uttlesford in autumn

The beauties of the north-west district of Uttlesford in Essex are never more defined than in autumn, when the hedgerows fill with colourful berries and the leaves in their death throes turn to bronze and crimson, purple and gold. Fallen leaves scrunch underfoot down quiet byways, tractors plough lonely expanses of boulder clay, and nature gives forth her bounty of hips and haws, blackberries for eating, sloes for gin, acorns for the squirrels. The only alien sound is the aeroplane, flying low above the fields, ferrying its load of tired travellers back and forth to faraway lands, unheeding of the patchwork quilt below of our own Ancient Countryside.


A colourful hedgerow beside the County High School public footpath	A plane heading for the airport, among storm clouds, below a tractor cultivates autumn fields

A stone's throw from the present airport runway, a tractor ploughs the fields	Acorns on oak tree

Autumn blackberries	Fallen beech tree along Beechy Ride, Saffron Walden

Autumn farming operations at Coldharbour Farm, near Tilty	Autumn glory in the Uttlesford countryside

Autumn hedgerows along Bustard Green road, Lindsell	Autumn ploughing near Springwell

Autumn trees near Saffron Walden	Autumnal colours in woods near the Lindsell road junction

Cobbs Lane, near Molehill Green, which would be destroyed by second runway airport expansion	Colourful hedgerow near Springwell

Dogwood fruits	Hawthorn berries, known as haws

Fertile farmland near Tilty Grange	Harrowed fields near Byrds Farm, Saffron Walden

Holly berries	Old Man's Beard, the Wild Clematis

Maple & dogwood hedge near Broxted	Philipland Wood (near Broxted), which would be destroyed if the G2 airport plan went ahead

Old oak tree near Springwell, Saffron Walden	Remains of Tilty Abbey amid the autumn fields

Rosehips	Rosehips and Robins Pincushion, created by a parasitic wasp

Spindle berries	Sweet chestnuts

Storm clouds over Uttlesford countryside	Water Lane (near Broxted), which would be wiped out by the G2 airport plan