Icons of England Read online

  ICONS OF

  ENGLAND

  Edited by

  Bill Bryson

  BLACK SWAN

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  ICONS OF ENGLAND

  A BLACK SWAN BOOK: 9780552776356

  First published in Great Britain

  in 2008 by Think Books

  Black Swan edition published 2010

  Copyright © Pan Macmillan Ltd, CPRE, Think Publishing 2008. This 2010 edition copyright © CPRE and Transworld Publishers

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  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Title

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Foreword – HRH The Prince of Wales

  Introduction – Bill Bryson

  In Search of England’s Gnomes – Kate Adie

  A Place in the Country – George Alagiah

  From Pillar to Post – Peter Ashley

  From Little Acorns – Clive Aslet

  Rural Rides – Paul Atterbury

  Where the River Meets the Sea – Joan Bakewell

  Time to Stand and Stare – Muhammad Abdul Bari

  Sighting the Stubble-Stag – Simon Barnes

  ‘Sumer Is Icumen In’ – Laura Barton

  Through the Lychgate – Sister Wendy Beckett

  Ghost Orchids – Antony Beevor

  The Call of the Grouse – David Bellamy

  Let’s Talk About the Weather – Floella Benjamin

  Senses and Sensibility – Richard Benson

  Sticking the Wicket – Scyld Berry

  A Personal View – Harold ‘Dickie’ Bird

  An Ordinary Beauty – Terence Blacker

  Love’s Labours Won – Raymond Blanc

  Those Special Places – Ronald Blythe

  My Little Piece of History – Rosie Boycott

  The Final Frontier – Derry Brabbs

  Rutland How I Love Thee – Julia Bradbury

  In High Places – Melvyn Bragg

  Rural Development – Jo Brand

  The Urban Village – Vincent Cable

  The View from the Urals – Adrian Chiles

  What a Waste – Eric Clapton

  Back on Dry Land – Sue Clifford

  Rhyme and Reason – Wendy Cope

  All A Broad – Nicholas Crane

  Rebuilding the Past – Dan Cruickshank

  From the Trenches – General Sir Richard Dannatt

  Beside the Seaside – Jonathan Dimbleby

  A Passion for Meat – Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones

  Reading the Signs – Sebastian Faulks

  Another Time, Another Place – Bryan Ferry

  Riding High – Dick Francis

  A Conversation with Self – Trisha Goddard

  Defenders of Our Back Yards – Zac Goldsmith

  An Artist’s Impression – Andy Goldsworthy

  Cherry Time – Henrietta Green

  Pastures New – Graham Harvey

  Bonfire Night – Tom Heap

  Following the Furrow – Paul Heiney

  Crossing Over – Leo Hickman

  The Tree Museum – Simon Hoggart

  How the Other Half Lives – Charlotte Hollins

  My Island – Elizabeth Jane Howard

  Against the Elements – Margaret Howell

  A Real Cliffhanger – Tristram Hunt

  Cathedrals of Sewage – Maxwell Hutchinson

  The Way Ahead – Kurt Jackson

  To the Manor Born – Simon Jenkins

  View over London – Terry Jones

  Older than England – Paul Kingsnorth

  Down Memory Lane – Miles Kington

  Earth Pilgrim – Satish Kumar

  Writing Stiles – David Lodge

  Bluebell Picnics – Gabby Logan

  Hidden Depths – Richard Mabey

  A Guardian of Beauty – Fiona MacCarthy

  The Road Taken – Robert Macfarlane

  Drawing the Line – Andrew Marr

  Scouring the Countryside – Peter Marren

  The Secret Kingdom of Marrowland – Simon Sebag Montefiore

  Fair Play – Brian Moore

  An Enduring Affair – Richard Muir

  My Corner Shop – Daljit Nagra

  Ancient Jewels – John Julius Norwich

  The Point of No Return – Sean O’Brien

  Living on the Edge – Michael Palin

  Taking Root – Jonathon Porritt

  Whatever the Weather – Gavin Pretor-Pinney

  Holding Back the Sea – Libby Purves

  Dig for Victory – Tony Robinson

  Smiling at the Neighbours – Alexei Sayle

  Paradise Found – John Sergeant

  The Bard’s Own River – Antony Sher

  In Defence of Totnes – Lucy Siegle

  Forever Tranquil – Mary Smith

  Brave New World – Jon Snow

  A Slow Boat to Bristol – Kevin Spacey

  The Wild Dip – Rick Stein

  The Light of Day – Roy Strong

  Forbidden Fruits – Alice Temperley

  Poetry in Motion – Nigel Thompson

  This Land of Dreaming Spires – Simon Thurley

  Heaven in a Wild Flower – Alan Titchmarsh

  Alone on the Moors – Mark Tully

  Taking Flight – Charlie Waite

  The Dawn Chorus – Chris
Watson

  Beautiful Evenings – Francis Wheen

  Alfred’s Cakes – Michael Wood

  My Adventure Playground – Benjamin Zephaniah

  Support our Campaign – Shaun Spiers, Chief Executive, CPRE

  Contributors

  Illustration credits

  THE CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT RURAL ENGLAND warmly thanks all those who have contributed to this book. We dedicate it to the many thousands of volunteers who have worked so hard and given so freely of their time since we were founded in 1926.

