Reviving Rebranded Resources

The Blast From The Past Series
This week I'm bringing you something slightly different. Before this blog was known as The Cowslip & Cordwainer, it was actually a frequently visited blog with regular posts and updates, although it was even more poorly written than this one!

I have since hidden all the posts from this original blog although some of them gained huge popularity online and even drew the attention of pop stars (kinda)! Therefore as a special treat I thought I would revive four (for now) of the bigger & popular posts and allow those of you joining us in 2016 to have a retrospective view on this very blogs origins. I have slightly edited the layout of the posts to make them fit with the other current blog posts, other than that they are exactly as they were written all those years ago... Enjoy!

Blast From The Past Blog Listing:
The Badger Cull
The Badger Cull... Continued
RAF Grafton Underwood
Richard III (Leicester or York)


MJT

Rewilding; Beavers, Boars & Why Bother?

Imagine, you're on a sunday afternoon stroll and suddenly come across a wolf!?
Rewilding is a huge topic and one I will admit to not know an awful lot about, it can also be a very complicated and scientific topic to try and fully understand... I think we can agree this blog isn't a very academic one; However since the formation of the Rewilding Britain organisation last July, the release of Beavers back into three locations across the UK and the release of George Monbiot's book 'Feral' it has become a hot topic.

rewild

riːˈwʌɪld/

verb

gerund or present participle: rewilding

1. restore (an area of land) to its natural uncultivated state (used especially with reference to the reintroduction of species of wild animal that have been driven out or exterminated).

   "talk of rewilding North America gives some people nightmares of wolves running through the streets of Chicago and of grizzlies in LA"

Rewilding in Britain is about restoring the ecology of this country. It's almost like trying to turn the clocks back to a time where things were slightly more environmentally balanced, there were food chains that worked and didn't result in government funded culls of populations of animals, such as deer which currently have no natural predators. It's also about ensuring we don't lose species to extinction and allow native and adopted creatures to find a home amongst us...

Rewilding Britain

However obviously at the moment unfortunately, there are certain species which rely on human intervention and management to survive and there are landscapes in Britain where intensive re-wilding isn't going to be currently appropriate, for instance this campaign isn't going to result in you finding a wolf in your local pocket park. Britain is a completely changed landscape from the years of endless forest and rural communities, deforestation and the industrial revolution has lead to wide agricultural land use, urban development and the rise of species which have profited from these changes. Therefore it is also important when considering rewilding to find the balance, Britain's green & pleasant land of endless rolling fields is important to us, you could even argue it is part of our natural identity and we don't want to lose it to a boar-filled forested landscape. From this we can understand that rewilding isn't about letting a few boars run wild, it is about every last detail in an ecosystem both plants, animals and tiny microscopic creatures.

Rewilding isn't a new phenomenon there have been many successful re-introductions in previous years such as the Red Kite, Beaver and Osprey, the whole thing is a process and isn't going to happen overnight. It could also happen on a pretty small scale, so its certainly not something to be concerned about! Small scale rewinding ventures such as establishing a meander on a previously straightened section of river, may seem like a tiny or insignificant move in comparison to shipping a Grey Whale from the Pacific to the North Sea but it is these tiny steps which make a difference locally and in turn will create a wider, diverse and connected 'wild-er' environment.

Scottish Beaver Trial-

As I said to start this topic is ginormous! But from what I currently understand, I fully support the re-wilding movement. It can only be a positive to add to our already miraculous countryside, engage more people in nature, all whilst tackling problems such as global warming, carbon storage and the protection of endangered species or those previously extinct to Britain. I'm bound to re-visit this topic at some point in the future, I'd specifically like to go over what possible species we might expect to be reintroduced, so keep your eyes peeled!


MJT

Useful Links
George Monbiot- Feral
Rewilding Britain
Reintroducing beavers in Scotland

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Getting To Know Me

An update from me,
As expected I am neglecting this blog, treating you to about one post every 6 weeks... So where am I with my life? Still studying at The University of Northampton and working what seems like every other hour I have, thats not to say I don't enjoy it though! 

I'm currently sat in the library at university a tad bored and desperate to eat a croissant which I have in my bag, but I'm not entirely sure of the food in the library policy and the cleaner lady with her retro carpet sweeper looks like she could get vicious if I drop some crumbs. So instead of researching my notes from my lecture this morning and trying to fully understand the definitions of Biomediation, Anaerobic and Eutrophic I thought I'd let you get to know me better...

me

25 Questions Tag

What is your middle name?
James

What was your favourite subject at school?
Probably geography... Yeh, geography.

What is your favourite drink?
Just a cup of everyday basic tea (strong with only a dash of milk)

What is your favourite song at the moment?
Shamefully, I am a closeted Coldplay fan... Loving Missy Elliot//WTF atm too.

