned out. Lovely.
.
.
Off we scampered. It was hard not to be distracted by the earth works, particularly because there was a VERY enthusiastic dog spectator barking support, or more accurately, his disappointment at being left out of all the scampering. I’m not sure if he was with a parkrunner and looking out for them, or had just twigged that this stampede of people looked super fun and he was desperate to be part of it. Many people have felt that too to be fair, watching a parkrun unfold in front of them. Me too, the months and months when I couldn’t leave the house at all were really hard, watching parkruns unfold on Facebook just isn’t the same.
Just past the earth works, glancing the cannon as you run by (not a fully operational one by the way, wouldn’t want to get your hopes up) there was a sharp right, and you are off on the first of three laps. The route takes you down towards a river and a wildlife area. There were swans, and birdsong and spring flowers as well as cheery marshals to stop you scampering straight on when you needed to pass through the lovely natural looking arch or from keeping going straight on and ending up in the river when you needed to stick to the path alongside. This path was lovely. It is only a relatively small section, but it felt like a mini wilderness. And as it’s a three lap course, you get to enjoy it three times. Yay!
.
‘
You head up again through the woods, and as you do so, you can espy the silhouettes of faster parkrunners through the trees, very atmospheric, oh for a better camera to adequately capture the moments. And a little further ahead the steps! These are not at all like the Odessa Steps in fact, but lovely woodland steps, just a few to bound up, well constructed with soft bouncy earth to put a spring in your step as you do so. Daffodils dipped alongside, and tree blossom framed us all over head, oh and there was a squirrel and an owl on a tree. Not real ones, but delightful to see all the same. Many things. Although I gathered this section is not popular with everyone because of the upward nature of it, I rather liked it. The surface was lovely, soft springy earth and leaf litter probably, it was really gentle on the legs. It perhaps could get muddy if it was very wet, but it was perfect today, might be a challenge with a buggy though to be fair, but fine for me. I was also hugely relieved to find it doable, I had worried about not having my walking pole with me for that section, but it was alright, painful going up, but I didn’t feel at risk of falling, so I am slowly getting more confident it seems. I was being lapped by this point (yep, already, really) so snapped a few shots of the faster parkrunners bounding on by.
.
.
You emerge from the woods into a green space and cones, signs and marshals keep you on track. You go round the perimeter of a field and back on yourself. There is no danger of getting lost but a lot of cones and flags had been set out earlier to ensure this. Whoever does the course check and set up needs a round of applause and a virtual high five, a lot of work had gone into getting it right, and it was not a five minute job. Again, as you come back down and are the silhouetted parkrunner you had admired earlier, you can now espy the other parkrunners below you. I’m really coming round to multi lap courses, they are very much more sociable for the first couple of laps at any rate. The final lap I got to do on my own, with marshals to support me round.
.
.
I was quite proud of myself for doing some arty daffodil shots as parkrunners overtook me before I joined in behind them back in the woods. Look on and be amazed!
.
.
and then you take a right out of the trees and alongside some football pitches. For the first lap people were just starting to gather, but as the parkrun went on, teams appeared to warm up and then to play with supporters on the touch line to cheer them on. This is a well used and appreciated green space. I didn’t take photos of the football because I wasn’t sure it was appropriate, but I’m assuming you’ll go check it out for yourself at some point, won’t you? Rhetorical question, of course you will! Then, before you know it, you emerge at the end of the first lap, faster parkrunners were pelting back towards the finish, which is where the start is, but I kept on going round.
.
.
