Focus on Street

Tags

alderfly, Bear Inn Street, Blue lias, buttercups, C & J Clark, Clyce Hole, comfrey, Cow Bridge, Crispin Centre, Hay harvesting, Horse and cart, icthyosaur, Jonathan Minshull, Laura Wolfers, Liz Leyshon, Mendip District Council, oil seed rape, peat extraction, Poldens, quarrying, River Brue, robin, shoemaking, Somerset Council, Somerset County Council, Street, Street Parish Council

Street village, that is. (It prides itself on being a village, despite being bigger than the town of Glastonbury to its north, on the other side of the River Brue.)

On Saturday (14th May) I was invited by my friend Liz, Somerset County and Mendip District Councillor, who lives in Street, to the unveiling of some murals in the Library Gardens, a small green space on Street’s High Street. (How did Street get its name? “The place-name ‘Street’ is first attested in Anglo-Saxon charters from 725 and 971, where it appears as Stret. It appears as Strete juxta Glastone in a charter from 1330 formerly in the British Museum. The word is the Old English straet meaning ‘Roman road’.”) The Wikipedia article on Street, while needing a bit of an update, has a lot of interesting background information.

The murals were commissioned by Street Parish Council, working in partnership with Mendip District Council (to merge, in a year’s time, along with Somerset’s three other district councils, and with Somerset County Council, to become a new unitary authority called Somerset Council) and Street Library Trust. They were painted by local artist Jonathan Minshull.

When Laura Wolfers, Chair of Street Parish Council, reached out to shake my hand, I realised that this was the first time I had shaken anyone’s hand since February 2020. Whereas in March of that year, I had declined to do so several times, with explanation, it would now have been very awkward to do so, although I am still being very cautious. And I have to admit, it felt good, alongside feelings of worried hesitancy. She didn’t seem to take it amiss when I then took a photograph of her chest, in order to capture Street’s ichthyosaur emblem (since 1894) at the base of her Chairman’s chain. (A parish council does not have a mayor.)

Here she is introducing the artist.

Among the many people taking photographs was her son.

And here are the murals. The captions are as provided in a handout.

“This panel represents the shoemaking process during Edwardian times inside the old C & J Clark’s factory buildings in Street, around 1900-1910.”

“This scene shows summer hay harvesting in the meadows to the south of the Clark’s factory buildings in Street in Victorian times around1860-1880.”

“The image shows the discovery of the ichthyosaur fossil specimens at one of the Street ‘blue lias’ limestone quarries in the 1850s. Here some discoveries have been dragged to near the quarry entrance ready for transportation to the recently started Clark’s collection and a lady from the village has brought her daughter to see the fascinating finds.”

Liz unveiled the fourth:

“This panorama shows the manual process of peat extraction from the levels around Street at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, before mechanisation. The peat was cut into blocks calles ‘”mumps” or “turves” and stacked to dry in tower-like formations called “ruckles”, before transportation by horse and cart.”

There were some very short speeches, including by the artist.

While thanking friends and relatives for posing as the figures in the pictures, he said it was as well that one such, who appeared in each mural, was not there, as he was rather naughty. He was referring to his dog, Stanley.

Liz, who had been very much involved in finding the finance, also was invited to speak.

[Later edit: 33-minute background video on the making, hanging and unveiling of the murals here.]

People hung around chatting to each other, as they do on these occasions, enjoying the lovely sunshine. Then five of us went for coffee and cake in the Crispin Centre’s café.

Liz had collected me from my home in Glastonbury, and volunteered to take me back, but I had already decided that I was going to walk, following the River Brue for much of the way. I had to go along the pavement of a main road for about ten minutes.

Part of Clark’s 19th century building, also seen in the second mural. It is flying the Somerset flag.

Like so many buildings in Street, and wider in Somerset, the Bear Inn is built in Blue Lias limestone.

After a short while, I was able to see my destination, by looking to my right.

Still on the road, and having crossed this rhyne, I had thought possibly to cut diagonally across to the Brue, but an electric fence redirected me.

But in due course I was able to reach the river. What a pleasure to walk among all those buttercups!

I reached the river.

Not buttercups here, but oil seed rape,

and comfrey

Many specimens of these creatures had been flying around for a while, and after extensive research, I think they are probably alderflies, of which I had never previously heard. They fly for just a few weeks each year.

