Gorse

Today I've blipped a hedge of gorse in flower along a roadside bank that I was passing at lunch time. We have a lot of this shrub on the cliffs and common. In past centuries gorse (also called furze) was grown extensively and harvested for use as a fuel for ovens and for heating.
I have been reading a book by William Walmesley a traveller who spent time in Guernsey in 1821 and kept a diary of his explorations. He made the following observation on the 23rd July. "A low stone wall forms the common fence in the country, on the top of which is laid three coverings of sods and a little soil; gorse seed is then sown which in the course of two or three years, grows up into an impervious fence. It is a most valuable article of fuel, and is one of the sources of profit to the farmer."