Simon English
England Revisited

On a spruce tree next to the road between the two hairpin bends coming down into Allenheads.

On a spruce tree, next to the road between two hairpin bends on the road coming down into Allenheads (to the west).

Well actually the spruce trees are so big and prickly; the branches grow right out to the edge of the road and the trunk invisible, that the flag was put on a car tyre next to the tree where it could be seen near a now hidden roadside verge reflector.

The spruce tree, or the current coniferous equivalent, is part of a plantation and as such impossible to find the original tree; but the slightly unsettling aspect is that the plantation looks identical to how it looked in 1971. For a fast growing tree how can that be? My suspicions are confirmed on the other side of the wood at the Arts Centre where I learn that the hillside was clear felled in the 1980s and replanted. Now the trees stand ready for felling as high now as they did then giving for this visitor the feeling that time has stood still.

This 30 year crop cycle implies that the trees standing in 1971 must have been planted in the 1950s as part of the post war encouragement to landowners to boost the timber stocks.

The dense monoculture of spruce is counter pointed with the wide verge on the other side of the road. Next to a solitary conifer is a rich grass turf flora with the blue flowers of speedwell and wild pansy, the white of daisy, yellow of buttercup and ragwort, the purple mats of wild thyme and further downhill the pink and mauve spikes of what I think are Northern Marsh Orchids. In the distance the moors are purple with heather where a managed cycle of burns maintains the health of Lord Allenheads' grouse moors.

In all aspects the view now is identical to that of 1971 except by comparing the two scenes it seems that part of the dry stone wall running along the Eastside Burn has sunk, either through collapse or soil creep or from subsidence into collapsing lead mine tunnels. Either that or the water systems with the subterranean interlinked aqueducts that fed the water reservoirs that supplied the lead works.

Allendale in the 19th century was a rich industrial centre employing hundreds of men underground mining lead ore and above ground processing it. All this is finished. In 1971 this was all part of our country's forgotten derelict history but now has been tidied up and celebrated with a Heritage centre in Allenheads, a town that has seen its buildings like the school, churches, shops, fire station, engineering workshops, and workers houses change use with the fall and rise of employment and population. Since 1971 a new influx of inhabitants related to the arts has revived its fortunes.

One other nature note: Notices in the area warn visitors of the presence of red squirrels. The moors round here protect this endangered native from displacement by the larger American grey but for how long only the future can tell.
Points 7 & 3