Wednesday 28 October 2009

A spring-fed copse

Small pond with reeds - at the centre of the copse

Someone emailed me a while back about these stone blocks (I'm sorry I can't find the email to give the person a mention but many thanks to her). There are three of these blocks placed at different spots around little copse at the foot of the Lawns, just off Drove Road. Each has a small poem on it - the one above has the following words "Sweetest of all things is wild flower air" and by the small reedy pond "A green fringed brook marks the edge of golden ground". I think the copse is looked after by a local primary school who use it as a nature garden.

A tranquil autumnal walk around the Lawns, so full of colour at this time of year. On this occasion, however, I walked downhill behind Christ Church to the little copse. A small footbridge over a stream fed by one of the natural 'iron' springs around the Lawns (this one is by the far wall of the Christ Church churchyard) leads to a path from the Lawns through to Cirencester Court on Drove Road.
Away from the path, I had a stroll around the copse which has a sense of being secret and, oddly, while all the trees on the Lawns are mostly gold/brown these were still completely green, well watered by underground springs. I have not written about this place before; it is typical, however, of the many hidden pockets of woodland off the beaten track around Swindon.