Clyce Hole (or Clyse Hole, depending on which Environment Agency panel you read), a water level measuring station

The River Brue was severely canalised, and indeed its channel to the sea redirected, in mediaeval times, and it shows from here on.

This little fella flew on to the branch, and just stayed there while I cautiously moved past him.

Being south of the Brue, I was still in Street, and this was my view southwards, with the lowest range of hills in Somerset, the Poldens, in the distance.

Not the most exciting bridge, Cow Bridge, circa 1930, of reinforced concrete with stone piers. Could one claim that it is art deco?

Anyway, it was time for me to cross and leave the Brue, and continue on to a rather busy main road. But I leant on the parapet contemplating upstream for a bit,

along with my neighbour, Terry, who I had just bumped into here. He was just out to take photos of buttercups.

Together we watched a rather unusual sight go by, after which I set off for the last, and easily the least interesting, leg of my walk.

They and I were rather a nuisance to the quite heavy traffic in each direction… no pavement…

After five minutes more I came to my turning off the main road. Taking the stile would have enabled me to continue on grass for about 100 yards/90 metres or so, but

I took advantage of a recently installed (local elections anyone?) barrier, the forerunner of a cycle lane to be created, in place of an unofficial traveller encampment.

Door to door it had been an hour, which would have been more like 45 minutes had I not stopped for various reasons on the way. A very pleasant walk indeed, in ideal weather, following a happy occasion for Street residents and visitors.

Travelling again – 8. Glenlivet

Tags

broom, comfrey, Dark Green Fritillary, Drumin castle, Glen Avon, Glenlivet Estate, Glenmulliach, gorse, Green-veined white, milkwort, rabbit, Tormentil

Tuesday, 15th June dawned sunny and warm. Well, I suppose it did – dawn that far north was far too early for me to be aware of it. But when I did wake up, the day was set fair for whatever I chose to do.

I chose to spend it on the vast 23,000-hectare Crown Estate of Glenlivet. The visitor centre in Tomintoul, where in normal times I could have bought a guide booklet, was and still is closed for Covid reasons, but this map was displayed widely, and I also had it in a leaflet I’d picked up. I decided to do Walk 1, the Glenmulliach Viewpoint Trail first, and then to explore the north of the Estate in the afternoon.

But first I was delayed by a small parking area, with an information board and a curious cube just 150 metres away.

I found myself in a small abandoned quarry, (this view taken from halfway up the hill)

with these at the bottom,

and perhaps a hundred jackdaws in total flying around at the top.

This was the curious cube. I’ve since been able to find out that I was at a spot called Glen Avon, but nothing about the monument – if that is the right description of it. [Later edit: But see bruceb’s comment below.]

I couldn’t and can’t work out what was reflecting what as I took this.

I drove on through Tomintoul, and made my way to the parking area which marked the start of Walk 1 (according to the leaflet, 3.5 miles, 5.5 kilometres).

Dark Green Fritillary (I think)

It was a lovely warm day – I even took a layer off, for the first time in my whole stay.

I think this may be a milkwort, but I am open to correction.

It really was lovely weather.

Through a gate, and all of a sudden the landscape changed.

There’s some kind of mast over to the right of the path in the distance.

Unexpectedly, and after a lot of upward effort, it was the end of the designated walk.

I was tempted to go on to the top of the ridge, but, given that I had already spotted the mast, and that ‘they’ clearly intended one to stop there, I feared a disappointing view if I continued, so I turned back after a short rest.

Some boggy plants lined the path at one point.

Once back through that gate again, the appointed path diverged from that on the way up, so I dutifully took it, and at that spot spent some time trying to capture this Green-veined white.

Tormentil

Two similar plants beside each other, and I reminded myself of the difference between gorse…

…and broom

At last back at the parking area, there were lots of people picnicking, so I took a quick tour of the pond, and drove off, on the lookout for a suitable stopping place on my way to the north of the Glenlivet estate to eat my banana.

Refreshed, I found myself on another single-track road, which was perhaps as well, as it meant there weren’t too many places to take too many photos.

I was heading for Drumin Castle, where I intended to do the Drumin Circular Path (‘2.5 miles, 4 km’) and assumed that this was it, but it was in fact Blairfindy Castle, near the Glenlivet Distillery, as I found later.

