Countryman Diary - March 2010
Britain in Bloom
After a particularly dismal winter it’s nice to be able to turn thoughts to a ‘blooming’ colourful spring and summer. While snow was still falling in my part of the world, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) were announcing the sixty-seven cities, towns and villages which have been chosen to represent the best in community horticulture in this year’s Britain in Bloom finals.
Each year more than a thousand communities brighten our lives by participating in the event, and Stephanie Eynon, the RHS’s community horticulture manager, RHS, tells me that Britain in Bloom has come a long way since it began in 1964:
“It was started by the tourist board, and the emphasis was on making towns and villages look as attractive as possible through the inclusion of hanging baskets, bedding plants and floral displays.
“The RHS took over the competition in 2002 and since then we have continued the development of the campaign to place increasing emphasis on involving the community and caring for the environment.
“Not only does Britain in Bloom improve people’s sense of civic pride but it is also hugely beneficial to the environment.”
The finalists’ ‘bloom’ year launches on 24 March with a mass planting across the country on 27-28 March, and closes with the awards ceremony on 29 September. RHS judges will visit each community in August to appraise the entries and offer expert advice to help each community improve on their efforts for future years.
For a full list of finalists, visit the RHS website at www.rhs.org.uk
A young Britain in Bloom group getting ready to plant bulbs. © RHS/Britain in Bloom.
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Constable pinned down
The exact spot where the landscape artist John Constable painted ‘The Stour Valley and Dedham Village’ has been identified for the first time in almost 200 years. Since it was painted in 1814-15, gradual changes to field boundaries meant that the exact location of the viewpoint that inspired Constable was difficult to identify.
However, new research by the National Trust, which owns much of the surrounding countryside, helped pinpoint the exact location. Martin Atkinson, NT property manager for East Suffolk, and a Constable enthusiast, used features from the painting and historic maps to track it down.
"It's great to see where an old master once stood," Martin explains," and be inspired by the same views as them. When I discovered that I had worked out the location where Constable painted this particular masterpiece, I couldn't believe it. All the pieces of the jigsaw finally fitted together."
The view is not easily recognisable today, as hedge boundaries have moved and trees have become established, blocking out some of the buildings behind. However, the view is still as beautiful and inspiring as it was back then and visitors can peer through a gap in the hedge, which frames the landscape perfectly.
The painting ‘The Stour Valley and Dedham Village’ is now housed in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, as part of the Warren Collection. It is an accurate representation of the landscape that Constable painted, for which he is not renowned in his later work. He would on occasions use artistic licence and add trees, but later on he would rely on memory and sketches, carrying out more work in the studio than on site.
New hedges for Devon
Living as I do in an area where field boundaries are dominated by drystone walls, I delight in coming across traditional natural hedges around the country. I also despair when I see evidence of hedging which has been destroyed, ancient nature runs bulldozed for the sake of ‘progress’.
Happy I was then to hear that Devon Wildlife Trust (DWT) has planted a series of new hedges at its Dunsdon National Nature Reserve to help restore a network of small fields that would have once been a feature of the landscape. The site, near Holsworthy, was planted up with locally produced native species including a mixture of hawthorn, ash, oak, hazel and rowan. As is traditional in Devon they will sit on hedge banks which were created last year.
Gary Pilkington, DWT’s senior reserves officer, explains: “These new hedges will provide essential wildlife corridors at these culm grassland sites. “The hedges are replacing ones that were removed through agricultural changes in the years before DWT took charge of the land. We used tithe maps from the early 1900s to work out exactly where the original hedges were located.”
The project has been supported thanks to funding from the Tree Council’s Real Hedge Fund, working in conjunction with the National Hedgelaying Society and Stella Artois – I’ll drink to that.
Competition winners
Winners of the I Never Knew That About Britain quiz book competition in the January issue were: Mr Peter Rusling, Poole Dorset; Mrs B Needham, Mayfield, Derbyshire; Mrs H Mead, Chard, Somerset; M Greaves, Cheltenham, Glos; Miss Jean Sharples, Hereford; Kate Turner, Barrow in Furness, Cumbria; Barbara Winter, Tonbridge, Kent; Mrs P Tite, Tavistock, Devon; Mr Andy John, Winchester, Hants; Dr G E Beechey, Peterborough. Thank you to all those who entered.
TTFN
FYI: an email from NERC about FWAG’s worries over BSE in AONBs states that FOE, HSA and CLA are concerned about violation of GSCOP. A MOP, including MAFF, NAAC, FSA and LACORS, will take place ASAP at RABDF HQ where DEFRA will put forward their RDPE.
NB: RSPCA and RoSPA will be on hand to discuss H&S while SAFFIE and NFU representatives will meet with IFOAM to ensure IFIS regulations are met. PS: SCPS, SPS or SFP are unaffected...
I could go on, using all of the hundreds of acronyms put together in a booklet produced by Charlie Battle of AIC (sorry, Agricultural Industries Confederation) which landed on my desk. How those poor farmers, having done a hard day’s toil out in the fields, face up to today’s ugly, jargonised officialdom I’ll never know. My advice? Tell them to stick it WTSDS!
Paul Jackson
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