Rambles

Why I Started Writing These Reviews

There's a book on my shelf called Scientific Rambles round Macclesfield. J.D. Sainter wrote it in 1878. A retired surgeon who spent his spare time tramping around Cheshire, notebook in hand, documenting the geology underfoot, the archaeology in the fields, the natural history in the hedgerows. He wasn't writing for academics. He was writing because he'd actually looked at his surroundings and thought other people might want to too.

I kept thinking about that book when I started realising I was spending entire weeks without genuinely noticing where I was. Not in a philosophical sense, literally just not looking. Head down, inbox open, the same mental loop of tasks running on repeat. You can live somewhere your whole life and still not really see it. So I started going out. Not hiking, not "wellness walks" — just getting outside and paying attention. A castle ruin. A canal-side pub. A café in a town I'd driven past a hundred times without stopping. I started leaving Google Maps reviews because they forced me to articulate what I'd actually found. Was it worth the detour? What was the thing nobody mentioned? These articles are those reviews, written up properly. The places are mostly in Cheshire and the surrounding area, sometimes further afield when work or family takes me there. Some are brilliant. Some are fine. A few were a waste of petrol and I'll tell you that too.

Sainter's book has been out of print for 150 years. But the impulse behind it, go look at things, write down what you find, seems worth continuing.

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