A Cirencester Park barn roof going green

When we discussed a possible walk today, Woodpeckers wanted to go to Cirencester Park, the grounds of the Bathurst family's enormous estate.  We hadn't been there together for quite a while so I agreed to drive us the twelve miles to the Park.  I had hoped to go to a wild area which appeared to be accessible from the main road from Stroud, but once i had driven in it was obviously impractical as there was a stream of horse boxes being driven out. This entrance was to the polo grounds and the game had obviously finished.  there was also a sign saying there was only public access for pedestrians. So I turned around and we drove another couple of miles into the centre of Cirencester where the family mansion is sited. 

We parked at the entrance to one of the famous long rides or drives which form a star pattern across the countryside.  This ride is aligned with the wonderful Cirencester Church beside which the ancient marketplace evolved in the heat of the old Roman city centre. Helena noted it was a place for the gentry to parade in their Sunday best, whilst walking the dog.

Once on the ride we decided to deviate on a different path  leading off to the right in search of a wilder woodland so Helena could see some bluebells that she remembered delighting in a decade or so ago.  Sadly there was hardly a sighting of a bluebell other than obviously planted ones next to the clubhouse of the Cricket Club which seems to have rights over a large part of that area of the park.

As we walked up the lane the first building we say was this long low barn which was probably part of the grounds maintenance area.  It did have cctv. I liked the roof which was being allowed to transform into a 'green roof' through natural processes.  I loved the tones of the varied plants growing in wild profusion and forming natural borders amongst themselves as wild plants do when left to their own devices.

Having walked on further I  realise that it was probably a product of an approach to maintenance symptomatic of the rather run down nature of some of the estate.  I found it rather sad although in this instance it was rather beautiful. The invasion of ivy over trees and the undergrowth was rather less attractive and probably more destructive in the long term.

We carried on walking around and had a couple of meetings with dog walkers and bird watchers.  I thought I spotted a tree creeper, but on looking at my pictures it seems only to have been a nuthatch doing rather odd things.