And did those feet?

And did those feet in ancient time, walk upon England's mountains green? You bet they did, and they left plenty of traces of their passing by too. England's quite small really, so it's no surprise that the landscape is so abundant in the relics of foregone times. Again today we found ourselves walking the rural byways of Dorset and as if to perfectly illustrate my opening statement, through time. We parked up at the Kingston Lacy end of the 700 tree Beech Avenue created in 1835; past the Bronze Age round barrows of King Down (above); on past a really rare Romano-British barrow (35m diameter and 6m high, surrounded by a partially filled ditch); on past the architecturally fantastic farm buildings of Hemsworth with it's origins in the 16th century; past the earthen remains of a an earlier medieval settlement, listed as Hemedeswordes in the Doomsday Book; past the site of a 4th Century Roman Villa famed for it's fine mosaics; past woodland hiding the foundations of wartime accommodation; across the World War Two airfield of Tarrant Rushton from where, on D-Day, the gliders took off for the famous attack on Pegasus Bridge, the first allied troop in occupied Europe; along the Ackling Dyke Roman Road; below the ramparts of the majestic Iron Age hillfort of the Durotriges, Badbury Rings; and finally back to where we began. And that doesn't take into account the history I don't know, or that which remains hidden. A real walk through time I'm sure you'd agree.    

Tarrant Rushton

What a glorious day for walking, I was out trampling the paths and tracks around Tarrant Rushton this afternoon. All around are the signs that Spring's imminent, catkins, forming buds, green shoots, they're all appearing in abundance. In Sing Close Coppice the brick and concrete remains of the Nissen hut foundations of dispersed site 5 (probably an accommodation site) are islands in seas of Snowdrops. Snowdrops have really come into their own of late, most of the woodlands around here have swathes of them, and many of the wooded footpaths are lined in clean white flowers. There are signs of the next wave of flowers too, as the Bluebell shoots become increasingly numerous. Tarrant Rushton was a big wartime airfield, made noteworthy by being the airfield from which the six Horsa gliders that famously attacked Pegasus Bridge on the morning of DDay took off from, and the remains of its dispersed sites litter the woodlands and fields. As the years go by though, apart from a couple of the large hangers, the signs of Tarrant Rushton's aviation past fade as they're consumed by nature. Leave litter forms a purchase for flora and shrub on the low foundations, and year on year they get harder to spot, although the trackways between these sites often fare better, and their wartime heritage is easy to see. 

More ''44''

I do like a nice piece of graffiti, and have a particular fondness for war period graffiti, especially American, so far from home, and all that.  I came a cross two examples today whilst walking one side of the Beech avenue which runs past Badbury Rings, one merely said 'USA' and then this one USA ''44''. If there's a date ascribed to American wartime graffiti I've come across it'll always be ''44''. The American army first arrived in 1942, though it was late 1943 into early 1944 that huge numbers massed in preparation for DDay.  Dorset having two embarkation harbours, one being Weymouth, where the Americans embarked for Omaha Beach saw huge numbers pass through in early 1944. Was the scribe in this case one of those who crashed on to 'Bloody Omaha', and did he survive the war? Did he return home with fond memories of the England he visited?