Cumbria Naturally
  • Home
  • Blog
  • My Books
    • Cumbrian Contrasts
    • A Lakeland Experience >
      • Introduction
      • Derwent
      • Langdale
      • Ullswater
      • Kentdale
    • About Scout Scar
    • Atlantic Odyssey
  • Other Writing
    • What Larks!
    • Further - Explore Shetland
    • Autumn Migration
    • Rydal and Nab Scar
    • Perspectives
    • The River Kent
    • Wings
  • Gallery
  • Contact

Ghyll Brow: a pastoral elegy

1/3/2015

0 Comments

 
PictureMeadow saxifrage, Saxifraga granulata
Change comes to Ghyll Brow. So it’s time to gather flowers from my photographic archive for a floral tribute, a pastoral elegy.  Large-scale housing development in Kendal begins here and now on either side of the Ghyll, starting 2015.  Kendal South West: south of Underbarrow Road and Stainbank Green. Pastoral will be a memory. The charm and rural character of Ghyll Brow will be lost to urban encroachment. Disruption is inevitable. The flora of the roadside verge is delightful and I wonder what will survive. Wondering won’t help, there needs something more practical 

What happens here at Ghyll Brow has more than local significance. Urban encroachment is topical, of national concern. Ghyll Brow is a microcosm, a mirror of what’s happening all over the country. Its proximity to Scout Scar and the Lake District National Park makes it special. (Scout Scar is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest.) The scale of development planned for Ulverston and  Kendal  is controversial, as is the choice of location at Kendal South West. There are concerns about infrastructure, about volume of traffic, air quality, drainage and sewage capacity etc.  All this dominates, and surrounding countryside is neglected- as if it were unimportant.
As a naturalist, I choose to focus on the impact on the rural environment at Ghyll Brow and  nearby Scout Scar. Since the announcement of building plans late in 2013 I’ve been asking how the conservation community would prepare for change: starting with impact studies, habitat surveys. Sometimes species are lost because no one knows they’re there. So early in 2014 I sent species lists, mapped and grid referenced, to SLDC, Natural England, Lake District National Park, Cumbria Wildlife Trust and Friends of the Lake District. The approach practical can be a long, frustrating slog and it takes time to achieve anything at all.
For tourists, walkers and runners heading for Scout Scar,  Ghyll Brow is a delight.  In presenting a floral tribute to Ghyll Brow  I’m recording a point in time.  Change is certain, significant change . 

Picture
Easter Sunday 23 March 2008. Barn at Ghyll Brow
Images set to become museum pieces. You will not see their like again. 
Easter Sunday was glorious, with blue skies and a lightness of new-fallen snow that transfigures the trees in a rare and transient effect . The beauty of it would not last the morning.. This winter scene features in About Scout Scar. My book will read differently as Ghyll Brow changes, as the town reaches out around it.  
Countryside begins here, that’s how it feels . Hardly anyone goes down into the Ghyll, why would they? It isn’t access land and sunlight scarcely penetrates through the trees and limestone crags.   Sheltered and inaccessible, its mature trees are cloaked in  ivy, ideal for hibernating bats and invertebrates, a shelter for roosting birds.  Seeing kestrel mating is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I saw it here. I came each day to watch the fledgling take its first flight.
Ghyll Brow is a wildlife corridor. But not for much longer.  The Ghyll itself is too rugged, too steep to build on. But expect to see houses following the barn and the wall aligned with it. We locals have asked that barn, trees and walls be retained.  I asked that trees be planted along the wall to mask the houses and  retain something of the rural character of Ghyll Brow.  I asked for habitat surveys. There were development briefs and consultations but their remit on biodiversity was to look exclusively at the sites allocated for building. Biodiversity is all around  especially on Scout Scar and we were told repeatedly that that was no’t up for discussion.  It’s the impact on the surrounding countryside that needs to be addressed. 

Picture
Ghyll Brow pastures with meadow saxifrage. Looking south from the Brigsteer Road
 In late May, the steep pastures to the south are white with meadow saxifrage and cuckoo flower.  Meadow saxifrage thrives here because of the farming regime, very little fertiliser on pastures too steep to plough, and grazing by cattle later in summer.  
Locals are concerned about where access to the Stainbank Green development will be. The existing road  to Stainbank Green  curves gently into the Brigsteer Road on level ground above Ghyll Brow.  We all assumed that would be the chosen access. In October 2014 we were shown a map with a new road cutting through the meadow saxifrage pastures at the steepest point. Farewell meadow saxifrage.  If you’ve ever stood and watched the Brigsteer Road turning into a watercourse during downpours then think of that new road as a tributary.  In winter, ice is frequently a problem where the road climbs steeply. Locals have made the point over and over. It is known. They tell of a winter a milk lorry went sliding back down the road.
Watch this space. I mean the Ghyll Brow space.  Ghyll Brow is remarkable in itself, and its proximity to Scout Scar is an added dimension.  What happens here and now has importance for the future. It’s about the value we place on countryside and all that it means to us. And about the wildlife experience we want to hand on to coming generations. 
Ghyll Brow: a pastoral elegy was written to complement a March 11th presentation to Kendal U3A Natural History group . Three days later, friends began to draw my attention to a piece in The Westmorland Gazette. Story Homes first development of 35 houses at Stainbank Green had been refused planning permission because of unacceptable environmental damage. Cutting a road through those pastures at their steepest point would wholly change the character of the landscape and the proposed density of houses was turned down. 
In May 2015, we received the latest Development Briefs. Access  proposed via the existing road to Stainbank Green. 
I continue to photograph the flora of the wayside verge through spring, and to post images. What I'm recording is a snapshot in time, how it is in spring and summer 2015. I'd rather this was not an elegy. What I would like to achieve is to protect the character and the quality of Ghyll Brow and to be able to show new residents a wonderful roadside verge and pastures of meadow saxifrage.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Author

    Jan Wiltshire is a nature writer living in Cumbria. She also explores islands and coast and the wildlife experience. (See Home and My Books)

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    September 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    November 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    April 2010
    January 2010
    November 2009
    January 2009
    January 2004

    Categories

    All
    A Local Patch
    Birdlife
    Butterflies And Moths
    Flowers
    Locations
    Views
    Walks
    Weather
    WIldlife

    RSS Feed

Website
Home
Blog
Gallery
Contact



​Cookie Policy
My Books
  • Intro - My books
  • ​Cumbrian Contrasts
  • A Lakeland Experience
  • About Scout Scar
  • Atlantic Odyssey
    ​
Other Writing
  • Intro - Other Writing
  • What Larks!
  • Further - Explore Shetland
  • Autumn Migration
  • Rydal and Nab Scar
  • Perspectives
  • The River Kent
  • Wings
Jan Wiltshire - Cumbria Naturally
© Jan Wiltshire 2022 All rights reserved
Website by Treble3