Inert demolish southern half of The Ridge. 17th September 2022

Last Sunday, the memsahib and I went to Wokingham Town hall to hear the proclamation of King Charles III.  A short, sweet ceremony only slightly ruined by the Lady Mayor fluffing her opening lines. She recovered rapidly and managed to complete the bulk of the proclamation without mishap.

The large, multi-racial crowd sang God Save the King.  Do you have any idea how weird it was for my partner and I, plus another couple I spoke to. All our lives it has been God Save the Queen.  My partner's aunt has actually lived through four monarchs: Edward VIII, George VI, Elizabeth II and now Charles III.

Oh, the Ukrainians launched a long expected counter offensive in the south of the country. Only it was a ruse, simply to draw Russian military to the south. Their real goal was revealed a week and a bit ago. They launched a surprise attack on the northeast of their country. The Russians were caught off guard, and were forced to make rapid retreats. Thousands of Russian soldiers were captured (so much so, the Ukrainians didn't have proper places to put them), and thousands of military equipment (tanks, artillery, etc) were either destroyed, damaged or abandoned.  Latest news is that the Ukrainians have crossed a vital river.  News is hard to come by as the Ukrainians, quite sensibly, have had a complete news blackout.

All was relatively quiet on Manor farm when I visited early Wednesday morning. Only two diggers at work around the yellow vehicle bridge. I have no idea what they were doing, and my site stomp on Saturday was no more illuminating. They did appear to dig out bits of the area allowing a large pond to drain away, leaving reed clumps standing high and dry.

I also had occasion to flash by the Longwater road entrance on my way to Yateley on Thursday morning. I spotted a digger operating on the west side of the copse, digging away in Finch pond. Again, I was non the wiser on Saturday as to what was done - except perhaps to smooth off a couple of scrapes, and perhaps dig deeper parts of Finch pond.

Very mysterious.

Inert were working away on the north west corner of Chandlers farm, which is very curious as according to plans from WBC planning office this area is deemed fully restored!!!  Really? For the past month or so, on and off, I have seen bulldozers, diggers working on this area, along with tipper lorries delivering stuff. Wednesday was a case in point, as I saw a John Stacey lorry trundling over to the north west corner of Chandlers farm.

There was no doubt, however, that Inert have started to attack The Ridge.  Roughly half of it, the southern half, has been demolished.  Thing is, I'm not sure when Inert did this.  The state of the south end of the ridge on Saturday seem the same as what I could see from the Blackwater valley footpath on Wednesday morning.

What I also cannot determine, is whether the topsoil in the ridge was smeared across Manor farm or carted off to Chandlers farm. The reason? Well, the former land bridge leading from the south vehicle track to the ridge is very chewed up. Fine, light grey mud, with the consistency of porridge has been squeezed by lorry wheels along the former land bridge. It looks like toothpaste, squidged along the length of the vehicle tracks.  The only way this fine mud is created is by lots of lorry movements, which grind the chalk and soil to a fine powder.  This implies that the soil from the ridge is being carted off to Chandlers farm.

This, of course, is pure speculation, and can only be substantiated by me seeing what happens.  Bit difficult when I only do one mid-week visit.