It thinned out a fair bit on the second lap, but that was fine. One jolly parkrunner admired my leggings. She was right to do so, they are fabulous! Thank you for noticing coral coloured trainers parkrunner. They were gifted to me by a special Oodersfield friend for our matchy matchy outfits at Zielony Jar parkrun last month. They have giraffes on them. Well, pictures of giraffes, not real ones stapled on, that wouldn’t be practical let alone ethical. For those who are interested these are the full length pocket llama leisure leggings, love ’em. Super stretchy, super comfy nice people at #llamaleisures feel free to sponsor me for product endorsement if you wish. Size 8-14 is my preferred fit thank you for asking. The marshals were lovely, of course, they always are. I appreciated the general friendliness of the event and people talking to me as I went round, the odd word of support or encouragement. It makes a difference. If you live on your own and have unpredictable work as I do, it’s possible to go many days without actually speaking to anyone. You start to wonder if you are actually invisible, and although I daresay that would be a pretty amazing super power, it isn’t the most positive of experiences more generally to have inadvertently become so. You start off feeling invisible, on the outside looking in and then you start to wonder if you even exist at all. It was reassuring to find I wasn’t in fact invisible, and boded well for getting my barcode scanned at the end too. Always a boon at a parkrun. Never underestimate the impact of a cheery smile to a fellow parkrunner or indeed non parkrunner, little interactions matter. More than you might know. I was also starting to struggle by lap two. I set off with some enthusiasm, mustering even a little joglet, just to see how it felt, and at the time it felt ok, but inevitably there was a cost, my body just doesn’t do the things I used to take for granted any more. Oh well, worse things happen at the seaside. Have you seen the amount of raw sewage that gets pumped in and that’s before we even start on the littering! And I broke my kneecap at the seaside too, which was quite horrid, so I speak with some authority on the subject.
Where was I? Oh yes, second lapping at Newark parkrun, lovely.
.
.
Finished the second lap, and then a marshal queried if I had in fact finished. Alas, I most definitely had not. Easy mistake on his part, I do have the body of an athlete after all. A sumo wrestling athlete perhaps, but an athlete nevertheless. Anyway, it was no hardship to go round all over again.
For the final lap I was more solitary, most other parkrunners and parkwalkers having finished, and the tailwalker being a little further behind. It was fine though, greenbathing in the park. I enjoyed the scenery and the spectacle of the footballers. There were children on sparkly scooters, dogs of all shapes and sizes and plenty of others strolling about the space. On reflection it was very litter free as well, particularly impressive given how well used it was and also its proximity to residential properties. Very nice. There being no-one in sight I remarked to one marshal that I must be winning Park Race. Hopefully, the quip was recognised as such – it is of course a run not a race and parkrun is always aowalc (all one word, all lower case). Anything else makes the true parkrun passionista shudder. Just as a pea under a mattress will reveal a true princess, a misplaced P at the start of Parkrun will reveal a parkrunista in panic mode. Amazing how much trouble ps and peas and pees can cause is it not.
Eventually, I finished the final lap and it was time to head back towards the start. You get to gawp at the sights again, and then are welcomed into the colourful embrace of the smiling attendees at the finish funnel. Aren’t they just gawgous!
.
.
I liked the way the parkrun has been put together by – presumably – a time and motion expert. So you go through the tunnel, then you move to the scanning area and finally to the bench with the token sorting and processing set up. They had a cleverly labelled token box so you placed yours back in the right place and then once they were in groups of ten one of the volunteers sorted them and strung them up presumably. In a good way, not a hanging out to dry bad way. I haven’t seen such fine work with dymo tape since the seventies! To be quite honest, I didn’t even know it was still a thing. I presumed it had gone the way of green shield stamps and the testcard. Good to know it’s still out there. In fact, I caused some discombobulation with my arrival with my 200 token, they were behind with their token groupings. I left them busily catching up on the final ten.
.
.
Just time to turn around and cheer the tailwalker in. There was a merry band of marshals acting as a guard of honour for the final couple of finishers. My camera battery chose just this moment to die, but I did manage a couple of pics of the marshals laden with arrows and signs they had gathered on their walk home. Then the team busied themselves with the usual course close down, and results uploading and processing and cheery farewells until same time next week. Team work, making the dream work. Thank you high vis heroes for nailing Newark parkrun for everyone today 🙂
.
.
And that was that!
