Cranborne

Walking through Cranborne can feel like walking back through time, it wouldn't surprise you if a horse drawn haywain or pre-war tractor appeared around the corner of a hedgerow or emerged from a sunken drove. There's something timeless and ancient about the land. I think it's that it embodies every aspect of what we traditionally define as the English rural landscape; sweeping grassland escarpments dotted with sheep, hidden wooded valleys brimming with game birds, ploughed fields, thick hedgerows, sunken tree lined droves and deer silhouetted on the horizon. The heavily carved ancient beech which line the Faulston drove as it climbs out Bishopstone and the Ebble Valley confirm reinforce the idea of this being old land. Graffiti on the trees celebrate loves, holiday visits and all manner of life's events and memories, as well as historic events, the silver jubilee of George the 5th and the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, right up to more recent scribblings. This landscape has seen life in all it's shades. The drove itself will be of ancient date, nearby medieval strip lytchets and even older field systems can still be seen, as can the even older barrows, long and round, which hold the remains of the oldest inhabitants of this place. Like I say, a timeless and ancient land where if you look you can glimpse history.