Fen barn 1

I'm very, very tired tonight. I've spent all day walking around a large arable farm monitoring ditches - most of which were very, very dull...

Within ten minutes of arriving I managed to twist my ankle again, and hobbled a bit for the rest of the day. Unfortunately I've got to go out tomorrow, as I'm leading a day's course on water plants at Orton Pit. I think I'll be sending other people down to gather the plants while I stay on the path!!

There was one brief moment of excitement early on in the day when we found a population of great-tassel stonewort Tolypella prolifera, a very rare species of fen ditches and other calcareous water bodies . Having checked on the internet this would seem to be only about the ninth recent record (and we've found three of the previous ones!!)

Although it's undoubtedly rare, I suspect it may be somewhat overlooked by botanists, as all the places we've found it have been in fairly unprepossessing looking ditches in the middle of arable farms, not at the top of most botanists list of places to visit.

My farm was a bit lacking in photo-opportunities. Although I like fen landscapes, the area I was in today is between Peterborough and Whittlesey and is surrounded by industry - the railway, the brickworks, wind-turbines, the Peterborough power station and McCain's chip factory!! On a fairly dull day none of these make an appealing backdrop to acres of ploughed fields.

There was a surprising amount of wildlife present given the rather bleak looking landscape. We saw two roe deer, several hares, a pair of buzzards, a sparrowhawk, two kestrels, a flock of lapwing and several unidentified waders feeding on the mud along the drain edges. And right at the end we were treated to the electric blue flash of a kingfisher speeding along the main drain. But all of these were much too distant to photograph!

In the end I settled on this barn, partly because I'm intrigued as to its purpose (and would welcome any suggestions). It looks to me as though it was built in Victorian times, possibly to shelter animals. It now has no function and stands alone and desolate. It has clearly been patched up over the years. The far wall has been filled with corrugated iron and the roof is asbestos. The side walls now have serious cracks in, and are gently parting from the roof.

I'm not sure how long it will remain standing - but if the weather doesn't get it, quarrying will, as it stands in an area destined to be dug up for the underlying Oxford clay, which is used to make bricks. At least now it's been recorded for posterity...

(This may be the start of an irregular series - there are many old buildings scattered through the fens and I'd like to record some of the more local ones over the coming winter.)