Sunday 21 August 2011

Fields in UK and fields over the pond compared 36



@jddoerr Plainview, Nebraska
I was looking on your link and was amazed  at how straight the roads are and how round the fields are.
Its totally different here in UK.
Fields had been laid out hundreds of years ago with a ditch for the boundaries and a hedge planted on top of the spoil, roads and lanes followed the contours of the fields and twist and turn.

In the picture below the road into the village comes from the left to a corner with a farm track heading top right, main road comes toward the old church of St Chads, corner again to the right and the rest of the village


That is my field top left its about 11 acres, I went in with the tractor and topper and wrote an advert in it in 30 foot letters "Seighford Village Fete 12 July 1pm"  . A light aircraft spotted it, and a big photo appeared in the local press. Not often you get a free advertisement  for our small event.

Same field in the picture below with all the large and small fields all shapes and sizes, in the distance is my neighbours farm and his lane and track winding its way from the road below.
A small wood, or Fox Covert top left with varying sizes of ponds and springs in most fields, and hedge row trees mostly of Oak and Ash
That is some of my cattle in a group bottom left corner of picture



It's been illegal to root out hedge rows for 20 or more years now, so were stuck with all these odd shaped fields, we are paid by  goverment schemes to plant up any gappy hedges, and trim them every other year, to retain berries for the birds to eat over winter.

I must emphasize that there are a lot of bigger fields in other arable areas where they managed to  grub out hedges (before the ban) for the bigger eqipment and big combines to work more efficiently.

Will post some more pictures of the village in later blogs