Things That Go Beep In The Night...

How the planned winery might look at night - disturbing more than the nocturnal wildlife...?

I recently wrote about the pre-history of Cuxton and the Bronze Age burial site discovered at Barrow Hill in Upper Bush. I first found out about the details of the latter in September 2021, whilst wading through the planning application documentation associated with the Vineyard Farms proposed vinicultural theme park. I had long been intrigued by the name of “Barrow Hill” and was pleased (but not surprised) to learn that an ancient burial site in the area was a reality rather than a local myth. The hint is in the name, of course...

Google Maps view of Barrow Hill, 2018...

It transpired that Vineyard Farms had commissioned an archaeological study of the area as a result of some aerial photographs that had shown the outlines of mysterious circular structures etched into the hillside. A subsequent study dig unearthed some human remains, flint tools and pottery fragments, dating from around 2000 BC.

In a promotional video released early in their planning application campaign (and still available to view on their otherwise moribund “Kentish Wine Vault” website),Vineyard Farms CEO Gary Smith acknowledged the existence of these remains with a grudging snigger (see the 9 minute point in the video) saying that the company wanted to "celebrate Medway and Kent's heritage" (amongst some other things that, two years later, seem a wee bit hollow).

Indeed, VF’s “celebration” of part of our local heritage (when they are not actively reinventing it) will be to dig up a Bronze Age cemetery and fill it with concrete in order to build its vainglorious winery.

In fairness, the studies suggest that the Barrow Hill site is no Sutton Hoo (although I suspect construction would not be halted even if it turned out to be so). Whilst there are many, many reasons why Vineyard Farms’ vainglorious winery should not be built there, the finding of a few ancient remains is probably not one of them.

Given the number of historic finds in the Cuxton area, it almost seems to be very difficult to stick a shovel in the ground in the Cuxton area and not find historical artefacts, be they Palaeolithic hand-axes, Neolithic flint tools, Iron Age relics, Roman pottery, building materials and burials or Anglo-Saxon graves. That hasn’t stopped Cuxton being transformed by building works in the past hundred years or so and doubtless nor will it do so in the future. If we place too high a value on every piece of history we find in the ground, we would never be able to build anything. It is a judgement call, although in the case of the Bronze Age site at Upper Bush, it is arguable that insufficient evidence has been gathered to make that judgement. 

Archaeologist unearthing a Bronze Age inhumation on Barrow Hill...

I personally find the thought of disturbing and then destroying ancient graves, well, disturbing - especially for something as trivial and unnecessary as a rich man’s vinicultural Xanadu. It just doesn’t seem right. The dead should be left in peace unless there are very good reasons not to, even if that peace has gone on for 4000 years. I can’t quite understand why I think this way, as I do not regard myself as particularly religious or prone to mysticism. “Respect for the dead” is just part of the way I was brought up, I suppose. I certainly have no time for tales of ghosts, shades of the long-dead (maleficent or otherwise) nor any other sort of spiritualistic, supernatural nonsense.

Finding out about the Bronze Age burial site on Barrow Hill did make me reconsider some memories of a rather strange experience I had there back in 2015, however.

At night, Bush Valley, with Barrow Hill sheltering its north-eastern flank, currently offers some of the darkest skies available in our otherwise urbanised environment of North Kent. It is one of the few local places that you can (for example) appreciate the silvery, starry arc of the Milky Way in summer, a sight normally washed out by urban and industrial light pollution. These wonderful dark skies are one of the many things that will be destroyed by the advent of the winery building, which will undoubtedly be lit up like a year-round Christmas tree for the benefit of its late-evening posh restaurant customers and throughout the night for its own “security” (something we know Vineyard Farms take very seriously indeed…).

Astrophotography is a hobby of mine and on one clear, dark February evening in 2015, I set off to Barrow Hill in an attempt to photograph a phenomenon known as the “zodiacal light”. This is a very faint silvery glow that, at certain times of the year (and only from very dark skies) can be seen stretching up from the night-time horizon. It is thought to be caused by sunlight reflected off of dust from the planet Mars that has spread out along the path of its orbit.

