River Life

Like these young swans, my brother Les and I spent our youth growing up near a river. Our recent walk along the River Stour to Flatford Mill reminded us both just how much we enjoyed a ramble through grassy meadows alongside gently flowing waters.

This time we started off at Godmanchester Nature Reserve in the valley of the Great Ouse. The nature that I was most interested in were the lovely ripe blackberries growing in the hedgerows; I left these over-ripe ones to the Red Admiral butterflies.

The Great Ouse rises from several springs in Northamptonshire and flows along in a perfectly respectable way, gathering the odd tributary stream here and there, till it reaches Brampton. Then it starts to get unruly, dividing and subdividing into several channels some of which later reunite, only to split off into more channels further downstream. The section pictured above is known as Cook's Stream, but it's all part of the Ouse. By the time they reach St Ives the various streams have settled their differences and flow onwards as one.

We rejoined the main river and could soon look across to Hartford Marina. The lower brick-built gable end is Hartford Mill, which isn't a mill at all, but a pub which serves good value meals. We'd be going there after we'd finished our walk.

But I must put thoughts of steak and ale pies out of my mind and concentrate on the maze of river channels and footpaths leading through this late summer landscape.

The photo above was taken where we rather randomly sat down to enjoy a banana and take a drink from our water-bottles. If you've got very sharp eyes you might be able to make out a Grey Heron on the opposite bank, just left of the centre of the picture.

We'd started off with clear blue skies which clouded over during the morning. This is pretty much the "sweet spot" photographically with a nice distribution of blue and white.

This wide valley was, for a time during the nineteenth century, a favourite haunt of landscape artists as they attempted to capture the fleeting light and seasons. They were particularly attracted to the old tumbledown watermills of which there were many at that time. John Constable's earlier paintings along the Stour must obviously have had an influence on them.

Tastes change however and you seldom see anyone painting along here now. Even photographers mostly prefer the mountains, coasts and woodlands of present-day Britain. But it's still mighty popular with those who like messing about in boats, large and small.

"Pastoral" would still describe much of this landscape.

These rowing boats, which are available for hire, are the first sign that we are very close to Houghton Mill, which these days is a National Trust property open to the public. You have to book in advance, but we can still follow the public right of way which passes straight through the building, by means of an archway.

Some years ago I wrote a blogpost about the oddly named Potto Brown, a former owner of the mill. It gives an insight into the life of a rural entrepreneur and a fascinating character. It was under Potto's management that the mill enjoyed its height of importance, as it was far more efficient than the other more ramshackle mills dotted throughout the valley.

In time Houghton Mill was largely replaced by large steam-powered mills in St Ives and Godmanchester. For a while after that it staggered along making animal feed for local farms, later it was used as a youth hostel. The mill's decline didn't bother our man Potto in the least - he owned the new steam-powered mills as well!

We then turned away from the main river, but still had to cross another loop of the Great Ouse via Black Bridge at Hemingford Abbots.

The riverside villages are very desirable (and expensive) and the road through the village led past many large houses and mansions before taking us out on to Eastside Common.

The old railway that linked Cambridge and Huntingdon once passed through here and you can still follow the course of the old line in places, though to be honest you'd do a lot better to follow the tarmac path!

Take care.

Horse Power

As promised, a few pictures of the heavy horses at the Haddenham Steam Rally. If the weather had been cooler I'd planned to spend longer watching the horses being paraded in their show ring. Most of the horse show takes place in the corner of the showground, away from the hustle, bustle and noise of the main show, though some which are shown regularly also enter the main ring. 

The horses didn't seem to be enjoying the heat any more than the human visitors, but their owners quickly led them into the shade to cool off with plenty of water.

And just a few photos of other things that caught my eye....

....like the chain-saw sculptor....

....the man with his little street organ....

....and some beer suitable for aging bloggers!

Take care.

Steamy Scenes

Before Covid raised its restrictive head this blog used to go to lots of country shows, but somehow we've never got back into the habit. But there are several such events coming up in the next month and, weather allowing, we'll be dipping in to some of them.

On Sunday we trundled across the fens to Haddenham, just south of Ely, for their annual Steam Rally And Heavy Horse Show. The temperature got up to a steamy 32 C and by mid-afternoon we'd had enough of it. But we were there early, soon after they opened the gates.

If you get there in the morning you can see the mighty engines being topped up with oil and getting their supplies of coal and water. And there's an enormous amount of polishing that needs doing....

....even on the small model engines.

It can all get a bit smoky - not at all good for the environment!

The full-size engines come in different shapes and sizes too. Some of the most ornate are the "showman's engines" which towed fairground rides from town to town and then powered the roundabouts and big wheels.

Steam rollers were used on the roads in my lifetime; their huge weight was an advantage for that kind of work.

