In Ely: to the south, one way

July 1, 2022

Before getting to today’s events I want to share this poem that came in from Kathleen Jones through the comments, for those that don’t keep up with them:

I May, I Might, I Must by Marianne Moore

If you will tell me why the fen

appears impassable, I then

will tell you why I think that I

can get across it if I try.

Even more inspirational than just another unfenny pun, I’m sure you’d agree.

_____________________

So we’re splitting up again today - I’m biking and Rachael’s hiking. Between the fact that it’s windy again there’s the threat of rain, we have a 40+ mile travel day coming up tomorrow and the route I’ve mapped out has suspiciously large share of questionable riding surface, she decides that a walk along the river is just the thing. She came home with a larger than usual set of photos to prove she made the wise choice - enough to fill a separate post - but I left first and returned first so we’ll start with my little adventure.

My ride begins with a four mile round trip detour north of town to visit Chettisham Meadow, a tiny grassland preserve that came to my attention when I read an article about Ely and its attractions that mentioned a ridge and furrow site near the city. I may have heard of ridge and furrow decades ago, but If so I’d forgotten about it:

Ridge and furrow is a term used to describe the earthen ridges and troughs that are created by the action of prolonged ploughing, which caused soil to build up in regularly spaced ridges along the length of a field.

Typically, this was a method of cultivation characteristic of the medieval period and later. It is commonly identified by the broad reverse s-shaped undulations that were created by an ox drawn plough, as it cut and turned the soil over. The ox team needed plenty of space to turn at the end of each furrow because, by ploughing in a slight curve, the plough could start to turn before the furrow had been completed. This enabled it to be turned and brought back around into the curve of the preceding ridge.

So I wanted to see this, and through further research found that Chettisham Meadow preserves an example of this and is close enough to town that it fit in easily enough with the day’s other plans. In addition to the ridge and furrow site the preserve also describes other attractions - birds and flowers. Here’s the info panel from the site that I photographed when I arrived:

It sounds great. I imagine spending some time there,looking through the preserved grassland for butterflies, orchids, oxeye daisies, and maybe even a bullfinch or barn owl. We’ll worth the four mile detour, and the few hundred yards of unpaved path once I arrive. I am a little disappointed that ‘unpaved’ translates this morning to ‘long grass bent across the path and still wet from the morning rain”. Not bad though, and the surface is barely even enough so that I can bike at about three mph and get to the refuge without getting my feet wet or my legs exposed to ticks.

The path to Chettisham Meadow is definitely a path less traveled.

The meadow itself proves to be a complete disappointment though. Today, ‘historic area of neutral grassland that has been managed in the same way for a century” translates as “a small plot that looks like someone’s recently mown front yard”.

No oxeye daisies. No orchids. No bullfinches. No barn owls. At least though with the recently mown meadow the ridge and furrow earthworks really show to their best effect, so the detour has hardly been wasted.

Not exactly what I expected. The path getting here was quite a bit more interesting really, except for those ridge and furrow earthworks you can’t take your eyes off of.

In case you missed the obvious, here’s another look at them that highlights them even better. Do you see them now?

So after that you’d naturally expect the rest of the ride to be a letdown, but au contrair! It was quite nice - a red south in the general direction of Cambridge following NCN 11 for much of the way. This is the Fenlands and Ouse Route that runs from Cambridge to King’s Lynn. As you know by now it’s a ride through the fens with all that that implies - flat, minimal traffic, lots of open vistas across the fields, slow moving waterways, and a mix of riding surfaces. If you’re taking along your camera and keeping your eye out for anything odd or interesting it also means that you don’t move that fast or cover all that much territory. I left home around ten, returned a little before three, and covered all of 35 miles.