Christmas & New Year Greetings

We hope you have all had a great Christmas and send best wishes for the New Year from all of us at Tales from Under Blackhill. For the second Christmas running we got out in the snow and for the second time I have decided to build a bigger toboggan. That must be job 3021 on my list of things to do!

Things have been rather too quiet on the blog posting front but with a bit of luck there might be a bit more coming through in 2011. I think the General Election postings probably took up more energy than at first thought although they proved the most popular political articles in the collection. Many students made use of the series on 'Resolving a Hung Parliament' and I suspect there will be many issues which will spin off from the present political settlement. Should we really be moving towards 5 year fixed Parliaments etc? And, of course, we have a referendum on the voting system coming up as well as a Royal Wedding. We have already been invited back by our old neighbours in Worcester to join in their street party!

You will see that there will be more reports and reviews on folk music matters including a ‘Memories’ series looking back at musical trends in the past. The first of these can be seen on the Memories of the Troubadour posting. It is also clear that articles which recount earlier times are popular such as those on cycling in the 1950's, so we hope to bring you a few more of these as well as the occasional book review and reviews of events.

Mary Horesh is still an editor and occasional contributor and is currently in the middle of a re-location to London. She is still a keen environmental campaigner with special reference to farming and food. She is currently a member of the Friends of the Earth Advisory Committee on Food and Bio-diversity. Should you be moving to either Birmingham or London yourself and need some contacts @maryhoresh might be a useful source.

Sian & I continue to be members of Birmingham Friends of the Earth and try to help out from a distance and I try to get to Management Committee meetings, weather permitting.

Sian and I have been very involved with FolkWorkshops which has developed very quickly in recent months due to the great enthusiasm of those involved. We have no idea where it is all leading save to say that we are gradually building up our network with the intention of bringing more live folk music to south west Herefordshire and making sure we do not overlook events which we could car share to attend.

Mary has given us a years membership of the English Folk Dance and Song Society so we will be inundated with lots of information. We are looking forward to our next trip to London so we can spend some time in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at Cecil Sharp House and possibly attend a ceilidh.

An ambition in FolkWorkshops is to develop an expertise in harmony singing and our rehearsals for the Carols at the Crown Inn session at Longtown before Christmas shows that we are on the way. The key is that our meetings should continue to be an enjoyable joint effort and in this spirit new musicians and singers are most welcome.

The trouble is trying to fit everything in, not only in our own lives, but in among the many events that get organised up here in these beautiful hills. You will not catch us complaining about that however as we are firm believers in 'community' and whatever quibbles the sociologists might have in defining it, we definitely know it when we see it!

Looking forward to your company in a peaceful 2011,

Dacier, Sian and Mary

Black Hill and the Black Mountains from 60 Miles away: Visual Amenity as Inspiration

Following on from my blog of 11th August ( Windmills etc: Visual Amenity, What’s it for?) I must tell you of one of the highlights of our latest trip when our caravan came to rest in the Clent hills, in the Black Country: the place where the great wealth of our nation started to be generated from the 18th century onwards. From Coalbrookdale to climate change is such a small step but there is much still to be done to reverse this deadly drift, as G.K. Chesterton puts it, ‘before we go to paradise by way of Kensal Green’.

Having made the climb to Clent summit the views are magnificent, from city sprawl through to Housman’s ‘blue remembered hills’ of Shropshire, and of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. For us it was the view to the west which meant the most. Sixty miles away among the haze was our part of the world. At the top of this list was Hay Bluff, Black Hill and the line of the Cats Back with the Sugar Loaf insisting on being seen in the far distance. For such a comparatively easy walk this must be the most rewarding climb in the region.

Whilst taking in the contrasts of rural and industrial landscape I got talking to an elderly, sprightly gentleman who was a life member of the CTC. He had lived all his life in Sutton Coalfield and said he valued the contrasts of his region. Looking towards Hay Bluff, this veteran t recounted his cycle ride as a young man to Brecon with his fellow CTC members. The traditional meeting place was the Temple of Remembrance in the city centre, with an 8 am start on a Saturday morning. Instead of the route the crow might take from Clent, the cyclists route would be winding and lengthy. The first section was to Hereford and then out along the Brecon Road, crossing the river at Bridge Sollars and on to Hay-on-Wye from Madley via Hardwicke.

We both recalled the methods of cycling in large groups in the fifties and how the occasional vehicle was assisted in passing several dozen cyclists by making sure that there were ample gaps in the column for the overtaking car or lorry. A Tail Ender cyclist would warn of an over taker with the call, ‘Oil Up’, while a leading rider would call ‘Oil Down’ for one coming in the other direction.

Main road cycling in the fifties at weekends was rarely a problem, and my veteran friend told me that he was still riding on main roads up until the early seventies. By then the speed and volume of the traffic had reduced the pleasures of the open road while increasing the risk. I think cycling in some towns has now reached that point with added risk of being knocked down as a pedestrian by cyclists in pedestrian precincts!

Having passed through Hay-on-Wye, the Brecon YHA was reached just after 5pm. Returning by a different route on the Sunday ensured a varied, affordable and refreshing weekend for the cyclists of his generation. For the present generation of cyclists it is probably wiser to avoid busy roads as much as possible and support segregated cycle routes whenever possible.

This meeting so inspired Sian that she has decided that I should upgrade from my 1957 Dawes Clansman to something a bit lighter. I collect it, still a Dawes, from Master Craft Cycles of Hereford on Tuesday and we plan to make use of cycle routes beyond the reach of the car and lorry whenever possible. The car cycle rack has been retrieved from the shed ready for our next. Possibly the National Cycle Route along the Kennet and Avon Canal. See where a good view can end up.