Saturday, October 6, 2012

The Misbourne Valley

This is the valley I grew up in, walked, bicycled and played camps in as a child. When i came back to live here sixteen years ago I started taking photos of the seasons, the light and the abundance of wild animals.
I grew up before supermarkets when people ate a lot more from the land, you never saw deer or hares, they were the property of the landowners, foxes were hunted with dogs, only a few pheasants were kept to shoot. And if you didnt stick rigidly to the footpaths the gamekeepers would come out and shout at you.
Now you can see animals everywhere if you look hard enough, plants and animals seem to thrive if they're ignored by humans.
The reason I made this piece is because I was so offended that this beautiful place, that so many people enjoy, is potentially going to be cut in half long ways and blasted into some unecessary future by a train.
It will be a train that goes so fast you can't even see the countryside that you pass through. Or the old trees that have been felled or the animals trying to survive in isolated pockets.
This panel has been donated to The Wildlife Trusts and can be seen at College Lake Nature Reserve near Tring in Bucks.

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