https://stonebridgenotes.site/Small notes on walking, old bridges and the places between towns.https://stonebridgenotes.site/posts/counting-voussoirs/https://stonebridgenotes.site/posts/counting-voussoirs/Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000Voussoirs are the wedge-shaped stones that make up an arch. Counting them is a harmless habit and a good excuse to stand still on a bridge.https://stonebridgenotes.site/posts/autumn-on-the-river-path/https://stonebridgenotes.site/posts/autumn-on-the-river-path/Wed, 14 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0000The towpath is quieter after the first cold week. Fewer cyclists, more herons, and the light comes in low across the water by four o'clock.https://stonebridgenotes.site/posts/rain-and-old-stone/https://stonebridgenotes.site/posts/rain-and-old-stone/Wed, 30 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000Old stone changes colour in the rain. Limestone goes grey-blue, sandstone darkens to the colour of strong tea, and the lichen suddenly looks bright, as if someone turned it up.https://stonebridgenotes.site/posts/a-bridge-with-no-road/https://stonebridgenotes.site/posts/a-bridge-with-no-road/Wed, 16 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000Half a mile above the weir there is a small packhorse bridge that connects nothing to nothing. The track on either side has gone back to field. The bridge stays because it is easier to leave a bridge than to remove one.https://stonebridgenotes.site/posts/maps-worth-keeping/https://stonebridgenotes.site/posts/maps-worth-keeping/Wed, 02 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000I keep the paper maps that have pencil marks on them. A clean map is just a map. A marked one is a record: the stile that was gone, the footbridge that was closed, the pub that turned out to be a house.https://stonebridgenotes.site/posts/why-arches-last/https://stonebridgenotes.site/posts/why-arches-last/Wed, 19 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000A stone arch is a strange thing when you think about it: a curve of loose blocks with nothing gluing them together, standing for three hundred years under carts, lorries and floods.https://stonebridgenotes.site/posts/the-towpath-in-august/https://stonebridgenotes.site/posts/the-towpath-in-august/Tue, 04 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000The canal path east of town is at its best in early August, before the blackberries are picked clean. I set out at seven, when the water still holds the night's cool and the only traffic is a heron who refuses to be hurried.