I was fascinated to discover in the parish archives recently a letter from a Blandford Town councillor living at 18 Market Place, Blandford – now a clothing store with a firm of accountants on the first floor. The letter, dated 24th of February, 1898, was addressed to Handley Parish Council and referred to “A Proposed Railway Salisbury, Blandford & Weymouth”. Although the letter is difficult to read in places, I have tried to reproduce it here as accurately as possible:-
“Dear Sir
The Blandford Town Council and The Farmers Club, and Milborne St Andrews
Farmers Club have petitioned the Great Western Railway Co in this matter and it is most
necessary to bring as much pressure to bear, as possible, to induce them to take it up.
Will you bring the subject before your Council and get all the Ratepayers you can, to sign
the enclosed petition, to return to me before March 10th?
Or if preferred sent direct to G.W.R. & Co and intimate same to me.
I need hardly point out that a great saving in cost of transit must be effected for all
Agricultural produce if the Railway can be secured.
I am
Yours truly
CH Curtis Town Councillor.”
There was no response to this letter in the archives and therefore it is difficult to determine how the parish council viewed the petition. Clearly no railway was built between Salisbury and Blandford, and I am sure this was partly due to the engineering problems GWR would have encountered crossing the 23 miles of hills and downs - and the Romans weren’t around in those days to help. But had it been built it is difficult to imagine what Sixpenny Handley would look like today, and indeed how the whole area would have been transformed.
The delivery of Council Tax bills prompted me to look once again at the old parish documents, and I discovered that the parish precept for 1896 was £20, and not all that was spent. This compares with the recent bill to council tax payers of £17,500 for the parish in 2004. Incidentally, for those supporting the Is It Fair campaign, the latest bill brings the total increase in council tax over the last seven years to 77%. I cannot think of anything else affecting my disposable income that has risen by such a high percentage in this period.
I also came across a map in the archives of the Sixpenny Handley Recreation Ground showing the extent of the land given to the parish; “land to remain in community use”. This also included the large grass area beside the School. I was surprised to see that, when compared with current maps, some 2700 square metres of land had been lost at the eastern end of the Ground. I could find no explanation in the archives to account for the missing area, and so I’d be interested to hear from anyone connected with the parish about how and why this land was re-allocated.
The Parish Council have asked me to raise the question of the BT telephone box at the Cobley Lane turning in East Woodyates. There have been many occasions over the last few years when the phone box has been out of order or the phone has been missing completely. This has done nothing but aggravate the people who stop to use the phone only to find the facilities not available. If anyone in the parishes, specifically anyone from East Woodyates, thinks it is worth while keeping the telephone box, please contact me accordingly.
A Tender Heart
Take a good sized tender heart, extract all seeds of selfishness. Proceed to stuff with 1lb
crumbs comfort.
1 quart of milk of human kindness and happiness, some good dripping from the eaves of
loves dwelling.
Blend all these well with a little of the oil of time.
To mellow and soften place the heart on a warm hearth with loves rays full on it adding to
the light of other days.
Move it now and then but do not probe it, keep the world’s cold blasts from it if possible
but do not allow it to be absorbed in its own juices.
It will take time to prepare but when ready is fit for King or peasant being welcome at any
table.
To make a good sauce for the heart take a pint or more of good spirits, a few honeyed
words and add a little cream of society (This is not necessary but it can improve the
flavour).
Carefully avoid cold water, vinegar and acidity in any form.
The above will then keep for years.
When I sat down last night to write about the happenings, here in Woodcutts, of the past two months, I suddenly thought whatever am I going to say? However, once started I began to realise that during this period an awful lot had occurred. In fact, now that I am committing my thoughts to paper, or rather the computer screen, I am beginning to wonder how I am going to get everything in. Although I don’t like mentioning snow, frost, cold rain, I am afraid I have to, to get the rest of nature in perspective.
The two sessions of snow and the frosts since Christmas, have slowed up the natural events of our calendar. For instance the violets are some days later this year compared with last. I saw blue violets on the common some three weeks ago, but they did not appear to be enjoying life. Three days afterwards white violets were out in Woodcutts, but it was quite an inferior show. However they have improved wonderfully since then, and there is an abundance of large white flowers. Thinking back, the snowdrops were also off to a slow start but have put on a wonderful show since, especially in the churchyard and well into the third week of March they are just going over. Another flower to be rather shy this year is the primrose, there are plenty of leaves showing but there appears to be a reluctance to produce flowers in profundity yet. No doubt in their turn they will be there to brighten up the countryside, and us as a result. An exception to the rule this year seems to be the celandine, in places it seems to have been as early as normal, although my indicator patch was destroyed by the very late working of a hedge and verge cutter. In fact there appeared to be quite a lot of late hedge cutting taking place this year, this could be quite serious if birds are nesting. In fact, on the way up to Guildford last week a hedge cutter was seen working on a hedge row of hawthorn already in leaf. Also conspicuous was the blackthorn in flower, not just occasionally but everywhere north of Winchester.
