Carr Landscapes of the River Hull

Continued...

But what are these Carrs and what are they like?

And what is their future? The answer to this last question is, of course, a matter for conjecture and already there are , I think, straws in the wind which do not bode well.

But this is something for another day, and for now I want only to show you these places and to convey my sense of their value. For I have a strong feeling for them as landscape which is where I believe their true and great amenity lies.

Over a period of about 18 months, and using the footpath and other access through it, I have gathered over 100 hours of video footage of the area. To acquire any unfamiliar skill one has to start as a novice and as much as 40 %, of this footage proved unusable. Nevertheless, the remaining material has been edited into a series of 12 films which, taken together, total about 4 hours duration. It will be noticed that sometimes the network of available footpaths has proved insufficient and other sorts of Right of Way have been used, (and shown). These however, are never more than very minor country roads and don't, I think, detract from the impression that I hope to give of beautiful countryside that is worth protecting.
There is an issue I think, as to whether these landscapes and our countryside in general, (or ourselves), are justly served by present levels of access. But this is something, I think, best left for now - if pending - on the website's "In" tray. For now, the objective is to show off the Carrs and that is what I hope the films will do.

In all but one instance the films depict a circular walk in the area. The exception is Film L, (Rotsea, Brigham and the Driffield Canal), which actually depicts two walks separated by two short stretches of private right, (the track-ways leading to and from Rotsea Carr Farm and the immediate vicinity of the Farm at Corpselanding). I have indicated where such hiatus occurs by short periods of blank film, the first of which occurs, almost immediately, at the beginning of the film and the second about a third of the way through.

The point of all these films is to display the landscape and this, it seemed to me, would be best done, in every case, by using a first person approach, (where you or I could be that person), and by the conveyed sense of a voyage outward and a return home. In the case of Film L, although there is, in fact, no continuity of right of way, a look at the map does suggest a kind of circuit and so, for the sake of consistency of presentation across all the films, I have treated it as such. But again, this is a matter of exposition only.

Several of the films do, I hope, serve to point up the importance of Tophill Low in relation to the surrounding landscapes which take so much of their character from the wild-life it sustains..
Bearing this in mind, and with regard to films B and J, (of the Tophill Low "Figure-of-8"), I think one should note also that although the part of the walk alongside the River Hull is recognised as a Public Right of Way its use as such is not necessarily to be encouraged since the best interests of the wild-life at Tophill Low - and of the surrounding landscapes which benefit so much from it - are unlikely to be served by the regular nearby transit of ourselves. There is an important issue here but, again, not I think for discussion now.

Some Comments on my Technique

For the most part, the footage was obtained with me walking while looking through the view-finder of a camcorder held in front of my face. This has had several consequences.

In the first place, it has meant that most of the footage was shot in a relatively wide-angle format to avoid, or at least minimise, the effects of camera shake. Consequently, the landscapes have acquired a slightly epic quality in relation to their true appearance, (rather as back gardens do when photographed by estate-agents). On the other hand, this approach does enable you to see the landscape as a whole and at once and in a way that is akin to how you would experience it in real life - seamlessly - rather than, as would be the case with higher lens magnifications, as nearly separate visual events linked by obvious movement from one to the other, (somewhat, I imagine, as though you were afflicted with tunnel vision).

Another consequence, unfortunately, is that the sound of the film-makers breathing, (i.e. mine), is sometimes intrusive. I have tried to excuse myself to myself with the thought that silence is when you can hear yourself breathe. Actually, if these films were truly silent then it would have been necessary to add sound to them, (music or commentary or whatever): and to the extent it has made this avoidable, the sound of my breathing could be considered an advantage.

There are other "noises off" which are sometimes due to the camcorder mechanism but sometimes come, (I suspect), from adjustments made by me to its microphone. One of the downsides to many camcorders is that wind noise tends to be amplified unpredictably so that in conditions of ordinary windiness you can end up with the impression of a walk in a hurricane. To counter this I set up my camera so that a layer of cotton wool was fixed across a gap in front of the microphone. This had the intended noise-dampening effect but accounts, (or so I think), for an intrusive clicking audible in some of the footage due, possibly, to wisps of cotton wool brushing against the microphone across the separating gap.

Some Comments about the Key to each film

For each film I have provided a brief account of what it is that one is seeing, (or what it is that one should expect to see). To bring up this "Supporting Text" simply click on the button so marked.

Regularly appearing during the course of each film, at the bottom left hand corner of the image, is a sequence of integers. Corresponding integers appear in the supporting text provided for that film. Moreover, the maps are also number labelled, (and colour coded), so that you can know where what you are seeing was happening.

The films are grouped into 4 sets of three where each set of three is related to its own map. I have done this in order to keep to a minimum the number of maps you need to look at but also to keep you in mind of the landscape as a whole and of the overall context in which whatever you are viewing had occurred.

One map - from the OS Landranger series No 107 -  is to a smaller scale, (of 1:50000), than all the others -  which are to 1:25000 scale and from the OS Explorer Series No 295. This map is the first map of the website and is shown here as part of the Introduction. It displays at once all the footpaths, tracks and minor roads along which or from which the footage was obtained. It also identifies more clearly, the location of the Carrs in their wider East Yorkshire setting.

One final point: in the "Supporting Texts" I have made reference on several occasions to a Pump House. This building contains the pumps that take water from the River Hull and drive it into the "D" reservoir at Tophill Low: (this water is later stored after treatment in an underground reservoir before being pumped towards Hull itself).

Finally

When I started to make these films, I did so with the assumption that no one could be expected to watch things of this sort  - "silent" movies about landscapes - for more than about 20 minutes. I am now certain that this is true

I think it is important to note that you can download the films if you wish, which will, I hope, help to overcome some quality issues as they relate to streamed video, (though the quality of what you see will depend on the power of your computer).

Other buttons on the home page will allow you variously to: (1) bring up some extracts from George Orwell's "Coming up for Air": (2) link to the Wolds Windfarm Opposition (WWFO) website: (3) access a Comment section wherein I hope occasionally to blog.

There is no point in trying to watch all of the films at once and to view one every couple of days is probably more than they deserve. But I do hope that if you care about landscapes you will take the time to look at some of them, (however long that takes you), and then think why you would want to keep these places - and everywhere else that is like them -  and how fragile they have all become.

One of the advantages of the "first person" method of filming I have used is that what has been filmed is what would have been seen whether a camera had been present to record it or not. There is an important point here. When I started out making these films I set out, (simply), to show the landscapes per se. I did not realise how significant to the totality of my experience the local wildlife would be, (and their importance, therefore, to the experience of this landscape by anyone else).

Just because there isn't wilderness doesn't mean there can't be wildness and this landscape offers wildness to a degree - pace those who reverence The Wolds - not so readily available elsewhere in East Yorkshire: at least not in the sense that these Carrs exemplify, presently, by their quality of "remoteness nearby" to so many areas of urban, or near urban, settlement.

Or so it seems to me. My fear is that a bottom-line tradesman's mentality will be allowed to prevail over the future of this place and that its character and its value, (for me at least), will be lost. If we don't or won't value such landscapes properly what will we have left? Anyway, it is a landscape and the wildness within it that are on show.  There is plenty of wild-life action, (of a quiet rural English sort), and sometimes it is almost spectacular.

But see what you think.

Added: 30th January 2011