What is your favourite food?

I always answer pizza to this question, but I love a lot of foods including cakes, crisps and chocolate. Basically anything you shouldn't eat large quantities of, I eat large quantities of.

What is the last thing you bought?

Ummm... That temptress of a croissant.

Favourite book of all time?

Harry Potter! I did really enjoy The Series of Unfortunate Events books when I was younger though!

Favourite colour?

Blue/Yellow/Green I keep changing my mind

Do you have any pets?

A pet cat called Lucky, as a newborn kitten she was abandoned on our doorstep!

Favourite smell?

Cut grass? Roast Chicken? Weetabix?

Favourite Holiday?

Hard one to pick, I really enjoyed the South of France with my partner this summer

Are you married?

No

Have you ever been out of the UK, if so how many times?

Yes, many times... Not sure I could count exactly!

Do you speak any other languages?

A tiny amount of French & Danish, I'd love to fluently learn them though!

How many siblings do you have?

One brother, one half-brother and two step-brothers... Ladz ladz ladz!

What is your favourite shop?

I've always had a soft spot for M&S and Waterstones strangely... However I love having a good browse around the shops in town

Favourite restaurant?

Tap & Kitchen in Oundle is fab

When is the last time you cried?

Can't remember, was probably watching a period drama...

Favourite blog?

Ummm... A lecturer at uni blogs about ecology and I often have a quick read! My friend Sarah however is an actual real life blogging beauty so that always makes interesting reading...

Professor Jeff Ollerton

Sarah-Rose Goes

Favourite movie?

Harry Potter! Woman in Gold, Pride & Prejudice... I love too many films to list!

Favourite TV show?

Downton Abbey, I am embarrassingly absolutely engulfed by the whole franchise. I love Scandinavian crime dramas too... The Bridge, The Killing and Borgon are incredible!

PC or Mac?

Mac

What Phone do you have?

Black iPhone 6

How tall are you?

6ft3"

Can you cook?

I took GCSE Home Economics; Food & Nutrition and am willing to give most things a good go but I'm no Nigella. Sausage & mash is my speciality.

MJT

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Twitter- @TylerMattyJames

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Northamptonshire Greenspaces Forum

Green & Local?
I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity through my lecturer (Dr Janet Jackson) to assist her in Northamptonshire's first ever Greenspace Forum. The forum is being established to allow communities, organisations and charities with similar interests and plans regarding greenspaces to come together to share, engage and assist each other. The attending parties including 'friends of' groups, The Wildlife Trust, River Nene Regional Park, Groundwork as well as borough and county council represtantives met at The University of Northampton on the 18th November. The groups were asked to think around four main questions...

1. What is working well?
2. What goals do you have?
3. What challenges do you face?
4. What measures/tools/skills do you need to move forward?

The School of Science & Technology at The University of Northampton

The wide range of answers reflected the great variety of groups that were in attendance, it was interesting to see that although on paper these groups shared vast amounts of common goals and aspirations for their own greenspaces, actually there were a few conflicts between the groups as to how these goals could/should be achieved. 

To briefly summarise only a fraction of the findings... The more urban based groups seemed to find anti-social behaviour and littering to be their main obstacle in achieving their goals whereas rural based groups struggled to find enough volunteers especially those of a younger more physically-able age to assist in the maintenance and running of the groups. However working together under the greenspaces forum, other groups who are in a similar situation or have managed to overcome those obstacles were able to advise, as well as having representatives from major organisations such as The Wildlife Trust or Groundwork to give their professional opinions.

If you're interested in finding out more about The Northamptonshire Greenspaces Forum or want to join up with your 'friends of' group (its never too late!), check out the useful link section below!

The forum was a great success in my opinion and I'm interested to see how this new group of likeminded individuals, community groups and organisations progresses. 

MJT

Useful Links

Northamptonshire Community Greenspaces (Facebook page)

Dr Janet Jackson- Senior lecturer in Environmental Ecology and Management

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Twitter- @TylerMattyJames

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Pint of View

Milk Matters...
We all know that there is a constant battle between Britain's supermarkets to keep us customers revolving through their doors, they're forever tempting us with lower prices, better offers or fresher produce. The ever lowering price of groceries in a world where everything else seems to be getting more expensive is a mind boggler, how can the supermarkets afford to still make a profit?

-Farmers Weekly Campaign-

The answer is probably at the expense of someone else. We all know that the supermarkets (the bigger ones especially) have a bit of a reputation for being bullies when it comes to their buyers and suppliers, with all their power and might reigning over the market suppliers would rather be short changed than lose their contract with the supermarkets. The current average price for a litre of milk in Britain is 45p, the entirety of that forty-five pence has got to pay everyone in the chain of the milks production, distribution & retail: the farmer, the lorry driver, the shelf stacker, the checkout attendant, etc etc. is it much surprise that many dairy farmers are left feeling a little deflated about their income. 

