| Partly cloudy and warm, with strong following wind |
| Distance covered today: 21.9km ( 13.6mi) |
| Last night's B&B: Corfield House |
| % Complete: Cumulative distance: 52.6%: 85.2km |
| GPS satellite track of today's route: Day 4 (click!) |
Agriculture in Norfolk has a long history. The Romans were relative newcomers, and it
appears they were a bit pushy. They set up the first huge estates to grow wheat
as well as barley, rye, oats and other crops. Way before them, back in Neolithic
times, 5,000 years ago, East Anglia was already farming country. By 1,000 BC, Bronze Age farmers were living
with herds of domesticated animals, ploughing fields and planting hedges. By
the 17th century, social pressures, early industrialisation and
simple exhaustion of the soil caused many villages to decline and even to
disappear. Land enclosure led to ever larger estates and more intensive
farming. Thomas Coke invented the practice of four-course crop rotation, which
increased yields and reduced pests and plant disease. Farmers spread manure from their livestock
and mined marl and clay to fertilise their crops. More recently, the great scientific and
technological innovations of the modern age have revolutionised the entire
business of farming. The use of GPS
equipment and satellite imagery precisely to calculate where fertilizers and
pesticides are required is now ubiquitous.
The next major change will undoubtedly be the use of genetically
modified (GM) crops. Amidst all this astonishing technological progress, and
against a background of rising populations, increasing wealth and looming food
shortages, it is astounding that Europeans have been so resolute in their
opposition to GM. Some of the objections seem to me to be almost matters of
principle rather than of science. As the
scientific arguments gradually strengthen, it seems increasingly as if the
objectors are objecting more to the industrialisation of agriculture than to
the potential of the science to do harm. Expect them to lose the argument. GM
will come and it will make an enormous difference.
As I wandered along
the arrow-straight path of the ancient Peddars Way, looking at the complete
domination by industrialised agriculture of the countryside, I could at least
sympathise with the objectors. I saw one
field where the managers are already irrigating, in early April!! We have just come out of the worst floods in
history, hardly a month ago, and they are already irrigating! No doubt, because a satellite somewhere and a
few soil samples told them to get on with it, and so gargantuan machines march
across the land dispensing water at just the right volume in just the right
places to support germination, and the cost-benefit calculation is satisfied.
This is not farming at a human scale. It is so completely different to the sort of
farming that takes place across the rest of the UK, that it is no wonder that people
feel alienated and intimidated. Most people know that this sort of thing goes
on in the Mid-West, in Canada, even in the Ukraine on a slightly less
technologically advanced basis, but it is the proximity to middle England that
provides the contrast and creates the concern. People will continue to worry, to
distrust large multinationals, and to hanker after organics, but against that,
the economics will be overwhelming. The methodology will intensify, the science
will advance, the scale will expand and the profits will flow.
It was almost with relief that I eventually left the Peddars
Way to make for my night’s accommodation on the coast at Hunstanton. I had determined that there was a back route
through the Ringstead Downs Nature Reserve, and it turned out to be delightful;
scenically the best bit of the trip so far. At last there were hills, flowers,
birds and best of all, a lovely grass covered and springy surface on which to
cushion tortured feet. I do not regret
in any way doing the Peddars Way, but I would argue that one should do it for
the exercise, rather than the environment. If it is the latter you are after,
then there are better places to go. Tomorrow I embark on the North Norfolk
Coastal Path. The contrast will be interesting.
Tonight I am looking forward very much to meeting my good
friend Vivian and his son Richard, who will walk the next leg with me.
Unfortunately, those who have followed my blogs for some time will know that I believe
it doesn’t rain in England; it only rains on the English. Vivian of course, is
English.
Sure enough, the forecast for tomorrow is abysmal!!!
Straight ahead on the Roman Road
Irrigation in early April
At last a field lying fallow, and sure enough skylarks and lapwings, though too far away for the camera to pick them out
Straight ahead......
As the only walker on the Peddars Way, I assumed this was for my benefit. Where's the invoice?
Straight ahead!
Industrialised pig farming! Where is Tom Archer when you need him?
Ah! So now the Queen is working for my benefit. Very kind!
Straight ahead!
At last!! Four fellow travellers on the Way! All ladies. We greeted each other with joy!
Straight ahead.....
Slightly curved, but basically, straight ahead
Straight ahead....
At last, some hills, but the huge fields and their uniform crops are unchanged
Seven motorcycles! Well, at least it made a change!
