Sunday – Leominster – The sky is overcast. It is warm and there is just a hint of a breeze. The birds are quiet, even the Wood Pigeons seem muted. The wind is a little livelier down by the railway and the leaves on the riverside trees are rustling. A rabbit sits motionless below the bridge, there are more further down the old railway track. The water level in the River Lugg remains very low. On Easters Meadow an Ash tree has snapped off bringing down a large branch from a Black Poplar. The area between the path and the river is full of Himalayan Balsam. A large Stinging Nettle patch is entangled in Bindweed. Spiky heads of Burdock rise above it. A Wren bobs on the fence around Brightwells’ compound. Ragwort and Creeping Thistles are all running to seed. Rosebay Willowherb will follow shortly. Dock and umbellifers have long seeded and are dried out. The compound contains just a few trailers and an electric milk float. By the auction centre are vintage cars and lorries. Apart from micro moths, there have been no insects seen on the meadows. Yarrow is coming into flower. A Grey Wagtail picks insects off of the river surface.
The market is far smaller this week maybe people are worried about the potential rain. Large field at the end of the market is still covered in ripe wheat. One wonders if the threat of Storm Floris might mean that not harvesting it sooner will prove a mistake.
The River Lugg at Ridgemoor Bridge is very sluggish. The bed of the river looks like it is completely covered in mud and slime. Round Paradise Walk. The Kenwater is also very low but at least the bed of the river looks reasonably clean and there is some green on it. A mother Mallard waits patiently while her four ducklings dabble in the greenery on the edge of the river. A Greenfinch calls from the top of a tree behind the houses in Bridge Street; it can be barely heard above the sound of the bells.
Monday – Leominster – It is humid although a slight breeze is rising. Grey clouds are moving in a north easterly direction. We are waiting to see what happens with Storm Floris. Off down the street. By the time I am on the railway bridge the trees are shaking with a brisk wind. I pick some blackberries from beside the path along Lammas Meadow. Over the River Lugg. A Dipper flies upstream.
Along the path to the southern end of Easters Meadow. A Wood Mushroom grows in Ivy by the gate at Mosaic Bridge. Plants are already growing on the shingle bank that has appeared by the bridge. Rain is in the air. Into Easters Wood. Redshank, also known as Lady’s Thumb, Spotted Lady’s Thumb, Devil’s Pinches, Virgin Mary’s Pinch and Jesusplant on account of the black spot on its leaf supposedly caused by one of various people pinching it, grows along the path beside the large leaves of Butterbur. An occasional Gatekeeper butterfly passes. Great Willowherb is in large swathes but there is a Himalayan Balsam growing among them and that may soon crowd them out. I find another blackberry patch of decent number on it although they are well protected by Stinging Nettles I will pay for this later.
Back over the railway bridge. The Manchester train seems to be waiting for a green light. It moves off slowly then gets the go ahead.
Home – First thing this morning mainly rotting apples are cleared off of the chicken run roof, a particularly messy job. During the day the wind grows in strength. There is no public transport north from Carlisle and many trees are down in Scotland. The wind has brought down greengages. I start collecting them in a punnet but soon switch to a greengrocers plastic tray. Damsons will need gathering in a few days.
Tuesday – Home – The tray of greengages are de-stoned. There are just a few that have suffered from Plum Moth. The moth grubs clearly weaken the the fruit and they fall early, which explains the large number of infected fruits last week. The fruit are then turned into jam. I pick a number Large White caterpillars off the young purple sprouting. The Conference pear is a bit of a worry and the heavy crop gets heavier and the branches bend in an evermore alarming manner.
Leominster – The sky is overcast and there is still a wind blowing although Storm Floris has moved away. It only brought a strong wind here. Another Atlantic front is incoming. The Millennium orchard remains a mess, despite the work undertaken by a few of us to maintain the trees. The grass has not been cut all year, tall dead umbellifers are scattering seed everywhere. Millennium Park is not in much better condition. Either side of the path has been mowed but the rest of the area is succumbing to Stinging Nettles and umbellifers. Work still going on the refectory of the old priory, so most of Pinsley Mead is fenced off. A military jet roars over.
Into the churchyard. The crab apple tree has a good crop of deep red fruit. A tall Lawson Cypress, also known as Port Orford cedar, has many small, globose seed cones on its branches. An English Oak had a number of acorns with Knopper Galls, caused by the parasitic wasp Andricus quercuscalicis.