Others were used for ploughing, powering stationary agricultural equipment such as threshing machines, and road haulage.

No, I haven't bought a drone; just been for a ride on the Big Wheel, or Ferris Wheel if you prefer. From the top we could see across to where the tractors were parked....

"There were a fair old few", as we say in East Anglia - more tractors than steam engines, in fact. This doesn't surprise me at all, for here in the fens every farm used to have its own collection of ancient tractors, kept for "any bits that might come in handy".

Now some of them turn up at shows like this, looking like they've just rolled off the production line.

Many of these are models that I used to see during my childhood. Happy memories.

There was a special gathering this year of old Field Marshall and Track Marshall machines. It was great to hear the nostalgic sound of their single cylinder two-stroke engines. Bomp-bomp-bomp-bomp! You always knew it was a Marshall, even from two or three fields away.

Plenty of vintage cars too.

These owners had organised themselves some shade from the mid-day sun.

It's difficult to believe that our police used to chase criminals in cars like this! 

And hard to remember just how small cars could be! Les had a mini-van at one time and many people seemed to be searching for the cars from their youth. I even found my first "set of wheels".....

And we'll finish with a wide view from the top of the Big Wheel.

The observant reader with notice the heavy horses in the show ring. I'll be back with some photos of them quite soon.

Take care.

Echoes Of Old Mistley

Mistley is easily missed! Just a small railway station on the branch line from Manningtree to Harwich. Or a place passed through on the B1352 road that meanders through the handful of villages that lie between those same two places. A birdwatcher might pause for a while where the road runs beside the muddy Stour Estuary.

In summer the local people gravitate towards the strip of grass between the road and the shore. A couple of ice-cream vans and a tea waggon loiter nearby and people bring deckchairs to sit beneath the trees and gaze out across the water.

We found a few Redshanks and an assortment of gulls as we wandered along, ice-creams in hand. 

You can never be too sure with gulls, but I'll say that those with a small dark patch behind the eye are, confusingly, Black-headed Gulls, while a couple of the larger Herring Gulls lurk at the back.

On reaching the end of the muddy shore we turned briefly inland.

If Mistley is famous for anything, it's these two towers standing in an old graveyard. They are what remains of a church built in 1776 and designed by Robert Adam.

Adam was a leading architect of his day and developed his own style in which many buildings were perfectly symmetrical. So when he was asked to design a church it had to have two towers, rather than the usual one, bookending the nave of the church. When the church was demolished it was decided to keep the towers as they provided a useful landmark for boats negotiating the estuary. That's the village sign in the foreground.

The door to one of the towers was open so we poked our heads inside and peered up at the painted ceiling, which is supposed to represent The Holy Trinity.

The graveyard has many surprising memorials including this odd group of graves, which look like coffins converted into beds! Very strange.

Lichens have conspired to give this plain cross a mystical inscription.

Around the back of the towers (and partly in their shadow) is this Egyptian-style mausoleum. The design was all the rage for just a few years around 1830, though it later came back into fashion when Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered. The material used here is actually polished marble, though the years have not been kind.

I became entranced by the weathered handle and keyhole to the door.

But how come such a prestigious architect was hired to build a church in such an obscure spot? For that we can thank Richard Rigby of Mistley Hall. He had an ambitious plan to turn Mistley, which at that time consisted of a quayside with granaries and malthouses, into a saltwater spa town. Adam was originally supposed to design the spa but it was decided that many other buildings, including the old church, needed to be replaced to be in keeping with the proposed fashionable resort.

One side of the village sign records Mistley's history as a port, when sloops and barges transported wheat, flour and brewers' malt around the coast to London. John Constable's father owned such a vessel. The quay still stands and I was keen to find out if there was any public access to the present-day facilities.

This huge building, dating from about 1896, was part of the old maltings, where top-quality barley was turned into malt for London's brewing industry. It appears to be flats or offices now. At one time there were seven large malthouses in Mistley.

Further along the quayside is an old kiln, also part of the malting industry. This shot was taken with a long lens as a sign warned against proceeding further without a hard hat! You can see that some kind of goods is still stored here.

That lens also came in handy for spotting a seal sunning itself on a sandbank.

On the way back along the High Street we came across The Swan Fountain. Along with the building behind it was designed by Robert Adam as a centrepiece for the planned spa town. Nothing else of the ambitious scheme was completed. Note again the symmetry of Adam's work - it's a wonder that swan doesn't have a head at either end!

Across the fields rises the lofty spire of the Church of St Mary and St Michael, the latest version of Mistley church, dating from around 1870. So there we have it - boats, birds, ice-cream, stylish Georgian towers, peculiar graves, a village sign, dockside kilns and malthouses, a sunbathing seal, a decorative fountain and a church. And looking at the map of listed buildings in the area I can see there's plenty more that I missed in Mistley!

Take care.