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Earlier Muses

The Four Wheelmen of the Apocalypse

“When the Four ride together as one, Then shall the earth be done”, or words to that effect.

Not quite as bad as that, but the damage being caused to the mountain sides by the motorised morons in their 4x4s cannot be ignored.

There has been a flurry or correspondence in the local paper on this subject recently so it is perhaps worth a few further thoughts. These comments will of course hold as true for the motor-bike brigade as they do for their four wheel brethren.

Before looking at some of the problems caused, it is surely worth considering the more basic question of why they are there in the first place.

• Does someone living in Maerdy who decides to take up shark- fishing expect the local reservoir to be stocked with suitable prey?
• Does a Treorchy skier demand that The Bwlch be permanently covered in artificial snow?
• Does the amateur flyer expect an air-field in every village?

Surely it is not unreasonable before investing in the paraphernalia of a particular pastime to check out where you can legitimately indulge in it, then either be prepared to travel some distance or find a different activity.

This picture shows part of the bridleway between Maerdy and Pentre.

As a bridle-way no motorised traffic should be using it, apart from the odd Forestry vehicle.

For the legitimate walker, it’s almost impassable due to the churned-up mud.

On a bridle-way you might expect to find the the odd deposit left by a passing horse. 

Where the wheelmen have paused, all you will find are mounds of discarded lager and cider cans!  

It has always struck me as odd that vandals are seldom required to clear up and/or repair the damage they have caused, and I can see no valid reason why this is so.

In the case of illegal off-roaders caught in the act, it should be a mandatory part of their sentence to re-instate (at their expense) the surfaces they have driven over and damaged.

Another view of damage.

This path was a single track footpath only last year.

Now it’s mud and drink cans.

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Once upon a time...

The village of 'Digwyddiad Bach' 

(Not a million miles from Pentre)

The powers that be, don’t seem to have got their sticky mits

on the village Sub-Post Office here yet!

The next horse-bus to Treorchy and Cwmparc

leaves the village square at 10.00am on Market Day.

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Just a-maze-ing

My very first holiday, as a youngster who’d not long left school at 14 was to Cornwall – perhaps marking the start of my life-long love of the far west. I travelled by the now long defunct “Atlantic Coast Express” to Camelford from whence a pre-booked taxi took me to my B & B farmhouse at a place called Trethevey, mid-way between Boscastle and Tintagel. My farmhouse was just above Rocky Valley and it was not long before I found my way down it to the sea. The path took me past two rock carvings, one enclosed in a rather tatty blue wooden case, the other, less noticeable, partly covered by overhanging vegetation. These intrigued me at the time, though it was many years before I found out anything about their history and suggested purposes. 

Many years later, and in receipt of a wage sufficient to cover the relatively high cost (compared with package holidays) of doing so, I was able to start taking my annual holidays on the Isles of Scilly, St. Agnes to be precise. What do I stumble across on my first walk round the Island? Troy Town Maze! 

This much walked, and many times repaired spiral maze is known to have been there in the 1700s, and is not dissimilar to the rock carvings in Cornwall. Much has been surmised about the original meanings of these mazes, but I’ll leave that to far wiser shamans than myself. 

Another odd co-incidence perhaps, is that the BBC chose to make three excellent TV series centred on parish priests, almost treading in my footsteps. The first, ”A Seaside Parish” was based in and around Boscastle, Cornwall, and the third (currently showing) “Island Parish” is based on Scilly. The second was based in Bala, a place that I have visited on several occasions whilst on early holidays to Wales. I might just start to worry that someone is trying to tell me something if they come up with a “Valleys Parish” next!

Pictured Below:   Troy Town Maze, St.Agnes, Isles of Scilly.

Mike Ash, Pentre - March 2008

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