There was of course the option to have breakfast at Rumbles, and it looked like many were availing themselves of that opportunity and probably making use of the parkrun discount too. I considered it, but my pain levels were quite high and I felt I needed to just get home to rest up. I have some regret about missing this though, as I feel confident it would have been another cheery assembly and turns out it’s a social enterprise venture too. Oh well, next time maybe, and this is a parkrun I’d be very happy to return to. I bet it’s lovely in the different seasons too with all those fabulous trees to change colour through the year. Check out the Sconce and Devon Park Facebook page for photos to tease you as to what will unfold, lively and busy lot those park people. That’s park life for you. And they do bat walks! How brilliant is that!
.
.
Instead, for now, homeward bound.
That’s not the end though, because my route home took me a different route, through a one way system that went by a wharf and past some amazingly picturesque Victorian red brick buildings presumably linked to the mill which was referenced everywhere in the road names. Speaking of which, can we have a particular shout out for Huddlestones Wharf, which I passed by on my way out from the parkrun. What the? What a fantastic name! Newark is full of them. I am increasingly of the view that Newark would be a most excellent destination for a hole day of exploring and cafe hopping. |Just peering through the windows of the car on the drie home there was much I’d have happily paused for if I hadn’t needed to get back to rest up.
I didn’t even know what a Huddlestone was. It sounds lovely and cosy though doesn’t it? A stone around which people can huddle surely. How very apt for parkrun purposes. Maybe that’s what that big stone slab in the middle of stonehenge is for. Tess D’Urberville may have been slumped dying across it, but it p’raps has a jollier purpose. I would find out!
.
.
As a public service worthy of the most committed parkrunpedia researchers, I’ve had a bit of a google. Turns out, Huddleston was ‘(Ernest Urban) Trevor, 1913–1998, English Anglican archbishop and antiapartheid activist in Africa.’ Well, never heard of him, what a cool name, and important cause. Might need to look into him a bit more as never heard of him. I guess we remember the main figurehead of Mandela, and rightly so, but there was a whole movement working to end apartheid, we should look more widely to understand the contributions of others too. Talking of ‘looking more widely’ i also found an urban dictionary containing definitions for Huddlestone which started off moderately interesting if somewhat unlikely ‘a word denoting an anti-Richard III-ite who makes it his/her mission to tarnish the reputations of Richard III and all supporters of him‘ and then became increasingly bizarre and a bit dark. You really do have to be careful what you google, it’s a jungle out there. Still, on the plus side, if I hadn’t spotted the sign to Huddlestones Wharf on the way home, my life would have been the poorer for it. parkrun is always edutainment, as I’m sure by now you must know. You can find out more about Trevor Huddlestone here on wikipediasoitmustbetrue Takeaway is that huddlestone isn’t a rock to huddle around unfortunately, but the name is a reminder of a dark period of history the repercussions of which many still live with today. Worth remembering. The entry is an interesting read, and not an entirely comfortable one. Some things we will never know I guess.
Right, that’s your lot. Another fine parkrun destination discovered. Thank you lovely Newark parkrun team and parkrunners for your warm welcome to your fabulous space.
May all your parkruns be joyful, and every stone an opportunity for a group of parkrunners to group around for a healing huddle. Be happy. Be kind. Here’s hoping our parkrun paths cross again one day.
and if you are thinking of going to Newark parkrun, look out for this – not my picture, stolen from the Newark parkrun Facebook page, I’m sure they won’t mind… 🙂
In the meantime you could always browse through all my parkrun related posts here. Or not. It’s up to you. You’ll need to scroll down for older entries though
**STOP PRESS**
And here is the official run report for Newark parkrun event 18 March 2023, if you wish to check things out for triangulation purposes, always prudent to do so. And check out this lovely montage from Mike Munro accompanying his message on the facebook page, thanking all the volunteers. As he says ‘Whatever the Weather without the Team of Volunteers we would have no Newark parkrun so Thank You #Volunteers parkrun UK‘. Warms the proverbial cockles does it not 🙂
.
.
#loveparkrun
Running Scared 