How nature can help our mindset
In the mid ‘80’s I lived in a place called Low Turney Shield, in the West Allen valley, Northumberland. My time there was a really important time for me, my personal development and understanding of the world.
7 min readNov 23, 2020
I was invited by Tom McGoldrick who unofficially became a father figure and role model for me. I was 20 and Tom was 44, we stayed close for 10 years or more. Tom brought Low Turney Shield as a ruin in the 70's. He lived there with his wife, and they had two children together. I arrived when the house was already livable. I moved into the barn that they had lived in during the time they had been renovating the main house. I lived with them as part of the family and this unknown to them was a crucial moment of my life.
The property is actually far from anywhere and set tucked away high up in the West Allen Valley. At that time no mains, gas, electric, or water. Phone number I still remember 338 was the only chance to communicate with the world. We lived with the weather. I had a Jotul — wood burning stove — in the barn and the main house had a Rayburn that also had little radiators attached to it that kept the main house cozy. Tom didn’t really seem to want everything perfect, but he needed to bring some comfort to his loving wife and adorable children. We brought food from Hexham and had eggs, occasional chickens and fresh spring water. The natural spring was a real important part of this property and in Toms first years when other springs in the area dried up Tom realized that he had a really important spring water source. Old people from the area had told him and people came to fill up in difficult times. The fresh bread Tom baked was a huge part of the diet.
Sometime just before I met Tom, in mid-April, there was a huge snow fall in this area and the next day brilliant sunshine and warm air. The snow melted rapidly and the water filled the valley. I didn’t see it but Tom said “standing looking at the amount of water moving felt somehow prehistoric” After the water dropped it was revealed that a bridge had been taken out and the river now was running in a different place. The top soil had gone and a lot of very different types of rock were uncovered. Toms land actually was measured by the position of the river, and he had lost a few important acres. It wasn’t a huge area but it was considerable and could lead to more loss unless it went back to its original position.
Why am I writing about moving a river when I always write about capoeira training? It’s because working on this crazy rock moving developed my mind set, determination and stregth.
Nowadays or in the city we can get a personal coach, use a gym, YouTube tutorials and the list is endless to develop all these requirements of a capoeira player. For me nothing replaces moving the river. I had never really done any hard work before this. I was training very hard in the Karate dojo and i was as fit as could be. I remember being able to rattle of 50 press-ups easy, and could run 5 miles at a good pace then go training. I could do a 10 hour grading day that was quite challenging in many ways. I was fit.
Living in Low Turney Shield meant that I missed regular weekly training in Newcastle with Sensei Ray Coates, so I started to hitchhike there on a Friday night, so I could go to the fighting session Saturday mornings. Fighting sessions were tough. I soon realized that living out, up the hills was fine-tuning on my fitness. I was different, sharp, quick, and much more robust. Moving the river and cutting, chopping and carrying wood had given me an edge. Low Turney Shield was also at an altitude quite higher than Newcastle. Every day, I was spending a few hours carrying, cutting, chopping and stacking wood. The local farmer had said that we could take any wood from trees that had fallen on fences. One of these places was right at the bottom of a 400-meter steep slope down to the river — a big ash tree. I used it as a training and remember clearly putting a 6' trunk on my shoulder and carrying it to the top of the hill. Slowly, steadily and carefully watching each step, resisting changing shoulders or stopping (getting the log on my shoulder was the most difficult) Doing this 8 or 10 times was a real challenge and great workout. When we got the logs home we could then split and cut them. I was very happy for the opportunity to do this especially when realizing how i was benefiting once back in the dojo.
It became clear that moving the river was important to Tom. It wasn’t obvious if it was to regain the little bit of land or was an extreme escape that did become a little obsessive for him. I was obliged to assist for two reasons. One was that I lived with Tom and I wanted to help him in any way I could, he really was a wonderful person that had too much love — if that is possible. The other is that Tom challenged me I remember him clearly looking at me full face and in my eye saying “you do Karate and that is hard training isn’t it?” “I think a few hours a week will really help toughen you up” How right he was.
I helped Tom in the river for a few years. I did a very little amount compared with what he did. The first time we went down there he explained how he saw it, complicated. He had a few rocks that were the size of a van that he didn’t know what to do with! We ended up near the top where the little dam was, and I was glad we worked on this bit because I could see that it was the single most important part of the project that made clear sense.
The water was cold, the rocks were rough and I remember after the first few I lifted and threw from one bank to the other my thoughts were clear. How long can I do this for, how can I warm my fingers, this is going to toughen me up for sure. Tom was very polite and genial this first time and after about 2 hours he suggested we head up to the house and have a slice of bread and cup of tea. I agreed.
Never again did he finish when I had enough and sometimes after a two-hour hard session — most sessions were two hours for me — i would go back to the house, and he would be there till dark. After warming up and eating, drinking, talking he would still be there. As darkness approached, high up at the house you could hear the rocks landing where he was throwing them. He had a very strong spirit. It was a state of mind, a test of will, the body really wasn’t strong enough. The mind took over and 100% commitment on every lift was essential — otherwise your back would start to ache. My hands glowed with heat after 20 minutes, my lungs pulled air deeply into them and soon we were trance like animals, seemingly saving the land. When water had gotten into your wellie boots you didn’t notice. It was a bliss for anyone that was training especially me — I had been reading Mas Oyama’s book!
Sometimes Tom would look up smile and he would ask for help to make an initial move of a big rock — we had a big crow bar. These occasions were really difficult. It hurt and also broke the momentum but seeing his face when we budged it was very rewarding. After a month or, so we discussed the possibility to bring a few people I did Karate with to finish the dam. I think we had two car loads of us and 4 of them were really into training. We smashed it and moved loads of rocks, including a few big ones. I remember Lawrence Reed a local farmer that was always helping Tom — I think he came to show the “town People” what real strength was — he was rolling, quarter turn at a time, a huge rock from one side to the other. He invited us to give it a try and no one managed to budge it. He had moved it half the way alone, but we then did a little team effort to finish. In a few hours Tom said “it’s done the dam is done, thanks for your help lets celebrate.” The dam was built, and he was so happy and for years later he mentioned that day as the day we did it.
After a few weeks he came to me and said “I need to show you a point lower down we need to move” It wasn’t really necessary, but he enjoyed the training or the feeling he got from this exertion and so did I. There was also a huge rock the size of an Elephant on the far bank that he feared if the river flooded it would shoot the water and recreate another change of direction. Now the thing got funny — lets build a fire over it and it will crack into many pieces we can move — and we set about trying to crack the elephant — Thats another story.
If you are training capoeira and have a city life then doing something manual can really help you develop your strength, posture and mental discipline. I miss those days and hope to visit the place one day to see how the river runs now. Please comment or let me know if you as a capoeira have similar experience
