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Dan Thompson @danthompson33.bsky.social · Sep 1

The Ragged Optimist has published his 71st newsletter, a start-the-week bulletin full of hope, joy, and optimism - architecture, rewilding, science, art, music and other wonderful stuff so you can start the week in a good mood.

danthompsonstudio.substack.com/p/the-ragged...

The Ragged Optimist 71

Hope, the Helm Wind, Harvest mice, and the Hastings Kelp Project

danthompsonstudio.substack.com

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Reposted by Dan Thompson

John Grindrod @grindrod.bsky.social · Aug 28

Monstrosities Mon Amour is on a summer break, but will be back soon. In the meantime I can’t believe there’s already nine episodes! What a lot of cheery chat about unloved things johngrindrod.substack.com/podcast

Monstrosities Mon Amour | John Grindrod | Substack

In Monstrosities Mon Amour we celebrate places and things that have been unfairly monstered in popular opinion. Host John Grindrod will be your excitable guide to a world beyond the lazy stereotypes o...

johngrindrod.substack.com

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Dan Thompson @danthompson33.bsky.social · Aug 29

It was fun to be on this. Even if the car ride was a little bumpy. Sorry, John.

John Grindrod @grindrod.bsky.social · Aug 28

Thanks so much to all my guests so far: Mike Althorpe, @helenbarrett.bsky.social, @philipdowner.bsky.social, @angelabarnes.bsky.social, @garetherees.bsky.social, @regretteruane.bsky.social, Travis Elborough, Catherine Croft and @danthompson33.bsky.social, delightful kidnappers all

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Dan Thompson @danthompson33.bsky.social · Aug 29

This is lovely to know.

Dr Heidi Colthup @heidi-colthup.bsky.social · Aug 27

I have spent a fascinating time in the @kent.ac.uk library archives looking at artists' books and zines that are all part of the @danthompson33.bsky.social archive!
I'm teaching fanfiction and zines in week 2 of term to Media students - I've now got loads of ideas for the workshop.
#AcademicSky

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Dan Thompson @danthompson33.bsky.social · Aug 10

Remembering a forgotten soldier of the First World War. My attempt to keep the life of a stranger in people's memories. mrdanthompson.wordpress.com/2018/08/02/t...

The life and death of William Gibson Clarke

William Gibson Clarke was born on 16th May 1891, in Skipton, North Yorkshire. Skipton is on the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, south of the Yorkshire Dales and 26 km northwest of Bra…

mrdanthompson.wordpress.com

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Reposted by Dan Thompson

Voltage Poetry Project @voltagepoetry.bsky.social · Aug 1

The temptation to mention (again) that @danthompson33.bsky.social wrote the liner notes to my #WesternVerses EP is too strong… he’s guesting, not for the first time (see Arlington House in #Iconicon), with @grindrod.bsky.social in the latest of the latter’s Monstrosities Mon Amour.

John Grindrod @grindrod.bsky.social · Aug 1

NEW PODCAST EP! Smashing to chat to @danthompson33.bsky.social about his love for Terry Farrell's much overlooked Drum in Margate, and about the joys of studio pottery teapots in the latestMonstrosities Mon Amour open.substack.com/pub/johngrin...

Monstrosities Mon Amour: The Drum, Margate, with Dan Thompson

#9. John Grindrod meets writer and artist Dan Thompson to experience Terry Farrell's much overlooked Drum in Margate, and the secret joys of studio pottery teapots

open.substack.com

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Reposted by Dan Thompson

John Grindrod @grindrod.bsky.social · Aug 1

NEW PODCAST EP! Smashing to chat to @danthompson33.bsky.social about his love for Terry Farrell's much overlooked Drum in Margate, and about the joys of studio pottery teapots in the latestMonstrosities Mon Amour open.substack.com/pub/johngrin...

Monstrosities Mon Amour: The Drum, Margate, with Dan Thompson

#9. John Grindrod meets writer and artist Dan Thompson to experience Terry Farrell's much overlooked Drum in Margate, and the secret joys of studio pottery teapots

open.substack.com

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Dan Thompson @danthompson33.bsky.social · Jul 6

Cliftonville in Margate as the most gentrified place in the country. I spoke to the Telegraph about Margate history and regeneration. www.msn.com/en-gb/travel...

MSN

www.msn.com

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Dan Thompson @danthompson33.bsky.social · Jul 3

I'm Sittingbourne Steam Railway’s Writer-in-Residence - more about what I'll be up to here. An Ideas Test commission.

mrdanthompson.wordpress.com/2025/07/03/s...

