This walk should take about an hour, but starts here at the All Saints Church. If the west transept door is open then step inside and listen to the clock for a moment before you start, it really sets the scene. If not you must put your ear to the door and you can hear the heart beat of the mechanism in the tower, the slow pulse of the weight being thrown back and forth, setting the rhythm for the day.
Have you ever been trapped? I mean properly trapped where you cannot move a muscle?
I have, when I was only seven years old, and I remember ever second of it, my arms were stuck so awkwardly above my head that I could only just flex my fingers.
Firstly of course I shouted and shouted, but the more I called the more soil fell upon me and the more inevitable my fate.

Chapter one
The Church

Chapter two
It was here in the graveyard, we had been playing What time is it Mr Wolf and then Scratch Nine, which is hide and seek by any other name. I hid behind a gravestone, now long gone, for there was a little dip in the earth at its foot, I wriggled in. That was a mistake, a good idea turned sour, when the earth fell away beneath me and I knew I was caught.
As I waited for rescue I began to feel the warmth of the sun on my hands, they were obviously visible above the ground so I waved them about a bit but that did not seem to help. Then I thought about the shadow they must cast on the ground like a sun dial, and how many degrees or minutes had passed since I fell?
I was a living sun dial, but then the last thing I had looked at before I fell was not the sun, it was the Moon, and began to wonder if there was any such thing as a moon dial?
As I waited for rescue I began to feel the warmth of the sun on my hands, they were obviously visible above the ground so I waved them about a bit but that did not seem to help. Then I thought about the shadow they must cast on the ground like a sun dial, and how many degrees or minutes had passed since I fell?
I was a living sun dial, but then the last thing I had looked at before I fell was not the sun, it was the Moon, and began to wonder if there was any such thing as a moon dial?

Chapter three
Then the reality of my predicament came back to me, and I felt panic rise in my chest, I was desperate for some distraction, something to take my mind away from this terrible situation.
But then a distraction is exactly what I got, for I heard voices, mumbled and muffled ones that did not come from above ground. Quiet at first but then the more soil that filled my ears the clearer I could hear, the closer the sound was.
Now before we move on I must explain, here in the town it is seen as rude to talk without covering your left wrist. Some put this arm behind their backs, others cover it more visibly with their right hand. This is the more formal approach and you will see locals do this, it is as if to say, I have time for you.
You will notice also most local folk wear long sleeved shirts, covering wrists and sometimes hands as well, this is part of the same tradition.
It sounds very eccentric I know, but all towns have their foibles and this is one of Dulvertons, it goes back a long way, further than you can imagine, and further than the town is probably aware. So if you have need for discourse or talk as you walk to the next chapter, please cover your left wrist as naturally as you can.
But then a distraction is exactly what I got, for I heard voices, mumbled and muffled ones that did not come from above ground. Quiet at first but then the more soil that filled my ears the clearer I could hear, the closer the sound was.
Now before we move on I must explain, here in the town it is seen as rude to talk without covering your left wrist. Some put this arm behind their backs, others cover it more visibly with their right hand. This is the more formal approach and you will see locals do this, it is as if to say, I have time for you.
You will notice also most local folk wear long sleeved shirts, covering wrists and sometimes hands as well, this is part of the same tradition.
It sounds very eccentric I know, but all towns have their foibles and this is one of Dulvertons, it goes back a long way, further than you can imagine, and further than the town is probably aware. So if you have need for discourse or talk as you walk to the next chapter, please cover your left wrist as naturally as you can.
Drop down from the church and into town, then take a right behind the library/visitors centre. This is a small path which leads though to a car park. Head diagonally to your left across this car park to a little path which crosses the stream. The next chapter will reveal here by the leat which used to supply power to the wool mills.