Now we’ve had a few frosts and even some flurries of snow, its good to look back on the Summer. On what was probably the hottest and most humid day of the year, I joined a small band of artists from Participate Contemporary Artspace for a walk starting from the car park by the Llangollen Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal.
We had been permitted access to the Furber’s Breaker’s Yard, which I had seen from a distance on previous visits. It was a forbidding place and I was always curious how such a monstrous eyesore could ever have developed next to one of Britain’s largest peat bogs and a site of major natural significance.
After 50 years of operation, the breaker’s yard has recently been taken into the ownership of Shropshire Wildlife Trust so that it may be restored to nature as part of the Marches Mosses or, more specifically, Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses. Shropshire Wildlife Trust is working very closely with Natural England and Natural Resources Wales to develop and deliver restoration plans.
There is some information on Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses National Nature Reserve here and from Natural England here. The Mosses straddle the Welsh and English border, and there is a feeling of being at the edge of the land. The landscape has many rare flora and fauna, and it has a particular haunting atmosphere that I am attracted to. It is worth visiting in all seasons.
The scrapyard site has been cleared of most of the cars, but there were some 100,000 tyres remaining in huge piles. And on close inspection, much of the 6 hectares was covered with a scattering of pulverised fragments of metal, plastic and other vehicular materials.
We had a good wander around, taking in the atmosphere.
Black rubber cascades
Engulf this delicate land
Slender stems rising
Smashed fragments glisten
Tokens of dreams subsiding
Old codes turn to rust
We left the scrapyard, and followed the canal to the junction with the Prees Branch of the Ellesmere Canal. We then zigzagged south and west via Moss Farm and Moss Lane into Bettisfield Moss. At first, we passed along beautiful grassy pathways through woodland.
And then we reached the open wetland of the Moss. The land is quite flat, and in some places it becomes difficult to get bearings and sense of direction. We were unable to make a circular route and had to return to the original path into the Moss.
It doesn’t take long to notice the biodiversity though.
Heat hangs heavily
Over quivering parched grass
Dragonflies darting
At the time, I resolved to create some artworks to document the walk in some way, but time has flown with busy activities, and it is only now that I am reviewing these photographs, and thinking about what to make. I’m starting with some drawings which could lead into some paintings and a small book. Watch out for that sometime soon.
No Time Like the Present 