Delights And Delays

A number of scenes to delight and delay the early morning cyclist in the month of July. Mostly taken in and around the village of Harlton, a few miles from home.

Crimson clouds on the horizon half an hour before sunrise

But looking rather washed out by the time I reached Chapel Hill

Towards Harlton.

Sun breaking through and backlighting the fields

Cows in a field. An uncommon sight in most of the county, which is strictly arable.

A closer look. Leaning on the gate, just like an old farmer!

Down the lane.

Low sun over the cattle pasture.

A hill! There aren't many of those in Cambridgeshire.

Chicory flowering on one of the field margins.

Looking back down an ancient road known as "Whole Way".

That cloud was not as threatening as it looked.

View from the chalk ridge over the flat country to the north.

That "corduroy" look of the fields on the chalk lands.

Heading back home before a predicted warm and humid day;

 that's one of the reasons I was out so early.

*******

Time for a little more YouTube guitar music, this time from one of the acoustic guitar heroes of my youth. Bert Jansch was an unpolished but hypotic performer of traditional songs, self-penned numbers and dazzling instrumentals. His vocals often trailed off into mumbles or even silence and gave rise to lots of imitators singing the wrong words to the tunes. The guitar part of this particular song, "Blackwater Side", was stolen by Led Zeppelin who called it "Black Mountain Side" - but that didn't fool anyone.

Take care.

Every Mile Tells A Story

The Rules: Go out for a bike ride. After each mile, get off the bike take a photo. You may not lock up the bike, so must always stay close to it. No macro lens, no long telephoto - that would be cheating!

I got my bike from the shed, opened the gate and wobbled off down the road. I was quickly clear of the little cul-de-sac where I live and turned on to the village street. I said "Good morning" to one of my neighbours who was returning home with his Sunday paper. Passed the school where I worked for twenty-odd years, then on past the church - no service today, but warnings of "Messy Church" this afternoon! I think that's what we called Sunday School, but with added paints and glue. And then I stopped at the end of my first mile....

Exactly where I stopped there was a gap in the hedge, which gave a view of the house where the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams stayed on his holidays, back in the early years of the twentieth century. I carried on till I swung into Malton Lane, a fairly minor road with not much on it - this could be an interesting challenge I've set myself. Luckily however....

...it brought me close to Malton Farmhouse and a field of highland cattle, both of which I ignored in favour of a picture of the road and three posts. My route continued between green fields of wheat and a mile of that deposited me near a house called The Retreat.

It always seems a rather lonesome place to live. I pedalled to the village of Orwell, then turned towards Barrington. You won't see any of Orwell, pleasant little place though it is, because I can't get off till I've completed my next mile. And when I did there was nothing much to get off for....

A lot of Cambridgeshire's like this; either large open fields or thick hedges. The monotony of this section was only relieved by a right-angle bend in the middle of nowhere. But, hey, it's only a mile till I get off again...

This is the track down to Trinity Farm. It's right on the edge of Barrington, one of the most picturesque villages in Cambridgeshire, and that's where I'm heading next - through the huge village green with thatched cottages gathered around it, past the village pump, the cricket field, the ponds and the church. And you can't see any of it because it's not time to stop yet. (No, I'm not that cruel; you can see it all in the post I wrote called "A Very English Village").

As luck would have it my next stop was just the other side of Barrington, near where the road crosses the river. There were lots of people out on bikes on this fine morning. As I recommenced my journey another huge group of enthusiastic cyclists sped by, all heads-down and nose to tail, and right on a sharp bend too. If something had been coming the other way......A little further along they were all stopped on the roadside as one of their number was mending a puncture. I crept quietly by, though the urge to say something about hares and tortoises was strong.

Here is where the main Cambridge to London railway crosses one of the Cambridge to London roads. That gate beside the Stop Look Listen sign automatically locks before trains come through. It was installed after a number of accidents and near-misses. I could then ride along the cycleway beside the busy A10 road. I'd soon had enough of that and turned off into Shepreth.

I clocked up the next mile near these meadows where there are often sheep and horses. I carried on through Shepreth, but again didn't get to stop till I had "come out the other side" of the village. My next pause was on the road back into my home village.

I take this to be a field of flax (or linseed), though I didn't go to investigate closely. It's appeared in a small field between the two villages. The wires in the distance are associated with the electric trains that speed through regularly. 

Well, yes, there are picture postcard cottages too. The thatcher has added a straw Pheasant to the ridgeline. I thought I'd like another photo so I took a loop around to get home. I was soon passing signs that said Road Closed, but there's always room for a bike to get through. In fact no roadworks were taking place and if they'd only moved the signs there would have been room for cars too.

