Back Roads Indeed

I knew the company is called “Back Roads Touring”, but didn’t think of taking that name literally.  However, other than the slog out of the city, we really did travel almost exclusively on back roads.  

Roads in the UK are classified as M (Motorway), A, and B roads, as well as various categories of more minor roads.  Local authorities may also use C, D and U (Unclassified).  To that I would add “CP” (CowPath).  Some public roads in Britain are no wider than our Raleigh greenway paths.  All were well paved and there are “laybys” every so often to allow two vehicles to barely pass.  Where this gets awkward is when sight distance is limited and the resulting surprise meeting means that one vehicle must reverse to the last layby it passed.  There appears to be some rule or convention as to who must make this sacrifice, but I never worked it out.  Our van would seat 16 passengers in relatively cramped, 3-across seating, so it was by no means a bus.  Still, we sometimes travelled on roads with both side mirrors tickling overgrown hedgerows.  

Hedgerows are just what they sound like, Various combinations of bushy plants that have been trimmed into hedges which can be 10 or more feet in height.  These are generally directly along the roadside, sometimes as close as where our shoulders would be in this country.  There is reportedly some sort of compensation offered to landowners to maintain these features, but compliance appears to be spotty.  This lack of pruning results in the already narrow passages becoming even more so.  Parked vehicles along such roadways and even on narrow streets in villages create more choke points.  Most drivers appear to be on the same page as far as yielding rights-of-way in such situations and a lot calmer and quieter about it than is usually the case here.  Our driver/guide (Pip) was a colorful character who had a sort of Willie Nelson thing going with his hair.  Some days it was a pony tail and other days a single grey braid.  He had been a lorry driver in a previous career and is a Morris dancer and musician in his off time.  The lorry driving experience was evident in his skill at negotiating the aforementioned narrow lanes and at several hotels he backed the van between gate posts with only an inch or so to spare.  

Hedgerows were, and often still are, taking the place of a fence or wall in demarcating a plot of land and/or confining livestock.  They are that dense, enough so that sheep are unlikely to penetrate them let alone cattle.  Some years ago, a forward thinking group got behind a project to replace hedgerows with more modern wire fences.  The result was loss of topsoil from plowed fields to the wind and the creation of a project to regrow hedgerows.  Hedgerows became less numerous as we moved north giving way to mostly stacked stone walls. These walls were supplemented with a row of wire fencing along the tops in some areas. Not so picturesque, but possibly the sheep have been getting better at jumping.

Pip and his "squeeze box". 

Top row, second from right

In side garden of a stately home.  I suppose a boar was more in vogue at that time.

Either hedgerows or stone walls line most roads and define fields and pastures.  The fern in foreground is called "bracken" after it dries out and can be a fire hazard.  I'll look for some heather and gorse pictures another time.

We followed a dairy herd for several minutes.  Note the dog at work but on a lead.  I wonder how you go about numbering a cow's behind?