BUCKED IN THE YARN: A CELEBRATION OF PLACE

“Place… has more substance than the word location suggests: it is a unique entity, a ‘special ensemble’ … it has history and meaning. Place incarnates the experiences and aspirations of a people. Place is not only a fact to be explained in the broader frame of space, but it is also a reality to be clarified and understood from the perspective of the people who have given it meaning” (Tuan, Y. F. (1979) Space and Place: Humanistic Perspectives in Philosophy in Geography by Gale, G. and Olsson, G. Springer.

Bucked in Yarn: The unique heritage of Coker Canvas may appear on the shelf of your local bookshop under history / local history/ or sailing and yachts. On many levels the book is ‘at home’ in these sections however it is fundamentally about the celebration of place and the people who have given it meaning - those local families in the south Somerset villages of East, North and West Coker whose innovation, enterprise and tenacity produced the best sailcloth in the world for over 300 years.

The book portrays the deep sense of place of this part of rural England. A sense of place realised by T S Eliot in the second of his Four Quartets, the eponymous poem East Coker and in the reflections of the seventeenth century explorer, naturalist and pirate, William Dampier.

Sense of place is a vital and essential component of tourism. Destinations need to induce place attachment with and create an emotional connection with its visitors. This book helps acheive this goal and, as a result, you may well discover Bucked in the Yarn on the travel and tourism shelves in your bookshop of choice.

Order your copies of Bucked in the Yarn from the link below. All author’s fees will be donated to the Coker Rope & Sail Trust.