In March 2025 I was absolutely blooming delighted to be part of an exhibition — Scientific Rambles — at Macclesfield Silk Museum, alongside three other artists — Becca Smith, Iain Davidson and Martyn Stonehouse. The exhibition was inspired by the landscape of this Three Shires (Cheshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire) corner and by the book Scientific Rambles Around Macclesfield by Victorian gentleman scientist JD Sainter. It was a multi genre experience — silk salt stones sounds stories.

If you’ve like to hear the poems featured, they’re on SoundCloud.

Also: we made an exciting bookish discovery! The copy of Scientific Rambles I bought in preparation turned out to be the copy that had belonged to the ‘MBs’ — Marianne Brocklehurst and Mary Booth — Victorian lady scientists and archaeologists who lived in nearby Wincle and had worked with Sainter. The MBs are famous in Macclesfield as the people who brought the Egyptian collection now on show in the Silk Museum. Thank you to curator, Egyptologist and MBs expert Bryony Renshaw for confirming that! The MBs were some of the women we made a plaque for with Rosies Plaques in June 2022. It’s wonderful to hold a book once owned by such inspiring, pioneering women from Macclesfield’s history.

‘Scientific Rambles’ will be back in a slightly different form from the beginning of June 2025 at Arc Centre Stockport. Come and see us there!