Saturday 27 April 2013

5 of us spent another day surveying field walls  along Low Lane. We started at Water Lane (the footpath which goes off the road towards Eastby) and split into two teams, recording the walls on both sides of the road, finishing by the end of the day at the boundary with Halton East. 

Particularly interesting features that we recorded along the way were the pole gatepost which had probably been removed from its original location and is now acting as an anchor for the end of a wood and wire fence. Unfortunately it lies outside the National Park boundary so we can't submit the details for the Park's Feature of the Season database. But we have recorded it in detail. The variety of gateposts is really becoming quite interesting and we shall be producing a page for the UWHG website on the different types of gateposts that we find across the parish. Also of particular interest was the cast iron water trough we found set down into the ground, the remains of a structure which may have been a small barn or large animal enclosure, a beautifully built stone culvert running under the road, and an intriguing stone-revetted bank which runs behind an old thorn hedge. All things which we have driven past in the car hundreds of times without ever noticing before. 



On the way home we were careful not to disturb the duck in her nest in the roadside verge - let's hope her poor choice of nesting site doesn't prove disastrous when she hatches her ducklings. 

Jane Lunnon