The rape of the land

Almost exactly a year ago I wrote about a particularly impressive sunrise over Roundway Hill. This morning’s sunrise, captured at 06:49 and depicting the same view, was equally sublime. September must be a good month for sunrises.

The photograph shows the sun coming up behind Roundway Hill. To the left, the hilltop with the group of trees, is Oliver’s Castle, an iron age hill fort. The area played a role in the 1643 English civil war.

Sunrise over Roundway Hill. The area in the middle of the photograph is threatened by proposals by Wiltshire County Council to build a sand quarry.

I have become very accustomed to and very fond of this view. The room, in which I get dressed in the morning, faces this way and so do my office and studio. I would hate to see it spoiled and yet, this is what Wiltshire County Council is proposing with its quarry plans for Bromham. Under the proposals, a large area around the village would be destroyed: Trees and other vegetation, so important for wildlife, would be killed, the land stripped of its soil layer and the sand beneath ripped out of the ground.

If you look carefully at the photograph, you can see a hedgerow behind the field in the foreground on the left. This is where the land begins that has been identified for quarrying. It will stretch to the left and right of the field. I do not think that it is an act of selfishness on my part when I emphasize that this view will disappear forever if plans for a quarry at Bromham go ahead.

Is the civil war connection a mere coincidence or an omen?

I think of it as the rape of the land, which has become a recurring theme in my work. I always thought that it was good to look after the environment but only over recent years, I have become acutely aware of the thoughtless, excessive exploitation of our environment – the space, in which we want to exist and be happy and healthy – and the merciless, selfish methods that we use in our pursuit of profits.

Last year, I have documented some other everyday scenes of destruction in a cycle entitled kills above and below ground. It all started when I had to kill a beautiful lilac tree in my garden. It was damaging a wall of my house because it had been planted too close to the building by the previous owner. Not nature’s fault but ours. I have also stated before my belief that we do not own the land. “Our” property, “our” garden is not ours at all but space that we borrow from nature. We have a duty to care for it.

View all photographs in the Bromham Quarry series

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