From the horse's mouth

I followed my nose today, after several separate bouts of photography, partly work related.

Not having found my blip yet, I ventured up Thrupp Lane, stopped at Yew Tree Farm and then parked nearby to grab a view across the Golden Valley towards Tom Long's Post on the common above Brimscombe. As I rested my camera on a fence, I heard a car which was reversing out of a hillside driveway onto the road just behind me. Then I heard it hit my car. The elderly gentleman sheepishly got out of his elderly BMW, apologised saying he hadn't looked as there isn't normally a car parked there. I looked at the marks on my car and despite the noise, there was hardly any damage, just a tiny scrape to the paintwork. I checked and said it seemed ok, and we amicably parted. He said you know where I live!

I then drove on along the hillside and turned up a very narrow hollow-way, running right up to Quarhouse. It was very slippery on the muddy rutted track which, although mostly tarmac around the potholes, offered little grip. Finally reaching the top, I suddenly remembered an old favourite scene up here, which dalilykeith and I had both photographed separately, long before we had ever heard of Blipfoto.

Just as I reached where the steep slope flattens out at the top of the hill, there is a triangle of grass and scrub, where the road divides. In the middle of this triangle, this Bedford pick-up van has ended its days, and it always amuses me. The ash trees which are growing through the rear of the vehicle are now at least ten inches in diameter and there are lots of them. The wheels arches are filled with a complex of ivy and other plants. The inside of the cab is awash with waves of cobwebs. All in all, a strange sight.

I wandered about taking different angles and odd shots. I stepped back to go wider, when looking-up, I noticed a man descending the side road from where the old quarries are. He seemed rather purposeful in his approach. I stood up and without further ado, he said 'did I want to know why the van was parked and lying there like this'. Immediately I felt at ease and laughingly said I did.

'Twenty years ago, we got a summons from the Council (Gloucestershire County Council Highways Dept. as it happens) saying we were illegally parking our builder's pick-up van here. We were very annoyed as we'd always parked it there. We decided to let them sue us and parked the van there again. In the end, we won the case as we actually owned the land ourselves, and not the Council. So we have left it there ever since, to spite them'!

Cliff, pictured here, and his brother Gordon were born in a cottage in nearby Park Wood, which was part of the land their family has owned and farmed for many generations. I have met Gordon before, as he can often be found repairing the stonewalls around his fields. I was really glad that Cliff wandered down to talk to me, although I think he thought I was from the Council again and that he was 'going to see me off'. When I told him that actually I was from the Council, but only the Town one, we both laughed. He has now invited me to come back and ask his brother, who is now the farmer whether I can photograph inside Park Wood. That will be a treat as I told him I think it may be an ancient medieval woodland, possibly where deer were kept by the large estate at the time, possibly about 1400. Great! We had a long chat and both commented on how nice people are round here, on the whole, and if they are not from the Council.

What a good day. No damage to the car after it was bashed, an introduction to a very interesting woodland world and the story of the overgrown van from the horses mouth!

ps
I can see Park Wood in the distance from my desk where I am now writing. When I photograph from here, you can see it on the skyline opposite our house, but on this side of the Golden Valley. The van is on the far side about one and a half miles away as the crow flies. In fact they probably do, as there is a huge crow colony on this side of Park Wood, which I occasionally see when they all gather in the sky above the tree tops.