  Registered charity no: 1089685

  www.cpre.org.uk

  THIS COLLECTION OF PIECES celebrating rural England does not only focus on the rolling hillsides and spectacular landscapes that set England apart from the rest of the world. Many of the contributors bring their own special touch, with personal anecdotes and refreshingly original choices of icons representing what the English countryside really means to them.

  First published as a lavishly illustrated hardback, this new paperback edition has double the number of new contributions from many well-known fi gures. The sale of every copy will support the campaigning work of CPRE, the organization which is dedicated to a beautiful and living countryside.

  FOREWORD

  His Royal Highness

  The Prince of Wales

  CLARENCE HOUSE

  There is perhaps a rich irony in the fact that it takes an American, albeit one who has lived in these islands for many years, to recognize, celebrate and fight to preserve so much of what is precious about our country. There can be no-one who more deserves the title of “honorary Englishman” than Bill Bryson. Through his books, films and his campaigning as President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England he has done so much to help us appreciate the wonders and charms which surround us and to which, too often, we seem utterly blind. We all owe him the greatest possible debt, and so I could not be more pleased to write a foreword to this remarkable book, Icons of England.

  And what greater icon could we have than our countryside, which I have always believed helps to define our identity as a nation? England is blessed with some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. The patchwork quilt of fields, moors, forests, villages, and market towns which spreads across this land is the product of a golden combination of Nature’s gift to us and the toil and care of generations of farmers and their families who have managed the land. To me, it embodies England’s very soul and is as precious as any Cathedral. The dry stone walls, the hedges, the thatched cottages, the village Churches, pubs, post offices and shops are at the heart of what it means to be English, as are the people whose skills and craftsmanship and commitment keep them alive.

  For more than eighty years, the Campaign to Protect Rural England has been leading the fight to preserve the remaining delicate fabric of our countryside. The foresight of the founding fathers was extraordinary – in 1926 Clough Williams-Ellis, whom I remember well and admire greatly, published England and the Octopus, an anti- sprawl polemic, and in the same year Sir Patrick Abercrombie wrote his paper, The Preservation of Rural England. The fight has continued since then and great successes have been won. Indeed, the recent creation of the South Downs National Park, sixty years after it was first proposed, shows the importance of perseverance and is a huge cause for optimism. When we do all come together to work towards a goal, so much can be achieved. It gives me hope that we will not allow our traditions and heritage to be swept away, and that we will look once more to the land for nourishment, healing, wisdom and inspiration.

  When asked what, for them, encapsulates the English countryside, the contributors to this book came up with a wide variety of personal icons, from a favourite landscape to a treasured monument, from a particular species of wildlife to a familiar rustic emblem or rural tradition. Together they have created an eclectic and richly varied celebration of England’s countryside. I pray that this book will inspire us all to work tirelessly to preserve everything that is best in our magnificent countryside and to ensure that it remains at the very heart of our great island story.

  INTRODUCTION

  Bill Bryson

  President, CPRE

  YEARS AGO, WHEN I was brand new to Britain and everything was still a mystery to me, I went with an English friend to Brighton for the day, and there I saw my first seaside pier. The idea of constructing a runway to nowhere was one that would never have occurred to me. I asked her what it was for.

  ‘Well, they let you walk out and see the sea,’ she explained as if I were a little simple.

  ‘But we can see the sea from here,’ I pointed out.

  ‘No, you don’t understand. You walk out to the end and you are over the sea. It’s lovely.’

  ‘Can you see coral reefs and shipwrecks and things?’ I asked hopefully.

  ‘No, it’s just murky water.’