Obviously the cold snaps weren’t too serious. In fact insect life is abundant, with a ladybird being spotted on the grass yesterday, March 15th. Also butterflies are flying, particularly the peacock, as are several moth species including the heart and dart. Obviously they all found warm resting places as refuges during the cold spells.
A good, active, insect presence bodes well for small birds, who are in abundance and noisily and busily search the highways and bye ways of Woodcutts. Last week three siskins were seen on the lawn of the cottage at the end of the lane. These birds are quite rare here, coming down from the north when food is short. Their natural habitat is conifer woodland, and thank goodness there isn’t much around here. Conifers generally don’t enjoy calcareous soils, such as ours, it is a great pity that there is one exception to the rule, the leylandii. I suppose they are useful for birds to roost in.
Returning to birds, I must tell you about one Meg brought to my attention about ten days ago. It is definitely a Cock Robin, it’s colouring tells you that, but it is enormous, being about half as big again as the norm. At first I thought I was seeing things, but he has been around a lot since. Everything seems to be bigger and better around here. For instance the deer herds are getting larger and larger, the one ranging the land south of here but north of the common, has reached twenty-seven in number. A wonderful sight no doubt, but to the farmers whose winter cereals they graze, it isn’t quite so beneficial. In days gone by, stock particularly sheep were used to graze winter cereals. The object was to eat the main stem so that the plant in defence produced several new shoots. This meant that at harvest time each plant had more than one ear of grain. Unfortunately when deer graze they cannot be taken off and put elsewhere as is the case with sheep. Their continuous grazing can cause the cereal plants to continuously produce leaves and not have the energy left to produce an ear of grain.
You might not think this is serious, but I am afraid it can be for the farmer. An individual could easily have his harvest reduced by 20%, on a twenty acre plot with an expected average yield of three tonnes per acre, (ten tonnes per hectare) with wheat fetching a hundred pounds per tonne, this amounts to a loss of £30 per acre or £600 over the whole field. On an acreage basis, or even as a field this doesn’t sound much, but for a farmer with one thousand acres the gross loss would be £30,000.
So you see everything comes at a cost. However the fact that the deer graze down cereals to ground level make it easier for rabbits and hares to move in, perhaps another plus for the nature watcher, but for the corn another serious problem since the area becomes very suitable for the pigeon flocks to move in on and feed. Who would be a farmer?
There are great losses to be made in the countryside, but of course there are great savings to be made too. It is about one loss/gain situation that I would like to talk about now. It concerns those with gardens or allotments. There is a natural cycle of nutrients in the growing world. Plants in the natural state, i.e. away from human influence get there nourishment from the soil, water and air, grow, fruit, die and decay and they become the nutrients for new plant life. Man in his wisdom becomes part of the system and buys in from outside, huge amounts of fertilisers, composts mulches etc. (I apologise to people like Sue and other providers of these products.) but this situation is environmentally harmful and certainly unsustainable. Furthermore garden “WASTE” is bagged up put into the car and taken to points for collection to eventually find its way to landfill sites.
This cannot continue indefinitely. Firstly the transportation uses up fossil fuels and in doing so produces huge amounts of greenhouse gases in the form of carbon dioxide and water vapour. Secondly once buried in the landfill site instead of normal break down, as where there is plenty of air; anaerobic organisms break down the grass cuttings, soft weeds, the hedge trimmings, prunings, vegetable waste, dead plants and unwanted flowers producing another powerful greenhouse gas, methane.
What is he on about? I hear you asking. Well I am trying to convince one and all, that there should be a Sixpenny Handley Recycling Centre, for all unwanted, organic material produced in the village. This would mean no transportation of garden rubbish to distant sites, no loss of valuable nutrients from the village gardens and every chance of the buying back of useful compost and possibly mulches.
The system won’t run itself, there has to be a suitable site; initially there will be need of cash to prepare the site, buy materials, pay for insurance etc. but grants are available and of course there has to be a human input. Initially the machinery required will be a small tractor with loader, (already available and at no cost apart from fuel), and plenty of forks with willing engines.
If you are wondering why I am interested since I don’t live in the village, there is a simple explanation. I am obviously interested in environmental matters, as those who come into contact with me know. Because of this I have been doing an environmental course with the O.U., which is due to finish this year. Part, in fact most, of this years work relates to a project which I have to write up. I would like this project to be the building of a village recycling system of organic matter, in your village of Sixpenny Handley. I am not sure whether it will be to the village’s advantage or not to have it written up, but the final document will be produced for the web.
God bless you all.