Saturday – Home – A Blackcap has been singing in the mass of apple and walnut trees over the wall. The garden is bone dry, and there is little prospect of rain soon. The greengages are being cropped pretty much daily but there are still hundreds on the tree. I also pick several pounds of damsons. Plums are ripening but the couple we try have been got at by plum fly. There is much to do. Beetroots need harvesting soon. Many beans have gone leathery but they can be podded and the beans dried. Tomatoes are ripening and providing a regular supply. The aubergines are producing a decent number of long, white fruit. All the lettuces have bolted. The cucumbers are finished, possibly due to mosaic virus. The lawn has not been mowed for weeks and has many brown spots.
Sunday – The weather is warming again. Thin, gauzy clouds are high in the sky and the sun is already strong. Jackdaws and gulls have fallen silent and there is only an occasional call from a Wood Pigeon. Onto the railway footbridge. On the rough ground below is a second flush of Evening Primroses. Onto Butts Bridge. The water level in the River Lugg seems marginally lower still. Himalayan Balsam, Creeping and Meadow Thistles are the only flowers on Easters Meadow. A Dipper flies off from a gravel bank in the middle of the river. By Brightwells’ compound Ragwort and Creeping Thistles have gone to seed.
It would appear that the works at the petrol station are coming to an end with workers sweeping the area and spraying it with water. The market is the largest this year. The River Kenwater remains gin clear and shallow.
Home – Yesterday’s damsons are processed into four medium large jars of jam. The Stinging Nettle patch is a bit overgrown and full of Brambles and White Bryony, so I clear some of them. Somehow no matter how one protects oneself there are always some nettle stings get through!
Young Blue Tits regularly visit the feeders. They could easily be the third brood this year. There are always Wood Pigeons in the garden. They are probably the same birds each time, one is a young bird without the normal markings yet. Lesser Black Backed Gulls frequent the chimney pots, often noisily.
Tuesday – Home – Yesterday there was the sad news that arsonists have set fire to the wonderful Raven Hotel in Droitwich Spa. The building has been in a protracted row between a developer and the local council to get the building made safe and secure. This event appears to be down to the developers failure to undertake the work.
There was some rain overnight, just enough to dampen the ground. This morning I pick up 6 kilogrammes of windfall greengages. The day heats up. This is not jam making weather but needs must!
Wednesday – Home – I clean out the bedding material from the chicken run and dump it into the compost bins. Obviously, it contains a decent amount of droppings. New straw and chippings are spread. The young hens are still very flighty and all retire to the hen house in fright. Bluebelle sticks her head out as I am scattering some mixed seed and that makes her come down the steps pretty promptly. The others soon follow. The old girl is not fazed at any stage and happily pecks away before and after the seed is thrown in. I pick some more figs. Some have been got at by birds and now are attracting Greenbottles and wasps but there are still plenty for us. I then pick up several punnets worth of greengages off the ground, wash them and Kay takes them to neighbours with some eggs.
Leominster – Despite the thin cloud in the sky it is very hot again. A slight breeze is blowing, really only noticeable when one is up on the railway bridge. A Chiffchaff is repeating its wheep wheep call in the riverside woods. More tree branches are leaning over into the very shallow water of the River Lugg. Back along the ginnel by the White Lion. A Red Admiral butterfly flits along the ivy covered hedge.
Into the Millennium orchard. Nearly all the cider apple trees have a very heavy crop. If I do any harvesting this year it will be made harder by the long grass and thick umbellifer stalks. Into the churchyard. A single Wood Pigeon is calling and there is a distant song of a Robin. People are taking advantage of the fine weather around the Grange although, wisely, few are out on the grass in the full sun.
Friday – Coreley – Coreley is a parish on the southern slopes of Clee Hill. In the Domesday Book, Cornelie is recorded, meaning “Cranes clearing”. The parish traditionally ran up to the Three Forked Pole and was a mixture of agriculture, brick making and coal mining. Hints is a small hamlet mainly of modern houses. The rather odd name is derived from the Cymraeg (Welsh), hynt, meaning road. I park in the Memorial Hall, a modern building. On down the hill on a narrow lane. Yet again, the weather is hot and dry. A large house, built in 2016, is on one side of the lane, an equally modern house is on the other side. The line is sunk several feet below the level of the land indicating it is old. A small flock of House Sparrows flies out of the hedge. Jackdaws call and there is the keening of a young raptor. Fields have been mown and cylindrical bales lay upon them. Bunches of ripe blackberries stick out from the hedge. Strings of berries of Black Bryony are ripening to red. A hundred yards or so down the slope the Elan Aqueduct passes under the lane.