Arrived at the parking area for the Drumin Circular Walk, I explored my surroundings.

I found that I could visit the castle itself, taking either the slope or the steps. I chose the latter. Many of them were much steeper than this.

I was rewarded with a bank of comfrey on one side, a plant for which I have a soft spot.

Sadly, the first floor was out of bounds because of dangerous steps, but I enjoyed exploring the ground floor.

It didn’t take long.

The gentle way down led past this inviting and polite gate.

It led into a community orchard.

The walk down the slope was a delight.

And at the bottom I heard that contemporary rarity, a cuckoo. (You may have to turn your volume up very loud!)

The signpost points up the road I had come in by. I took it, but then could not find any other sign of the Path, despite wandering around for 30 minutes or so.

In due course I found myself level with the castle again.

So I just wandered back slowly to my car.

A rabbit scuttled away from me, but not very far, thinking that I might not see him if he kept very still. He was at my eye level on the roadside bank.

Time was moving on, the sun had long gone in, I had walked much more this day than any of the other days, and I was ready to return to the hotel, quite a way away by now. I have since learned that in any case the walk would not have been possible because of a broken bridge.

It had been a good day. It seems to me that exploring the Glenlivet Estate, whether following their suggested walks or not, could constitute a hole holiday and more in itself.

Taking a back road, I was interested to cross this truss bridge, which replaced two consecutive suspension bridges, at Cromdale, not far from Grantown-on-Spey.

After my last dinner at the Grant Arms Hotel, a film, ‘Scandinavian Cruise Ship Adventure’ by Nigel Marven, was shown. This was my last night in Grantown-on-Spey, but I had nearly four more days’ holiday remaining.

A Spring walk …

Tags

Alexander Hood, Brown-banded carder bee, Butleigh, Buzzard, comfrey, Compton Dundon, Cow parsley, cowslip, Dandelion, Dundon Hill, English bluebell, Glastonbury, Glastonbury Tor, Greater Hawks-beard, Herb Robert, Hood Monument, Pendulous sedge, Polden Way, primrose, ransom, Samuel Hood, speckled wood, vetch, wild garlic, Wych elm

… in the Compton Dundon, Somerset, area.

A friendly dog – which didn’t bark! The Hood Monument right.

I was going Butleigh-wards. And when I turned round from taking this photo…

… I was concerned I might have delightful but unwanted company, but he returned home.

Well, I like dandelions.

Cow parsley

A dandeliony thing, Greater hawks-beard I think.

Comfrey

Hart’s tongue fern (TH)

Pendulous sedge. It’s very pretty, but it’s wicked in my garden, seeding itself everywhere. And it seemed, sadly, to have done so on this walk. There was far too much of it, everywhere, in my view.

Nearing the (physical) high point of the afternoon.

I was tempted to go off at a tangent but didn’t.

The Hood Monument

The top of the monument reflects the activity of Samuel Hood, 1724-1816, local boy made good. His younger brother, Alexander, was also an Admiral, but I know of no monument to him.

In memory of
Sir Samuel Hood
Knight of the most Honourable Order of the Bath
and nominated Grand Cross thereof
Knight of St Ferdinand and of Merit
Knight Grand Cross of the Sword
Vice Admiral of the White
and Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty’s Fleet
in the East Indies

View from the plinth, looking north. If it weren’t for the trees on the left, I could have seen my house. (It would be possible to see my house if one were allowed to climb to the top of the Monument, as I can see the latter from my front window.)

Wych elm, I think

Continuing downwards, I came to my kind of stile

Glastonbury and its Tor.

I had a choice at this point, to walk along a very busy road, or to enter a wood, where three years ago I had found carpets of bluebells.

There were no bluebells where I expected to find them. Either my memory was faulty or they had been stripped out. Or they had been suppressed by the acres of sedge that seemed to be everywhere. After a long while I did find some, but not in the swathes that I expected.

But happily they were English bluebells, with not a Spanish bluebell in sight, then or for the rest of my walk.

The wood felt magical and I found myself envious of the owner.

Impossible not to be aware of a great low-flying bird across my path. It settled in a tree to my left.

A buzzard!

Just look at that beak and those talons!

Then it flew off, to a much higher and much further tree, not yet covered in foliage.

Only on examining and enlarging my photos was I able to see that the tree, a cherry of some sort presumably, had blossom, a nice contrast with the fierceness of the bird.

