A change of climate: from Kent To Copenhagen
Some people deny evidence that climate change is due to human activity. This image shows the Low Weald of Kent in the grip of winter.
Why climate change is a hot topic
With the United Nations Climate Change Conference on in Copenhagen until Friday 18th December, my thoughts have turned to this controversial subject. A website called Do the Green Thing.com offers an alternative take on the difficulties in reaching an international agreement on climate change at Copenhagen. Scroll down the page to see ‘A Recipe for a Successful Copenhagen’. – click here to view the video . It uses humour to try and make a serious point about the unenviable task faced by delegates attending the event.
Symptoms of climate change?
In spite of the efforts of climate sceptics trying to prove otherwise from information purporting to support their argument from the University of East Anglia in Norwich; the most authoritative and credible sources, from the BBC to the Met Office and Nasa seem to be agreed that climate change is happening. Equally compelling from my own personal point of view, are the symptoms I’ve observed with my own eyes, in my own backyard.
Following heavy autumn rainfall and ploughing, the clay of the Low Weald turned sticky and became waterlogged by November 2009
As autumn turns to winter, I’ve decided this week to share my own (admittedly entirely unscientific) micro observations of what I’ve noticed happening in the area near where I’ve lived for almost 20 years. I believe I’ve begun to spot symptoms of climate change in the rural parts of Kent, and other parts of southern and south eastern England, that I know well.
Personal observations in the rural Weald of Kent
This is a region sheltered by a lofty arc of chalk downland to the north and south, with a relatively flat Low Weald vale of clay forming a sandwich between a concentric ridge of greensand, and a central sandstone ridge known as the High Weald at its heart.
When we first moved to the Low Weald village of Marden, almost 20- years ago, the land immediately around our home consisted of strawberry fields, hop gardens , and apple and pear orchards. The beautiful rolling countryside shown in my photographs as it changes with the seasons, is dotted with oak trees, and remnants of ancient woodland that gets carpeted with bluebells in spring. The trees and the woodland are thankfully still there, and so is the pear orchard; but where I walk our dog every day, many of the hedges, three strawberry fields, and an apple orchard have all been ripped out within the last decade.
In April 2009, daffodils bloom, trees burst into leaf, and the ancient woodland around Marden is full of wild bluebells .
This has followed the installation of no doubt expensive piped irrigation during the increasingly arid summers, when the clay soil shrinks and dries rock hard (for what seems a slightly longer period with each passing year); and I now have to water my personal strawberry patch to encourage the fruit to grow to its full potential.
I took this picture in mid September 2009, when the ground was still rock hard, but the weather still warm and gloriously sunny,
Only in the last couple of years have I begin to notice (with increasing concern) a network of cracks several inches deep, pulling open the grass of our paddock during summer months. This is in addition to those I always noticed on the bare earth of footpaths across the adjacent open arable land, which I call the ‘Marden Prarie’. This has replaced former apple orchards and strawberry fields sheltered by tall protective hedgerows.
At the moment, with all the heavy rain we’ve had in the last few weeks, the footpaths are muddy, wellington boots are vital to protect clothes against mud splashes; and a temporary pond has re-appeared in the natural dip in our paddock!
Consequences of change in hop growing
Kent is known for growing hops, an ingredient of beer, and it may be a simple matter of economics as well as climate; but sadly, only one hop garden now remains in Marden, sheltered and hidden away by ancient woodland. down a minor road where I occasionally ride my bike. The cultivation of hops (and local brewing) lives on in spite of the reduced acreage, particularly around Faversham. The town is home of independent brewery Shepherd Neame, which you can visit, and there’s an annual hop festival held annually at harvest time in early September. Kent Life heritage park near Maidstone, also holds an annual hop picking and beer festival in the same month.
You can learn more about the industry that’s left an indelible mark on the Kentish landscape at visitor attractions such as the Hop Farm Family Park.; or buy the dried hop bines as decoration for your home, and other hop based products at The Hop Shop, Shoreham.
Many redundant oast houses, where the hops used to be dried, have been converted into highly desirable homes, and some are available for let. Along with conversions of other agricultural buildings, some can be booked for short breaks in winter and longer holidays or vacations in summer, from organisations such as Freedom Holiday Homes. A place I can recommend from personal knowledge is Oast House Loft, at Morley Farm Oast. Set on a working farm near Rye, on the Kent Sussex border, it enjoys 360º views over the farm and surrounding countryside.
Another thing I’ve noticed is that spring comes earlier nowadays, and the general extension of summer throughout our area, which is good for attracting more visitors. Summer now extends into September, weatherwise at least, with little cold weather or frost observed until well into October.
The rise of vineyards, and English Wine
Within 500 metres of our home, two fields of grape vines have recently been planted to replace a hop garden. Just a few sad remnant hop plants have clung to life, scrambling through the remaining hedgerows.
2009 has reputedly been the best year ever for English wine. Our local vineyard is part of a noticeable trend towards an increasing acreage devoted to vines in the county. You can download a free guide to the county’s vineyards and locally produced food, from Produced in Kent , and visitors are welcomed to most of them. One of the largest and most interesting is Chapel Down at Tenterden. Closer to us at Marden is Hush Heath, an award winning estate producing sparkling rosé which retails at £35 per bottle, from the same chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier grapes, that are used to make Champagne in France! Hush Heath also produces bottled apple juice, as does nearby Biddenden vineyard , which is, in addition, a producer of cider.
As well as climate, one of the other reasons that English Wine is becoming so successful is that the underlying geology, and consequently the topography, of the landscape of southern England and the Isle of Wight, has much in common with the Paris basin, and the champagne region in particular. I’ve noticed England’s largest vineyard, Denbies of Dorking in Surrey, was this year marketing a paid-for and tutored ‘grape picking experience’ to visitors during harvest time in October, something that, if successful, could no doubt prove to be an annual event.
Provence in Kent?
Our garden now supports an olive tree, which I can happily leave outside all the year round. Due to the seeming predictability of dry weather in summer, I’ve recently felt a conscious need to invest in planting more drought resistant plants in the garden, including shrubs such as lavender and rosemary. If you take the train up to London from here in summer, just beyond Sevenoaks, if you look out on the east side of the track, just before the North Downs tunnel, you can’t miss a huge purple field in which lavender is now grown commercially. It’s not alone: near Hadlow is Downderry specialist lavender nursery, where you can buy the plants. The phenomenon is not limited to Kent. There’s also a commercial lavender farm at Staplehurst Grange near Newport, on the Isle of Wight. They sell essential oil, shampoo, and other lovely lavender products to visitors and by mail order.
Climate South East offers more information about the effects of climate change on South East England. Can you see symptoms of climate change happening in rural locations where you live or visit? Let me know.
Until next time…
PS Apologies for the late publication of this week’s post, which was due to a technical problem earlier in the week.