The road continues to descend steeply to a junction. There are modern houses scattered around the bottom of the valley with a large farm up on the hills side. A large gnarled bole of an Ash tree rises up and divides some twelve feet from the ground. A Blue Tit squeaks. An occasional breeze rustles the leaves. A Blackcap sings tentatively. Speckled Wood butterflies flit along the hedge row. A large barn conversion stands next to the former rectory. The rectory itself is also a large Victorian building with a dozen chimneys and a double coach house. A Jay calls from a Wellingtonia. The lane rises to St Peter’s church.
There is a welcome portaloo in the churchyard with what seems like a rather amusing sign pointing out that smoking is prohibited on these premises. A Svensson’s Copper Underwing moth is on the door. The church was probably built by the Lord of Coreley manor, held under Ralph de Mortimer. The gothic arch and lancet windows off the tower suggests it was built around 1200 although there may have been an earlier building here. The earliest reference to the church was made in 1261 when a robber took shelter here. In 1759 the nave and chancel were in a state of collapse and were rebuilt in brick on the original stone foundations for a cost of just over £1000. The tower is topped by a wood shingle spire on a tiled base. The roof timbers, king-post trusses with scalloped king posts, principals and struts are large and impressive. The pulpit is in the Jacobean style. The glass is Victorian with the exception of a small piece in the west window which is considered to be 13th century. The organ was installed in 1861. A large gravestone forms a step to the sanctuary it is dated 1684. A number of 18th century gravestones and chest tombs are listed, but for some reason, the preaching cross is not.
The lane climbs from the church. A pair of Speckled Wood butterflies are mating on an Oak leaf. The lane arrives at a junction. My route is back up the hill to Hints. The lane continues past fields of golden ripe oats. Past the old school. The lane again crosses the route of the Elan Aqueduct which, according to the old OS maps, passes into the Brickhouse Tunnel to the east, although there is no sign of this on the modern maps. A pair of white goats are in a paddock. At a farm, a machine mounted on the back of a lorry in a barn is taking what looks like grain from a large sack, processing it maybe, and dropping it into another large sack. Brick House stands above the lane, which then rises steadily to modern houses on the edge of Hints.
Sunday – Leominster – A few fluffy white clouds float in an azure sky. The sun is shining brightly yet again with no prospect of rain in the forecast. It is pleasantly cool in the shade but where the sun hits the pavement it is warming up rapidly. Long-tailed Tits are calling from trees around the railway bridge. The water level in the River Lugg remains very low, a dark, shaded stream passing under thick foliage of the Black Poplars. A supermarket trolley has been dumped underneath the bridge. Onto the parched Easters Meadow. A Wren emits a machine gun alarm call. Wood Pigeons coo and a Herring Gull calls high overhead. A breeze has sprung up, shivering the leaves on the trees. The swathes of Himalayan Balsam range in colour from dark pink to white. I rsee just a single bee visiting the flowers. Upstream there is another rust covered supermarket trolley on a shingle bank. It was not there last week so it is a bit of a mystery how it got there given the water is so low. There is a row expensive cars in the compound dating from the 60s to 90s. At the end of the row is a lovely old tractor. On the far side there are a couple of American vehicles. Hawthorns are covered in bright scarlet haws. Across the river there is a wall of scarlet topped by pale lime green Ash keys. Elderberries hang purple black. Cheaton Brook is educed to a trickle.
The OK Diner petrol station is open again. The market is large and busy. The large field has been harvested. Squeaking House Martins dash here and there overhead. Back onto Mill Lane. Large Dogwoods have numerous black berries. The River Lugg is barely flowing under Ridgemoor Bridge. A number of mid 20th century of vintage vehicles drive along the road: an E-Type, a Lancia and a Comma commercial van. The River Kenwater remains crystal clear.
