HOME ABOUT BOOKS ARTICLES VIDEOS WORDS IN THE FIELD MAPPINGS EVENTS CONTACT Drowning sites in city of Chester GALLERY The Sands of Dee is an on-going, on-off project that has thus far taken a number of forms. The Dee in question (and its sands) is that located in the estuarine spaces in-between the Wirral peninsula in England and Flintshire in North Wales. This area is comprised of terrain that unquestionably falls into the category of liminal landscape, on account of which it has over the years come to represent a space where, for me at least, various interests, questions, motivations and desires have coalesced and provisionally taken root. It is also a space where this North London émigré and his family have, since 2006, made their home.   In its nascent form The Sands of Dee – or the shape it had come to assume by that point – was outlined in two academic presentations: one at a workshop on cultural mapping and locative media at the University of Liverpool in May 2010; the other at the Liminal Landscapes: Re-mapping the Field conference organised by myself and Hazel Andrews, which took place at Liverpool John Moores University in July 2010. The latter event provided the spur for subsequent publications, namely the book Liminal Landscapes: Travel, Experience and Spaces In-between (Routledge 2012), and the ‘Liminal Landscapes’ special edition of the Journal of Tourism, Consumption and Practice (Vol 4: 1, 2012), edited by Hazel.   Specific focus on the Dee research formed the basis of the article ‘The Sands of Dee: Estuarine Excursions in Liminal Space’, published in the Liminal Landscapes volume (download here). It was, however, clear by this point that what could be said in mere chapter form barely scratched the surface of what remains a captivating and compelling cultural landscape, the historical and topographic richness of which had already yielded a growing amount of information gleaned from sporadic researches and interventions ‘in the field’.  Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Necrogeographic Map of Dee Estuary Drowning sites in Parkgate   Drowning sites at Shotwick Ford © Les Roberts 2012 Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge As well as the chapter ‘The Sands of Dee’, the research has led to the creation of The Cestrian Book of the Dead: a digital necrogeographic map of sites of drowning on the Dee, which stretches, geographically, from Chester to the mouth of the river at Hilbre, and historically, from the 1500s to the 19th century. The GIS mappings that have resulted from research into the historical geography of the Dee estuary have also prompted more site-specific engagements in and throughout the estuary itself: forms of cultural archaeology that resemble what Nick Papadimitriou (sidestepping the troublesome ‘psychogeography’ tag) would opt to label ‘deep topography’. As part of these intermittent wanderings through the in-between spaces of the Dee a sizeable photographic archive has also been assembled. A selection of images gleaned from these exercises in deep topography (or 'walks' as others might choose to describe them) can be viewed here.   In tandem with a desire to burrow further and deeper into this alluringly liminal landscape, fear that the accumulation of papers, books, maps, notes, digital ephemera (and much else besides) might getburied and forgotten – not least as the general encumbrances of everyday material living become ever more voluminous – lies behind much of the motivation to develop this project into eventual book form. The Sands of Dee: Estuarine Excursions, in keeping with the development of this research area more generally, is and remains a stop-start, on-off affair that trundles endearingly along but which at the same time could benefit from a more focused bout of writing-up activity. Perhaps developing this webpage might provide further stimulus for this project to be brought nearer to completion.    Shotwick to Flint ford (John MacKay map 1732)