The Stud

The day dawned bright but by breakfast it was raining. Undeterred, thinking positive as usual, I headed for Barkway hoping to shoot a landscape for a change.

This is one of the highest places in Hertfordshire and the wind was whipping across the open fields. I had my leading lines and foreground interest sorted. I pressed the shutter to find that my bucolic scene had been photobombed by a red 'shirted' cyclist, Gervais-Courtellement  would be proud. :)

I was looking down on the famous Newsells Park Stud and went exploring. I found Barkway Chalk Pit, the smallest nature reserve ever, a mini, (0.3 hectare) amphitheatre formed from a chalk block which is out of position because it was displaced by the Anglian ice sheet which covered Hertfordshire around 450,000 years ago. (See extras)


I then walked a bridleway to try get close to an obelisk I had seen in the distance. I met a couple who live near it and they had no idea why it was erected. What's wrong with people? I couldn't get that close. I've discovered that Hugh Rose, 1st Baron Strathnairn who was keen on horses had the obelisk erected in the 1880s in memory of his favourite charger which he had ridden during the Indian Mutiny. The estate was bought by Sir Humphrey de Trafford who established the stud which is now run by a holding company. (See extras)