The hay cutting of Ferney Close, Thrupp

I was very tired today after the course of the last two day and my visit to Somerset for the memorial gathering for Terence. I spent much of the day reviewing the results of my photography and trying to remember what lighting set-up was for each set of images.

Late in the morning I looked up from my desk and out of my windows when I heard the sound of tractors in the nearby fields and spotted the local farmer was baling the hay which he had cut yesterday. The weather is perfect for this gathering of the first crop from the meadows with the constant sunshine and warm dry air.

I picked up my camera and inwardly thought about where and what i had been photographing yesterday which was so different. But this is here and now and my journal reflects what I do and see and hear.

The field that is being cut is named Ferney Close on my 1822 Tithe map and at that time belonged to the land owned by Miss Elizabeth Clutterbuck, who lived in the big estate mansion called Thrupp House whose roof can just be seen behind the tractor. She was one of several children who inherited parts of the Nether Lypiatt estate around that time, and her land included everything you can see on this side of the Frome Valley.

The field just this side of Ferney Close is called Broad Meadow, and still retains the markings of the medieval ridge and furrow ploughing system that was so prevalent in these parts. This was superimposed on the anglo-saxon open filed systems in many places. more typically on the tops of the hillsides, rather than on the valley slopes. The trees just this side of both of those fields or meadows was called Oakey Grove, a name which suggests a very ancient place, and it is sited on the banks of a short stream that runs down from the Heavens to join the River Frome about two hundred yards further to the right of the picture.

Behind Ferney close and Thrupp house is the hamlet of Thrupp where a few house roof tops can be seen. In the far distance on the other side of the valley of the River Frome are the houses of the village of Brimscombe which are halfway up the slopes leading to Minchinhampton Common on the top of the hillside. I blipped a picture back from that exact point, near Tom Long's Post last week.