Just to show you that we don't all live under roofs of thatch here are some more modern houses, just down the road from me. And if I carry on around the corner, past the school and the shop, I'll soon be home once more.

Take care.

A Little Look At Litlington

While I was out riding my bicycle this morning I stopped for a while at the village of Litlington, just five miles from home. It's not a famous place by any means and isn't really on the way to anywhere, which is just as well as the roads are unsuitable for heavy traffic.

But, back in the 1970s, before the nearby town of Royston was by-passed, a lot of traffic used to come through here to avoid going through Royston. The one-way system dates from those days, though it's rather quieter now.

 

This is the Litlington Congregational Church. The style of architecture is typical of these non-conformist churches and chapels that sprang up across rural Cambridgeshire during the nineteenth century. You can still find examples in many villages, although many are now converted to housing.

This curious little building has been seen before on this blog, but it was quite a few years ago. It's known as The Cage and was in fact the village lock-up. Before 1839, when there was an act of parliament organising a rural police force, law and order was maintained in each village by their own village constable, along with the church wardens. Minor offenders were locked up in here overnight till they could be dealt with by the magistrates (or sometimes just until they'd sobered up).

Speaking of which....there's still a pub in the village....and a shop...

It's still operating too, despite the rather faded sign. And around the corner there's what might be called a "window on to the past"....

....an old photo is displayed in a blocked window, which, unless I'm mistaken, is the same shop some time during the last century.

And with that I'll pedal on my way, though of course I had a quick peep at the church. I'll show you next time.

Take care.

Farmland

I can't help it! I lived my childhood beside a big field, Dad was a farm-worker and tractors and trailers passed our back gate.

So it's no surprise that I like to be out there in an agricultural landscape, especially at this time of year. The trouble is it's all been looking a bit gloomy lately or, as the weather-man has it, "A series of low-pressure systems has been daisychaining west to east across the country". Very grey and grubby daisy chains though!

But then, one morning, it will suddenly look a lot brighter, tempting me to get the bike out of the shed and pedal off in search of some photographs.

Very flat, Cambridgeshire - and even Hertfordshire which will be on the skyline during most of this ride. But, hey, if the Dutch can have fine landscape painters then I can at least try my hand at showing you the "level hills" of East Anglia. Lots of sky will assist in these endeavours. And I'll probably find some oddities along the way too.

As you may have noticed from the photos you've seen already, the crops are ripening in the fields. No use expecting this chap to help with harvest though, it's just a "scarecrow" made for a festival of such characters in the village of Litlington - just one way to keep families entertained during lockdown.

Litlington is one of the few villages I've seen that has a one-way system to get you around its narrow streets.

Sometimes this landscape almost has the feel of the Praries. Those three huts are on the site of the wartime airbase at Steeple Morden.

Difficult as this landscape is to turn into pictures, it's the kind of landscape with which I have a deep connection. It means something to me despite the concerted efforts of art galleries and photographic competitions who try to convince me that I ought to be snapping spectacular mountains and silky-soft waterfalls. Yes, I know they're pretty but....

....I also know that Hollywood stars are photogenic. But they don't mean as much to me as the real people I grew up with - or even the odd crazy scarecrow. I used to make things like that when I was a child. It's all tied up with memories.

I'm also aware of some of the faults of this way of land management; it's often regarded as an environmental disaster. But it's a constantly encouraging to see how much it can be improved by just a few simple changes like allowing hedges to grow up, planting small woodlands and leaving field edges to do their own thing. These ideas are slowly taking hold.

I like to see into working farmyards. I saw quite a few elderly tractors on my travels - and I think I know why and I'll probably tell you next time.

Plenty of people were out exercising on their bikes. They all sped past me, of course. I hope they glanced up from time to time to see where they were.

There are some idyllic homes scattered about this countryside, many of them are former farmhouses. They are no longer required as farms amalgamate into bigger and bigger enterprises, but there are always plenty of people with large wallets willing to snap them up. Which is just as well because otherwise much of our rural heritage would soon become derelict. 

This is what happens when farmers don't cultivate the edges of their fields - wildflower gardens! No one's planted these, the seed is there in the soil just waiting for its chance.

It's just like Dick Gaughan and Robbie Burns told us in my last post:

 ....waving grain, wild o'er the plain

Delights the weary farmer

And with that thought I'll make my weary way back home and put the bike back in the shed.

Take care