Simon English
England Revisited

On a corner fence post east of Lingley Close on the Willington to Durham Road.

On the same oak corner post; the original pins, very rusty, were still in place. In 1971 this post was standing firm, although not actually attached to the fence. It is as though it belonged to the corner when the L shaped field was divided by a hedge long gone. Now its base has rotted and it had fallen, redundant and buried in cleavers. The wood that was above ground was, as oak is, still hard.

Finding this point again was extraordinary. In 1971 according to my records I walked cross country navigating probably by a photocopy of a 1:50000 OS map. At this scale field boundaries are not shown and yet I was aiming for a grid reference somewhere within 100 yards. This time the owner of these fields kindly took us out to look for this bit of fence. It could have been any number of corners, hedges or bits of fence and much could have changed over 40 years but once found all became clear. I am surprised at how accurate I was then. Had I trusted my younger self we would not have spent so long looking.

The little scrubby oak has not grown much nor have the hawthorns further uphill but a few hazel bushes have established themselves along the fence so here is more of a hedge. In 1971 the whole field and that beyond was wheat stubble. This gave a view of the farm buildings in the distance. Small bales of straw were stacked awaiting collection. This year the field is growing Rape, a crop virtually unheard of in 1971. My host here remembers his father experimenting with rape years ago. The crop is thick, tall and tangled its height hides the view of the farm buildings over the brow of the hill.

The small northern limb of this field has no crop this year. It is set aside. I gather that the fields further to the north were once an open cast coal mine restored to agriculture years ago by the National Coal Board. If this is so then it might explain the regularity of the fields and straight hedges and the Oak Post at point 09.

Under new ownership the farm is having improved additions to the farm but it retains some of the now redundant modernizations of the last century. I was interested to be shown a horse powered mill still standing.
Points 6 & 9