Bulletin 80 – February 2013

It’s happened again – the powers that be seem intent on salami-slicing our estate into so many long thin strips. Thirty years ago the A42 was built to the east of the Nottingham – Birmingham road and trapped a long sliver of our farm and woodland in...

Bulletin 79 – January 2013

Those of you familiar with our gentle valley will know that there are two main lakes, linked by a smaller pond just below the Golden Gate bridge.  The lowest of these, the SerpentineLake covers nine acres and winds off northwards out of sight towards Melbourne.  This...

Bulletin 78 – December 2012

November, a notable month of endings and beginnings.  Yesterday saw the end of work on the TopLake for this year; thousands of tonnes of silt have been pumped upstream to dry out when the weather allows. As to beginnings, on the eighth of the month arrived Phoebe...

Bulletin 77 – November 2012

In a handout I wrote recently describing the new footpath, Harpurs Crossing, I mentioned the ‘Thringstone Fault’, where the Leicestershire coalfield ends in a dramatic upward arc.  It set me thinking of a time when my father and I were in the mining...