|
On clear days (and evenings) we have a splendid view across South-West Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. Trouble is, where is our horizon? We can see it but where does it reside on a map? How far away would we have to travel to reach it? Find out below ...  Above: With the naked eye, this is what you see when staring out from our panoramic windows that face 312* NW. One can just about make out a formation of trees on the horizon. The land in between Faringdon and our subject dips off a bit initially and then rises gently until it kicks up just beyond the Fosse Way between Cirencester and Northleach. After that the terrain starts to drop off again in a Cheese-rolling[1] rollercoaster into Cheltenham and Gloucester (which are at an altitude lower than Faringdon). In fact Faringdon sits up slightly on a small ridge in the Thames Valley between the Berkshire Downs and the Cotswolds proper. Both the Downs and the Cotswolds rise to more than 200 metres above sea level. Faringdon itself ranges from 100 metres around Canada Lane to 154 metres at the top of Folly Hill. Because of this elevation above the valley floor, there is nothing of sufficient altitude to block the view to the horizon on the 230 metre contour line more than 28 km away, just outside Yanworth in Gloucestershire. Above: sometimes the horizon is best seen at sunset and occasionally can be viewed pretty clearly during the day (if the sky is clear which has been a pretty rare occasion in 2025). During a mini booze-up at Shelley-ann's (Shan's) and my house, involving a couple of fresh boxes of real ale, the horizon showed off in splendour (see above). I let it be known to the assembled cognoscenti that we had started to call this view "our own Sycamore Gap[2]". This piqued the interest of some of the revellers, none more so than Andrew Goodwin, a professional surveyor of some repute. He made an appointment to come around the following Thursday. During the time interval he was going to acquire a pukka hand-held yachting compass[3} to make the operation a lot more scientific. Above; Andrew applying a little bit of science to the location. Andrew pitched up as promised, armed with compass and the appropriate Ordnance Survey map[4], and we set about plotting the location of our "Sycamore Gap". It turned out that it required some closer investigation of our Thursday's efforts and as Andrew was headed in the general direction the following day he would attempt some verification while in the general area. Roger Star, a.k.a Starry, accompanied him on that and a subsequent more specific investigation with the result that I received some excited messages informing me that the Gap had been all but located and they would be most delighted to show it to Shan and me. An outing was planned for the following Monday. Andrew and Starry had ascertained from the Stowell Park Estate office that it would be wise to arrange the visit through them to prevent the ire of the occasional game keeper, who might otherwise lock us in on the gated road. Above l-r, top-bottom: we think we've found the "tree[5]"; looking from the tree(s) towards Faringdon using a standard lens setting, revealing not much at all apart from the stony surface of the fields around there; c'est moi struggling with a paper map in the fresh breeze and making very little headway - the Berkshire Downs are faintly discernible in the far background (approx 40 km away), though; up close to the "Sycamore(s)" amongst 10 other trees with the giveaway pylon confirming its location. Andrew also kindly insisted on driving the four of us to the site in Yanworth where he would introduce us to the Stowell Park estate manager, James. It all went off like clockwork and, by the time we had parked the vehicle and trudged across the Cotswold stone strewn field to the "tree", it was obvious that we were at the hallowed spot as viewed from our house in Faringdon. As we had suspected, it was more than a single tree; in fact a healthy clump of more than 12 assorted healthy, mature trees. We did breathe a sigh of relief when we (Starry) identified at least two Sycamores amongst the assembled mature soldiers. Turning to the South-East for the ultimate verification shot of our house along with yellow awning (left open to mark the spot), it turned out that the Southern part of the Thames Valley had become shrouded in cloudy mist. I had brought three cameras: iPhone 15, handy Panasonic Lumix with 60x Leica zoom lens, and the big beast Nikon D750 with a 300mm telephoto. Sadly, in our excitement to set off into the deepest Cotswolds I forgot to load my tripod into Andrew's Volvo so that when we arrived at the hallowed site, and were confronted with a few hundred metres of rocky Cotswold stone to get to the epicentre, I chose to leave the Nikon in the car. It was impossible to locate our town in the low-lying cloud so I took a few shots and I believe Shan snatched my camera from me in frustration to take a few more. Shooting blind in the foggy conditions we attempted to pan into the unknown before bringing the pictures home to see if any optimistic results might emerge. Above (l-r): Real ales on tap; Andrew, Starry and Shan saluting the day. But first some restoring victuals and accompanying libations were essential. These were consumed at the most pleasant Inn at Fossebridge, conveniently close to Yanworth and serving excellent pies with proper pastry cases. Shan also raved over her burger avec deux patties. Replete, we returned to Faringdon to find that our yellow awning had wound itself in as it is designed to do if the wind gets up. We bid farewell to Andrew and Starry and with the combination of our exercise, good food and the general tiredness my illness tends to induce dictating that an afternoon nap had to precede the editing "table". Imagine our excitement, then, when subjecting a few of the choice pictures to the "dehaze" feature of Adobe Lightroom revealed a faint image of the Uffington White Horse, 36.6 km from our "Sycamore", that provides a background to Faringdon area. . Above (l-r): the faint image of the White Horse can be spotted in the top right hand corner of this picture of the Berkshire Downs that face the Cotswolds across the Thames Valley; it is possible to just about see Faringdon nestling in the top left hand corner with the Downs in the background. I looked at our foggy photos with renewed vigour and dehazing after seeing this and found one of the pictures has what is almost certainly Faringdon nestling on its own smaller ridge in front of the White Horse's Ridgeway. I had previously established through the use of Ordnance Survey Maps that our Sycamores sit on the horizon at 28.87 km as the crow flies from our house. All we need now is an absolute peach of a day to rush out to Yanworth by car (approx. 42 km), beg permission from the estate manager and retake our photo. A little more pictorial evidence and some background The sad story of the original Sycamore Gap on Hadrian's Wall can be found on Wikipedia[6]. Above (l-r): elevation of the map on the right with Yanworth (Sycamore Gap) 230 metres above sea level in the middle and "crow flies" directions to the Uffington White Horse on the left and Faringdon on the right; the OS map on which this is based.
What next One fine day, if we ever have one, we'll provide updated pictures, particularly of Faringdon taken from our "tree" on the Stowell Estate. Endnotes:
2 Comments
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
December 2025
Categories |
RSS Feed