chain

I took the dog for a walk in the rain, the kind of wander I like where we go without plan and just take this lane and that gate as the whim takes us. The area we were in has been variously used, including for agriculture, coal mining, and military exercises, The ground is full of strange abandoned remnants of all these: attractive, mossy dressed stone, less attractive pill-boxes, piles of bricks and wire, and rusting agricultural tools.

This gatepost has a once-important and much used look; it’s big and solid and peppered with holes, with a surviving thick, ancient iron chain.