Swaddywell revisited

Today I went back to Swaddywell Pit in search of ovipositing Emperor dragonflies, but I think it was just too cool and breezy - not a single one about. But the marjoram was in full bloom, swathes of soft mauve, and in sheltered corners butterflies were greedily feeding on its nectar, including this beautiful Comma.

The poet John Clare is closely associated with the local area and wrote a love poem to Swordy Well in the early 19th century, before the widespread implementation of the Enclosure Acts.

I've loved thee Swordy Well and love thee still
Long was I with thee tending sheep and cow
In boyhood ramping up each steepy hill
To play at 'roly poly' down - and now
A man I trifle o'er thee cares to kill
Haunting thy mossy steeps to botanize
And hunt the orchis tribes where nature's skill
Doth like my thoughts run into phantasys
Spider and Bee all mimicking at will
Displaying powers that fools the proudly wise
Showing the wonders of great nature's plan
In trifles insignificant and small
Puzzling the power of that great trifle man
Who finds no reason to be proud at all.

His much longer protest poem, The Lament of Swordy Well, is perhaps better known, and documents the ravages that ensued from Enclosure, which involved an almost complete loss of biodiversity. Since that time the area has had a chequered history, having been quarried and used for motor racing, but fortunately in the 1990s a local group, The Langdyke Trust, bought it and since then it has been managed as a community nature reserve. Once again it is a magical place, and sympathetic management has allowed the bee orchids to return, though the spider orchids that John Clare wrote about are lost forever.