Country Life 28-Apr-2021

TO those sighing wistfully over travel-insurance clauses and old holiday snaps of safaris or tropical islands, take heart. You may be about to rediscover the glorious British seaside this summer—jam jars full of darting gobies scavenged from rock pools and bee orchids in the sand dunes—but without the privations of the past or bored donkeys. Evocative transport posters illustrate the 1840s to 1960s coastal boom, but the myriad beaches, cliffs, coves, flats and crumbling castles (both sand and stone) of the British Isles have always held an allure, long before even the 1730s, when saltwater swims could ‘cure’ gout and rabies. Dubious medical advice is one facet we’re happy to leave to history, together with those awkward bathing machines—wheeled changing huts, horse-drawn into the waves, allowing ladies in swimwear that would…

The dales are alive TWO fledgling populations of native endangered dormice in Wensleydale should now be waking from their winter slumber to discover a bigger, wider world, as local landowners and farmers have completed a six-mile corridor of woodland and hedgerow either side of Freeholders’ Wood at Aysgarth Falls. The three-year Wensleydale Dormouse Project, which is funded by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES), Woodland Trust, Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and Millennium Trust, among others, is part of the PTES’s National Dormouse Monitoring Programme. Giving the populations room to roam is vital, as dormice are almost entirely arboreal and need to be able to walk along branches, hopping from one tree or bush to another. ‘They do best in a shrub environment. They need hawthorn, blackthorn, spindle, hazel—especially hazel—bird cherry…

Beatlemania The childhood haunt of John Lennon and George Harrison, the Art Deco Abbey Cinema in Liverpool, has been granted Grade II-listed status, scuppering demolition plans Hello, old friend The cow wheat shieldbug, which was believed to be extinct in Scotland for the past 30 years, has been spotted in Strathspey Starry, starry nights Light pollution has dropped 10% since 2020 and we're now experiencing the darkest skies since 2013, finds the CPRE's annual Star Count Getting your caffeine fix Kew scientists have discovered a rare coffee species, Coffea stenophylla, that should withstand climate change, with its tolerance to high temperatures and superior flavour likened to ‘high-end Arabica' Fancying your chances A new study finds the Tyrannosaurus rex was slower than previously believed, with an average walking speed of 2.86 miles per hour…

Getting the job done Network Rail has had to postpone refurbishments to the Grade II-listed Britannia Bridge, which crosses the Menai Strait, after a male peregrine was seen ‘roosting, preening and hunting', indicating the presence of a nest in the central tower Birds of Ireland A quarter of the country's bird species are now at risk, finds a new study from Birdwatch Ireland and RSPB NI, including puffins, kestrels, curlews and swifts Raising your voice For the first time, the British Town Crier Championships will be a silent affair, as the organisers plan to judge hundreds of 140-word entries on content alone…

ON Wednesday, the majority of the Country Life editorial team met for the first time in more than a year. Since we were last together, some have had babies, others are slimmer or ‘about’ the same and several beards have been grown. It was a joy to see everyone, but a sadness, too, as we were all there because we had been told to clear our desks ahead of the closure of our Farnborough office. Before Covid-19, most staff hot-desked, which is a form of musical chairs for grown-ups; however, somehow, I managed to maintain a separate office of my own. For 15 years, I have sat on an uncomfortable Sheraton chair before a desk at which all the Editors of the magazine have worked. A portrait of the first Editor, Edward…

IT’S been impossible over the past week not to enjoy the seemingly endless succession of brilliant days and crisp, cold evenings. They contribute to a sense of optimism and of life returning to an even keel. So, too, has the end of the Easter holiday. The children are delighted to be back at school and it’s blissful as a parent to be released from the responsibility of encouraging them to abandon their screens for a decent period each day. That trial returns a little even on school evenings, but it helps that there is written homework to do again, which makes it much harder for the children to give the impression of studious endeavour when, in fact, they’re playing games of Roblox or watching TikTok. As we start to see friends…