The Lone Pine - Aylesbeare

Aylesbeare Common

Anyone who has been around this blog for long enough might remember this tree, photos of which I put up here back in 2009. The tree, being right on the skyline of Aylesbeare Common, was used as a marker for navigational purposes by the sailors of old and was known as The Lone Pine. It died a long time ago but remained standing for many years and was planned to be felled, then a note was found attached to it stating that the person who felled the tree would be cursed. The note was signed at the bottom by The White Witches of Aylesbeare. The tree fell of its own accord a few years ago, leaving this tall and lovely guardian stump, reminiscent of a solitary standing stone.

Certain plant species become dominant each year, depending on what happens with the weather. This year we had about two or three months of continual rain and these particular cotton grasses have done very well and are scattered across the common as occasional white clouds.

This photo shows some of how wet it is up here. The heath has become boglike in places and this amount of water coupled with the fact that much of the common is divided by an electric fence to contain cattle in a grazing experiment means that paths are blocked, so I have to turn around and back many times and I also get very wet feet. I stopped off here a few weeks ago and it was pouring with rain, but by then it had rained so much and so often that I got to the point where waiting for the rain to stop became pointless, and things had to be done whether it was raining or not.

Unfortunately I have become suspicious of the rain now and it isn't such a pleasant experience to be out in it as it used to be. I was working outside in the rain in the weeks after the Chenobyl disaster in 1986 and the government and the news were saying everything was ok and that there was nothing to worry about. I could see on the weather forecast which way the wind was blowing but what can you do about it? I pulled my hat further down over my face and turned the collar of my coat up.

Many trees have just been taken from Higher Peak and this is my first glimpse of it since the felling. We'll go up there in a bit and see what the view is like. It hasn't been seen for about sixty years or more and I'll be interested to see if there are any alignments visible from there.

Aylesbeare Common

I get off the bus on Aylesbeare Common, a couple of miles outside of Aylesbeare village to have a short detour from my main walk, which will be walking back over the distant hills into town.

Aylesbeare (pop.527) is only famous in this country for one thing and that is the disappearance on 19th August 1978 of Genette Tate http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/news_features/2003/genette_tate_25.shtml when she went missing aged 13 whilst delivering newspapers. Her bicycle and scattered newspapers were found lying in the middle of a country lane only minutes after she had been speaking to two friends. Her story was all over the newspapers at the time and still turns up sometimes, although her disappearance remains a mystery and is unsolved, unfortunately.

I am here in the middle of nowhere to take a look at the tumuli which are marked on the map as being around here somewhere. Actually they turn out to be really easy to find and are very close to the main road indeed. It is strange to think that the bus that I travel to work on and all the traffic that hurtles past this spot are within spitting distance of these tumuli which remain largely ignored by folk here. I myself have hurtled past these tumuli, not knowing of their existence until I was browsing the map one day and spotted them. To find these things all you need is a local map and a bit of curiosity although it does help that there are lots of these things around here. I have in years past found similar mounds hidden in woodland which were not marked on any map which I suppose must mean that they are still undiscovered.

I like to stand on them and survey the countryside around to see in what way they might relate to the landscape, markers on distant hills, gaps in hills, prominent trees, stones etc. and this facility is good here as the tumuli have been recently cleared of growth. This is quite unusual as most are left to grow over and so it is a good opportunity to have a look at the unadorned shape of the tumuli and also their possible relationship to the surrounding landscape.

On the next nearest mound stands the remains of a very large tree. This tree, being right on the skyline of Aylesbeare Common was used as a marker for navigational purposes by the sailors of old and was known as The Lone Pine. The tree which though dead remained standing for many years was planned to be felled but a note was found attached to the tree stating that the person who felled the tree would be cursed, the note being signed at the bottom by The White Witches of Aylesbeare. The tree fell of its own accord a few years ago leaving a tall and lovely shaped guardian stump.

Anyway, I take some photographs and must get on. It is a long walk back and the walking hasn't even really started properly yet. The photo's shown here are partly from my second visit, but in the next posting there will be photo's from the remaining part of the original walk in which I have the immense pleasure of seeing the route back from here for the very first time.