By now, the landscape was becoming attractively hilly as I approached the coast
I met the ladies a second time, after they had leap-frogged me while I was off exploring and having lunch
Sedgeford Magazine, built as an armoury or powder store in 1640
Another vast, flint-strewn field awaiting germination
Civilisation approaches at the quaint little village of Ringstead
Ringstead Pond
The distinctive gingery carstone of North-West Norfolk contrasts with the more common flint used elsewhere
A lovely entrance in the sunshine
Approaching Ringstead Downs Nature Park
Here I met Dodger, a cross Staffie-Boxer. A rescue dog, originally called Spike, he was taken from last-chance saloon at the RSPCA, and really took some training. He is now, apparently, delightful!
Hills carpeted with flowers in the reserve
Heading for Hunstanton
The sea!
It has never ceased to amaze me that a farmer with a machine can work the land to such a fine tilth before sowing. It is just as though he has carefully (and manually) worked a hand-rake over it, except for the stones, that is. they must really impact on loss of germination. You seem to be finding the endlessly straight path a tad boring? And dare I say that you are finding a dearth of wild flower varieties? Time to start studying the huge variety of burgeoning leaves...?
ReplyDeleteAs for GM crops, Princess Anne shares at least some of your views. She has been on the tv for much of this week with the beeb advertising her part in a programme I regularly watch called Countryfile. On this occasion the programme was based in part on her Gloucestershire estate, Gatcombe, where she breeds many rare-breed farm animals (including some horses) and farms the land. She feels that GM crops will have a part to play in feeding future populations, that its use is inevitable, necessary and viable.
She also suggests a return to the old practice of gassing badgers (in their sets), a measure for mass killing to reducing their ability to infect cattle with TB. This, following the hopelessly botched attempt to cull by shooting them with marksmen, which has probably made matters worse in the areas used, as the remaining members of a badger family will flee and spread much more widely, disease included.
Additionally she repeats a previous suggestion (she is patron to World Horse Welfare), that in order to improve the plight of valueless horses left to fend (starving) for themselves (a much-increasing problem in the UK such that it is possible to buy an animal for a fiver or less), that horsemeat should become a viable food in this country. She is, of course trying to be sensible. As a well-known horse-lover, her argument is up against the Great British Sentiment, which will probably not win her too much support. For myself, would I eat horsemeat? Yes. I probably would feel a bit sentimental about it, but then I have eaten meat from several very beautiful (and not!) animals in the past. But resolution of the subject, along with that of the badgers and GM crops, is fraught with difficulties, Sentiment being only one.
Appropriate that I should share a view on GM crops with Princess Anne so close to Sandringham Estate. Maybe she gazed over the same landscape as a child and came to the same opinion!
DeleteHow and what we eat and how we grow it as a species of 8 billion ... its too much for me.... But I would recommend The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.
ReplyDeleteMay your pathways be less straight on the morrow and forthcoming days.
Thank you, Richard, for the book recommendation. I will read it on my return home. I am now more concerned about the rain, than the straightness of the path! The wind too looks as if it will be strong! Tally ho!
DeleteIt's really great to see the Time to Walk blog alive again. Always an email notification to look forward to in the sea of what seem to be Linked-In inspired nonsensical invitations. Everyone a fascinating and insightful read. Well all I can say is that the Long Distance path bug is proving a little infectious. Next year I and a friend of very long standing (nearly 40 yrs) both turn 50. In fact both Andrew and I have walked independently with Kevin on the LEJOG enterprise. And we have decided to celebrate by walking the West Highland Way. So we have been delving into the Time to Walk archive - and are already booked up! Imitation perhaps is the sincerest form of flattery, but I am sure we will not manage the mastery of technology and observation that Time to Walk has come to represent. Keep on walking Kevin!
ReplyDeleteBest wishes Richard
Richard, what a compliment!! I'm delighted to hear your and Andrew's plans for the West Highland Way next year are coming together. You certainly have picked the right walk. I only hope you choose the right weather! Knowing you, it won't bother you too much! Thank you for the comment!
DeleteGood luck Richard and Andrew! I'm sure you'll enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteWhy were those women walkers always sitting down?!
ReplyDeleteVillage ponds are interesting. Yours from Ringstead looks a typical example. They were fed by a spring, ditch or small stream. Usually cattle drank from them, either on the way to market, new grazing or to be milked. Their tramping around in the pond raised the mud a mixed it around so that after their departure as the mud resettled, it filled any cracks so plugging any leaks, much as the paddies did for so many canal floors. Nowadays, the cattle are transported on wheels and never seen in the village pond. So many are drying up, refilling only in winter.
Because when they were walking, we were walking at roughly the same speed, but they needed to go at the tolerance level of their least fit member. Hence they needed lots of stops, which more or less coincided with my trips into the hinterland in quest of info or photos!
Delete