Peats & Tangles….. From ‘Wild Justice’….
by Bernie Bell - 09:40 on 12 October 2023
Peats & Tangles…
This looks v.v. interesting….
https://archaeologyorkney.com/2023/10/10/industrial-heritage-nilps/
I had a vague memory of some years ago a group of people doing a project about peat cuttings in Orkney. It was a very vague memory as these days my memory is something of a Swiss Cheese. I remembered that Dan Lee was involved, so asked did he have any info. which I could include here and - good man that he is - he sent me the following…
“The project was with Alistair Peebles and the blog is still there: The Peat Hill Symposium “
And that took me off into various musings about peat - what it’s used for and what is sometimes found when folk are cutting peat – or turf as it’s known in Ireland….…
https://theorkneynews.scot/2021/11/10/treacle-is-medicine/
https://theorkneynews.scot/2018/03/24/betty-corrigall/
The Orkney Museum in Kirkwall has a poignant exhibit labelled “Huntsgarth Clothing – found in the peat bank grave of a child at Huntsgarth in Harray. Swaddling clothes with a Scotch bonnet laid on top. Late 18th Century.”
https://orkneymuseum.wordpress.com/?s=Huntsgarth+Clothing
I remember as a child visiting family in Ireland and helping to ‘save the turf’. We’d travel to the family section of bog - where the turf would have already been dug and stacked - in a wooden cart pulled by Jack the donkey.
It's one of those things that now get romanticized as part of an idyllic past. It was necessary, for fuel, and it was enjoyable in a sociable way. A day spent on the bog, on a fine day, could be lovely - but at the same time back-breaking work and very, very dirty - hard to get the turf-mold out of your skin and from under your nails afterwards.
And spiders - I don't mind spiders, but they were those BIG ones with dangly legs, and they were everywhere.
One time, my Mum and Dad's friend showed me a little wooden cask of butter he'd found in the bog when he was digging turf. It was only small, all made of wood, with some kind of rope round the top, and a little wooden lid. I said he should contact the museum in Dublin about it, but it was put on a shelf in the shed, and then....summer came, and the butter melted. I don't know what became of that little tub, but I’d love to have it!
When back home in England I’d read ‘The Turf-cutters Donkey’ to bring back memories……
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Lynch
This also puts me in mind of the turf fires in the old houses in Ireland and Scotland, some of which hadn't gone out for many years. The householder would bank up the fire for the night, drawing the ashes over the glowing turf, then dig into the heap to get it going again in the morning.
Remembering my Auntie Bridie tending the open turf fire in the family home in Ireland years ago, and thinking of the traditions/rituals associated with setting, lighting, tending the fire and the hearth….
PRAYER OF SAINT BRIGID
Brigid of the Mantle, encompass us,
Lady of the Lambs, protect us,
Keeper of the Hearth, kindle us.
Beneath your mantle, gather us,
And restore us to memory.
Mothers of our mother,
Foremothers strong.
Guide our hands in yours,
Remind us how to kindle the hearth.
To keep it bright, to preserve the same.
Your hands upon ours,
Our hands within yours,
To kindle the light,
Both day and night.
The Mantle of Brigid about us,
The Memory of Brigid within us,
The Protection of Brigid keeping us
From harm, from ignorance, from heartlessness.
This day and night,
From dawn till dark, From dark till dawn
-author unknown-
The Fossil & Heritage Centre, Burray, has a row of cooking pots which brought back memories of my Grandma and Grandpa’s house, which then became my Auntie Bridie & Uncle Anthony’s house – a two room thatched cottage, no running water or electricity – cooking done over an open turf fire with kettle, pots and skillets hanging from a ‘crane’.
And - there’s the smell of turf-smoke in someone’s hair…
It’s worth bearing in mind what peat is – and why it’s therefore a finite resource. Historically used as fuel - peat brickettes are now for sale all over Ireland.
It’s also being over-used for gardening – not just in Ireland - even though there are plenty of peat-free alternatives.
When used either as fuel or for gardening the peat is being taken, intensively, from bog-land which holds unique forms of life and which won’t regenerate and produce more peat.
And, finally - a different angle, on Tangles…
http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=16451
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From ‘Wild Justice’….
“Good morning!
On Monday we told you what we have heard about the process of assessing licences for gamebird releases by Defra (see our blog - click here). Yesterday, Tuesday, we looked at one area of coastal Suffolk, the Deben Estuary Special Protection Area, where Natural England recommended that no licence for gamebird releases be issued and yet we believe that advice may have been overturned by Defra ministers, perhaps by the Secretary of State herself, Therese Coffey, who also happens to be the local MP (see our blog - click here) .
Today we tell you more of what we've learned from information requests to Natural England. We asked for the documentation of the decisions on licence applications for a variety of sites. Let us tell you about the Breckland, a Special Protection Area in Norfolk and Suffolk, see https://magic.defra.gov.uk/MagicMap.aspx.
If you travel from Cambridge to Norwich, or King's Lynn to Bury St Edmunds, you'll pass through the Breckland, an area of sandy soils with conifer plantations, arable crops and some remaining areas of heathland. The British Trust for Ornithology's HQ in Thetford is particularly well situated to explore this wildlife-rich area. It's a large SPA (and SAC and SSSI) designated because of its wildlife importance and as far as the birds are concerned, three main species, Woodlark, Nightjar and Stone Curlew (see here).
There are many landowners in this large area but some stand out as being particularly interesting with the Elveden Estate of the fourth Earl of Iveagh and the van Cutsem Estate at Hilborough being particularly notable.
The gist of Natural England's formal advice to Defra was that licences could be granted for gamebird releases but, because Stone Curlews are late nesters, gamebird releases should be delayed until 1 September in some cases and 1 October in others in order to protect the species for which the SPA exists from the dangers of avian flu carried by released gamebirds.
We can just imagine how this would have gone down with a bunch of large shooting estates. Remember the shooting season for Red-legged Partridges opens on 1 September and for Pheasants a month later. Natural England advised that gamebird releases should be delayed by a matter of around 6-10 weeks which would have implications for the length and scale of the shooting season.
This seems sensible to us, although an outright ban for a few years would be even more sensible.
We believe, though we do not know for sure, that this is an example of a licence which was granted by Defra lacking the conditions (relating to date of release) recommended by Natural England.
Can you help, please? We will get to the bottom of this through information requests but it may take some time. If you have information that would help, then please do get in touch. Thank you to all those who have contacted us so far.
By the way, do you realise who are the two local MPs? They are both rather well known, perhaps even notorious; in the south of the area it is Matt Hancock and in the north it is Therese Coffey's best friend - Liz Truss.
If you can add information to this story then please contact Wild Justice and we will respect your anonymity.
We'll be posting this information in a blog later this morning but by subscribing to this newsletter you have heard it first.
We were expecting a response from Defra this week on one of our information requests but heard yesterday that they won't respond until early November. It's almost as though they feel they must hide and cover up what they've done, isn't it? We'll review where we are with our legal team in a few days. If we find evidence of unlawful decision making then we will consider taking legal action even though the process works so slowly the chances are that there might be a different government in place by the time these matters could be resolved by the courts.
We'll probably come back to this issue in a newsletter next week.
We're not asking for donations in this newsletter - you've been very generous recently.
Thank you!
Wild Justice (Directors: Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay).
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Here’s one I made earlier…. https://theorkneynews.scot/2021/12/28/on-christmas-day-on-christmas-day/
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