  ‘Can you see France?’

  ‘Of course not. You just see the sea.’ Her tone betrayed perhaps just a hint of exasperation. ‘You take the air. It’s very bracing.’

  ‘And then what?’

  ‘Then you walk back and have some whelks and stroll along the promenade and maybe ride a donkey on the beach – no, I don’t know why; it’s just something else we do – and then you have an ice cream and get on the train and go home.’

  ‘And this is a fabulous day out?’

  ‘Oh yes, it’s lovely. Especially if it doesn’t rain.’

  I have since come to realize that she was right about everything but the whelks. (If you are reading this in another country and aren’t familiar with that marine delicacy, you may get the same experience by finding an old golf ball, removing the cover and eating what remains. The only difference is that the golf ball has a little more flavour.) Indeed, after some thirty years of devoted observation, I have come to appreciate that the things that make England what it is – which is to say, like nowhere else on Earth – and however peculiar they may seem at first blush, are actually quite endearing and often deeply admirable. This is a book about those things.

  Four qualities in particular, I think, set English icons apart and make them more memorable, more individual, vastly more noteworthy than icons elsewhere. Foremost among these is the ability – so gloriously evinced in the seaside pier – to be magnificent while having no evident purpose at all.

  Consider one of my own favourite national glories, the wondrously artificial, profoundly inexplicable Silbury Hill in Wiltshire – the largest man-made mound in Europe. Built at about the same time as Stonehenge, it covers five acres and rises 130 feet above the surrounding landscape. It is positively immense, and involved an almost unimaginable commitment of labour. Yet Silbury Hill has no known purpose. It is not a burial chamber and holds no treasures. It consists of nothing but soil and rock carefully formed into a large pudding-shaped hill. All that can be said for certain is that some people at some time in the very distant past decided, for purposes we cannot guess, to make a large hill where previously there had been none.

  There really is a kind of national instinct for putting up interesting things whether there is a need for them or not. You see it in chalk horses carved in hillsides and Scottish brochs and drystone walls climbing up and over preposterously steep and craggy slopes. (Who cares where the sheep go when they get up there?) I have always been convinced that the starting point for Stonehenge was some guy standing on Salisbury Plain and saying: ‘You know, what this place needs is some really big rocks.’

  Which brings us to the second distinctive quality of English icons – their ubiquity. Let us rush to London, to modern times, so I can show you what I mean. We are at Hyde Park Corner roundabout, surrounded by a ceaseless flow of vehicles, gazing up at the enormous arched monument that stands on the parklike green island in its centre. Atop the monument is a large statue of a winged goddess on a chariot. The island is a surprisingly tranquil place, and in fact rather a lonely one, for few visitors find their way through the pedestrian tunnels that lead to it. Fewer still are aware th
at the arch contains a charming museum and a lift that takes you to a lookout terrace where you get one of the most splendid views in London. It is only way up here that you realize just what a large structure this is – and how startlingly outsized the statue on the roof is. It is the largest bronze sculpture in Europe. Only when you are up there does the scale of all this come into sudden focus. This is a monumental edifice indeed.

  Now here is the really interesting thing about it. Ask anyone in London – any cab driver, any policeman, any citizen you care to collar – what the name of this arch is and hardly any of them can tell you. Although it is one of the most visible and driven-past monuments in London, on as prime a site as the city offers, it is utterly and enchantingly lost to consideration because it is just of one of hundreds and hundreds of historic, appreciable, glorious, iconic structures that exist in London. Almost anywhere else in the world this would be a celebrated monument. Here it is backdrop.

  Part of the reason its name is not better known is that it has had several in the 180 years since it was built by the great Decimus Burton. At various times it has been known as Constitution Arch, Wellington Arch, Green Park Arch and now Wellington Arch again. You won’t be surprised to hear that it is also quite useless and always has been. It was designed originally as an outer entryway to Buckingham Palace, but was such an impediment to traffic, and so completely out of scale, that it was moved to the traffic island in 1882 just to get it out of the way.

  It is your good fortune in this country to have so many iconic treasures, but it is a danger too. Having so many means that they are easily forgotten and even lost – which is the third and most tragic of the qualities that set English icons apart. In the thirty years I have known England, you have lost, or all but lost, an appreciable number of iconic features – milk bottles, corner shops, village post offices, red phone boxes, seaside holidays and even some seaside piers, including the one at Brighton that so bemused and transfixed me thirty years ago.