It’s been a brilliant start to 2026, with two deliveries of Transcapes for different community groups in Sheffield already, and taking it to Devon this summer!
The bluebells are carpeting Sheffield’s woodland wonders and blossoms are arcing above our heads in city parks. What a time to get out and get queer about British prehistory, eh?
Springtime explorations
At the end of March, we took some members of SayIt Sheffield, a youth LGBTQ+ support charity, to Ecclesall Woods – a chunk of South Yorkshire’s ancient woodlands. Participants delighted in being outside together, climbing enormous beech trees, and finding magnificent mushrooms and triple conkers (a nice nod to non-dualist views of the world!)
They were particularly drawn to the Star Carr antler headdress, which they all had a go at wearing beside the large pond masquerading as a Mesolithic post-glacial lake. It was a fab afternoon, and I learned a lot about therian culture that some young folks identify with today – also very non-dual!
Bants on Bronze Age Barbrook: the prehistoric Peak
On Saturday last week, 37 (!) LGBTQ+ adults joined me on a longer, new route in Barbrook, the Peak District. I devised this route to take in some real monuments that could support our storytelling, as Barbrook has a vast array of Bronze Age field systems, evidence of houses, stone circles, and a cheeky cist that was rebuilt after being damaged in the 1980’s. Many cist artefacts are still held in Sheffield museums, meaning participants could easily go and explore more after the event.
The biggest challenge on Saturday was navigating the large herd of cattle, but we got there in the end! Having a longer route gave folks a lot of time to meet new people and be immersed in the landscape we traversed. It was a long day, being out in the powerful wind for so long, but many of the participants stayed for the whole shtick and even joined us afterwards for a pint back in Sheffield.
Since then, numerous folks have DM’d, asking for further reading recommendations for queering prehistoric Britain and ancient belief systems. It’s fantastic to see the content of Transcapes excite and attract people to such a degree – more than I could’ve dreamed of <3
Future expansions for Transcapes
Their requests for recommendations have highlighted, once again, the lack of accessible materials that explore these interdisciplinary themes. This is encouraging for the future development of Transcapes. It could be turned into a non-fiction work to gain wider reach, whether that’s through traditional publishing, or perhaps something a little more queer… we’ll see!
Coming up this summer, I’ll be taking Transcapes to the Out & Wild festival in Devon – also known as Glastonbury for lesbians. They won an award this year for being super inclusive – especially for trans* folks, which makes me confident it’s the right place for Transcapes. Let’s see how it goes!
As ever, if you’re interested in collaborating with me and putting on an Our Transcapes event in your area, get in touch!
Over and out x
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