My love affair with Ironbridge, then and now
Part 3: Midnight conversations under a full moon with the “Father”.
Part 3: Midnight conversations under a full moon with the “Father”.
“Father? Father? Is that you Father?”
Following the revelations in Part 1 and the curse of the Bayern Munich football shirt and Part 2’s fond remembrance of a night with my sister and brother-in-law I’ll remember forever, I’ll close this 3 part trilogy with a short introduction to my psyche and the strong connection this has to the affectionately known “toytown” of Ironbridge.
“The Father” is one of a number of “characters” I play around with from time to time, mainly on Twitter, but of whom more should be written about here and maybe someday I shall. He was the creation (creation? Please! Editor) of the incalculable amounts of late night walking I undertook around Ironbridge and whilst having the “Grand Old Lady” of the bridge all to myself. As I’ve written before at length here, Ironbridge on a night of the fullest of moons and clearest of crisp cold skies is a magnificent place to be and if you’re as lucky as I was, you’ll have the entirety of this World Heritage Site steeped in history all to yourself. On nights such as those described above, you’ll have the pleasure of the loud hoots and songs from the huge amount of owls in the trees opposite the bridge and you may well see the bats usually associated with the darkest of the Christopher Nolan trilogy of Batman films and every quarter of an hour, the bells will toll from St Luke’s Church as she towers over toytown. So I picture “The Father”, clouded in a misty haze rising from the river Severn enveloping the bridge or more likely, standing in the shadows in the middle of the bridge on the clearest of nights as the crack of his match illuminates the cigarette clenched between his teeth, a trilby hat slightly askew atop his head. I don’t particularly picture “The Father” as a religious man and please don’t confuse him with “The Vicar” who is indeed incredibly devout and partial to saucy sexy tales and a piece of cake to go with his piping hot cup of tea.
The Vicar makes house calls, The Father awaits your presence, and in the middle of a bridge late at night under a full moon and to the sound of owl song.
Other characters linked to my time in Ironbridge include “Georgios the Greek Gigolo” a rampant over the hill narcissist who hides a troubling secret and “Bruce the Bassett Hound” who just loves having his ears played with! There are many more works in progress and all are as absurd as the last. A favourite character I’ve played around with for years and desperately want to develop is a character who sends postcard sized written communiques in a 1984 style dystopian world to the love of his life Julia and who always signs off with the somewhat ambiguous phrase “Your Friend, Alex” and I also have a long running in joke of a newsroom dealing only in breaking news of the highest import but who always “throw” to their weatherman at the end of the news segment, and this is of course a polar bear named Gerald! I also have the newscasters Jeff and Julia who whilst Jeff delivers a fact heavy monologue to camera amid incredibly austere and serious tones, when he throws to his partner Julia she stares him down before quickly screaming “Why don’t you just get fucked Jeff?”
“Hello and welcome to the evening news. This evening we’ll be interviewing experts on being experts, influencers and who they really influence, a scare story with absolutely no substance whatsoever, a paid promotion you won’t know is paid for by the very organisation who’s paid us handsomely to say exactly what they’ve paid us to say and as much fear, porn, anxiety, death, disease and apocalyptic visions of the world as we can before we bring you back down with a lovely light hearted story about a local man and his daughter’s obsession with flying kites and a 101 year old lady who never goes a day without a medicinal drop of whisky at bedtime. We have quite the show coming up! So stay tuned but first, here’s Gerald The Polar Bear with the weather,
Gerald?”
So the next time you visit the magnificence of Ironbridge in the very beating heart of the industrialised midlands of England, spare a thought for “The Father” on a moonlit night. For he’ll be there. You may not see him at first but maybe you’ll hear that crack of his match or the illumination of his lit cigarette in the dark shadows enveloping the bridge. Don’t be afraid, for “The Father” may not be a religious man but he sure is a good listener and if he offers confession, take a deep breath under that fullest of moons and offload your worries to a man who really cares.
*All images captured by me on Monday 10th October 2022*
Thanks for reading. My “Summer Project” has taken me to the waterways as well as many local historical and religious ruins as I’ve crisscrossed the border between England and Wales, and my three most recently published travel articles are linked below:
My love affair with Ironbridge, then and now
Part 2: Tantrums and Tiaras over Tapas!medium.com
My love affair with Ironbridge, then and now
Part 1: The strange life of a Bayern Munich away shirtmedium.com
A sneak peek at the Ironbridge Festival
24th September 2022medium.com