Vineyard Farms even include a (somewhat exaggerated) picture of the zodiacal light in their promotional planning documentation, oblivious of the irony that the light pollution from their massive, lit-up winery on Barrow Hill at night will completely obliterate any chance you would have of ever seeing it from there!

From the VF Design and Access Statement, Part 1, p 28.

As the zodiacal light is quite faint, I decided in advance that I would need to take a series of long photographic exposures, probably around the 60-90 second mark. To prevent the stars in the final picture from “trailing” (due to the rotation of the earth during the long exposure time), I had mounted the camera on a battery-driven drive that could compensate for the speed of the sky’s rotation (about 15 degrees per hour).

I drove out to Upper Bush at around 6.30 in the evening, leaving my car by the old Bush Farm buildings. Normally I would walk from home to Upper Bush, but the camera, tripod, clock drive and battery/lantern pack add up to a fair bit of weight and so I took the lazy option. I had decided to set up right on top of Barrow Hill, overlooking the valley towards the western horizon. Even that in itself was a fair slog from the farm, carrying my equipment.

Once on top of the hill, I got set up. The sun had set about an hour or so beforehand and brilliant Venus was just starting to approach the western horizon. Away to the south, the constellations of Orion and his retinue were glittering high in the sky in the rapidly fading twilight. Over to the north-west, the Milky Way could even be glimpsed, a sure sign that the sky was promisingly free from clouds or haze.

Sunset over Bush Valley from Barrow Hill....

To make sure the camera drive tracked the sky properly, I had to line it up with the pole star. This involves squinting through a little telescope built into the drive unit, and adjusting the drive mount’s direction and elevation until the pole star can be seen in the middle of it. To help with this, there is a reticule in the telescope that can be lit up with a tiny LED so that you can see it against the dark sky (hopefully with Polaris, the pole star, somewhere in the view).

This LED wouldn’t light up however. This was strange, as I had only just recently fitted a new battery to it. Nevertheless, I managed to get a good alignment and carried on.

The telescope drive has a handset associated with it, that allows you set the time and to automatically point the camera at a specific star if you so wish. Normally, the handset “remembers” the time, but on this occasion, it wouldn’t. Not a problem, as you can set that manually via the handset key-pad. However, when I checked my watch by torchlight, that had also stopped! My watch is a solar-powered, self-charging one, which I had worn daily for several years and which had been supremely accurate and reliable. Its sudden failure didn’t matter too much in terms of the exercise in hand however, so I guessed the time to be around 7.30 pm, programmed that in to the handset and carried on.

I soon got the camera to point towards the western horizon and started taking 60 second exposures. Annoyingly, I noticed that the sky seemed to be darkening, although it was a strange sort of darkness. Normally, any hint of haze or cloud gives the sky a yellowish tinge due to reflected town light, but this just seemed as if the stars themselves were getting dimmer.

Then the camera back screen started flashing up a “Low Battery” alarm. I was now getting seriously fed up, as I had only just recharged that battery this afternoon. And the sky was getting dimmer, almost grey, but also weirdly darker. It was now getting difficult to see the horizon, or indeed even the surrounding hillside. And although it was a cold February night, it also seemed to be getting warm and humid. The chilly wind had completely ceased and a thin, damp, cloying mist started to develop. A total silence had also descended on the hillside, with the faint background noise of the distant M2 now completely absent.

Finally, the hand-set on the camera beeped and the drive stopped. In the total silence, the “beep” seemed startlingly loud. Low battery.

I am not of a nervous disposition, at least as far as night-time heebie-jeebies are concerned. As a very experienced astrophotographer, I am well used to spending very dark, late nights alone, and for long times in remote places. Night-time noises, such as the rustlings of hedgehogs or the occasional nocturnal comings and goings or unearthly screeches of foxes, owls or badgers, can startle but never frighten me.

But I was beginning to get seriously spooked. By now, I could not see or hear anything up on Barrow Hill and I was starting to panic a little bit. I felt as if I was going deaf and blind. The cloying humidity and mist was even making it difficult to breathe. I started to wonder if I was having some sort of “medical episode”.