Sittingbourne Steam Railway’s Writer-in-Residence 2025-26

From the history of Sittingbourne as a place of pilgrimage to the heritage of paper-making, a small but special steam railway is set to be at the centre of a new set of stories. Dan Thompson has be…

mrdanthompson.wordpress.com

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Dan Thompson @danthompson33.bsky.social · Jun 30

The Ragged Optimist's newsletter is out - ten stories of hope and joy to get you in an optimistic mood. danthompsonstudio.substack.com/p/the-ragged...

The Ragged Optimist 62

“Perhaps all places are ideas to those who don’t live there.” Jonathan Meades

danthompsonstudio.substack.com

Dan Thompson @danthompson33.bsky.social · Jun 30

'True guidebooks should lead you to things and leave you at the door. If you are reading you cannot see. Travellers should only read after dark.' Robert Harbison in Eccentric Spaces.

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Dan Thompson @danthompson33.bsky.social · Jun 24

"Anything can happen in a war. Slap in the middle of absolute insanity, people pull out the most extraordinary resources. Ingenuity, courage, self-sacrifice.
Pity we can't beat the problems of peace in the same way, isn't it?
It would be so much cheaper for everybody."
Guns of Navarone

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Dan Thompson @danthompson33.bsky.social · Jun 22

I have ... quite a few, and a good imagination

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Dan Thompson @danthompson33.bsky.social · Jun 22

Sure we can find a way

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Reposted by Dan Thompson

Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · Jun 16

It’s been a whole month since the peat map of England was launched!

It’s still very wrong
And it’s still online

So I’ve written a open letter to @naturalengland.bsky.social

I am starting to worry that massive mistakes are just a thing with the whole organisation.

What else is wildly wrong?

My letter screenshot. Dear Sallie Bailey.
I am really very sorry, but your new peat map, the England Peat Map (EPM) is deeply flawed and should be taken offline as soon as possible, and all conclusions drawn from any of its data should be removed from public discourse and decision making.
I have raised this matter on social media with Natural England, Tony Juniper, Steve Reed, and Mary Creagh, and have not received anything back so I am now bringing it officially to your door.
While I fully understand how so many massive mistakes can have happened during the making of the map, I cannot understand how it was launched without the mistakes being flagged up and fixed. I can only come to the uncomfortable conclusion that within the organisation there is no space for mistakes to be made, aired without blame, and learnt from. I worry that a culture of bluster and sweeping issues aside is prevalent. Did nobody speak up about the obvious mistakes? Are people still truly sticking to the party line of 'a few minor errors' when so many large errors are easy to see?
If this is not the case, and the maps flaws are due to a systemic lack of attention to detail or ground truthing then you have an easier job when it comes to fixing the issues. With a bit of time and some extra work we can have a map that does want it was supposed to do. As it stands even the original purpose of the map, (of helping people find the peat grips so they can be fixed), does not work, let alone the additional layers and uses.
The mistakes so large and so scattergun it is impossible to find a work around when using the map. If every river was mapped as peat, then you could accept that, or if all rocks were deep peat, but as it is just some, you never know what's good and what's not.

There appears to have been no cross referencing with other maps within the
EPM let alone elsewhere in the organisation. Quite why I do not know. The data is there, priority habitats and living England mapping along with the basic maps available showing road networks and waterways could have been used to double check the data, yet they have not been.
The obvious mistake I have found so far are:
Almost all the limestone pavement in England mapped as peat including SSSI areas and the area in the launch video, malham tarn, one of the most studied areas in the country for ecology and geology.
As far as I can see every Dartmoor tor is mapped as peat, along with large areas of rocks and shallow mineral soil surrounding the tors.
Some reservoirs mapped as peat, including Colliford, Cornwall second largest, holding 28,000 mega litres of water.
Shadows of trees, hedges and walls mapped as bare peat across broad sweeps of landscapes to such an extent that it is obvious what time of day the original images were taken
Rivers mapped as peat
China clay works mapped as peat
Known SSSI bogs not mapped as peat
Alluvial river deposits mapped as peat
The vegetation layer mapping known woods (on the tree inventory map) as open bog vegetation
Large areas of semi-improved grassland shown as Eriophorum Bog
Bracken mapped as molinia bog at a vast scale
Roads mapped as peat gullies again and again
Ridge and furrow field systems seen as peat grips along with other archeology mapped as damaged peat
Natural streams and rivers mapped as peat gullies
And

