Along the drove roads

[puddleshark]

West of Wimborne, the Stour Valley is crisscrossed with old drove roads, some of them gravel tracks, and some of them green lanes (or lanes of mud, depending on the time of year). They are not spectacular from a photographic point of view: flat tracks running between high hedges. But they are a quiet place to walk in winter, sheltered from bitter north-easterly winds.




Kingston Lacy Drove, running along the edge of the parkland belonging to Kingston Lacy House. The hedges white with the wispy seeds of Clematis vitalba, 'Old Man's Beard'. Blue-tits scolding and chaffinches calling 'Pink!' from the bare branches of the trees.

From the drove, onto a muddy green lane southwards to the River Stour, and from there along a tarmac lane to White Mill. A very boring tarmac lane, hedges to either side ruthlessly trimmed to form straight lines, without a berry left for the birds. And behind the hedges, a very boring landscape of pasture, all the vivid uniform green produced by nitrogen fertilizer.


It is a very impressive sign, but I think it would benefit from the addition of a few weeds wild flowers.

Had to stop briefly and wait for a convoy of a dozen landrovers and pick-up trucks to exit a side-road, all of them full of people wearing green tweed, presumably on their way to give the local pheasant population a hard time. (Found myself wondering: are you allowed to shoot pheasants if you aren't wearing green tweed? Would the pheasants be upset?)


White Mill, dated 1776.


White Mill Bridge. Early 19th century, with triangular cutwaters. It is a beautiful bridge, but really hard to photograph, especially at this time of year, with the sun so low.






Sign probably from around the 1830s, when Dorset was a hotbed of unrest, with starving agricultural labourers burning ricks & smashing threshing machines. Not to mention attempting to form Trade Unions.

Another short stretch of rather grim tarmac lane, this one running through kale fields, before I could turn back onto the drove roads again, and complete the circuit.


Sweetbrier Drove.