I picked up my lantern/battery pack but the built-in torchlight was dead. In desperation, I got out my mobile phone, just for some light. That too, was dead.

I abandoned my equipment and blundered blindly down the hillside. Towards the bottom of Barrow Hill, the mist began to clear and I could see stars again. Looking back up towards where I had been, I could see no trace of the mist that had appeared to surround me.

I went back to my car for a breather and pulled myself together. This was not the witching hour. I could see the headlights of the occasional car going along Warren Road. Civilisation was alive and well, and close by. It could only have been around 9.00pm at the absolute latest, after all.

The clock on the dashboard said 00.30. That could not be possible.

I got out and looked up at the night sky, now shining with cold, hard, starlit transparency. Orion had sunk down to the western horizon. Leo was high in the southern sky. It was indeed past midnight. I had somehow lost three hours. Had I passed out?

”I am not scared I am not scared I am not scared” I repeated to myself.

I got a torch out of the glove box. That was working fine. Right, I am now feeling just fine and I am going back up the hill to collect my equipment. There will be no fuss, no bother.

There wasn’t. There was a chilly breeze. The night sky was crystal clear and the light of the stars was beginning to be reflected off of a silvery dusting of frost forming on the muddy, frozen field. And on the western horizon, was that a trace of the zodiacal light?

I picked up my useless collection of still-electrically-dead equipment, walked back to the car, loaded up and went home.

My other half was a bit tetchy, as I had told her I would be in by ten. “Why didn’t you ring me?” she asked. I pointedly put my ‘phone on charge. The battery was completely flat but subsequently charged up just fine.

Ditto my power pack and lantern. Ditto my wristwatch. Ditto the camera battery. The little non-rechargeable button battery in my polar alignment unit was completely dead, as was the 3V lithium battery mounted on the circuit board of my drive unit handset (hence its inability to remember the time). Five minutes with a soldering iron and a new battery, and everything was working again.

I have had absolutely no trouble with any of that equipment since then. I have also been back to Bush Valley and Barrow Hill at night on several subsequent occasions. But not on my own…

View from Barrow Hill - during the day, winter 2022...

So I found the subsequent discovery of an ancient Bronze Age burial pit on Barrow Hill to be quite intriguing.

Do I think that the ghosts of long-dead Bronze Age chieftains were responsible for sucking the life out of my astronomy electronics? Of course not.

Do I think that some weird supernatural event caused me to lose three hours? No.

I think I might have flaked out due to my hill-climbing, lugging-heavy-equipment-type exertions and that I was a bit unlucky on the battery front. Damp has got into my sensitive astro-electronics in the past, but I must admit I have never had a total, across-the-board failure like that one. It would be so easy to pin a series of unusual events on some weird, supernatural shenanigans and I don’t intend to start that superstitious nonsense at my age. But I would be lying if I said I could totally ignore the tiny, credulous bit of me that says otherwise…

The one thing that really stuck in my mind about that evening was the feeling of stifling uneasiness. Curiously, the only other time I can ever remember feeling anything even remotely like that was when I visited Dode Church a few years back. I think that place has a slightly creepy vibe, even in broad daylight. It’s not the sort of place I would ordinarily imagine young folk getting married in somehow, but they do, in droves, and they all seem to be quite happy ever after about it. 

So it’s really just me...

As for Barrow Hill, I think it should be left alone, for lots of reasons.

So, Vineyard Farms, when you finally get your way and you get to build your billionaire’s stately pleasure dome up there, you only have yourselves to blame if your wine goes sour, your electrics play up or your staff or customers freak out.

I will only smile and say “been there, done that…”

"Get Orf Moy Laaa-aand..."

Viz magazine's "Farmer Palmer"; now working for Vineyard Farms Ltd..?

Since Medway Council's planning committee rejected MDCV/Vineyard Farms Ltd's vainglorious plan for a massive Lord Foster-designed vanity winery on protected green belt land and a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty at Upper Bush in Cuxton, the winery folk seem to have distanced themselves from the local community even more than ever.

As I noted earlier, MDCV/VF Ltd have recently resorted to labelling their territory as "The Silverhand Estate", much to the puzzlement of the people of Cuxton and Luddesdown who live around it (or even in it), and have taken to putting up  "Keep Off" signs everywhere.  

