I can just remember it, but remember it I can. As this old photograph illustrates, it was a barren landscape of coal tips and iron slag that once dominated the industrial town of Abersychan. Healed of its depressing overburden its now a pleasing expanse of dense ash and birch secondary woodland, topped by a popular cycle-way and walking route. But although very close to my home its never been on my list of 'this seasons places to visit'. That's until Covid-19 took hold and suddenly it's became a venue on my local exercise walk.
From Lock Up Lane I pushed through the dense vegetation, much of which was a wall of bramble, until I found a pleasing glade. Here the scrub was patchy and less taxing underfoot. There was still evidence of its post industrial substrate, boulders of ironstone slag pushed their way through the yet to flourish ground flora. Among this woodland heather and gorse could still be found, but the most interesting was the diversity of non-native scrub species. Many I'm sure, will have become established before the woodland had taken over. Here holm oak could be found along with at least three species of cotoneaster, a couple of fairly mature rhododendren specimens; several single stemmed cherry laurel were also present. A distant chiffchaff sang and a peacock butterfly glided between the trees.
 |
| Cherry Laurel Prunus laurocerasus |
 |
| Holm Oak Quercus ilex |
 |
| Rhododendron spp. |
 |
| Cotoneaster horizontalis |
 |
| Cotoneaster bullatus |
 |
| Cotoneaster simonsii |
No comments:
Post a Comment