Wessenden Moor — The Boot from #270, Turned About

I want to think about how to write this one because I'm not entirely sure what it is yet. I'll do my best.

I'd had it in mind to go back to Wessenden Moor for a while. Not for a fresh finding, particularly. More that #270 has stayed with me, and it were May then, and it's May now, and I thought I'd see the spot again. That's not how I usually go about things. Usually I go for a fresh sighting, or a tip-off, or a feeling. But this were a planned outing. I told Our Linda the night before. She said "right then Keith, I'll do you a proper lunch."

Set off from the same car park at Marsden as I had two years ago. Half eight this time, slightly later than the original — I'd had a slow start with the kettle. Cool morning, a bit of haze coming off the reservoir. Same path. Same wind, more or less, coming over the tops from the south-west. I didn't bring the binder of the original photographs because I were trying not to make a job of it. Just went up.

Found the spot. You don't forget them. The tussock of grass on the right, the bit where the path opens out, the flat dark stone that sits a few yards off where you can sit if you've a mind to. I'd had a couple of lookings at it on the photos in the binder over the years. I knew the spot.

The boot were there.

It is the same boot

I want to be plain about this. The boot were there. It is the same boot. There is no question of that. The cracking across the toe is the same crack. The leather has gone the same dark grey it had gone in 2024 — you can't make that twice. The lacing pattern is identical. Eight pairs of eyelets. The right outer eyelet on the second pair from the bottom is missing, same as it were. It is the boot from #270.

But it weren't in the same place.

When I logged it the first time, the boot were facing across the slope, toes pointing roughly down toward the reservoir to the south-east. I have the photograph. I went back and looked at it that evening to be sure. Toes south-east.

This time it were facing the path. Toes pointing roughly north-west, back toward where I'd come from. Heel to the slope. Otherwise upright, same kind of placement, on what looks like the same flat stone — possibly nudged a foot or so along but it is hard to be certain about that. The moor moves a bit with the seasons and the stone itself may have shifted.

What I am certain about: the boot has turned through about a hundred and eighty degrees. Possibly a hundred and sixty. I am not going to pretend to a precision I cannot back up.

A look at both photographs

I've put the two photographs together so you can have a look. The first one is from May 2024 — that's #270 as I logged it at the time. The second is from this morning. You can see it's the same boot if you look. The crack across the toe is the same crack. The way the leather has cracked above the heel is the same. The position is what's different.

AS YOU CAN SEE.

The lunch

I sat down on the stone next to it and got the flask out. Our Linda had done me a proper lunch, as she said she would. Two rounds of egg and cress on Warburtons toastie loaf, foil-wrapped with the corners tucked in proper. A slice of malt loaf — she's been doing that lately, putting a slice of malt loaf in. I haven't asked why. A Penguin biscuit, blue wrapper. A Cox's apple, slightly bruised from the bag. Flask of tea, strong, two sugars. I'd brought the folding stool but I didn't get it out. The stone were dry and the wind weren't bad.

Sat with it about forty minutes. The cress were fresh. I were grateful for that.

I want to be straight that I did not move the boot. I did not touch it at all. I took twelve photographs from various angles, then I packed the lunch up and walked back down to the car.

The matter of where it goes

I have thought about this on the drive home and again last night and again this morning. I want to be careful.

It is not a new shoe. I cannot give it a new number. #270 is #270. I logged it in May 2024 and the entry stands. To call this #319 would be to pretend it were two boots when it is one.

It is not nothing, either. Something has happened. The boot has been moved, by someone or by something, and to pretend otherwise would be to not say what is in front of me.

I have had this kind of trouble before. The wellingtons sit in their own ledger because they are their own question. The Nerja sandal sits in Away Fixtures because it were abroad. The shoe behind the boiler sits in Indoor Findings because it weren't in the field. I have started to feel like I keep starting ledgers. But I would rather start a ledger than put a thing in the wrong column.

I am going to call this one Returns. I do not expect there will be more in it. The conditions for a Return are quite specific — it has to be a shoe I have already logged, in the same spot, in a different position. I have walked enough miles in the last seventeen years to know how unusual that is. I have not had it happen before. I do not expect it to happen again.

But it has happened the once. So the ledger is open.

What I have done with it

I have left the boot where it were. Toes north-west. Heel to the slope. I have not corrected the position. I do not know what the correct position is.

I will go back at some point. Not soon. I want to leave it a while. If it has moved again I will note it. If it has not moved again I will note that as well.

When I got home Our Linda asked if it were the same boot. I said it were. She said "are you alright Keith." I said I were. She said, "right then." She had done a chicken pie for tea. It were good.

Aye. The boot from #270 is still up on Wessenden. Just not facing the way it were. I don't know what to do with that, but I've put it down.