Tag: reclaimed

June 2nd – Coming back from Longdon, this was a good chance to see what Dark Lane was like this days. Dark Lane runs from Borough Lane to Thorley’s Hill near Goosemoor Green, and was a lane that always suffered from storm silting, being a remarkably deep holloway.

The bottom end of Dark Lane serves a farm, but further up the hill, it’s closed, and for several hundred metres it’s now been reclaimed by nature and coated in thick mud and vegetation.

It was a lovely place to explore, and brought back memories of when it was open. But if you go and look, be prepared for the mud. It’s deep.

April 26th – Clayhanger Common,early morning, not long after dawn.

Yellow army I surreptitiously helped establish here is massing around the grassland. Standing proud, in defiance of the land’s former history as a rubbish tip.

These flowers are a symbol of great progress, undercover as bright yellow, beautiful spring sentries.

May their invasion recur every year without resistance being encountered.

July 9th – Also being reclaimed by nature and teeming with flowers is the Victorian brick lined spillway at Chasewater, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. The flowers and plants – including heathers, mustards, spotted orchids and others – are gradually overcoming the masonry and are beautiful. But this is also industrial history. 

Should it be cleared, even though it’s unused, to preserve it? Or just left to decay, beautifully? I can’t decide.