-Not sure that the cows particularly enjoy standing in the dairy aisle all afternoon-

Many farmers and their supporters as you may have seen on the news recently have started taking matters into their own hands... We've seen tractors blocking the gates into big industrial dairy units, supporters buying every last carton of milk in a supermarket and then distributing to customers to raise awareness of their cause & now we've even seen live cows parked up in the fresh dairy aisle.

-Many farmers make a loss from their dairy herd-

The amount of dairy farms and young people choosing a career with the cows is on a constant decline, the industry on a whole needs a big boost before a time comes when the milk you pour over your morning Weetabix has come on a boat from a distant land. Imagine a Britain where the grassy pastures lay silent and the only cows you see are those dodgy (but kinda cool) concrete ones in Milton Keynes.

-Milton Keynes' famous concrete cows, bringing the country to the city-

The sensible thing for many of these struggling farmers to do would simply be to change jobs, for instance if you were in a job which took money from your account rather than paid you for your efforts, would you stick around for long? Problem is, for many dairy farming is not just a job, its a way of life. Many farms have been run by the same family for generations and to be the failing link in a long line of farmers, must be devastating. What about diversification? We see a lot of farmers expanding their income through new and interesting propositions: put aside a field and open a campsite? Music festival? Segway tours? The list is endless! I suppose for many diversification is easier said than done and many farmers do not possess the skills required to operate other commercial businesses successfully.

-Worthy Dairy Farm, Home of Glastonbury Festival- 

Raising awareness of this campaign for fairer pay and supporting your local farms and British farmers in general could make all the difference for many farmers and families across the country... Lets not forget however that it's not all doom & gloom across the industry. Some supermarkets such as Waitroise & Co-Op who are already renowned for their fairer, higher quality and forward thinking approach to your groceries are pledged to support their farmers. So, naturally although their milk prices are higher, everyone gets a fairer price and benefits from supermarket led schemes to encourage consumers to not only support, but buy British.

MJT

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New here..? Let me introduce myself!

New Here..? Let me introduce myself!

Hello, I'm back! 
To all of you new & old... After some serious neglect I have revived the deep earthy lungs of this blog, I've renamed it and hidden all my previous posts so we can start afresh! So with a handful of crisps and lashings of goodwill I'll make time to document my day to day thoughts, opinions & interesting snippets of information I stumble across. This is blog is more for my personal use as a method of ventilating my mind, however other minds are obviously more than welcome to come and peruse the depths of my posts.

A few things to mention; Don't come here expecting too much, that way you won't be disappointed- I'm no Shakespeare. Northamptonshire is my home and I love it dearly, expect a bombardment of posts dedicated to The Rose of The Shires, the home of Princess Dianna & England's best kept secret. The British countryside is another of my passions, I study about its inner workings at university and spending all my available free time stood in a field/village/forest surrounded by sheep/ramblers/pheasants is my idea of absolute bliss.

I thought I should also quickly mention where else you can find me on the wonder that is the world wide web! I'll link to my Twitter & Instagram below, but be warned that I am prone to getting in to very passionate ramblings on Twitter, about topics such as my addiction to Ribena, Scandinavian Crime Dramas, Antiques Roadshow & Caroline Quentin's choice of attire for clambering up piles of rubble on the BBC's Restoration Home. You can find peace however in my Instagram, which is usually just full of pictures of rural villages & the sky.

-The beautiful Caroline Quentin in a fetching tweed number-

Realistically I have absolutely no idea how often I am going to post, so lets not make a schedule for me to not stick to, but lets speak soon.

MJT


Stay connected
Twitter - @TylerMattyJames
Instagram - tylermattyjames


*Any posts you see posted before this post are part of the Blast From The Past Series, where I have republished popular posts from the older blog.

RAF Grafton Underwood

This blog post is part of the Blast From The Past series; a selection of older blog posts, previously made private, now republished. Find out more here.


I recently went on a little adventure for you... I had always known of a connection between the local village of Grafton Underwood and a World War Two airbase, in fact I had even heard stories from family members about the airbase. I thought it sounded interesting so started to find out more, it turns out that the small Northamptonshire village was one of the homes to the American Airforce in World War II, specifically the Eighth Air Force.

