Tuesday 11 June 2013

Dalton Woodland Burial Ground has plenty of singing birds and other Creatures


Yesterday (Monday 10th June 2013) I was coming back down through Dalton Crags, when at the top of the lower Crags, I met a family party consisting of Dad at the advanced age of 93, along with his daughter and son in law who again had just retired having reached the age of mid sixties.  I could see the old man was wearing a red  “St Dunstans” type of baseball hat and walking with a cream coloured stick.  So I then presumed, the gentleman was perhaps sight impaired, and this was actually confirmed by him in later conversation.

He went on to say that he lived on the Fylde and that his daughter now lived in Sussex, and today they were making their regular pilgrimage to visit his late beloved wife who was buried at the nearby Dalton Woodland Burial Ground, he also added that when she was alive they both loved coming for walks up on the Crags and that was also why he was up here today.

He continued to tell me of how his wife, when she was alive especially loved this area (Dalton Crags) for its sounds of birds and nature and that the burial site was selected as the ideal spot, and that one day in the future he himself would also be buried there, and the daughter and son in law also said that they hoped also to be buried there when their time came.

I went on to tell him that only a couple of weeks ago, I was having a walk through the Woodland burial site, and the woods were alive with lots of mixed birds songs with some rarities like a pair of Chiffchaffs, Marsh Tit, Treecreepers and Goldcrest, along with the most common of birds the Chaffinches, Greenfinches, Blackbirds and Thrushes and choristed throughout with the beautiful calls from local Robins and Dunnocks. Even during the hours of darkness a Tawny Owl "hoots" whilst sentinel.  So he was delighted to hear this.  I did also tell him that there was something really special in these woods also.  In that I have seen on two separate occasions a pair of Brown Hares which seemed to have made the woodland their home too.

I also told him that each morning I pass through the lane locally called “Nineteen Trees”, the lane which divides the Woodland Burial Ground from the Dalton Crags and its woodlands, he knew where I meant.  And all last week (June 4th week 2013) whilst traversing along Nineteen Trees (at approx 6.30hrs) the sun was shining so bright, you could not help but look to your left hand side into the Woodland Burial Site whilst on passing, and you would witness a most spectacular sight, of a small patch of bluebells (maybe some 10-15 ft diameter but laid further back in the woodland, perhaps some 20 to 30ft from the boundary wall) and it seemed as though they were lit or highlighted by a “shaft of light” being shone on them, as though a spotlight was shining from the heavens.  The reason those bluebells were at this particular spot in the first place is more than probable because of the “shaft” of light which had been caused from circumstances on the opposite side of the lane, eg:  Here there is wooden forestry gate with room to park two or three cars, and behind the forestry gate, it was a clearing and forestry track which takes you further up to the commencement of the lower Dalton Crags.  Because there were no trees at this point, the early morning sun managed to penetrate and shine right down the open channel and finished at the point of the bluebells, making this such a spectacular sight for anyone lucky enough to witness it.  A sort of mini effect you would perhaps get at somewhere like “Stonehenge” were light hits a opening at a certain time of day which then allows a shaft of light to be displayed and forwarded.

The old man and his family obviously were delighted to hear such a story and I could see where especially for them that it would have added credence, that the Woodland Burial Site is just that “so special” place.