Mylander - Issue 85

19 From inside the community From the path and through the trees I see the slopes and shades of green, and I know when the year grows old some will become copper, bronze or gold. It is worth a visit at any time of the year as the view changes with the seasons. I know that somewhere hidden is a stream that runs to join St Botolphs Brook down in the shallow valley that is also unseen. I wonder, when did this stream first spring to life and carve its path like nature’s knife across the landscape? To the left as I look and a little more distant there is Pitchbury Ramparts, an Iron Age fort, not in view but much in my thought. It has its place in history, our local history, where people before us also found the area to their liking and decided to settle. Here then is a mixture of natural history and people history. Others, millenia ago, knew this land too although I expect it looked quite different. Old maps of the area show a track that ran from Bergholt Road and beyond Footpath 39 in the general direction of the fort and I wonder if that was an ancient route? The Fort is situated in private grounds so I can’t get close but not far away between where I stand and the Fort runs the Essex Way path. If you venture out and use this route remember you will undoubtedly be walking in the footprints of the ancients and you may like to think about that for a few minutes. So as I turn and head for home I leave the landscape for their spirits to roam. Pete Hewitt Young at heart (a club for the over 50’s) This is unfortunately the last report from Young at Heart due to no volunteers to continue to run the club, as Jenny and myself have decided to stand down. We would like to thank all our members over the past years for their support and help. It has been a pleasure organising the monthly meetings but time now to sit down and relax. We would also wish everybody, in these uncertain times, good health and to stay safe. Diana Swan