The ariel plans of RAF Grafton Underwood

RAF Grafton Underwood was opened in 1941 for use by the Royal Air Force Bomber Command, by the end of 1942, the airbase had already proved it's worth and was extended to become of a Class A airfield standard, to cope with newer larger aircraft. Shortly after being taken over by United States Army Air Force - Eighth Air Force, now designated as USAAF Station 106 Grafton Underwood. In its time as a war-time airbase RAF Grafton Underwood played host to 15th Bombardment Squadron (light), 97th Bombardment Group (heavy), 305th Bombardment Group (heavy), 96th Bombardment Group (heavy) & 384th Bombardment Group (heavy). The original main aim of the airbase was to be a satellite airfield to the bigger RAF Polebrook, assisting with dropping of bombs on Oil supplies and Industry mainly around the Meresburg area of Germany. However RAF Grafton Underwood went above and beyond the original plans, performing their air assault across Nazi ruled Germany, France, Belgium & Norway.

The base used the surrounding natural woodland as its camouflage, with all the barracks, offices, mess halls, hospital, chapel and even a cinema being dug into the darkness of the woodland, now known as Grafton Park. One afternoon I set off on a walk from my home to Grafton Park, I had often passed the woodland blissfully unaware of its dark secret. I found the woodland honestly quite haunting, the paths through the woodland were the original tracks from the airbase, it was honestly strange to think these paths were the same concrete roads walked down by British & American personnel, I kept thinking about if the trees could talk what stories they could tell. Every now and again out of the darkness of the woodland canopy the remains of a building would appear, I found this actually quite scary, I was by myself and the woodland was quiet, a shadow of the hustle and bustle that it must have been.

The forest claiming back the airbase

The main airbase and runways are now owned by the Boughton Estate and are also shadow of their former self, dug up after the war the land is a stretch of agricultural fields, however several frying pan and at least one double-loop hardstand remain on the north side of the airfield on private farmland. Many random patches of concrete track and hardstanding also remain alongside Brigstock Road, however often access is limited or not permitted.

A mushroom pillbox

Inside the bomb technician building

Derelict building, use unknown.

Signage inside the station headquarters

(all above photos sourced from www.derelictplaces.co.uk - tocsin_bang)

Although many of the missions undertaken by the personnel at RAF Grafton Underwood were successful, like every other airbase involved in the assault against Adolf Hitler's regime they suffered casualties. During my research I managed to find so many files reporting entire planes & crew as missing. I even found reports of fatal accidents at the airbase, on one winters night a group of USAAF planes returning from a successful mission mis-judged the length of the runway, causing deaths to the crews and many others on the ground. Another discovery I made is Major Paul Tibbets, he flew in the first B-17 mission from Grafton Underwood in August 1942 and towards the end of the war would go on to pilot the world famous superfortress bomber the Enola Gay, dropping the first ever atomic bomb in warfare, code named 'Little Boy' on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. The bomb caused unprecedented destruction in the city, Japanese records published in 1945 state the the bomb killed 66,000 people and injured a further 69,000.

Brigadier General Paul W.Tibbets, Jr.

In the 1990's a memorial was erected at the end of one of the runways to ensure the public would forever be aware of the bravery of those who fought and won the war from Grafton Underwood. The memorial sits at the side of what is now a country lane linking the villages of Grafton Underwood and Geddington via Boughton House.

The United States American Air Force - 8th Air Force War Memorial, RAF Grafton Underwood

St James the Apostle Church in the heart of the village is a small quintessentially British rural church from the outside, on the inside however is one of the most moving displays of homage to the United States of America I have ever seen. The Stars & Stripes of the American flag hang from the ceiling of the church, an entire stained glass window created to remember all those based in Grafton Underwood during the war was gifted to the church by the 384th Bomb Group of the United States 8th Air Force, the prayer cushions are knitted in decorative patterns, depicting the logos of the Royal Air Force, United States Army Air Force and many other military bodies, there are plaques on the wall dating from the end of the war to the present day recognising donations from the bomb groups based in Grafton Underwood for restoration work in the church and finally the visitors book is crammed full of comments and signatures from people from all over the world, each a praise to the village, the tiny church & the work undertaken here between 1941 and 1959.

'The window is dedicated before God in remembrance of those who gave their lives for freedom during World War II, while serving at Station 106 Grafton Underwood 1942 - 1945'

The prayer cushions, in all their military glory.

After the war, once the American Army Air Force had packed up and moved on, the Air Ministry took control of the base, using it as a site to store and repair war machinery, employing up to 200 civilian drivers and mechanics. On the 1st Feburary 1959, with growing peace across Europe and changes in military programmes the base however was declared surplus to requirements by the British Government and shut down, forever. 

The first & last bombs dropped by the United States Army Air Force - 8th Air Force were from RAF Grafton Underwood, a truly symbolic fact about a tiny, quiet, unrecognised piece of Northamptonshire Countryside.

MJT

Useful Links
384th Bomb Group
St James the Apostle Church
Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust

Stay Connected
Twitter - @TylerMattyJames
Instagram - tylermattyjames

*This blogpost was originally published on 14/09/2013, reformatted and republished on 26/02/2016