Home – Tom has brought a “pest-off” bird feeder with him and Kitty on a visit. It works by having a perch that will close the feeder if a bird heavier than a bird like a Tit or House Sparrow lands on it, keeping off the Jackdaws and Grey Squirrels. It does not take long for the Blue Tits to find. However, the good numbers of young House Sparrows and Blue Tits has attracted a Sparrowhawk and Tom gets a video of a young male taking a small bird. Not a problem unless the Sparrowhawk makes our feeders a feeding station for himself!
I pick a couple of ripe Marjorie Pippin plums and more figs. A few climbing beans will probably cook well, but most have quickly gone leathery and I am leaving them for dried beans. Everything else needs constant watering, a problem in these water-straitened days.
Tuesday – Leominster – Yet another warm day although there is a bit of a breeze and a lot of the sky is clouded over. Onto the railway bridge. Several Red Admiral butterflies are on the buddleia below. Onto Butts Bridge. Nothing much has changed about the River Lugg below, apart from the appearance of a rusted bicycle. Back down the ginnell to the White Lion. Snowberries are beginning to appear on the hedge. Cider apples are turning red and some are falling in the Millennium orchard.
The town is quiet as it seems to have been all week.
Friday – Staunton and Corse – The sky is mottled like a grey leopard skin. The temperature dropped considerably overnight down to 8°C this morning. Staunton and Corse are conjoined villages on the Ledbury to Gloucester road in the Forest of Dean District. Staunton was in Worcestershire until 1931 and the villages have been a single entity since 1952. Corse Chase, which was closely connected with Malvern Chase, belonged to the Earls of Gloucester in the 12th century and was presumably part of the great manor of Tewkesbury. By the 1490’s the chase had come to be called Corse Lawn, suggesting that the heavily wooded area had been felled. Staunton was included in the thirty manses at Longdon said to have been confirmed by King Edgar in 972 to the abbey of Pershore. Tradition holds that Staunton was a prosperous village confirmed by the fact that in 1347 Robert de Staunton, then lord of the manor, obtained a grant of a Wednesday market at Staunton and a fair for four days at the feast of St James. However, by the 17th century, any prosperity had diminished and the village was a small backwater. A major change came in the acquisition of the Snig’s End estate by the National Land Company and the establishment of a Chartist settlement. Feargus O’Connor bought the estate, lying partly in Staunton and partly in Corse, in 1847. By 1848 a schoolhouse and 85 cottages had been built. The single-storey brick cottages, of the same design as on other Chartist estates, have four rooms and a front with a central pediment or low gable. The settlement was not a success, and the tenants resisted paying their rent and the National Land Company was dissolved.
Opposite a lay-by near the church is a cast iron milestone marked Staunton. It is halfway between Gloucester and Ledbury; eight miles each way. Beside it are Blackthorn bushes loaded with dark, dusky blue sloes. Above the mixture of Hawthorn, Beech and Sycamore, the latter showing considerable heat stress. A bramble has climbed up high into the Hawthorn. Across a meadow where the war memorial stands near to lych gate of 1887 of St James’s Church. Through the cemetery. Beside the church tower is a vast old Yew tree certified to be over 2,000 years old. The church dates from the 12th century. The nave windows appear to be 14th century, the nave arcade late 15th. The church was restored in 1860 by G R Clarke, when the chancel was rebuilt and the vestry added. Under the tower is the benefactors’ plaque, the Creed and the Decalogue (Ten Commandments). Organ. Tomb of William Horton displays 8 kneeling figures above large base and his coat of arms in strapwork. There is a broken font beneath. Beside the organ is a large churchwarden’s chest, inscribed “John Wadley – Edmund Clarke – 1842”.The glass is Victorian, the west window by Gibbs of Bedford, 1860.
Beyond the church is a large pool, beside Staunton Court. A few Mallard on the water. A square, 17th century dovecote on the water’s edge still has Swallows nests being visited by adults. The attached stables date from 1755. The main house dates from the 16th century with changes and adaptation through the following years, including a major restoration by F W Waller around 1860.