"Keep Orf Our Larrrrnd..."

They even seem to employ someone to roar around their fiefdom in an unmarked white pick-up truck, looking out for anyone who happens to wander off the public footpaths and on to the maze of farm tracks which criss-cross the area, and grumpily tell them to stick to the public footpaths - although I suspect that the 4x4s do far more damage to the tracks than a walker ever would, especially given the speed the former are driven at.

It's hardly a good community image.

"It's our land, not yours, and we can do what we like with it" seems to be the attitude, and although the area may be classified as green belt/AONB, it is still essentially agricultural land, so activity within it doesn't have to be pretty, or to cater for passers-by.

Nowhere is that more apparent at the moment than at Barrow Hill, overlooking Upper Bush.  As I noted recently, a pile of flints was fly-tipped right at the top of the hill, seemingly for no apparent reason.  

Why...?

A half-baked attempt had also been made to block off the farm track that runs along the field edge, by means of a large tree trunk put down there, and that appeared at one point to have been smeared with anti-climb paint. The track is a locally popular if unofficial route, one that offers wonderful views across Upper Bush Valley. It's now clear that MDCV/VF want this view for themselves alone, and that the local peasantry are not at all welcome.

Ugly piles of soil have now been heaped across the bottom of the path at the Dean Farm end in an attempt to create a more formidable barrier...

It all seems a bit pointless and unnecessary. The soil banks will soon green up and will not be difficult to climb over, after all. The area is certainly where they want to build their winery, but why block it off like this, unless building works are imminent?  It just seems a bit petulant, as if they are trying to upset the people who regularly walk in that area. (It doesn't bother me, by the way -  I think the damage has already been done).

If MDCV/Vineyard Farms/Silverhand Estate are going to appeal to the Secretary of State in a bid to overturn the council's rejection of the plans for the "Kentish Wine Vault", then they need to do so by the end of September this year. No-one seems to have heard a peep out of them so far on that front.  Perhaps they have decided to give up on their Lord-Foster designed Xanadu, although I would be astounded if that were the case.  

It's worth noting that under the terms of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, Schedule 2 Permitted development rights, Part 6, Agricultural and forestry, Class A – agricultural development on units of 5 hectares or more (phew!), they are completely within their rights to build a building (or buildings) - for agricultural purposes (which would include wine making, but NOT restaurants/cafes. shops, visitors and corporate hospitality areas etc. etc.) - of up to 1000 square meters in floor area, without any need for council approval. Whether or not that would be big enough to handle their proposed 4 million bottles a year output, I don't know, but they are already operating a wine-producing plant at Luddesdown.  

MDCV/VF would still need planning approval for any access roads, but a new operational area at Barrow Hill may well come as a relief to the residents of Upper Bush, which although is itself classified as a conservation area, is now (so I gather) continually blighted by the noise of the "agricultural activities" now going on at the old Bush Farm, where VF seem to store a lot of their equipment.

In the absence of any information, we will have to wait and see.

Other local wineries, such as Chapel Down or Meopham, have web-sites that are regularly updated to keep people informed as to things that are happening on their estates. 

At the moment we get no such feedback from Vineyard Farms, although we are promised that a "Silverhand Estate" web page ("The Future Is Sparkling") is "coming soon".  I am looking forward to seeing what it has to say...

"Coming Soon" - to an AONB near you...

Meanwhile, careful where you tread on the "Silverhand Estate".  

Mark "Silverhand" Dixon's* minions are watching you...

*(The above link is to a Maxim magazine review of Mark Dixon's Chateau Du Berne vineyard in Provence, the last word in exclusive luxury vinotourism. It tells you a bit about Mr. Dixon and also about the other MDCV - "Mark Dixon Chateaux Vignobles" - vineyards in his French portfolio. The mass-produced cheap fizzy plonk that will be the staple of Vineyard Farms (the UK wing of MDCV), seems to be downmarket fare compared to that offered by his French operations - even with a Lord Foster-designed luxury playground. Even The Sun rated it as pretty average stuff...)

