Have you been watching Sir David Attenborough and the Life of Birds? This is a quite wonderful series of programmes showing all aspects of bird life and the very varied ways they survive and reproduce. Although many species shown seem to be from exotic places far away, it is worth noting that our own 300 or so types of bird are equally interesting and many are extremely colourful.
Have you taken a good look at birds yet? Are you having difficulty finding an interesting present for Christmas that will last all year? How about an RSPB membership for an adult, a child or all the family? To join one child to the Young Ornithologists Club is £9 for the year, but for all the children only £12. For this you receive a Birdwatching Guide, a Get Wild book, poster and Bird Life magazine six times a year. There are 120 RSPB reserves to visit free and often a local group in which you can become involved. If the family joins, £36 per year for everyone, then there is all the above and a free video guide to garden birds by Sir David Attenborough, Birds magazine four times a year and as a special offer, you will receive a Mitchell Beazely Pocket Guide to birds. The RSPB is a charity devoted to improving the conservation of birds and maintaining the biodiversity of our environment.
Application forms are in the leaflet box at Garston Wood car park, or you can contact the RSPB on 01767 680551.
Work on coppicing is once more underway amongst the mud and chaos of a very wet spell. The fencing is progressing at a rapid rate now the volunteers have become so experienced at this type of short-lived protection from the ravages of deer. The poles have all been pre-prepared for use by other team members, drawing on the stock of more mature hazel and unwanted beech in the plantation. To help the environment, burning of the hazel tops is only carried out in areas where the trees are over 25 years old and the quantity is too great to be useful elsewhere. Wire fences will again be used to enclose the side and rear sections of the coupes to speed the coppicing cycle. This year another portion of the wood on the western side is being cleared of old hazel to open up a long glade for breeding butterflies. Eventually they will have a flyway right through the woods and the clearances will encourage ground flora, much needed if the Pearl Bordered Fritillary is to return as planned. By widening the rides a better habitat will be created for birds and dormice, allowing more light into the wood to encourage a large insect population. Breeding of the dormice has been much better this year with many young raised to a sufficient weight to last through the winter hibernation that has already started.
As the second millennium approaches its final year and preparations are made to record the event in all its glory, my thoughts go back to the beginning of this millennium and a time when the last thing on anybody's mind would be where to bury the time-capsule!
In 978 the young King, Edward the Martyr, was murdered at Corfe Castle on the Isle of Purbeck, and his body was transferred to the Shaftesbury Abbey. (Rumour has it that the ghosts of two men with pack-horses carrying the King's body have been seen on the steep, cobbled and famous Gold Hill which leads to the remains of the Abbey.) His death is attributed to his stepmother, who was keen to place her own son, Ethelred, on the English throne. And it was Ethelred the Unready who was the monarch at the end of the first millennium.
The surname given to Ethelred, according to Osbert Lancaster, had not quite the same significance for his contemporaries as it has for us; for them the word meant "ill-advised", but "unready" is equally descriptive in both its ancient and modern sense of the character of Ethelred. This unfortunate King was quite incapable of dealing with either the dangers which threatened the land within, or the revival of the pirate Danish invasions from without. So great a reputation for strength and courage had the previous Kings of England enjoyed, that the Norsemen had avoided the country for many years, preferring to harass the dominions of less resolute monarchs. But now that the throne was occupied by one of such notorious incapacity as Ethelred, they once more turned their attention to these shores.
Unable to exercise any control over those subjects charged with the responsibility of defending the coasts, Ethelred was forced to adopt the fatal expedient of bribing the Norsemen to discontinue their attacks. This catastrophic policy only encouraged the Danes to further onslaughts, and the King decided upon another and still more calamitous line of action. On St. Brice's Day, 1002, he caused all the Danes resident in England, most of whom were peaceable citizens who had been here for many years, to be slaughtered in cold blood. Unfortunately for him, among the victims was the sister of Sweyn, King of Denmark, and from henceforth Ethelred was no longer faced with the isolated raids of pirate bands, but the organised attack of the whole strength of Denmark. City after city fell until eventually in the campaign of 1013 London itself, which had always held out against the most desperate attacks, surrendered.
The loss of the capital forced Ethelred to flee to Normandy and Sweyn was chosen as his successor. But Sweyn died before taking his place on the throne and there was considerable opposition to his son, Canute.
Encouraged by this, Ethelred returned from abroad and a condition of civil war prevailed until his death in 1016. In the place of Ethelred his supporters chose his son Edmund Ironside, but, although he displayed all those qualities so sadly lacking in his father, he was unable to hold out against Canute and was forced to come to terms with the Dane. They divided the country between them, but before Edmund had a chance to demonstrate his skill as a ruler he was murdered by a follower and his subjects chose to be ruled by Canute.
Canute was a wise and able ruler, and, had his successors been more gifted than they were, might have been the founder of a great Northern Empire, for his dominions included Denmark, Norway, Iceland and parts of Ireland, as well as Britain itself. He was, to all intents and purposes, the first King of England to be crowned in this millennium.
I was very lucky earlier in the year to receive two complimentary tickets from Peter Francis to visit the Clay Pigeon Kart Club Raceway at Wardon Hill on the A37. But it wasn't until recently that I had the chance to use the tickets, and I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed both occasions. At the most recent one in November, there were thirty-one races covering six classes of kart, the first twenty-two were heats and the rest were finals, with a total of thirty-five trophies available to be won. The marshalling and Organisation of the races is first class, with the emphasis at all times on the safety of those taking part; each meeting is held under the General Regulations of the RAC Motor Sport Association Ltd. Being an avid fan of Formula 1, I thought that karting would be a bit tame, but the speeds that the karts attain and the short, tight circuit makes for some exciting racing, especially when the finals take place. As I write this piece, I can still remember the distinctive odour given off by the karts' exhausts as they accelerate past the paddock in two lines, bumper-to-bumper on their way down to the first corner. Thank you, Peter, for a couple of very special days out.
I think it would be remiss of me not to comment on the recent decision by the East Dorset District Council's planning committee to approve the planning application for a telecommunications mast at Cobley. I cannot believe that the Council would ignore its own stated commitment to our AONB and approve such an application. When the application came up last year, the East Dorset District Council refused it and concluded "this proposal would be contrary to one of the primary objectives of the AONB which is the conservation and enhancement of the natural beauty and local character of the area. The proposal also conflicts with Policy 6.93 of The East Dorset Local Plan (Deposit)..."
Only a small part of the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs AONB comes into the area governed by the East Dorset District Council but policy 6.93 of the District Local Plan includes the following: -
"Within the AONB .... the special qualities of the landscape will be protected and enhanced by conservation, management and other measures. "Development proposals, including changes of use, will be permitted where the type, siting and scale of development are sympathetic to and would enhance or maintain the natural beauty and character of the AONB in general and of the particular locality..."
Policy 6.93 has quite obviously been set aside by this planning decision, and I wonder how many more policies will be discarded by the District Council before the District Local Plan goes to the Public Inquiry. Indeed, how can we trust the District Council to stick to any policy even after the District Local Plan has been approved?