The morning I arrive in Curbar in the Peak. It has been raining heavily. I walk with my partner, Gareth, through the campsite near the river and see a small tent surrounded by a moat. The campers look sadly on.
We know this area well and within a few minutes find the spot to take the photo. I line it up with the picture. Curbar Edge is in the distance but it’s altered a lot and is now covered in trees. I’m finding the same everywhere I go and decide to find out why.
We currently have 13% forest cover in the country. 2% more and we will be back to level of trees we had 1000 years ago! Forestation declined rapidly from the 1600s because of shipbuilding. Enclosure saw quite a few off. Everyone needed wood for fuel, furniture and house constuction causing the levels to recede to 5.2% by 1905.
Back to the picture. The artist, if he were standing here today would not paint the scene I see. There is no variety in the composition regarding colour or form. It’s a distant shot of indefinable trees merging into grass and is without shadow. However, by a stroke of luck I need two figures walking into the distance and there they are. Tiny, but they will do.
The people in the picture (and the real people) are going towards a gate. We follow and have a good look at it. The gatepost looks like it has stood in this spot for centuries.
After the rain the river is a raging torrent. Milk chocolate in colour it is flowing downsteam over the weir at breakneck speed. I’ve seen many flowing rivers on my walks and all are beautiful in their own way but this one keeps us rooted to the spot and mesmerised for some time.
The weir would not have been there in the artist’s day. They were built during the Industrial Revolution. Did people then have a love/hate relationship with new technology introduced into the landscape? The rushing water makes me think of cooling towers. I like the disused ones, they are iconic giants in the landscape. I have visited a working one and it’s a frightening place. Entering the control room was like being in a stage set of a 1960s science fiction film, dials everywhere!
At the base of the weir a yellow inflatable is being held and buffeted about in the water. It holds me too, fascinated.
