“T. S. Eliot once argued that poems could ‘communicate’ before they could be understood. The same, I think, can be said for landscapes. Certain landforms or ecologies produce profound sensations, which have not been fully interrogated and yet are known to serve as a precursor to or prerequisite for experiences of a mystical nature. For some, this forms the bedrock of belief.”
(from “The Savage Landscape”, the new book from the bestselling author of “Islands of Abandonment, Cal Flyn).
I love reading landscape and agree that they can invoke a feeling.
Warning: each photo may take a while to load and will hotlink to my Flickr account in a new tab each time.
Dungeness
Dungeness National Nature Reserve is one such mystical place with a combination of big skies on a desolate promontory and a brooding presence of, not one but, two de-commissioning nuclear power stations. As a reminder of the sea it has two lighthouses as a new one was required when the old one was obscured by the power stations. The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway (narrow gauge) adds a delightful sight as a regular intrusion of tourists arrive with a comical toot-toot!
The land is an estate owned by the company EDF, in other words the power stations, and it funds the rangers who are very knowledgeable about the ecology of the pebble beach and the shingle ridges. They have an unofficial role in traffic management and intervening on unapproved media shoots (check Wikipedia). Many times they have had to tow vehicles off the loose off-road material where drivers have failed to see the danger – and failed to see the damage they inflict on the delicate ecology. It is managed by the Romney Marsh Countryside Project. www.dungeness-nnr.co.uk/
There are signs, too, of recent historical uses such as a defunct second world war railway station and the Pluto fuel pipeline. These are gradually being absorbed back into the landscape. By special arrangement it is possible to visit the experimental concrete “sound ears”, the pre-radar plane detection directed across the Channel.
Dungeness is also well-known for the re-use of railway carriages seen as the initial skeleton of homes sporadically across the landscape. Some of them, such as the yellow-trimmed Derek Jarman “Prospect Cottage”, are easily identified. Then, there are modern constructions.
Shingle House
This has its own web information with stunning photography.
The Shingle House by NORD Architecture is the second completed holiday home in Alain de Botton’s Living Architecture project.
See https://www.living-architecture.co.uk/the-houses/shingle-house/overview/
“Living Architecture’s house is by a young Scottish practice, NORD Architecture, who responded to the natural drama of the site with a simple monumental black house, finished in tarred black shingles on the outside and in a beautiful palette of concrete and timber within.”
Source: https://www.dezeen.com/2010/12/06/shingle-house-by-nord-architecture/
Psycho-geography
There is a more established concept behind Cal Flyn’s thoughts. Psycho-geography is the exploration of cities and other landscapes by means of drift, play and randomly motivated walking, encouraging a re-imagining of familiar terrain and the exploration of how environments affect emotions and behaviour
(coined by Guy Debord, 1955, and described here by Robert Macfarlane.)
I have touched upon it over the years, with others, in teachers’ and children’s projects such as Places People Want. And in 2012 I wrote a long personal piece called My Place – East Kent here >
Ashford, Kent and Local Government Review
Although LGR is “on pause” it remains interesting to reflect on how people define and view the place in which they live. The question emerges as where the “central place” might be located.
I offer that the sense of the “real heart” is in its people. The “centre of Kent” as a physical place is meaningless in social and economic terms. To most people, belonging is anywhere on a scale from local to global.
So, let’s manage services as efficiently as possible from anywhere and everywhere as appropriate.
Dan Walsh, reflecting on urban decline, sings “As long as there’s people there’s still a town.”
Lines in the Landscape
The photo above is used as the header image on my Flickr account and is from Stalisfield Green looking towards Charing with Kent’s North Downs in the distance. I created this self-defined album in 2012 with the following rubrik…
Often representing human impact on the environment, lines are usually a harsh intrusion on the landscape. Nature tends not to do ‘straight’ so lines indicate our human modifications or an attempt to superimpose our own sense of order and efficiency on what is otherwise a more natural setting. Southern England has no true wildscape and, even as it continues to change, and evidence of our human landscape is everywhere.
As a geographer, I think it is important that photographs convey their place, as appropriate, and I have located and geo-tagged them all in this set.
The countryside pylons above contrast with the telephone wires in the top photo at Dungeness.
I have a other themes albums on Flickr, peruse at your leisure, but mostly they are grouped by place or from a particular holiday. Now the mobile phone is the preferred camera and it easily uploads to the cloud I have nearly 40,000 photos stored there.
Question
Cal Flynn refers to “profound sensations”.
Which landscapes communicate or resonate most strongly for you?