Views Around the Vineyard (2)...

The large field at the top of Hatch Hill, once a productive arable field, has been abandoned for the past three years, much to the benefit of local wildlife...

Hatch Hill field...

Common spotted orchid...

Blue Columbine...

View from Wrenches Shaw...

View towards Cobham...

Towards Round Wood hill...

"Boast Post" where the NS214 footpath crosses Buckland Road...

Meadow View House from the vineyard...

The Old Rectory...

...a.k.a. The Vineyard Farms Social Club...

Perhaps it should be called the Green Lion. The colour makes me think of Parsley the Lion from The Herbs. As I recall, however, Parsley was "very friendly"...

The Cock Inn...

Walking on past the "Golden" Lion, a stroll up Henley Street brings you to the Cock Inn. It's a very good and refreshingly idiosyncratic pub, but it nearly always seems to be closed when I am walking past, which is a shame (for me, anyway). Opening times and more information about the place can be found on its web page (link here).

"Boast Post" where the NS 366 footpath meets the Cobhambury Road...

View south by Shoulder Of Mutton Shaw...

Bottom of Winterham Hill...

The bare chalk has been seeded with rape to give a welcome covering to the north of Warren Road...

The Warren...

The Warren...

High Birch and Upper Bush Cottage

Borrow Hill House...

The Old Bakery...

Around Bush...

Red Wood field...

Following the Cuxton parish boundary over the road from Warren Gate Lodge took me across the finely-ploughed Red Wood Field. The plough has thrown up a heavy covering of flints. I don't know if the "Silverhand Estate" plans to put this field under vines but if so, it will be interesting to see if these flints pose a problem to the vine-planting machinery.

Looking east down the valley from Backendon Hill...

Backendon Hill - common fumitory

Looking west from the top of Great Lumford Field...

Looking east down the valley from Half Acre path

Curiously, the sign on Warren Road that indicates this public footpath leading to Upper Bush seems to have gone missing...

Forge Cottage, Lower Bush...

Cottage gardens, Lower Bush...

Sadly, the "boast post" put up by Vineyard Farms on the North Downs Way where it meets Bush Road has been vandalised: the information sheet once attached to it has now been torn off. That's a poor show. Whatever your opinion of Vineyard Farms, there is no excuse for damaging their property. As a community, we can hardly be censorious of their activities if one or two members of it are going to behave like that...

Vandalised "Silverhand Estate" post, at the junction of the North Downs Way and Bush Road...

I have seen three other posts of the same design around the vineyard, which mercifully have remained undamaged to date. Personally, I find these wooden posts quite informative, although perhaps in ways not intended by their owner. They should be left alone. 

Lower Bush cottages from the North Downs Way, through Pig Field...

High Birch, Upper Bush, lavender in bloom...

By accident or design (the latter I think) the bare chalk patches in Bush Valley have given way to a welcome and rather spectacular covering of yellow rape...

North Ride Hill, Bush Valley...

Across the east to the other side of the valley, a large pile of flints has been dumped on top of Barrow Hill. This is a popular viewpoint across Bush Valley and it is a shame that someone has tried to spoil it. Perhaps the thinking behind this otherwise seemingly pointless piece of mischief is that this is where Lord Foster's vainglorious billionaire's folly is going to be built, so get used to the area being covered in stone and spoil...

Fly-tipped flints on Barrow Hill...

In the spirit of "lemons/lemonade", I simply climbed on top of the flint pile, and found that it gave me an improved view of the valley...

Bush Valley, looking west from Barrow Hill...

I also found a rather nice fossilised Sea Urchin on the flint pile. Which, of course, I left there... 

Arrogantia divitum non diligitur...

Recently spotting a Wall butterfly at the bottom of Barrow Hill was a bittersweet experience. My joy at seeing that these now-scarce butterflies are moving back into Upper Bush was tempered by the knowledge that Vineyard farms will soon be destroying the area for their vanity winery.

Walking down the North Downs Way through Upper Bush after my “parish boundary stone hunt”, I came to the crossing at Bush Road. Here, my mood darkened further when I saw that Vineyard Farms have now been putting up markers of their own...

