2000 Squares

Apologies in advance if I have already told you about the squares.

I have a map on my wall. A very big map. To be precise, I have parts of several maps that I have stuck together to make one big map that covers a rectangle of Northern England with corners in (approximately) Fleetwood, Chester, Leeds and Sheffield. I used old one-inch-to-the-mile ordnance survey maps. A huge section of Lancashire and some of the counties that surround it, helpfully divided into thousands of squares.

Toward, but not in, the centre of that map, is Manchester, and around it I have marked a section that contains two thousand squares. It broadly matches the area that is covered by a Greater Manchester rail pass.

Are you still with me? Sorry. Bit boring this. It’s not going to get interesting soon either.

Because, my plan is, to walk on all two thousand of those squares, or as many as possible without trespassing. I was thinking one day about how little of our local area we really know. Unless you had a paper round at some point, there are almost certainly streets within half a mile of your house that you have never walked on. Think about where you live and where you work. How much of that have you seen except what is visible from a car or train window? What are you missing?

It turns out, for me, it was quite a lot. So now I go on walks to places I haven’t been before. Then I colour in the squares that represent where I was. I like it. It’s fun.

If you are the sort of person who finds city design or architecture interesting, then walking around cities can be interesting. If you are the sort of person who thinks the countryside is fun, then walking through it can be fun. Sometimes you do a walk that covers places where the city and the countryside interact and that can be interesting and fun. One minute you are noticing an interesting window on a brutalist church, the next you are seeing a swan. To me, that’s living well.

And yes, I am also colouring in the squares that are outside those central two thousand, because maybe I’ll want to expand the number of squares I want to colour in, and maybe I don’t want to retrace all my steps. Not every where is worth a second visit. Occasionally, to get a square, you have to walk through a trading estate or along an A-road for a mile or two. They can be boring. Mostly it’s all interesting windows and swans though. Mostly it’s good.

For example, here are some photos I took on a recent walk on the outskirts of Wigan. You might need to zoom up on the barge on the last one to get the full effect.