Along the main road and over Glynch Brook by Berrow Bridge. Into Ledbury Road Crescent. Between the crescent and the main road are small meadows of apple, pear and plum trees loaded with fruit, each attached to the Chartist cottages on the other side of the road. Across another brook which is practically dry. The crescent returns to the main road. Opposite are timber-framed cottages with modern infill. Towards the village centre past a 16th century timber-framed thatched cottage, called Snygges Rood on old maps. Copelands is stone built house built in the second quarter of the 19th century as a school and schoolmaster’s house. A new housing estate is being erected.
Road comes to a crossroads – Gloucester, Malverns, Ledbury and Tewkesbury and Cheltenham. The Swan pub, probably 19th century, stands on the junction. The village shop is on an older building, a pet shop, formerly a butcher’s, is in a modern one. The Gloucester road enters Corse. Past modern houses and the primary school. Beyond a green is the now closed Prince of Wales pub, built as the school but became the pub in 1870.
Along Prince Crescent. Road runs through a modern estate with just an occasional Chartist cottage. Somehow it seems a soulless place. A large estate that cannot maintain its traditional pub. Nobody picks the blackberries. Onto a public footpath past a herd of disinterested cows. This lead back to the crescent of Chartist cottages.
I drive to the Hartpury road then walk along a bridleway. Past a large orchard of cider apples. The track leads to Corse Court and the church of St Margaret. The manor belonged to Westminster Abbey in the 11th century. From 1641 until inclosure the lessees were the members of the Dowdeswell family. The abbey’s ownership of land in Corse appears to have ended in 1868 with the enfranchisement of a leasehold estate. Corse Court, named Corse Farm until 1966, contains a 14th century cruck-framed hall. There is still the hint of the moat that would have surrounded the house. An upper floor and a stone chimney-stack were inserted in the hall in the 16th or 17th century. The house was later extended by a further bay on the south and underwent considerable alterations around 1900. The alterations included the removal of a plaster coat-of-arms of the Wood family from over the east doorway to the gable-end of the cross-wing. In 1961 the house was in poor repair, and extensive renovation was carried out in the next few years.
The first historical record of a church at Corse comes in 1290 when it was mentioned as belonging to nearby Deerhurst Priory, one of the largest landowners in the area. The 14th century church dedicated to St Margaret may have been built by the owners of nearby Corse Court. It has a stone broach spire. Rather strangely, the former top of the spire has been placed in churchyard when it was renewed before 1972. The font is 12th century in a chalice shape, ornamented with cable design and scallops under the bowl rim. The pulpit is from around 1920. On the south nave wall is an ornate tablet in memory of Timothy Grail. The faded epitaph is translated on a modern plaque that reads:
Timothy Grail. Aged 15 years. Set sail by the Cape of Good Hope unto the west Indies AD 1630 and by the Cape of Better Hope passed into Heaven August 12 1636.
The Grail memorial was brought here from the chapel of St Bartholomew’s Hospital in Gloucester by Revd Robert Gegg, vicar of Corse, when the chapel was pulled down in 1788. The main east window is 15th century, while further windows in the nave and chancel are original 14th century work. Some fragments of original medieval glass still remain. The organ is by Collins of Cheltenham. There are 6 bells; three are 17th century and one dating to the 16th century.
Back through the orchards. A Common Buzzard circles overhead, mewing.
Sunday – Leominster – The sky is largely covered by ripples of clouds. There is barely a sound from the birds down the street. Onto the railway bridge. There is the occasional squeak from a Blue Tit. A light breeze blows here but it is still warm. Carrion Crows bark by the river. The water level looks unchanged. A Dipper flies on to another barely exposed shingle bank that rarely emerges from the water. Onto Easters Meadow where bees are visiting the Himalayan Balsam. A family of Wrens flies up from the grass into the bushes. A Blackcap is ticking in the trees. At the confluence of the Rivers Lugg and Kenwater, a shingle bank remains high and dry and the Kenwater is hidden by branches hanging in the water.
The market is the largest yet. Pond Skaters are on Ridgemoor Brook. Much of the brook is hidden below flopping foliage. There are many more Pond Skaters on the River Lugg under Ridgemoor Bridge. Through Bridge Street car park. A young Carrion Crow is on Bridge Street, getting confused by the cars coming in every direction until nearer misses make it realise it is not safe and flies off to the fire station compound.
