It has been a year since our last visit to the ecological site at Black Hill near Clunton and this week, we witnessed a real change in our surroundings! Thanks to members of the local parish council, a section of land has been restored to its former glory: the bracken and conifers under control and the land is now covered in whinberries. Class 3 had a wonderful afternoon picking whinberries, like their predecessors of St Mary's Primary would have done during the Summer holidays in the late 1800s!
This is a section from the log book of the Headteacher at Clunbury Primary:
In 1896, on 3rd July Mr Deacon reports, "The attendance continues good though signs are not wanting that the whinberry season will soon set in."
On 9 July: "Several children away whinberrying. After prayers this afternoon the children were told there would be a holiday on the morrow and while the master was speaking a rap was heard. The keeper from the Cwm had hurriedly walked over to inform us that the Hill was to be thrown open at once. The Master and he walked down to the Vicar and stated the case when it was decided to break up for five weeks. Holidays from 9th July to 17th August." The Hill was, of course, Black Hill, not for another fifty years to be clothed with conifers, which was part of Mr Brettell-Vaughan's Cwm estate.
