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| Stream of consciousness in a marshy wonderland | Stream of consciousness in a marshy wonderland |
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| Buxton, Derbyshire One summer we dammed the brook by the bridge where the dippers bred and swam with the tiddler trout | |
| Mark Cocker | |
| Tue 4 Jul 2017 05.30 BST | |
| Last modified on Mon 27 Nov 2017 20.45 GMT | |
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| Hogshaw Brook, which runs below my late mother’s house, is part of the very first landscape in my story as a naturalist. Every night when I went to bed, I’d hear its ceaseless journey to join the river Wye. I remember one year how we dammed it by the bridge where the dippers bred, and its four-inch flow rose eventually up to the heaving chest of my nine-year-old self. We swam in it that summer, along with its tiddler brown trout and the caddis fly larvae that we loved to uncover beneath the cold stones. | Hogshaw Brook, which runs below my late mother’s house, is part of the very first landscape in my story as a naturalist. Every night when I went to bed, I’d hear its ceaseless journey to join the river Wye. I remember one year how we dammed it by the bridge where the dippers bred, and its four-inch flow rose eventually up to the heaving chest of my nine-year-old self. We swam in it that summer, along with its tiddler brown trout and the caddis fly larvae that we loved to uncover beneath the cold stones. |
| The fields around the brook were grazed by cattle and the banks always shorn to the quick, so that the few flowers we picked for my mother – lady’s smock (among her favourites), meadow buttercups, St John’s wort and the odd orchid – were always taken from the rush-filled bogs on the wettest spots. | The fields around the brook were grazed by cattle and the banks always shorn to the quick, so that the few flowers we picked for my mother – lady’s smock (among her favourites), meadow buttercups, St John’s wort and the odd orchid – were always taken from the rush-filled bogs on the wettest spots. |
| In the 1980s, the cattle were withdrawn and the grazing given over to sheep, which stayed away from the wet ground. I remember noting exactly 30 years ago how the orchids had expanded their province, venturing onto the drier fields, while the wet flushes had become a rising tide of greater bird’s foot trefoil, marsh bedstraw and ragwort. | In the 1980s, the cattle were withdrawn and the grazing given over to sheep, which stayed away from the wet ground. I remember noting exactly 30 years ago how the orchids had expanded their province, venturing onto the drier fields, while the wet flushes had become a rising tide of greater bird’s foot trefoil, marsh bedstraw and ragwort. |
| This year, as in previous years, there has been no livestock. But instead of merely noting the orchids through binoculars from the house window, I went to inspect the old spots properly. | This year, as in previous years, there has been no livestock. But instead of merely noting the orchids through binoculars from the house window, I went to inspect the old spots properly. |
| How they’ve changed. There were 90 orchid spikes in one modest plot of ground and some were vulgar cones of lipstick pink bulging out the ooze. The wider bogs were a rainforest of marsh thistle, valerian, foxgloves and sheep’s sorrel and around the horizon of flowerheads were five species of bumblebee and a couple of hoverflies that are bright-coloured bee mimics: Volucella bombylans and Leucozona lucorum. | How they’ve changed. There were 90 orchid spikes in one modest plot of ground and some were vulgar cones of lipstick pink bulging out the ooze. The wider bogs were a rainforest of marsh thistle, valerian, foxgloves and sheep’s sorrel and around the horizon of flowerheads were five species of bumblebee and a couple of hoverflies that are bright-coloured bee mimics: Volucella bombylans and Leucozona lucorum. |
| Had it been like this 50 years ago I guess it would have been declared a site of special scientific interest and given legal protection. | Had it been like this 50 years ago I guess it would have been declared a site of special scientific interest and given legal protection. |
| Today, it is as good as many nature reserves. It is a classic example of how places can change but also how they can improve when pressure is reduced and humans look the other way for a few decades. | Today, it is as good as many nature reserves. It is a classic example of how places can change but also how they can improve when pressure is reduced and humans look the other way for a few decades. |
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