Bank Holiday Monday – Home – The dried pea plants are removed. A few pods provide some dried peas that can be used in a stew. Next, out come the broad beans and again a few beans are podded. Then the dwarf French beans. There are a lot more dried and leathery pods on these plants. The dried ones are podded and the still soft ones put aside to dry. The poor onion crop is removed. Then the beds are weeded.
Leominster – Although there is a breeze and some thin cloud, the blazing sun makes it very warm. Down South Street and Hereford Road then up the path to Cockcroft Lane. The large fields either side of the path have been left fallow and are covered with grass. There seems to be no shade from the sun. A cereal crop on the fields that run down towards Passa Lane has been harvested. Only a few clumps of Scentless Mayweed are in flower so unsurprisingly there are very few butterflies or bees around. The wind is stronger on the west side of the hedgerow. The hills to the west get hazier the further away they are.
Onto the path that runs beside Ryelands. The hedge contains haws, hips and sloes. The paddocks beside the path are parched. A pair of Speckled Wood butterflies pass. Onto Ryelands Road. A Chiffchaff calls.
Wednesday – Bodenham Lake – Patches of blue sky peep from behind white clouds with heavier, grey, threatening ones moving in. The sun breaks through and the wind blows. A Great Tit calls in the village. House Martins sweep through overhead. Within a few minutes the sun and blue sky have disappeared. Hips and haws have ripened along the track. A large number of blackberries are still red. A Chiffchaff wheeps in the trees. The water level in the lake is, inevitably, low. Mallard, drakes in eclipse, a couple of Coot are on the water, a Little Egret flies past. At the western end of the boating area there are fifteen Little Egrets (a later count by another observer recorded twenty two), a Great White Egret, at least eight Grey Herons, Canada Geese, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Cormorants, Greylags, Moorhens and a Great Crested Grebe.
Onto the meadow. Blackberries in the large Bramble patch are largely coming to an end. The meadow has been mown. A Chiffchaff calls from the hedgerow. Into the hide. A few Mallard, Canada Geese and Greylags on the water. A couple of Swallows sweep low over the surface. A Common Buzzard is keening on the far side. Blue and Great Tits feed on the willows whilst being harassed by a Chiffchaff. Carrion Crows call.
Back into the plantation. Ring-necked Pheasants are in the refuge area. On the meadow, the large Bramble patch at the west end has completely finished fruiting. Field Maple leaves are turning yellow. Into the cider apple orchard some trees are already dropping their fruit. There are plenty of windfalls in the dessert apple orchard.
Home – I harvest some more beetroots including a particularly large specimen. These are boiled, sliced and frozen.
Friday – Leominster – Heavy rain fell overnight enough to make the ground properly wet, although much more would be welcome. The afternoon is a mixture of towering white cumulus clouds drifting over and bright sunshine shining in between them. Onto the railway bridge. Below the Buddleia is turning brown but still a few white butterflies visiting the remaining flowers. House Martins chirp high above the River Lugg which has risen, albeit only slightly, for the first time in weeks.
Onto Pinsley Mill. A Magpie chatters from across the railway. A Manchester bound train pulls out of the station. Into the orchard. Cider apples are beginning to fall in good numbers. Onto the Millennium Park. Spindle berries are a pale cerise colour. Purple Loosestrife rises above the dense growth of St John’s Wort, Great Willowherb and Common Fleabane. The River Kenwater is still low and flowing slowly. The fruit trees on Pinsley Mead are all devoid of plums, pears and greengages now. The plum tree appears to have split and heavy black strapping has been placed around the trunk to hold it together.
Into the churchyard. It starts to rain. On the green behind the east end of the church the ground has been marked out to indicate the former transepts, a crossing tower and an apsidal presbytery with an ambulatory and three radiating chapels, destroyed at Dissolution in 1539. It makes one realise just how the original church was much larger.
Through Bridge Street car park and on to Kenwater Bridge. Below the bridge is a family of Mute Swans, two adults and three grey cygnets. A Mallard is nearby.
Saturday – Leominster – A grey cloudy morning with a light breeze. Onto the railway bridge as the Holyhead train races through with a toot on the horn. A Grey Wagtail is in the shallows of the River Lugg. Under the A49 and along beside the river. A Common Buzzard is flying and mewing around the paddocks and up Eaton Hill. Another joins it over the hill top, almost motionless in the breeze. There are far more people than usual, mainly dog walkers, on the path. Blackthorns are still heavy with sloes.
