Througham daze

The weather improved as the day wore on, so I went for a wander driving down country lanes. As I was in Bisley I turned down a small single track lane to visit the hamlet of Througham. I had been reminded of it when I met up with George G. at Dave Thurston’s memorial last week. Dave had introduced me to George back in 1975 and soon after we came to work in this farmhouse, Upper Througham Farm. We lived there for five months while we redecorated a large part of the house and the large attached converted barn for George’s friend Richard C., the farmer.

My bedroom was in the gable overlooking the front of the house with a view over the ha-ha and down the old main avenue to the house. It was a long hot summer in 1975 and full of incident and adventure. George and I have stayed friends ever since but seldom meet. When I was staying there the land beneath the trees through which the avenue ran was grazed by sheep whose bleating would wake me at dawn, along with the birds' dawn chorus.

This prompted me to take a picture looking back down the avenue towards the house, though its full extent is hard to discern. I’ve added an ‘Extra’ of a wider view of the avenue which seems to have become wilder and taller with the passing years. 

I then turned around and took four photos which I’ve joined as a panorama to show the view south of the Througham valley formed by the Holy Brook as it winds down to Sapperton, and then onto to join the River Frome flowing down into Stroud.

A ha-ha (French: hâ-hâ or saut de loup), also known as a sunk fence, blind fence, ditch and fence, deer wall, or foss, is a recessed landscape design element that creates a vertical barrier (particularly on one side) while preserving an uninterrupted view of the landscape beyond from the other side. The name comes from viewers' surprise when seeing the construction.
The design can include a turfed incline that slopes downward to a sharply vertical face (typically a masonry retaining wall). Ha-has are used in landscape design to prevent access to a garden by, for example, grazing livestock, without obstructing views.