Vineyard Farms' new boundary marker - a "boast post"...

A wooden post has been put in place, asserting that the area is now apparently part of something called the “Silverhand Estate”. This seems to be a piece of whimsy on behalf of our new baronial masters: the name “Silverhand” appears on no local map, past or present and has (as far as I know) no actual meaning or historic connection with the area, or indeed, with anything else at all.

Between them, the fields, woodlands and roads around Cuxton and Luddesdown have many interesting and unusual names, names that are steeped in local history. Wrangling Lane, Cutter Ridge, Bushy Wood, Hatch Hill, Wrenches Shaw, Brazenden Wood, Backenden Hill: all of these names mean something locally and would have made perfectly appropriate titles for Vineyard Farms’ new estate.

A company that cared a bit more about the local community might have even asked its neighbours what they thought their estate could be called, but then “community engagement” isn’t exactly the Vineyard Farms way, beyond the bare minimum needed to tick that box for the planning application. (Perhaps they were scared they might have gotten too many "Winey Mc.Wineface" answers...)

So sadly it appears that Vineyard Farms have chosen to ignore any local connotations when naming their new baronial fiefdom, preferring instead to celebrate their ownership of 1200 acres of historic farmland across Cuxton and Luddesdown by naming it after a computer game character.

It just seems like the Lord of the Manor crowing: "All of this is ours now, not yours..."

Their new propaganda post boasts about the hedgerows that are being planted on their new estate, as part of an initiative by a lottery-funded group called Old Chalk New Downs. Indeed, Vineyard Farms' "Biodiversity Net Gain Assessment" (on the Council Planning Portal) claims a net "Habitat Unit" (furniture?) gain of 14.34% and a "hedgerow unit" gain of 864.47%. Utterly meaningless twaddle, of course, as if "biodiversity" can be calculated to two decimal places. Shoving a few twigs in the ground at the start of a drought hardly compensates for the desertification of 1200 acres of arable farmland or the planned levelling of Barrow Hill to build a totally unnecessary and unwanted tacky tourist trap on a green belt AONB. 

They also boast about the "biodegradable cardboard" used to protect their new twigs. No mention at all of the hundreds of thousands of non-biodegradable plastic net sheathes that protect their precious vines (1.5 million of them, so I gather) and which, from a distance, now give the valleys their unpleasant chemical green tint.  

Given that each sheath weighs 45g, 1.5 million of them equates to a staggering 67.5 tonnes of plastic. Some of this already seems to be strewn across the public footpaths as you make your way around the estate, although one would hope that there would be arrangements made to collect and recycle the horrid things once they have served their purpose.

And can it really be that a company owned by a billionaire tax exile (and one with its tax arrangements doubtless being as "tax efficient" as those of its owner) would actually be exploiting UK tax-payer's money and lottery funding to get their new "hedgerows" planted?  Certainly such hedgerow work would be eligible for grants from the Farming In Protected Landscapes and the Old Chalk New Downs projects that VF are bragging about their involvement with. 

Personally I think it is disgraceful that public money is apparently being used to fund the planting of hedgerows on a private estate. I'm not sure that in these harsh times, those struggling to pay their bills would really want to hear that the taxes they pay may be subsidizing trendy "green-washing" by companies owned by billionaires, especially billionaires that live abroad for tax purposes. Perhaps it will give them such a warm feeling, they won't need to heat their houses with expensive gas or electricity...

I wonder if DEFRA/OCND even know just what MDCV/Vineyard Farms are really up to?  Are they aware that Medway Council's planning committee have just rejected VF's winery plans because of their "inappropriate nature" for green belt AONB and the damage they would to "protected landscapes" and "old chalk"? 

Vineyard Farms even have the cheek to display the logo of the Kent Downs AONB unit on their new boasting post, a group that expressed a strong and detailed objection to VF's plans on Medway Council's planning portal.

Despite the extensive local opposition to their plans, I understand that Vineyard Farms are now definitely going ahead with an appeal against the decision (made by Medway’s democratically-elected councillors on the planning committee) to reject their vainglorious scheme.

