Noah where are you

The world may not have ended yesterday, but it certainly feels like the second flood is upon us. The Inny, which is usually a timid little river, has become a raging torrent. This is only the second time in 20 years that I have seen this meadow flooded. It does clean and scour the meadows and I guess lays down some fresh silt. The high volume of water created the standing waves seen in the bottom photo.For some comparison with quieter times it is worth browsing through the pictures linked to the Inny label below.When I looked through them today it made me realise what a wonderful rich little place this is and how much pleasure it gives me

Red robert

Herb robert on the edge of the bridge at Beals Mill. It shows the rich red for which the plant was named (see previous page on blog). The lichens are probably as ancient as the bridge which looks medieval.

Oscar's great adventure

Sometimes, just occasionally, something out of the ordinary happens. Today for the first time for a while we went for a walk along the Inny. It was cold and frosty and this makes the walk much easier where the cattle have churned up the ground. As we walked through the long meadow I could hear a dog barking in the woods, nothing much unusual in that. We went on to the little ruined cottage to see if there were any snowdrops out (there were indeed). There were also some frost flowers on fallen twigs.

As I walked up to the ruined pigsty behind the cottage to look for more snowdrops (see above) I could still hear the dog barking. "Odd" I thought. I decided to walk back along a track above the meadow to see if I could discover what was going on. I realised I had walked past the nearest point to the dog, but there was no sign of it which, if you know dogs, you will appreciate is unusually unsociable. So we back tracked, and then eventually up a little fork in the track I could see a little brown coat, but not moving. we walked up to the spot and there was a little long haired terrier seemingly tied down very firmly to a variety of root stubs and bits of undergrowth (see link for google map to get an idea of how isolated this place was). Cold and somewhat subdued the terrier was very pleased to see us even if he was dwarfed by two lurchers and a collie. I was very puzzled by this situation. It looked as if he had been tied up deliberately while his owner went off to shoot pigeons or some such. I couldn't leave him there though in case he had been abandoned, or his owner had dropped dead in the woods. After hollering for some time with no response, I disentangled his chain, and we slowly made our way back to Beals Mill.

Oscar plus chain

He was obviously very thirsty. When we got to Beals Mill we asked the owner (Mr Page, ex RM) of the fearsome pack of dachshunds if any one had lost a dog. He told me he had thought he had heard a dog barking in the woods over the previous two nights. Now, in these situations there is only one place to go, the village post office at Stoke Climsland. So we drove there (with found dog sitting in my lap gazing adoringly at me). Lo and behold only that morning someone had been in to put up a notice with information about a terrier called Oscar who had gone missing three days earlier. A quick phone call and a five minute drive and Oscar was reunited with his owner, Sally (strangely enough next door to the house where Cassie was born and Bracken still lives). It seems he had done a runner plus chain on Friday evening. How on earth he had got two miles or so through heavy undergrowth, meadows, woods, fences and streams with 15 feet of chain trailing behind him is anybody's guess. Maybe there is a shorter safer route to the spot where I found him.

Oscar reunited

Several things come out of this tale. Terriers are determined little dogs and nothing is going to stop them going for a ramble. Lurchers are very friendly to other dogs in distress. Oscar is very lucky it was a frosty morning. The post office is the centre of our social network. Always ask at the Post Office! Clean your lens before taking photos.

black legs, bluebells and trout

It has been very warm weather this weekend and the bluebells in our woods are at their peak. And, for the very first time we have actually managed to photograph a brown trout in the Inny.
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Waiting for one of these (a demoiselle or blue agrion) to land on its head.


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more progress at Beal's Mill

and now the joists are up, and the new flood barrier is looking good. New owners' daughter was almost swallowed up by the mud but was rescued with the loss of only one boot.

beals mill

meanwhile, back at the mill there has been some progress (again see earlier pictures by clicking on the label for Beals Mill). The foreman on the site told me that there is evidence of buildings even earlier than the twelfth century, so there may have been a mill on this site for more than a thousand years. I wonder how long it will be before it becomes a mill once more.

slow progress down at mill

slowly but surely (see earlier pics) the ruins of the old mill are disappearing as a new house emerges like an exoskeleton around it. The lower photograph shows the old leat (it looks Victorian) emerging from underneath the old mill. It shows how much goes on underneath our feet.

more coming down at the mill

I had an interesting conversation today with someone who knows about old mills. Beals Mill dates back to at least the twelfth century, with evidence of the oldest building in the foundations below the level defined by the arch with slates and a keystone (toolbox somewhat later). The plan is to incorporate the walls of the mill into a new house to be built on the site. The bridge (on the extreme left of the top picture) is now just visible from the lane behind the mill.

inside the old mill

mysterious machinery lurking in the heart of the old mill at Beals Mill.

demolition works

industrial archaeology reveals the original mill (to the left) underneath the monstrous corrugated iron carbuncle at Beals Mill. Very soon the little cottages in the shadow of this great hulk will be bathed in light again ...we will keep an eye on the progress of the demolition work.