2 Feb

February 2014

A series of storms has battered the UK this month. The wettest winter on record (December, January and February) has resulted in sustained consistent and overwhelming flooding for the Somerset levels. The images of the flooding have made national and international news sparking renewed debate about climate change. Experts believe the damage caused by the floods could have been lessened by taking some preventative action such as dredging the rivers. As other parts of the UK also became flooded it became clear that government planning is to save certain areas and allow other areas to flood. I have referred elsewhere in this blog to Disposable Somerset, and clearly Somerset was not a government priority. The levels are a flood plain, however because they are below sea level they have become an unmanageable flood plain. Eventually the news coverage brought government attention and pumps from the Netherlands have now been brought in to try and clear the water. The farms on the levels were recovering from flooding last year and reports suggest it will be at least two years before the contaminated land can recover.

On 21st February 2014 an earthquake, 4.1 on the Richter scale, occurred at 1.30 pm in the Bristol Channel south of Swansea. The impact is being downplayed, the quake was at a depth of three miles and there are no reports of damage to property, although houses shook in Wales and England. One expert has said on national news that an earthquake of up to magnitude 6 is plausible in the Bristol Channel fault line. Another expert has said they will be checking the effect of the quake on structures such as the nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point. A massive new nuclear reactor is planned for this location, funded by China and managed and owned by France.

From the lane beside the barn the location of Hinkley Point and the closeness of the site to the floods and to the earthquake site is clear and within sight without binoculars. The vulnerability of this site to the impact of both floods and earthquakes is completely evident. The connection between the flood, fault and nuclear power appears to be wilfully ignored by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Government, despite Fukushima. How many more reminders will we need before we recognise and plan for climate change and find, use and celebrate alternative power options?

the Barn, February 2013

Viewing the barn from above, aided by satellite imagery and with google earth, I review the location and gain a new perspective. All around the hill on which the barns stands are earthworks and neolithic barrows. The barn stands near important sites from the Bronze and Iron ages, equidistant between Maesbury hill fort and Penn Hill, the barn is just a few miles from the Neolithic Priddy Rings. Millennia ago this area was an archipelago and this hill would have been one of the islands, it is near the site of Beacon Hill, which was once a volcano and some of the rocks I find in the barn field are the ancient red sandstone known on the Mendips.

The tracks around the barn appear to have a river flow and the barn stands in its own island on the field. In the image you can see how large the field is, a composite of three fields, the old field boundaries are clearly picked out in this image. The relative size of this field compared with neighbouring old field boundary sizes is part of the change in cultivation that has dramatically altered our farming over the last fifty years. The scale of the barn in relation to the field and the location on the hill top gives the barn this sense of isolation in space that is more often seen in images of barns in America.

I’ve been doing some photography and drawing with the neolithic barrows this last year and the sense of ancient communities that once inhabited these hills is always with me as I walk the land. New technologies and science understanding gives us new insight into time and space that alters our perception of where we are and our relative size in the universe. New mapping brings new challenges and it becomes ever more important to locate and centre ourselves in whatever way we can.

The Barn, February 2012

February this year is cold, with some bitter nights, but nothing compared to the cold in the east.  Even with night temperatures of -5C almost everyone is talking about ways to keep warm, the cost of fuel, our dependence on the fuel companies and the fuel companies’ dependence on the fuel supply.  Disaster scenarios play out in the imagination, especially for those of us who can remember post war poverty, and alternative supply options should gas or electric supplies fail are often considered.

I heard that in the Ukraine there is an increase in house fires where people are overloading their fuel stoves and I cannot imagine how they survive such bitter cold, quotes of temperatures reaching -30C.  Somerset and the Mendips are being considered as fuel supplies for Europe, with the plans for Europe’s largest nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point and plans for fracking on the Mendips.  Pre-history ‘Cheddar man’ survived the bitter cold in the caves, I guess he used wood for fuel.  The exposure of the barn field high above these caves in a landscape dotted with barrows reminds me of man’s adaptability and survival for 5000 years in these hills.

Then at the end of February 2012 the weather turned unseasonably warm and there begins to be talk of drought.

The Barn, February 2010

The February film explored the impact of diminishing resources, my own as I age, and those of our planet, as we use them up, using a barn once built to house resources.  I used to commute to work, travelling 8,000 miles a year. For the last 12 of these years my journey took me past this barn as I headed home.  The barn frames the westerly setting sun in the direction I was heading each night, and so created a turning point in my journey and my mind, a point where my thoughts would turn from being work to home focused.  I’m interested in how these markers on our daily journeys imprint in our mind, our visual memories and our daily histories, merging in our experience with our attempts to resolve the daily inner turmoil – our frustration, fears, joys and sorrows, conflict and resolution – objects telling us where we are and the fleeting repeated viewings giving some constancy.

The barn itself has been disused for most of the last 12 years and the temporary nature of the structure as it decays contrasts with the eternal nature of the landscape – evidence of Neolithic occupation is abundant in this part of the Mendips and the water tower echoes neighbouring barrows on its elevated mound.  The totemic water towers reminds us of the diminishing water table, that water is a finite resource.  The contrast in the film between the sharp high definition digital technology and the foggy, uncertain, shaky and lower resolution imagery is deliberate – in this age of technology we seem to be trying to be ever clearer and certain, and in our technological certitude the less resolved, organic, diverse and changing nature of life is ignored and our failure to recognise this and act on, for example, global warming becomes darker, more urgent and dangerous as a result.

The string frayed and swinging in the sun used to hold a tyre that children swung on.  Barns hold for me strong memories of childhood play and freedom.  The badger sett is extensive and holds the potential for joy, however there are signs it has been used for badger baiting. The found string reminded me of our ability to tie ourselves in knots trying to resolve our dilemmas.  In Somerset unemployment is high, work is hard to source locally.  In the future, 80% of the world’s population will live in cities and soon only the very poor or the very rich will be able to live rurally.