Some of my favourite trees in the landscape

I love these old trees in the middle of a field across the road from Lypiatt Park. I’ve taken pictures of them previously showing their somewhat stranded position in this landscape, which was formerly a country park of the big house. They almost certainly represent examples of the old tradition of using the same land for trees and grazing animals, which Oliver Rackham describes as ‘wood-pasture’. In more modern times agricultural pressure has forced the land’s use to become more crop related. At least the farmers have allowed the trees to remain islands rather than be cut down to allow tractors to manoeuvre more easily.

When I passed this spot yesterday I was reminded of the lovely silhouettes they make at this time of year. A few hundred yards later in that journey my car’s tyre got a puncture. Today I had to return to complete the interrupted work at the farm shop, so on the way back I stopped at the side of the road where the old entrance to the park has become obsolete with a new entrance created for farm machinery about a hundred yards away.
old 

I took a few pictures all within about twenty yards of the entrance. I’ve added a couple of them in the ‘Extras’. The pillared gates are taken when looking roughly south-west. The state was owned by a noted sculptor Lynn Chadwick, and it passed to his descendants when he died a few years ago. the third picture was taken looking over the Cotswold stone wall beside the road, about twenty yards further along the way. It looks south-east across the valley towards Eastcombe. I noticed that I could see two of his massive sculptures, which are dotted around the extensive park land, and they are shown at the very bottom of the picture. I’d like to go and see them in situ if there is ever an open day at the estate. The original estate was split up and sold in 1919. 

Ashley, the farmer at the farm shop, once lent me a copy of the Sale Prospectus of the estate and I blipped it in 2012. It is a magnificent record of all the Lots, with descriptions of houses, cottages, farms, out-houses, barns, lakes, farm equipment, woodlands and the varied field types amounting to more than 3300 acres, and including twenty three farms. I also added a bit of my background which relates to when I first came to stay in the area in 1975!