Kelston Roundhill and Roundhill Barn

Last Friday our local National Trust Ranger Rob Holden visited Kelston Roundhill.

Rob Holden on the Clump. You can keep up with his Bath Skyline work on Twitter: @NTBathSkyline

The National Trust is the UK’s second-largest landowner (after the Crown Estate) so it has a vast body of knowledge and resources covering every sort of land-management issue from paths, signage,  and public access through leisure, public art to looking after badgers and dealing with invasive species.

It also has a clear policy position and a campaigning role. Among many other things it’s trying to reach out beyond the usual dedicated walkers and ramblers to get the wider public, especially families and children out to discover landscapes, countryside and the spirit of place. So it has placed itself on front line of reconnecting children
with nature, trying to reverse what has started to be known as Nature Deficit Disorder (click for more). Continue reading →

Another nice “Bath skyline” picture showing the Clump. This was published in the Daily Telegraph in March, credited SWNS.com. I can’t find it online; this is taken with a phone of the paper clipping.

Thank you and all due credit to the unnamed photographer who took this lovely shot.

We’re very pleased to announce that from today Kelston Roundhill is an Enlightenment Meadow. We applied to become a Coronation Meadow under Prince Charles scheme announced today, but were edged in Somerset by Chancellors Farm, Priddy Nr Wells (which does look fab btw).

Bath has been a bit unpopular with Royals since a sniffy local article about the young Victoria looking frumpy. No doubt we were also marked down (or even blackballed) because Kelston Roundhill was used as a lookout point for the Battle of Lansdown. Monarchs have long memories and can be unforgiving about murderous popular uprisings. But that was all a long time ago. Kelston is now a place of peace and mature reflection.To dissipate any possible sense of disappointment our side we’ve decided instead to be the first field in the UK to self-declare as an Enlightenment Meadow, a place for free thinking, learning, scientific exploration, and individual self-determination.

Best wishes meanwhile to our hard-working Queen, who has done a terrific job for 60 years. Like all enlightened visitors: welcome.

Last week was hedgehog awareness week apparently. I wasn’t aware of it. Nor, more to the point, are we aware of hedgehogs on Kelston Roundhill. If it’s going to be a place for educational visits we want plenty. But the good folk at the British Hedgehog Preservation Trust advise not to try it near badgers: they eat he same food. Nothing is simple.

The City, the National Trust and others speak of an integrated Bath skyline, and the Clump is clearly part of it.

For example the DTel of 23 May had a lovely Bath skyline pic with the Clump on the horizon. It was credited to SWNS.com, on whose web site it’s impossible to find. But in searching I did come across this on Crysse’s blog:

and this by Chippy1920 on Flickr

Nice pics!

A Friend sends a picture of the Pilton Tithe Barn. So much more spacious than flat beams

That’s how to build a roof. Green oak, done by Peter McCurdy who worked on the Globe theatre reconstruction.

It was newly reroofed in 2005 after a fire 40 years earlier. It was purchased with a benevolent grant from Glastonbury Festival’s Michael Eavis, and the restoration done with funds from English Heritage. See the near-divine Wikipedia for a good story and details.

Two odd bits of social history: the human side of the old county council, and a link with a 1960s folk album. First a lovely story about Kelston Roundhill:

Lindsay Smith, an Avon County Council planner, fretted that all the trees would die at the same time since they were planted at the same time. When he died (much too young) his Council colleagues clubbed together to plant new trees that will replace the old ones in 50 years’ time – now that’s planning.

The Interwebs reveal nothing further about this. But Lindsay was right to be concerned, and we’re glad his colleagues took the action they did.

Searching in vain for that did turn up was the words to a Kelston Roundhill folk song. The Mudcat Cafe forum discusses it being performed by the folk singer Nadia Cattouse. Lyrics and more below: Continue reading →

After a period of quiet, this sounds like an attempt at progress on the ash dieback front (from BBC):

The government is to plant a quarter of a million ash trees in an attempt to find strains that are resistant to the fungus responsible for ash dieback… (click for more). Continue reading →

Here’s a lovely and unusual January pic of the clump from 2008 by veloden (via Flickr) 

The colours are quite different. It shows the clump as a vulnerable integrated whole, blasted by south westerly winds into a single shape as the trees eke a life out of thin soil doing a little bit to protect each other.

The planned work to restore, replace and protect the trees on the clump is all the more urgent given the sinister new threat to the UK’s ash trees, which are an important part of the clump. The circle of  of woodland itself will have to be fenced off to recover.

The permissive paths, which run around the edge of the circle of trees, will remain unaffected.

Another thing is it’ll be necessary to persuade visitors to stop lighting fires.  But what are the less destructive ways to mark a special visit: have a fag? Do some Tai Chi? It’s great when people take photos and share them (belated thanks veloden!) Martin at ARC suggests starting a cairn. Volunteer needed to select the location and place the first stone.

The charity Plantlife wrote to Doug who chairs Kelston parish council:

Wild plant charity Plantlife is hoping to reach out to many wild plant enthusiasts and nature lovers by inviting them to become wild plant ‘pioneers’ and subscribe to a free quarterly e-learning bulletin to learn more about our native wild plants via the ‘Wild About Plants’ project website. The Wild About Plants project aims to help people reconnect with the outdoors and their local greenspaces. Working with schools, families and communities from all walks of life and with fantastic free downloadable resources, the team hope to engage people with the nature on their doorstep. In recent years subscribers have been asked to record the plant lifein their local area and recount what they used to see/pick and forage for etc. (follow @Love_plant on Twitter)

All sounds good. Let’s follow @love_plant on Twitter and hope to be in touch.