Road signs, footpaths and barley

click photo to enlarge
We were heading for the south of Northamptonshire to do a little walking and the signs were not good. In fact, the signs themselves were fine, but the trees had grown so that half of each one by the side of most major roads could not be read. Northamptonshire County Council or the Highways Agency or whoever is responsible for making sure road signs can be clearly seen hadn't been cutting the trees back and so, a couple of times, we went astray.

Had I thought more deeply about this I'd have realised that this was a taste of things to come, and in fact, the signs were definitely bad. The realisation that Northampton isn't "walking country" hit us after we'd ventured only a couple of hundred yards into some fields on a footpath. The council's waymarks were old, inaccurately placed to indicate the direction of the route, frequently missing, and invariably so faded that any information they once held was no longer legible. Those faults dogged us for several hours as we tried to follow paths marked on the Ordnance Survey map. The fact that many routes showed no sign of anyone having walked them before us didn't help. Occasionally we could see that a solitary walker had passed the way we were going, but such signs were rare.

I can't account for what we discovered in this part of the country. Yes, it is farmland, but it is varied, hilly, wooded, and visually and historically interesting: a more attractive area in which to walk than some that we know that are better waymarked and more frequented. Today's photograph shows my wife, map in hand walking up a hill one evening through ripening barley. This path was unusual in that other people had walked it, but all too common in that the farmer didn't appear to have cut the way of the path - walkers had trampled down the line of the route. Reflecting as we walked, I could only surmise that the absence of walkers is due to the fact that in many people's minds walking can only be undertaken in recognised "walking areas" - the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales, Dartmoor, the Peak District etc when in fact it is a pleasurable, informative and photographically rewarding undertaking almost anywhere in Britain.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 14mm (28mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/1000 sec
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Image Stabilisation: On

Autumn at Woodhall Spa

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On a recent overcast day, we took a six or seven mile stroll through some woods and lanes in Lincolnshire, a county that is, in the popular consciousness, a treeless place. Our starting point was the village of Woodhall Spa, a place whose very name suggests that it may be a wooded spot. Located between the chalk and the limestone, Woodhall Spa features heather and bracken, many tree types including silver birch, beech and oak, and has soil that can support the widespread rhododendrons that the Victorians and Edwardians planted. Mature woodland adjoins and penetrates the large village and mature trees can be seen in many gardens. For anyone who doesn't know Woodhall Spa the late John Betjeman called it "that half-timbered Bournemouth-like settlement", a description that sums up the look and feel of the place quite well.

The English National Golf Centre and its courses are found here. Apparently - and I'm no golfer so I can't attest to this - the Hotchkin Course is a classic British heathland course and was voted "25th best course in the world" by Golf World Magazine. What I do know is that a public footpath winds through the courses and adjacent woodlands and the semi-wild landscape makes quite a nice start to a ramble from the village centre. On our walk the colours of the autumn leaves were just starting to decline in intensity but were still very attractive, and I managed a few shots as we followed a track through a tunnel of trees. In the one above my photographic assistant - aka my wife - was persuaded to be the focal point in the "tunnel".

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
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F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/200
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Image Stabilisation: On

London riverscape and National Trails

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My walk from Rotherhithe into the centre of London follows a section of a route called the Thames Path. This is a 184 miles long National Trail that follows the river from its source in the Cotswolds, through the heart of London, to the Thames Barrier at Greenwich. Though that title sounds rather impressive, the section that I use is simply a collection of riverside paths, public footpaths and roads that are collectively waymarked with this grand title.

I've always enjoyed walking, and have walked in many parts of Britain. Yet, perhaps surprisingly, I have an aversion to the whole concept of "National Trails" and long-distance footpaths. I first gave voice to it in the 1960s when I lived in the Yorkshire Dales and saw what the creation of the Pennine Way was doing to the country through which it runs: in particular the way that the track up the "nose" of Penyghent grew from a narrow path to a disfiguring scar 50 yards wide, visible for miles, that ultimately required boarding and steps to stabilise it. The creation of other such trails across sections of the country have done nothing to change my view of these footpaths. I've seen similar erosion associated with the creation of the long distance path along the length of Hadrian's Wall, and find it deplorable.

But it's not just the environmental damage that the designation of National Trails brings that I find objectionable, there are two other major problems. Firstly, they encourage endurance and competitive walking in the countryside. In a small, heavily populated island like Britain, where open country is a precious resource, people should be encouraged to walk in our natural areas and farmland with a much wider focus than the selfish sense of achievement that comes from completing a route. There are those who will say that this is possible, even on such a trail, to which I answer: talk to those who walk them! Secondly, the focus on these long-distance trails inevitably reduces the much more valuable work that needs to be done to maintain and, importantly, extend our historic network of footpaths and bridleways, a task which, if done properly, enriches the lives of many more people by giving access to local walking. And, if that were not sufficient reason for disliking the idea and execution of National Trails, there is the commercialisation of the concept that is evident in the opening sentence of the National Trails website: "We welcome innovative approaches from all sectors of business and are keen to explore opportunities for joint ventures with the private sector to develop new products and services." I cringe when I read such language in connection with countryside access.

Today's photograph, taken from the Thames Path, gives some context to my earlier photographs of The Shard.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 58mm
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/320
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On
Filter: Graduated ND8