Patrick Ashton Travels
Slow travel films from the places most people pass by
Walking tours and rail journeys through Britain and Europe — told through history, curiosity, and the small details that make a place worth the trip.
Latest from the channel
New walks and journeys, with a written companion piece for each film.
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How to Cross the Channel at Calais: What Are the Methods?
Coming back to Calais, I gave myself one question to answer: how many ways are there, really, to cross the English Channel from here? The flippant answer — legally and illegally — wasn’t going to do. The proper one took me a free bus around town, a Sunday lunch in a car park, a walk…
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Staying at the Hotel Filthy: A French Farce in Three Acts
Some trips go to plan. This one didn’t. I crossed the Channel by ferry as a foot passenger, expecting the shuttle bus to drop me into the middle of Calais. It didn’t. From a stretch of nowhere on the edge of the docks, I walked into town — only to find a hotel so grim…
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Quayside to Seaside: Walking from North Shields to Whitley Bay
Some of the best walks are the ones that change character as you go. This one starts among the working boats and fish quays of North Shields and ends in the cheerful seaside sprawl of Whitley Bay – a few miles of coast that carry you from the Tyne’s industrial mouth out to the open…
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My Personal Newcastle: Revisiting Places I’ll Never Forget
Some cities you visit; others you carry. Newcastle is one I carry. This walk is a personal one – back through the places that shaped how I see the city, and a look at what time has done to them since. If you have time for nothing else, watch the film first. Everything below is…
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I Filmed Two Separate Crimes in Newcastle
A short and slightly surreal one. Out filming an ordinary day in Newcastle, I happened to catch two separate incidents on camera – the kind of thing you never expect to be recording. Here is what unfolded. It is a reminder that a city is unpredictable, and that the camera sometimes sees more than you…
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Walking Newcastle’s Iconic Bridges
On a bright spring morning I set out to walk every bridge across the Tyne in Newcastle – and realised I had picked marathon day, with the whole riverside given over to runners and an atmosphere I had not planned for. This is the story of that walk: the bridges, the river they cross, and…
About Patrick
I make films about walking the overlooked corners of Britain and Europe — the side streets, the worn steps, the histories hiding in plain sight. No rushing, no skipping the dull bits that turn out not to be dull at all.
Where Patrick has filmed
Walks and journeys from across Britain and Europe — every place on the channel, pinned.