Art You See
  • Home
  • What's new
  • Contact
  • RSPB fund raising
  • Longwater Road Nature Reserve
    • Manor farm then and now
    • Fleet Hill farm then and now
    • Scenes from the reserve
  • Exhibitions
  • About
    • Where to buy

6th August 2017

16/8/2017

 
Not much really appeared to happen this week. I decide to pop into the works around Manor farm crusher and the foot bridge.  There weren't any signs that said keep out. They simply warned people about deep water and machinery.  It was a weekend and nowt was going on.

The sun was bright and high on this day. My bridge camera fared better because of this. The photos are still a bit fuzzy at maximum zoom, but that is one curse of bridge cameras.

Because this week is so photo heavy I have split this post into four sections.

The first covers the area around the Pump Station.

The second is from the south footpath that runs along the Blackwater river.

The third is around the culvert area/entrance gate at Longwater Road.

The fourth is a little way west of the foot bridge at a heap of ballast.

6th Aug - Starting with the area around the Pump Station.

I climbed the bridge at the pump station to take a series of 360 degree shots. It is amazing how a couple of metres elevation changes the perspective of the view.
6th Aug - Now the south footpath along the Blackwater river

These next series of shots were taken as we headed west along the footpath next to the Blackwater river.
6th Aug - The area around the culvert/Longwater road entrance to the works.

The conveyor from Fleet Hill farm pops out of the culvert here, before continuing its journey across the works.  There is a lot of machinery here. Dotted around are large heaps of ballast, a mixture of sand and pebbles, no doubt from the works.  The ballast was quite coarse, with some quite large pebbles i.e. 60mm.

I took the opportunity to scramble to the top of one of the heaps to take photos of the area.  I also hopped on to one of the large concrete 'cubes' to do same.  Don't tell elf and safety or they'll have a fit!

I'm glad I did, as shortly after Cemex used spread the ballast out along the edge of the various lakes on this part of the reserve.

I never really did like this area.
6th Aug - The area a little way to the west of the foot bridge.

I was on a roll this week and decided to climb the biggest heap of ballast at the north of this part of the reserve, a little way west of the foot bridge.

The track from the foot bridge to the ballast heap had been freshly laid. I didn't realise this, and on my way back from the heap discovered that is was very, very muddy. I sank about 6 inches into wet loose mud with my new hiking boots! I immediately kept to the tracks made by trucks and bulldozers as they had compacted the soil.

Comments are closed.

    Author

    A polite notice first: All photographs on this blog are owned by me and subject to copyright.

    Also, note that I have special permission to be on the Eversley quarry site of Fleet Hill farm, Manor farm and the Hampshire part, Chandlers farm. They are not open areas for general access.  Please keep to the public rights of way.

    I was quite fascinated to see how Cemex would restore their gravel extractions workings to become a nature reserve, and so started this blog.  There is an ulterior motive. It does mean that my partner and I get some well needed exercise as we stomp around the reserve every week.  Following the progress of the restorations does mean the walk is not as tedious as it might otherwise become.

    Don't worry about one of the archives being November 2025. You haven't entered a time warp! It's just that I've discovered a way to pin a post to the top of a blogger in Weebly; not straight forward apparently.  I have to set the date far far into the future.

    Archives

    November 2025
    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • What's new
  • Contact
  • RSPB fund raising
  • Longwater Road Nature Reserve
    • Manor farm then and now
    • Fleet Hill farm then and now
    • Scenes from the reserve
  • Exhibitions
  • About
    • Where to buy