Green lane: "an unmetalled track with field boundaries either side. These boundaries may be banks, hedges, woodland edge, stone walls or fences and often features such as ditches or streams are incorporated within the lanes. The combination of the track, its boundaries and associated features create a landscape unit with its own microclimate and ecology."
Source: Parish Biodiversity Audit for Bampton. Report produced by the Devon Biodiversity Records Centre (DBRC). Author: Sue Searle. Undated.
White green lane: the same, after snow.
Not all of these photos are of green lanes but they were all taken whilst I walked the lanes.
This is part of a bridleway that leads from Ford towards Wellington, and is apparently part of an ancient trading route from Wiltshire to north Devon. Knowing what lies underneath that snow, I'm aware of the restrictions on winter travel before metalled roads.
The above two images are taken on the same lane, again near Ford, Bampton. These are very rough tracks to navigate, although whether or not they have always been so is a moot point.
Metalled and passing through woodland, so technically not a green lane. The snow gives much away - I am far from the first to use this lane on this day.
Bowbier, looking magical. And I was the second person to walk it that day.
Still not in undiscovered territory. Someone's been here before me.
Into the old quarry. This is as near as I can get to a cross section through the earth. I'm standing under the roots of a tree.
OK, now I'm just worried a small, hairy-footed humanoid is going to start going on about his precious. I think I may be on a film set. But actually, Bampton wood already contained a rubble heap, lime kilns and a quarry in 1842. There's something quite unromantic about rubble heaps. There is no official path through the quarry, no lane green, white or otherwise. But the number of footprints show me a well-trodden track.
Back on an old packhorse way over Bampton Down and I am the first to walk this route since the snow fell. I don't know why, but there's a small sense of triumph on being the first, in some sense, on a route more ancient than I know.
I'm fascinated by the shapes of the trees, so I'll end with photos of those.
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