Between the Salt and the Ash
Jake Morris-Campbell
Manchester University Press
Hardback £20
Local Author Jake Morris-Campbell on his Pilgrimage Through the North East
Author and poet Jake Morris-Campbell's new book, Between the Salt and the Ash, traces his pilgrimage through Northumberland and into County Durham in search of the identity of the North East, past, present and future
The catalyst for Jake's journey - and book - began with his great-grandfather's miner's lamp. 'I had written a poem about his lamp and I suppose imagined the world that he inhabited in the mid-20th century,' Jake says. 'It was a poem that I found was connecting with audiences at readings I was doing, not just in the North East but everywhere. Obviously it has particular resonance in coal field communities.'
The lamp was passed to Jake as an heirloom by his nanna, who had in turn saved it from her mother’s house. ‘She rescued it and then saw that I was interested. It became a good metaphor, a way of framing this journey. Because it’s this old miner’s lamp, you’re thinking about what it used to be as opposed to what it is now, and what it might then become. That’s what guided [the journey] from the outset, and it was a strong metaphor throughout.’
Although he’s a local lad, there were still areas of the North East that remained a mystery to Jake, hidden gems that deserved to be uncovered. ‘I’m very familiar with much of the North East, [but] I knew that I had blind spots, and I knew that a lot of Northumberland was a blind spot,’ he says. Beginning in the north of the county, at Lindisfarne, Jake set out south to explore the area, its past identity, and what its future could look like.
‘I think Lindisfarne is somewhere that understands both the pros and cons of the tourist industry and it has embraced that with things like Pilgrim’s Coffee company on the island – clearly drawing on that heritage,’ he explains. ‘It still has this serene quality to it, and I drew on that as a place of tranquillity to try and frame, explore and unpack some of the anxieties I’d been facing.’ In his book, Jake described Lindisfarne as a ‘thin place’, a place so rich in history that the lines between the past and present are blurred.
Moving down the coast, Jake blended his pilgrimage between solo excursions with time for introspection (like Lindisfarne) and chaperoned walks with locals who talked to him about the area. ‘Around Beadnell, I was led by the poet Katrina Porteous, and in North Shields I was accompanied by the musician Aaron Duff,’ he explains. At Beadnell, the lime kilns remain as evidence of its industrial past, and in North Shields Jake learned that the port remains one of the UK’s busiest for prawns. Each encounter helped Jake to see communities in a new light. ‘I had certain preconceived ideas about what places would be like. For example, I’d last been to Amble about 10 years ago and it was still a little bit run down. But the Amble that I discovered on this trail was so different, it felt like a place that’s really on the up.’
On his journey, Jake discovered that Northumberland was larger and more nuanced than he’d ever realised. ‘When I was in Amble, Katherine Renton (an artist who paints with sea coal and brick around Amble and Alnmouth), said to me that you can draw a line around about Warkworth Castle and everything south of that is much more rough and ready, and working class. And then Warkworth up through Seahouses and Craster is much more picturesque and more conventionally beautiful. It was really interesting to get to that point at Amble where that switch really does become quite obvious.’
South East Northumberland in particular was a surprise to Jake, who spent time exploring the often overlooked Ashington and Cambois. ‘Cambois is a good example because you turn up there and you can’t avoid the fact that it does feel like a one-horse town. People who need to go to the hospital take an hour-and-a-half bus journey to get there. But I met up with Alex Oates and Esther Huss who run the Miner’s Hall in the village. Alex is a playwright and Esther is a dance artist. They’ve got this community going where they’ll do workshops for writers and dancers.’ Jake says that Alex and Esther were often met with confusion from creatives in Newcastle. ‘A lot of them couldn’t understand why you would make that artistic work out at Cambois, but actually the point is that culture can and does exist in these smaller places, and it should be supported and should be championed.’
Ashington was another hidden gem for Jake, as was his first visit to Woodhorn Colliery Museum which honours the famous mining history of the area, as well as its artistic heritage. ‘I didn’t really know very much about Ashington, but there’s such a rich recent history with it once being the biggest pit village in the world, and there’s still some fabulous architecture. It felt really important to put a spotlight on that. I love Craster, I love Seahouses, I love Bamburgh, I love Holy Island and I’ll always love visiting those places, but for me there’s something more raw and more immediate about this part of Northumberland and the coast because it’s more untrodden.’
Jake’s journey continued down through North Shields and across the river, then into County Durham and to Durham Cathedral, a natural ending for Jake’s pilgrimage thanks to its significant place in our local history, both recent and ancient. ‘Firstly, it is where Saint Cuthbert’s body was eventually laid to rest after its years of being ferried around the present-day Anglo-Scottish border by his devotees. My pilgrimage echoes the journey made by those monks who so faithfully carried Cuthbert off Lindisfarne in the ninth century. Secondly, and more recently, I’d been organising a pilgrimage in memory of the late County Durham poet, William Martin. So, there are several overlaid significant memorials at Durham Cathedral: tombs to the medieval saints; the miners’ memorial; and the ashes of a significant poet. Being there at the end was important to help draw these threads together.’
But this was not the end of the story for Jake. ‘The book actually concludes at the grave of my great-grandparents in South Shields. My great-grandfather Nick, whose lamp I carry throughout, and who of course never got the kind of fanfare (in life or death) that those saints had, is the lodestar of the narrative in many ways.’
Through his journey, Jake noted that he was not the only one seeking identity and understanding. ‘I would say everybody I met and talked to in the North East has a really well-defined sense of the history of the place, and I think it’s really important that people are plugged into that deep past,’ he says. ‘Everybody was really interested in this question of who are we now, and there’s still that sense that we’re not really sure, especially with the artists I was talking to who were still trying to figure it out. What does it mean to be a painter now in the North East, or to be a singer in the North East? There was a common theme of people trying to figure that out. But I think people grappling with that question is a healthy thing.’
With so much time spent looking at the past and present of the North East, Jake offers some hope for its future in uncertain times - particularly for creatives. ‘The Centre for Writing and Publishing which was recently announced at Bolbec Hall in Newcastle is one of the brightest lights here. As a writer and poet from the North East, this is so encouraging. It’s a real flag in the sand moment, where people can see that writing, publishing, book culture and the whole idea of taking yourself seriously in this field is actually properly funded and supported. It raises aspirations and says you can have a future in this industry.
‘That’s such a positive development and could really unlock a whole new generation of talented authors,’ Jake continues. ‘The same can be said of the Crown Works Studios development at Pallion in Sunderland. The creative industries, as they’re called, are one of Britain’s strong suits in terms of soft power on the global stage. I think it’s absolutely great and really exciting that these things are now being properly invested in. It points to a new narrative for the North East, and I’m heartened to be a small part of it.’
