Chapter 6: Sheepshitshire

I had a run of three consecutive pillars from S1530 through S1532, which I could turn into a run of six if I bagged the next two, as I also had S1535.  Additionally, S1534 Cold Ashby was of historical interest, being the very first pillar to be used by the Ordnance Survey in their retriangulation of Great Britain, way back in the 1930s.  Northamptonshire was a little further out from my home base than most of my previous trips, but there were some suitably fast roads to take me there, and I figured Cold Ashby was doable if I made it the top end of a loop.  I studied the map.  Yeah, I can do this…

I nearly did myself some serious damage en route.  S6740 Nippets was a hedge-dweller beside a cornfield.  There was an easily accessed track on the other side of the hedge, which I would probably be able to photograph the pillar from, but the logs noted that the flush bracket faced into the field, so I deemed that side to be preferable.  Unfortunately, access into the field was via a very rusty gate, the bottom half of which was covered in an equally rusty wire mesh, and the whole thing was surrounded on both sides by chest high nettles.  It was loosely but securely tied to the gatepost, requiring me to climb over it rather than open it, and it swayed alarmingly as I did.  However, I was swiftly over, and I soon found my concrete objective tucked away in its rather scratchy hiding place, flush bracket pleasingly facing me.  Photos taken, I made my way back.  Scaling the gate the second time was not so easy – I struggled to get a foothold that bore my not inconsiderable weight without snapping or crumbling under me.  A lower bar supported me and I swung my leg over the top, grateful for the protection of my sturdy cargo pants which deflected all the nettles… but could I find a foothold on the other side?  I looked down at the sharp pointy edges of the rusty mesh, aimed directly at my crotch.  If the bar collapsed under me, or if I slipped, or if I couldn’t find a place to support my other foot, I would find myself painfully impaled.  The gate swayed again, and I gripped on for all I was worth.  I’m still not entirely sure what happened next – I must have found somewhere to plant my free foot, and having done so, just gone for it with a big swing sending my entire body over the top.  All I remember is sweating profusely as I climbed back into my car, swearing I would never do anything so stupid again. 

 

S6743 Thorpe Lodge Farm was in the middle of a sheepfield.  S5041 Whilton Hill was also in the middle of a sheepfield.  2969 Everdon required crossing a footpath through a field of particularly noisy sheep which followed me all the way, presumably under the impression I was bringing them their breakfast.  S5037 Glassthorpehill was down a track beyond a wooden gate whose slats were wide enough apart that the lambs in the field were successfully escaping through it… until they saw me coming, at which point they turned tail and squeezed back through them again, before running away from me as I crossed their pasture.  S1499 Charwelton also involved crossing a sheepfield, but the woolly bleaters there largely ignored me as I made my way past the enormous tower that sat atop the hill a short distance in front of the pillar.  Charwelton was a mostly enjoyable one to get, as the tower was almost as impressive a sight as the view from the other side of the hill.  The extremely large pile of manure a few metres away from the trig, however, was rather less pleasing on the eye… and the nose.  There was definitely something of a theme taking place on this trip, though, and a friend who used to live in Northamptonshire was completely unsurprised when I started to refer to it as Sheepshitshire upon my return.

 

There were no sheep at Cold Ashby, but for such a historically significant pillar, it’s being surprisingly unsympathetically treated.  In recent years, the farmer divided the field it sits in with a long hedge, and on arrival, I found the pillar was very much ensconced within it.  From the roadside gate, the hedge needed to be crossed in order to see the flush bracket and the large metal plaque above it, which explains its special significance.  I understand that since my visit the hedge has been torn down and replanted, only far sturdier and more impenetrably.  A disappointment both on the day and after the event, then, even if it did plug a hole in my spreadsheet.

 

Despite the above, the sights (if not the smells) of the Northamptonshire countryside were still a real treat, and with most of the pillars on my trip being trouble-free, I do look back on it as a very enjoyable day out.  Thirteen pillars is a good haul for me (though I would shortly eclipse it), and S7331 Hunsbury Hill (on a wooded hillfort rampart in the middle of the city centre) provided me with a permanent memento of my visit, as I was snapped by the Google Maps camera car whilst I was preparing to leave – you can see my car parked in a side road, with the windows tactfully blurred as I was changing my t-shirt at the time!

 

Back home, and let’s see if we can complete this little sequence – where is S1533?  It’s also a little further afield than I usually venture, being somewhere south of Birmingham, near Kidderminster.  As soon as I saw the photos on the website, though, I knew it would be a highlight, as it sat right in the middle of a wide path across a common.  I got straight on the M40 and headed almost directly to S1533 Walton Hill, keen to visit this pillar early on and then bag whatever I could on a more leisurely meander back towards home.  At the site I found a free car park, enjoyed a scenic and not especially challenging uphill walk, and spotted the pillar pretty much straightaway once I was on the hilltop path.  It turned out to be a very easy and enjoyable visit, with great views of Birmingham from beyond the rustic fence north of the pillar.  If it weren’t for the length of the drive, I would probably visit this one again, as many local dog walkers do.  And thus it was that I completed my little run of six – very pleasantly if a little anti-climactically!  But that’s not the end – I’ve got a whole day ahead of me, and there are a lot of quick and easy bags to be had round these parts…

 

S1889 Bunkers Hill was in a field right above a pub car park.  S3782 Lea Castle Estate was under a tree by the side of a busy a-road – pulling into the side of the road and crossing over was a little hairy, but otherwise this one was quick and easy.  S3799 Poollands Farm was beside a paddock within sight of a car park.  S3834 Penn Hall Hill was at the top of a field by a short footpath in a very picturesque village.  S3835 Dudhill Farm was in a roadside hedge.  So was S3837 Field Farm (Knighton on Teme).  S3838 East Grove Farm was also roadside, involving a short walk along a field edge.  S3953 High Habberley Farm was in the middle of a communal lawn outside a housing estate.  And so it went on – tick, tick, tick.

