There is a Green Hill far, far, away…

‘Without the City Wall’ where I’ve been grafting to get some sense out of an old dilapidated barn (again) for a neighbour. There is now absolutely no doubt that I am ‘past my build by date’; the damn stones are excruciatingly heavy – or so I thought – and the knees punish me for days afterwards. I say “or so I thought” as I had to venture across the hill to do a small repair on the medieval demesne wall of Carreg Cennen castle and those stones ARE BIG. The impetus for this sudden burst of ‘do-good-ery’ came from three sources. Firstly and probably most significant is guilt; I’ve been driving past the particular collapse for a long time, I mean a couple of years ! Secondly, the arrival of another Easter highlighted that timescale as I remember well driving along that road last Easter Monday and thinking that I really ought to mend that piece. Finally the coincidence of this Easter being at the beginning of April which is precisely when it occurred at the time, eleven years ago, that I was engaged on a major rebuild of a large number of sections of that wall.

When I first spied the collapse, a stretch of about three metres, I suspected immediately the underlying cause, THEFT ! The section of the narrow lane which runs across the open hill south of the castle has the wall on one side, tight to the road edge and a small area of flat grassland on the other but this has large boulders at intervals along it. The soggy nature of the grass verge at most times of the year together with the boulders makes it a difficult place to pull onto but there is, alas, a small pull-in passing place and the damaged section was opposite, Stones regularly get stolen by folk wanting some nice natural looking examples for their rockery. When I did the major repair all those years ago I had to bring in a dozen trailer loads to replace what had been taken off the wall over the years. Since then most of the wall has not suffered from removal, all that is except the piece by the pull-in. About a third of the stones are missing which is a real nuisance for me and the farmer. What is especially irksome is that a few hundred yards along is a totally derelict wall which has been largely removed over the decades but there’s not really a convenient place to park, pinch and get gone before anyone sees. On the opposite side is a huge scree slope, thousands of stones ! Take them next time, please – except that too is theft, the whole area is part of the Geopark designated by the National Park authority.

It was at least a little encouraging that whilst I was stripping out the collapse a pair of horse riders came by with their phone-cameras at the ready (to snap me and my vehicle registration number) to record me in the act of thieving ! Fortunately one of them knew me and what I was about but it was gratifying to think that someone recognised the problem. Back when I was bringing-in the trailer loads, which I got permission to remove from that derelict wall and blocking the lane whilst I loaded it onto my trailer, on one occasion a police car came along and had to wait for me to move. I fully expected to get aggressively ‘questioned’ but they waited for me to finish loading and drive to a place where they could pass and off they went with a wave. So much for crime prevention !

So the Easter of 2021 on that Green Hill far away will be another etched into my ever shortening memory. The wall is hugely important in historical terms as its construction was at least six centuries ago and most probably longer. It is built using stones readily available from nearby scree slopes which are mainly limestone with some basalt grit. The wall is the boundary between the open moorland which was once a hunting ground for Welsh princes and the later Norman overlords and the in-bye pastures. In all the boundary runs for around 30 kilometres and there’s not many sections I haven’t done some repairs upon over the years. I did begin a major restoration of the demesne wall which runs around the enclosed land of the castle and contains some old pillow mounds of the rabbit warren as well as concrete platforms that once housed anti-aircraft search-lights and guns relating to the 2nd World War bombing of Swansea. Although that blitzed city is over twenty miles to the south it is mere minutes in a Heinkel and apparently the bombers came in over land rather than try to run in over Swansea bay and risk losing the bombs in the sea. The funding for the restoration came as part of the original farm environmental scheme, Tir Cymen which ran from 1993 for ten years but after two years of the ten year programme the then owners of the farm to which the enclosure belonged reneged on their obligations under the scheme and only 200 metres of the 3 kilometres was restored. At over one and a half metres high and in places two metres wide, the wall is a massive structure and a broad estimate of tonnage puts the stone collected and used at over ten thousand tonnes. An undertaking which would daunt today.

The rebuilt section, still missing the stolen amount, shows clearly in the old wall but turn around and look what’s behind ! Not only are they thieves but LAZY to boot.

Meanwhile, back at the derelict farmstead, a man with a machine arrived to ‘aid’ my progress, or so I thought. There again, as the saying goes, eggs have to be broken in the omelette making.

Hidden somewhere in this heap is a wall !

“You’ve got a job on there” said the farmer/digger driver. Omelette ? Coming up !

I’ve a Spring of heaving ahead, so it seems, but it will soon go back up once I make a start. What appears to be a mass of dumped stones is in fact the side wall and pine-end of a large old barn. Whilst I am still able, notwithstanding I will have to take it at a slow steady pace, I’m happy to join with the farmer in giving some dignity and purpose back to this centuries old ruin.

Alas, for the past week or so the weather has been against me and I have not ventured down to the site preferring to stay in the barn and work on a major cart restoration which has occupied my winter (see http://www.farmhistory.uk ). However I did head out to deal with a small repair which threatened to get much larger and allow the new-born lambs to escape. That meant taking advantage of a miracle of blue which lasted but a day, as did the white shimmer of the covering. Hopefully that’s the last we’ll see of ‘winter wonderland’ for this end of 2021.

My Millenium Tower, slotted into over 400 metres of totally rebuilt wall, always looks better with a white surround. A confused fox passed by in the night.

Somehow this farmer, driving by in his John Deere mule, spotted the ‘problem coming’. I couldn’t spot it until I actually got within a few yards. Can you see it ?

The finest wall in the Brecon Beacons National Park – in my opinion !

So, 2021 has crept forward toward Spring and I’ll be glad to see the lambs and the daffodils. Whilst the awful pandemic rages and families suffer personal and economic and mental stress I know I am fortunate. My ability, long learned, to survive through my own fortitude and my own company is a blessing. My environment is a definite advantage and the special community in which I live is a giver of great spiritual comfort. I know full well how lucky I am. God bless you all this Easter season, better times are coming.

I want to end this post with a personal memoriam. My dear, dear cousin, Lynfa (nee Deakin, originally from Griffithstown near Pontypool in Monmouthshire but also of London, Northumbria, Egypt, Kuwait, France and Porthcawl and who I featured in a blog post in July 2010 ‘Misty watered coloured memories’) was taken by the novel virus just before Christmas. Fortunately she was able to attend my big birthday bash at the end of August, the last time we all saw her. She was an important part of my childhood and adult life, a much loved mother and grandmother and the first of my generation of our maternal family line to leave us. Travel well dear Cous.