Midwinter sunshine has fled, banished by yet another veil of rain drawn in from the encompassing ocean. How the wind blew and the rain lashed as I walked the quarter mile from the parking area to the pastures, trudging through mud that deepens daily.
Anyway, here is the whole view to the south from the delightfully-named Sheepdrove. The area for a few miles around is an organic farm. Regrettably the owners (rich town people needless to say) fell for the latest eco-fad and sought to build a wind farm here. Their wind-folly would make no discernible difference to emissions - simply ruin a lovely historic landscape - so yet again it's a matter of big ego, the lure of subsidy and greenwashing at work. Thankfully these hills are legally designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty which has so far prevented their disfigurement.
The area has long been associated with shepherding, hence the name. Back in Roman times there were fields for arable crops however a drying climate and breakdown of the Empire (which led to development of a purely local economy in the absence of more distant markets) led to a more pastoral existence up here.
The return to arable crops has been recent. Within my lifetime fields have been ploughed for the first time since the Roman era. (We know this since Roman pottery fragments were turned up by the plough. These would have been spread in Roman manure which also contained domestic refuse. On the surface pottery deteriorates quickly.) Many arable fields still contain decaying water troughs and there is quite a network of pipes buried up here.
One thing that won't remain for much longer on the plain behind the hills is the power station, seen here from the ridge looking to the northeast. (Fortunately this cannot be seen from the places where I took the photos above, or from the vast majority of the trails, only from the highest points along the ridge to the north.) It's a relic of 1950s socialist-style central planning. The plant has reached the end of its economic life and cannot efficiently be brought up to the latest emissions standards. Amongst other things closure means an end to trains carrying coal trundling from the west: the liberated capacity will be used to run two extra passenger trains each hour on a route that is crowded at busy times.
There are tales locally about people who called for an ambulance and, when asked where they were, said that they could see the power station. Perhaps that is just a facet of the derision reserved in most rural areas for urban day-trippers who do stupid things?
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