I have now watched it on iPlayer and can recommend it. In between the items on trimming cows' feet and the robot milking of the poor beats you will see why I am always going on about the hills here. Sadly, more from stock footage than from what the Countryfile people shot on their very damp day in the county.
And I was pleased by the influence on William Penny Brookes (I once wrote about his Much Wenlock Olympian Games in the New Statesman) and Malcolm Saville.
By coincidence, today I met two of the people who involved with this issue of Countryfile.
Mark O'Hanlon (whom I know from the early days of the Malcolm Saville Society and who now runs his own Saville website) was in the Station Inn at Marshbrook at lunchtime.
Later I met the owner of Priors Holt - indeed she very kindly gave me some of their spring water (I suspect I looked very hot) and then a cup of tea and piece of cake. Having afternoon tea at Witchend is about as good as it gets for a Malcolm Saville fan.
Both said that the day the Countryfile crew was in Shropshire was appallingly wet - far worse even than it appears on screen.
Today, by contrast, has been roasting and there are reports of a major gorse fire on the Stiperstones.
Wot, still no mention of that daughter of Shropshire Alison Williamson?
ReplyDeleteShe was on Countryfile and in my New Statesman article. Twang!!
ReplyDeleteLast Thursday we used the Shropshire countryside as a launch site for our Edge of Space project. Before reaching a height of 30km our camera got some good views of The Long Mynd:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqtKktjAx7c
In 2008 I was cycling to Great Bedwyn, Wilts on a Sunday morning at aprox 9 30am when I was confronted by a Lynx in the hedgerow. It looked at me and jumped the fence and ran off across the field. I tried to report this at the time but I just got laughed at.
ReplyDeletePerhaps we do have some wild Lynx in GB already.