My Ordnance Survey map indicated that this was, (in Gothic lettering so it was ancient), the ‘New Ditch’.

This inadvertent sculpture pleased me.

There are still many primroses around.

The steps are part of the Polden Way, quite recently established, but mine was the bridleway to the right

It looked easy and smooth

From the path I could just see an inaccessible mass of white flowers in green. As I suspected, they did turn out, thanks to the zoom on the camera, to be wild garlic, aka ransoms.

What promised to be a smooth and easy path was not always. Those ruts are 18 ins (45 cm) deep!

I was not tempted to swing from this beautiful tree, but zoomed in on a yellow sheen on the field.

It was a sheen of cowslips.

Herb Robert

The trouble with butterflies is that they flit about so. This was the best I could do to catch the Speckled wood.

All afternoon there had just been the odd sample of vetch, but towards the end I came across a bankful of the plant, with a co-operative bee.

And, as I only noticed once home, an ant as well. (Brown-banded Carder bee)

Nearly back to my car, this is the back of the local hostelry, with Dundon Hill behind. It has a Gothic lettering fort on it.

A very pleasant afternoon. And other than on the first road, I didn’t meet a soul.

Wildlife in the garden, part 2

Tags

comfrey, comma butterfly, gatekeeper butterfly, hornbeam, hornet mimc hoverfly, Orange hawkbit, scabious, verbena bonariensis

More August photos. When I let ‘the meadow’ grow, it was interesting to see the flowers that the grasses produced.  Here are just two of them:

Here’s a spider nursery in the long grass:

Bumble bee on Verbena bonariensis, spreading the pollen.

Wood pigeon taken from, rather than in, my garden, though I suspect there was a nest in my hornbeam as I once found a broken egg underneath it. (Bella, cat, licked it up later.)

Mallow

Comma butterfly on v.b. You can just make out the little symbol for which it is named on its back wing.

Small tortoiseshell on v.b. The whole plant is not the most attractive, being very spindly, but the insects love it and the small flowers are very pretty.

Gatekeeper on …? I planted it but I can’t remember what it is. Possibly Burning bush, Dictamnus albus.

My lavender is right at my feet where I sit for coffee on nice days. I took many tens of photos of insects on it this summer.

Gatekeeper and friends on eryngium

My neighbour Sue gave me this Orange hawkbit to plant in my meadow. It flourished and I hope it will have offspring next year. Being of the dandelion family, the insects love it. I find that it is also called Fox and Cubs.

You don’t see grasshoppers until you move around in the long grass, at which point they start living up to their name.

Honeybee on scabious.

Two gatekeepers on eryngium

I have to admit that I was a little afraid when I first saw this, 2 cm long, though hornets are not in fact very aggressive. But I was relieved when further research introduced me to the Hornet mimic hoverfly, of which this is fine example. It’s on water mint at the side of my pond.

This micro-moth is on lavender. It is no more than 6 or 7 millimetres from nose to tail.

Arachnophobes alert. There will be a couple more photos of spiders at the end of the week…

This is comfrey. Some weeks previously the plant had been in tatters. I could have prevented that by removing the larvae of the tiger moths which were munching away at its leaves, but I preferred to wait and enjoy the beautiful moths that would emerge later. To my great pleasure the plant fought back once the larvae had had their fill, grew three times as big and flowered again.

Here are a few of the plants in my pond.  Not strictly wildlife, but placed with wildlife in mind.

Pontederia (lanceolata I think)

I just fell for this at a garden centre a couple of years ago, and I can’t find it in any of my books. Any help with the name would be appreciated.

This is about 2 metres tall. I think it’s a verbascum, but I’m not sure.

It is clear that I am not very good at retaining the names of cultivated plants.

Young sparrows caught red-beaked

A wren thinking of getting in on the act.

My three feeders all hang from my hornbeam at about 8 feet off the ground. This is good because the tree’s bark is very smooth and the cats cannot climb up it. This is a little bad because the light is poor where they hang, and clear photographs are difficult to obtain.  That’s my excuse anyway.

Blue tit

 

Some of those dozens of hungry sparrows

Back to the last flowers of the very popular lavender.

Female Common darter I think. Definitely a dragonfly – wings open and considerably larger than damselfly.

Final post on this subject in another couple of days’ time, when we get to September.