Calne (Wednesday 8th June 2016)

Some time in 2008 I was walking back from Calne along the nature reserve and disused canal and up to Castle Walk when I found that the gate at the official exit had been padlocked.

I subsequently learned that a housing development firm had bought the land and had fitted the locks and put up signs on the other side of the gate telling people to keep out. Eight years later, during which local residents have been denied access to the nature reserve (that houses various red and amber labelled species including great crested newts) plans have been put forward to build on the site.

A large number of people turned out to meet a lady from the local paper to register their objections, including myself and a few people that I knew and some others that I met for the first time. I learned that the company could not stop people from legally entering the plot, for example by climbing over the gate, providing no damage was caused, and so afterwards I repeated my walk for the first time since 2008.

En route to the nature reserve I passed the Marden House Artists Group from Calne who were painting the scene at Chaveywell (one painting is shown in Extras - not blipped as it is slightly similar to a picture I took of a painting scene in Bowood).

The scene I have blipped marks the end of the watered section of the disused Wilts & Berks canal. The path thereafter was well trodden until the section nearest the padlocked gate so I came out instead via a barbed-wire fence in a corner of Berhills Farm, near to the River Marden, where I found a large herd of inquisitive cattle, including Vetus, who I befriended and then couldn't shake off!

Thanks to BobsBlips for hosting Wide Wednesday (theme - Nature) and to Cailleach for hosting Wild Wednesday.

L.
9.6.2016 (1520 hr)

Blip #1859 (#2109 including archived blips)
Consecutive Blip #007
Day #2267
LOTD #1093 (#1217 including archived blips)

Taken with Pentax K-1 and Pentax HD P-D FA 28-105mm f/3.5-5.6ED DC WR lens

Calne series
Wilts and Berks Canal series
Landscape series

A Walk In Calne, 8 June 2016 (Flickr album)

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
Neko Case, k.d. lang, and Laura Veirs - Best Kept Secret (2016)
(from the one-off album case/lang/veirs)