Past the large West Eaton nursing home and up Widgeon Meadow. The trees planted a decade ago are now tall and maturing. A Robin sings. Up the Drovers’ Steps, large slabs of St Maughans Formation sandstone, then on up to the old track on Eaton Hill. The rickety stiles have been replaced by gates, making life a whole lot easier. Crab apples are scattered on the track. The path along the top of the hill has been cleared in the not too distant past but is already overgrown again. A Green Woodpecker yaffles in brief bursts on the hillside below.
Down the track from the solar farm. A few Speckled Wood butterflies are in the Stinging Nettles and Brambles. A Raven croaks overhead. Blackberries by the track appear untouched. Past Comfortd House and barns. A collie makes it clear it is his property. The potato crop on the fields has yet to be lifted.
Along Mill Street and into Paradise Walk. A Dunnock hops across the path and a Grey Squirrel scrambles up the trees. The River Kenwater is slow and shallow.
Sunshine and showers continues all day. Another trug full of greengages is puréed.
Sunday – Leominster – More rain fell overnight. The sun blazes blindingly off the wet tarmac. The usual calls from Wood Pigeons and Jackdaws come from the rooftops. A breeze rustles the leaves on the large Plane tree. The overnight rain does not seem to have had any effect on the water level in the River Lugg. On to Easters Meadow. A swathe of Himalayan Balsam stands with mouths agape waiting to host bees, mainly Tawny Mining Bees, a Red Admiral and a Hummingbird Hawkmoth, Macroglossum stellatarum, a first for me.
The market is much smaller this week, nothing like a bit of rain to scare sellers and buyers off. There is more water in Ridgemoor Brook this week. Back along the track where somebody has dumped some national lottery furniture, possibly one of the weirder bits of fly tipping.
Into Paradise Walk. The River Kenwater appears to be flowing a little more swiftly. It remains crystal clear. Hawthorns are bending over with the weight of berries. Through Bridge Street car park. There is just a fire service water tanker in the fire station, no actual fire engines.
Home – Germination of leeks this year has been poor. The few that did grow are planted on. Some plums, greengages and pears are picked. A single courgette is harvested. Next the basil in the greenhouse is topped, it is made into three portions of pesto. Several carrots are then dug for dinner.
Sunday – Leominster – The sky is overcast. It is warm and there is just a hint of a breeze. The birds are quiet, even the Wood Pigeons seem muted. The wind is a little livelier down by the railway and the leaves on the riverside trees are rustling. A rabbit sits motionless below the bridge, there are more further down the old railway track. The water level in the River Lugg remains very low. On Easters Meadow an Ash tree has snapped 
off bringing down a large branch from a Black Poplar. The area between the path and the river is full of Himalayan Balsam. A large Stinging Nettle patch is entangled in Bindweed. Spiky heads of Burdock rise above it. A Wren bobs on the fence around Brightwells’ compound. Ragwort and Creeping Thistles are all running to seed. Rosebay Willowherb will follow shortly. Dock and umbellifers have long seeded and are dried out. The compound contains just a few trailers and an electric milk float. By the auction centre are vintage cars and lorries. Apart from micro moths, there have been no insects seen on the meadows. Yarrow is coming into flower. A Grey Wagtail picks insects off of the river surface.
The Conference pear is a bit of a worry and the heavy crop gets heavier and the branches bend in an evermore alarming manner.
Leominster – The sky is overcast and there is still a wind blowing although Storm Floris has moved away. It only brought a strong wind here. Another Atlantic front is incoming. The Millennium orchard remains a mess, despite the work undertaken by a few of us to maintain the trees. The grass has not been cut all year, tall dead umbellifers are scattering seed everywhere. Millennium Park is not in much better condition. Either side of the path has been mowed but the rest of the area is succumbing to Stinging Nettles and umbellifers. Work still going on the refectory of the old priory, so most of Pinsley Mead is fenced off. A military jet roars over.
railway footbridge. On the rough ground below is a second flush of Evening Primroses. Onto Butts Bridge. The water level in the River Lugg seems marginally lower still. Himalayan Balsam, Creeping and Meadow Thistles are the only flowers on Easters Meadow. A Dipper flies off from a gravel bank in the middle of the river. By Brightwells’ compound Ragwort and Creeping Thistles have gone to seed.
