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 Flora Blitzed

10/6/2015

0 Comments

 
PictureVetch, forget-me-not and crosswort
I was taking every opportunity to put together a photographic archive of the flora of the verge at Ghyll Brow.  I was enjoying the discovery of fresh flowers and their beauty, the sharp contrasts of colour, the intricacy of structure. In the cold and windy weather I'm always looking out for butterflies and bees, for our essential pollinators. This morning I was struck by the sheer abundance of forget-me-not , and all the emergent flowers amongst them..  If only I had taken one last photograph. 

PictureWhere flowers grew
Two days ago, an item on radio 4 raised awareness of the importance of the roadside verge across the UK.  Biodiversity is here in this precious resource for flora and pollinators. Ghyll Brow is a microcosm and the threat to biodiversity is echoed across the country. The threat was closer to home, more imminent than I realised when  I set out for Scout Scar at 8.00 am as the sun shone on a wondrous haze of forget-me-not . When I returned that way the lot had gone.  A brutal swathe had been taken out, rough-cut across the verge, leaving only a handful of  flowers protected within the dense shrubs that grow on the steepest part of the bank.  Forget-me-nots aren't tall flowers, they did not over hang bank or road. The cut was crude, wide and haphazard. 
 Whoever did it was not interested in making the way safe for pedestrians because dead brambles reaching out into the road on the stretch by the Ghyll Brow houses had not been touched. There had been no attempt to clear up litter exposed by the cut. Keith Dunn who walks here daily was angry too. We locals who come this way often talk about the flowers.
I rang The Highways Agency, Cumbria County Council. David Huck  spoke to his contractors who assured him this was not their work.  We had a long  chat about conservation of roadside verges and the constraints the Highways Agency must work with.  Roads are colour coded and this stretch of Brigsteer Road should not be cut until September, giving seed time to set. The type of cut specified is appropriate to the ecology of the verge here, and it is more sensitive and considered.  
So a maverick cut. Useless to speculate, the damage is done.  But we’ve made our point and I’ve made a further contact. I’m asking how we can raise awareness, how we might try to protect the resource of the verge at Ghyll Brow. 
Earlier this year I wrote a blog An Elegy for Ghyll Brow which you may find in the archive.  But I didn’t see this coming.  Several years ago the verge was subjected to a ferocious slashing that left jagged spikes of saplings jutting from the bank.
It is dispiriting. Cumbria County Council has a policy in place and it’s well thought through. But someone has ignored it and taken  out the flora of the verge.
I have been posting images of the Ghyll Brow flora as they appeared, one by one. Later in the year I mean to show the diversity and beauty of what we've lost this summer.


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