Today I followed the North Downs Way to the ridge above Buckland Farm, and then walked down the hill to pick up the Wealdway through Luddesdown and into Cobham...
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| Stonyfield... |
Much of the farmland owned by our feudal overlords at the "Silverhand Estate" winery has been left to revert to wilderness. It was therefore good to see that the weeds at Stonyfield were being hacked back...
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| View towards Buckland Farm from the Weadlway... |
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| View north towards Cobham in the distance from the Wealdway... |
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| Vines from the Wealdway... |
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| Grapes awaiting harvesting... |
The vines in this area appear to have delivered a bumper crop of grapes. Vineyard Farms are going to have to put some hard work in to harvest them all...
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| View north through the vineyard from the Wealdway... |
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| View east across the vineyard from the Wealdway... |
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| More grapes for the harvest... |
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| View looking south from the Wealdway back towards Buckland Farm... |
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| Not sure whether this is to deter livestock or unwanted ramblers... |
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| View towards Cobham... |
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| Luddesdown Church... |
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| Court Lodge Farm through the vines... |
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| Hawthorn berries have also benefitted from the favourable conditions... |
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| View across Luddesdown cricket ground from Henley Down... |
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| Panorama looking south from Henley Down... |
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| More farmland reverting to wilderness under vineyard "management"... |
I hadn't walked from Luddesdown to Cobham this way since
last year. I was saddened to see that Vineyard Farms appear to have extended their tentacles to encompass Cobhambury Farm. The cereal crops that were once grown here were a welcome change from rows upon rows of dreary, weed-infested vines. Alas, all that seems to be growing now are weeds, a sight common across much of the "Silverhand Estate" that is not under vines.
It seems incredible that in these globally uncertain times in terms of food supply, we can allow a company owned by a billionaire tax-exile to sequester vast areas of productive arable farmland that is then allowed to revert to wilderness...
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| The remains of another Cobham windmill? Lord Darnley's one was in the village and is now a private house... |
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| Vineyard Farms checking out their new barbed wire fence along Lodge Lane in Cobham... |
New barbed wire fencing seems to be springing up around much of the land that is constantly being added to Vineyard Farms' estate. These fences seem to be doing far better than the "hedgerows" that the vineyard
boasted about planting a year or so back. The tiny hedging twigs (bought with public-funded grant money - times are tough for billionaire tax-exiles after all...) were shoved in the ground at the start of last year's drought and unsurprisingly, most of them seem to have died...
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| View across the valley from the Darnley trail... |
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| View south from the hill above Warren Road... |
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| Warren Hill wilderness... |
The farmland to the north of Warren Road came under
the tender care of the vineyard a couple of years ago. It was deep-ploughed, dragging up the unsightly chalk substrate, and has since been left to the weeds. Once again, productive farmland seems to be neglected and is reverting to wilderness...
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| View towards Cuxton across Forge Field... |
A small oasis of managed land still exists above Forge Cottage....
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| Barrow Hill, view across Bush Valley... |
...and still Barrow Hill remains weed-strewn. This, of course, was intended to be the site of Vineyard Farms'
vainglorious winery, plans for which were
finally rejected by the Planning Inspectorate a few months back. The time window to appeal to the High Court against that decision has long since elapsed. Both the Medway Council and the Planning Inspectorate websites give no indication that Vineyard Farms/MDCV UK Ltd have lodged an appeal, nor can I find any evidence of one on the High Court schedules to date.
Whisper it quietly, but I think VF may have finally abandoned their grandiose scheme, at least in its original design.
We await their next throw of the dice...