Friday – Coreley – Coreley is a parish on the southern slopes of Clee Hill. In the Domesday Book, Cornelie is recorded, meaning “Cranes clearing”. The parish traditionally ran up to the 
breeze rustles the leaves. A Blackcap sings tentatively. Speckled Wood butterflies flit along the hedge row. A large barn conversion stands next to the former rectory. The rectory itself is also a large Victorian building with a dozen chimneys and a double coach house. A Jay calls from a Wellingtonia. The lane rises to St Peter’s church.
windows off the tower suggests it was built around 1200 although there may have been an earlier building here. The earliest reference to the church was made in 1261 when a robber took shelter here. In 1759 the nave and chancel were in a state of collapse and were rebuilt in brick on the original stone foundations for a cost of just over £1000. The tower is topped by a wood shingle spire on a tiled base. The roof timbers, king-post trusses with scalloped king posts, principals and struts are large and impressive. The pulpit is in the Jacobean style. The glass is Victorian with the exception of a small piece in the west window which is considered to be 13th century. The organ was 
installed in 1861. A large gravestone forms a step to the sanctuary it is dated 1684. A number of 18th century gravestones and chest tombs are listed, but for some reason, the preaching cross is not.
The lane climbs from the church. A pair of Speckled Wood butterflies are mating on an Oak leaf. The lane arrives at a junction. My route is back up the hill to Hints. The lane continues past fields of golden ripe oats. Past the old school. The lane again crosses the route of the Elan Aqueduct which, according to the old OS maps, passes into the Brickhouse Tunnel to the east, although there is no sign of this on the modern maps. A pair of white goats are in a paddock. At a farm, a machine mounted on the back of a lorry in a barn is taking what looks like grain from a large sack, processing it maybe, and dropping it into another large sack. Brick House stands above the lane, which then rises steadily to modern houses on the edge of Hints.
lord of the manor, obtained a grant of a Wednesday market at Staunton and a fair for four days at the feast of St James. However, by the 17th century, any prosperity had diminished and the village was a small backwater. A major change came in the acquisition of the Snig’s End estate by the National Land Company and the establishment of a Chartist settlement. Feargus O’Connor bought the estate, lying partly in Staunton and partly in Corse, in 1847. By 1848 a schoolhouse and 85 cottages had been built. The single-storey brick cottages, of the same design as on other Chartist estates, have four rooms and a front with a central pediment or low gable. The 
settlement was not a success, and the tenants resisted paying their rent and the National Land Company was dissolved.
brook which is practically dry. The crescent returns to the main road. Opposite are timber-framed cottages with modern infill. Towards the village centre past a 16th century timber-framed thatched cottage, called Snygges Rood on old maps. Copelands is stone built house built in the second quarter of the 19th century as a school and schoolmaster’s house. A new housing estate is being erected.
stands on the junction. The village shop is on an older building, a pet shop, formerly a butcher’s, is in a modern one. The Gloucester road enters Corse. Past modern houses and the primary school. Beyond a green is the now closed Prince of Wales pub, built as the school but became the pub in 1870.
lead back to the crescent of Chartist cottages.
bright sunshine shining in between them. Onto the railway bridge. Below the Buddleia is turning brown but still a few white butterflies visiting the remaining flowers. House Martins chirp high above the River Lugg which has risen, albeit only slightly, for the first time in weeks.
apples are beginning to fall in good numbers. Onto the Millennium Park. Spindle berries are a pale cerise colour. Purple Loosestrife rises above the dense growth of St John’s Wort, Great Willowherb and Common Fleabane. The River Kenwater is still low and flowing slowly. The fruit trees on Pinsley Mead are all devoid of plums, pears and greengages now. The plum tree appears to have split and heavy black strapping has been placed around the trunk to hold it together.
Under the A49 and along beside the river. A Common Buzzard is flying and mewing around the paddocks and up Eaton Hill. Another joins it over the hill top, almost motionless in the breeze. There are far more people than usual, mainly dog walkers, on the path. Blackthorns are still heavy with sloes.
The market is much smaller this week, nothing like a bit of rain to scare sellers and buyers off. There is more water in Ridgemoor Brook this week. Back along the track where somebody has dumped some national lottery furniture, possibly one of the weirder bits of fly tipping.