Photos from walk on Thursday 20th July from Minster Lovell to Witney

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19th Century Chimney at Crawley Mill, which was part of the Whitney blanket industry. The chimney can’t be very special; Google finds very little about it.

 

At times in the Windrush river valley the vegetation was thick. “Elephant grass”?

 

Also along the river Windrush

 

The river

 

Not the clear spring water of past years, but a nasty cloudy stream

 

the River Windrush is opaque, its once-clear water running khaki-grey. Where the gravel beds were golden, they are now mired in scum. It’s not just the fish that have vanished, so have the crowfoot plants.

 

“A tide of effluent, broken laws and ruthless cuts is devastating the nations’ waterways. An academic and a detective have dredged up the truth of how it was allowed to happen – but will anything be done?” Find out more.

 

And look at the Windrush Against Sewage Pollution (WASP) website.

 

The last discharge was 6 days ago, for 3 hours, from the Bourton-on-the-Water Sewage works. [source]

 

Ruins of Minster Lovell Hall

 

There has been a manor house at Minster Lovell since at least the 12th century, but the major part of the ruins seen today are those of a large new house built by William, Baron of Lovell and Holand, in the 1430s after his return from the French wars. Through marriage and good fortune William was one of the richest men in England, and he built his house as a demonstration of his wealth.

 

William’s son John, a prominent Lancastrian and servant of Henry VI, was rewarded with the position of master forester of the neighbouring royal forest, Wychwood. By contrast, John’s son Francis, the ninth baron, served the Yorkist cause, and was created Viscount Lovell by Richard III.

 

Following the defeat of the House of York in the battle of Bosworth in 1485 the hall passed into the hands of the Crown and eventually, in 1602, into the possession of the successful lawyer Sir Edward Coke. His descendant Thomas Coke, later Earl of Leicester, was in residence in 1721 and in 1728 he assumed the title Lord Lovell of Minster Lovell.

 

The hall was, however, abandoned in favour of the Cokes’ seat at Holkham, Norfolk, begun in the 1730s, and in about 1747 most of the buildings were dismantled, the east and west ranges and the kitchens being demolished for building stone. [English Heritage]

 

Bugs?

 

The bonking beetles are still about. This one on his own.

 

Hard to ID. Maybe a sawfly, but best match is Calameuta pallipes – Small Reed Borer

 

Lots of butterflies, mainly meadow brown, small white, and red admiral, but here a small skipper

 

Here a bumble-bee. Judy wanted to know the flower – probably Bird Vetch (Vicia cracca).

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