Pallenpool – A Pilgrims Progress

A few days ago I wandered without idea along the banks of this river. Whatever one’s passions whether walking, painting, sketching, writing or casting a line rivers possess that rare quality in setting us free from our everyday and offer a chance to meditate upon nature and of course ourselves.

There’s a path to every river – I have been treading my way upon many for 50 years or more and just like the rivers they lead to there’s never a repetition, no commonality, not even the most walked as these paths may alter due to varying conditions – flooding, overgrown hedgerows and falling tree’s to name a few. These paths as the rivers are ever changing even in the darkest hours of a winter’s day there is always something in the detail that registers brighter than all else. River’s then create these wonderful landscapes from source to the sea a rivers topography remains a fluid lesson in a lifetime of discovery.

So today I’ve returned to this very special river, all around are references to past lives, their workings across fields, meadows and the river itself. Remains of storage and grain barns, shepherds huts and even the rusted out remains of Massey Ferguson tractors and hay bailers standout above the swaying barley and wildflowers. Then there’s the Victorian rerouting of the watercourse into the mill races, something that over the last few years has been reversed with the old rivers run being redefined and introduced acting as relief channels through the water meadows. It’s not just how the land lies or indeed what rests upon it – it’s the way it moves, asks questions, and provides answers for and of you. Being beside a river gets you closer to nature probably due to the utmost in peace and quietness, and the fact as an angler our main attributes are one of stillness, being quiet, patient and observant.Rivers always seem to open primordial gateways and initial responses. The being there leads me into the landscape, retracing the steps of those and the events that came before.

Writing & Images Pallenpool, North Norfolk, Late Summer 2026