It's an appeal I think they will probably win. Vineyard Farms know that the locals can’t match the array of highly-paid experts and barristers they will be hiring to argue that black is white in front of the planning inspector at the forthcoming public inquiry. Their owner’s millions will buy them what they want in the end. We all knew that would happen anyway, didn’t we?

The final gloat on the boast post: "Wine Conquered"...

So I’m kind of surprised Vineyard Farms didn’t put “Vinum Vincit” (rather than “Vinum Victa”) on their cheesy, nineteen-seventies-style faux armorial. Even a shed-load of cash can't buy you taste, it seems... 

Bluebells and boundary stones...

Ramsons (Wild Garlic) - Mays Wood...

I set out with the intention of tracking down the rest of the parish marker boundary stones that follow the old fence line at the bottom of Bush valley, this time on the western side.  I did get rather side-tracked by the wild flowers along the way...

Ramsons (Wild Garlic) - May Wood...

Bluebells - Wingate Wood...

Bluebells - Wingate Wood...

Bluebells - Wingate Wood...

Oaks and Hornbeams, Wingate Wood...

Turning right off of the North Downs way at Stony Field leads down to the bottom of Bush valley...

OS Map (1907 revision) showing southern Bush Valley parish boundary marker stones...

The 1907 map shows nine marker stones that run up the western slope from the gate at the bottom of Bush Valley, following the parish boundary up to the NS214 footpath in Bushy Wood.  The early 1869 map did not indicate any marker stones and I suspect they were put in at the turn of the century.  The map also shows that the land to the south of Bush valley was once open fields.  However, the 1936 OS map shows this had begun to revert to the woodlands we see today...  

Marker stone locations superimposed on aerial map of southern Bush Valley...

I could not find the marker stone by the farm gate (the one on the extreme right of the above map) and I suspect it got grubbed up when the gate was put in.  The first four up the hill to the west were fairly easily found just inside the fence line (and on the above map, I have circled the stones I actually managed to find), but as I worked my way up the hill it became more and more overgrown with brambles...  

Example of boundary marker stone...

Superficially these stones seem similar in design to the Hilton and Anderson quarry markers, two of which can be found further up the valley above White Pit.  They are smaller, however, and lack the full stop between the H and the A, which the White Pit stones have. Some people believe that the "HA" on these stones also stands for Hilton and Anderson, but personally I think it just stands for HAlling... 

Example of parish boundary marker stone...

I tried to head westwards up the slope from the last boundary stone, but the brambles forced me to take a more southerly route up to the NS 214.  That did allow me to find a rather large and spectacular group of Early Purple orchids amongst the Bushy Wood bluebells, however...

Early Purple orchids and bluebells, Bushy Wood...

Early Purple orchid and bluebells, Bushy Wood...

Bushy Wood parish boundary marker stone...

The map suggested the presence of a boundary stone right by the NS 214 path but I could not find it, although it may well still be hiding in the dense undergrowth.  However, I tracked back north off of the NS 214 and succeeded in finding one of the four stones that are supposedly in the Bushy wood area.  I am sure the others are still there and I will try and find them at some point...  

Woodruff, Bushy Wood...

Bush Valley, north from the edge of Bushy Wood...

Bush Valley - the Vineyard Farms makeover...

Coming out of Bushy Wood, I took the track that runs down the western side of Bush Valley towards Upper Bush.  The activities of Vineyard Farms in support of their precious vines have left the valley looking sterile and desolate, more like a chalk quarry than farmland.. 

Wall butterfly, Burrow Hill...

At the bottom of the valley, Borrow Hill has been left alone for the moment.  Indeed, a few skylarks had returned and I was also amazed to see of couple of Wall butterflies, one being kind enough to stay still long enough for me to take its picture above. I haven't seen one of these for many years.  Once common, the population of these little beauties has crashed disastrously in the past 30 years and they now tend to be found only on coastal grassland areas.  Unfortunately, Vineyard Farms plan to obliterate Borrow Hill to build their stupid, vainglorious winery, so it'll soon be goodbye to Wall butterflies and skylarks...

Star of Bethlehem, Upper Bush...