Simon English
England Revisited

On a fence in watermeadows (flooded) by stream between river + railway near Lea Marston. 3 miles north of Coleshill.

In 1971 point 44 flag was on a concrete fence post dividing the railway line from watermeadows on either side of the River Tame. The fence and posts are still there (although hidden by trees and brambles).

The water meadows, however, have been excavated and turned into a series of lakes by gravel extraction. When dredging finished some 20 (?) years ago the first lake (southernmost, the river flows north) was taken over by the Environment Agency as a wild life refuge and river cleaning depot. They used the lake as a sump to collect contaminated sludge flowing out of Birmingham. This settled at the bottom of the lake and then was pumped out into concrete settling tanks before disposal. This pumping ceased about six years ago as the water was, at last, deemed clean enough.

The river still flows through a well engineered boom support with a wonderful grid with automatic grabs which collect all the floating debris, big gas bottles, plastic bags, soft drink bottles, polystyrene containers and all manner of the human artefacts that are the rubbish of today’s society. This cleans the river day and night year after year except in times of flood when the river bursts its banks, bypasses the weir, and can again scatter rubbish over the land.

The view north is obscured by planted willow and poplar with brambles and nettles along the boundary so I photographed the new flag ten yards out from the fence on a willow sapling.

The view south (b&w photograph) can still glimpse the Lea Marsden bridge but the Ham Hall cooling towers have all disappeared as has the power station that has been demolished and turned into an industrial estate.
Points 44 & 45