 

The only pillar I attempted on that day that caused me a significant amount of time and legwork was S3798 Stagborough Hill, and it was absolutely worth the effort – easily the highlight of the day.  Approaching from a bend in the road to the north, a wide half-mile woodland track provides an easy walk to the field on the side of the hill.  The hill itself burned a calorie or three, but otherwise it was a straightforward uphill yomp to the summit.  On some days, this location is used for motor sports, and there were tyre tracks from motorbikes in evidence not only on the dusty ground, but also on the side of the white-painted pillar itself!  However, on this day there was not a soul to be seen – the silence was absolute, and the view across the whole length of the hill and over Stourport to the east was breathtaking.  Not for the first time, I allowed myself half an hour at the top of the hill just to drink it all in and get my energy back for the rest of the day’s trigging.  Moments of utter tranquillity like that make this whole silly pastime so worthwhile.  Just me and some concrete on a clear day, on top of the world, with not another human in sight.  Bliss.

 

S3833 Newland Farm was in a hedge by a paddock.  The equine guardians were a little skittish, but quite friendly after a few moments when they realised I was less interested in them than they were in me.  It was my last stop of the day before I headed towards the M5 and home, but this was a sunny August evening – the sun wouldn’t set for another hour or two yet.  I reviewed my progress.  Attempted nineteen – an ambitious total which would have broken my personal record.  Successfully bagged…  seventeen (I’d been knobbled by impenetrable vegetation at one, and unfriendly cattle at another), which equalled said record.  Oh come on, could I find just one more on my way home?  A nice easy one?  I’m going back past Cheltenham… wasn’t there an easy fieldside bag at the county top at Cleeve Hill?  I’m sure I remember reading about that for some reason.  I think I can remember where the turning is, too…  So I pulled off the M5, drove through Cheltenham, found the a-road back to Oxfordshire, and set off down a succession of very narrow tracks that culminated in a mast enclosure at the top of a hill.  And there, off to the right, was a white-painted pillar, standing proud beside a fence, almost gleaming in the evening sun.  Happy Wilf!  Elated I ran towards it and bagged my eighteenth pillar of the day – a personal best which still stands and which I am unlikely to ever better.  A few quick photos, and… as soon as I saw the flush bracket, I remembered why I’d looked this one up previously.  S1529.  My run of six is now a run of seven!  Deep geeky joy!  I drove back home grinning stupidly, and immersed myself in spreadsheets till the early hours!

 

I’m greedy.  I didn’t want to stop at seven.  Yes, I’d got a couple of equal or longer runs, but this set were almost all found on different days in different places – most of the other consecutive sequences I’ve found are in relatively close proximity.  And having now started this sequence, I wanted to keep on extending it, and therein lies a problem.  S1528 was built on a hill in the middle of Exmoor, which would mean a lot of driving *and* a lot of walking, and not a huge amount by way of landmarks to keep me from getting lost in a particularly desolate bit of England.  And it would be fruitless because S1528 has long since been demolished.  Not only that, it was replaced with a new pillar with a different number, and that’s long since been destroyed, too.  My sequence can therefore only extend in one direction, and if I want to continue it, I need to hope that the numbers that come after S1535 Hindhead are also nearby, extant, and accessible.  I looked up S1536.  Hmm…  not so promising.  It’s in the middle of Wales, it’s a couple of miles from the nearest road, and it’s a steep uphill trek all the way.  Bagging this one would mean a significant amount of driving, a very significant amount of walking, a high risk of triggering my vertigo, a high risk of getting lost on the moors, and a low number of trigs per gallon of petrol burned.  It really wouldn’t be worth my while if I weren’t trying to join up the pillars’ numbers like this – I’d much rather go for the areas where there are lots of easy ones to bag.  But it’s tempting to make an exception if it means I can get a nice long chain of consecutrigs.  I therefore decided that what would make S1536 worth my while is if S1537 were also nearby, still extant, and accessible.  So I looked that one up, too.  S1537 is…

 

…Sca Fell Pike. 

 

Maybe it’ll be an adventure for another time, but right now, I'm not yet ready for a trek up England's highest mountain, all the way up north.  A trigpointer turning down a famous and much-visited trigpoint?  Yeah, how ridiculous am I?  One day, who knows, but for the foreseeable, this run ends at Hindhead.  There are so many more local pillars which are far more realistic accomplishments when you're as out-of-shape as I am.  And the trigpointing community was about to inspire me to head back south again...