The peat depth and vegetation layers are wrong across so much or the map that it is unusable as a resource.
This list is not exhaustive.
So, in short:
areas that Natural England know are not peat mapped as peat, areas that Natural England know are peat not mapped. Infrastructure like the road network ignored and other open source maps not cross referenced.
The scale of the errors clearly show that any data taken from the EPM cannot be correct up to and including the GHG emissions figure and the restoration potential figures, and any site specific or landscape scale decisions will be made much harder by the maps bad data.
It begs the questions, firstly why is the map still online? A lightweight disclaimer, put up three days after the launch, in no way mitigates the potential harm this map could cause.
Another question about the workplace practices around normal human errors, and how the whole organisation deals with them are also starting to become more pressing as time goes on. If this is allowed to happen what else is equally wildly wrong? Can any of the data coming out of Natural England be trusted?
As I said, 1 am very sorry about all of this, especially after everyone's hard work on the project, but the fact remains that the new England Peat Map is badly wrong and needs to be taken offline.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter

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Reposted by Dan Thompson

Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · Jun 7

Ah!
I figured it out!

(Or at least part of it)

Peat map quiz time -

How can I tell it was late afternoon when the aerial photos used in the @naturalengland.bsky.social peat map were taken?

(Do I really have to explain the idea of shadows to a government body in charge of nature? Really?)

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Reposted by Dan Thompson

Cat Frampton @catframpton.bsky.social · Jun 6

In the latest instalment of ‘ways the peat map is wrong wrong badly unusably wrong’ we have….

China clay works!

Not exactly known for their deep peat!

Oh what a wonderful gift the @naturalengland.bsky.social peat map of England is. It just keeps on giving! 🤷‍♀️😑🤦‍♀️

A screenshot of a china clay works in Cornwall - all bare clay coloured earth and some green where the restoration works have been sculpted.

A screenshot of the peat map showing the same area but also a lot of peat where the earthworks are.

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Dan Thompson @danthompson33.bsky.social · Jun 22

A brief history of the seaside shelter. My life's ambition is to become so expert in something I get to write a Shire Guide.

danthompsonstudio.substack.com/p/rich-and-s...

Rich and Strange 1

The first in a monthly series for paid subscribers.

danthompsonstudio.substack.com

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Dan Thompson @danthompson33.bsky.social · Jun 22

You might like this, then - danthompsonstudio.substack.com/p/rich-and-s...

Rich and Strange 1

The first in a monthly series for paid subscribers.

danthompsonstudio.substack.com

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Dan Thompson @danthompson33.bsky.social · Jun 22

@keithharrison.bsky.social Your work update this week - I have the perfect tune for you. I have this on vinyl. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbv-...

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Dan Thompson @danthompson33.bsky.social · Jun 16

"The world needs a lot more young, angry women. That's the thing we need most of." Greta Thunberg

This week's newsletter from The Ragged Optimist - lots of good things happening in the world right now.

danthompsonstudio.substack.com/p/the-ragged...

The Ragged Optimist 60

"The world needs a lot more young, angry women. That's the thing we need most of." Greta Thunberg

danthompsonstudio.substack.com

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Dan Thompson @danthompson33.bsky.social · May 26

“The most important territory to take is in the imagination. Once you create a new idea of what is possible and acceptable, the seeds are planted; once it becomes what the majority believes, you’ve created the conditions in which winning happens.”

danthompsonstudio.substack.com/p/the-ragged...

The Ragged Optimist 57

Stories to change the world

danthompsonstudio.substack.com

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Dan Thompson @danthompson33.bsky.social · May 23

On this day - 23 May 2010, Lucy Siegle wrote kind things about me and my work with empty shops in The Observer. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Dan Thompson's innovation: the Empty Shop Network

The Empty Shop Network rejuvenates abandoned spaces into pop-up shops and arts ventures

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Dan Thompson

Dan Thompson @danthompson33.bsky.social · May 20

I'll be talking about how we need to tell different stories about the places we live, and about imagining and then making better worlds. I'll read some poems, and maybe we'll make a map of a better world together.

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Reposted by Dan Thompson

Dan Thompson @danthompson33.bsky.social · May 20

I am talking about Storytelling For Activism in that London tomorrow evening. Or more accurately, I will be talking about not being a storyteller (but always telling stories) and not being an activist (but always doing things that impact the world).

connectionwithwonder.com/events/story...

FREE “Space for Storytelling” Storytelling For Activism - Connection With Wonder

Storytelling for Activism with Dan Thompson. Work on your own stories plus discussion and questions. For storytellers, artists, creatives, all welcome. Listeners also welcome. Ticket here. FREE

connectionwithwonder.com

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