Picture of the month

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Against the crag flecked high ground to the west of Little Urswick stands Redmayne Hall, age unknown but possibly dating back to around Elizabethan times. This is a fine former farmstead built in limestone, the local stone which outcrops in many places across the Furness peninsula in a band which passes through the two Urswick villages, thus establishing a harmony between village-scape and land-scape. The large and well-proportioned sycamore tree, prominent in this photograph which was taken in 2008, is clearly identifiable on maps dating from the 1800s. In those times and until the late 1950s the tree stood proud above the village duck pond situated where the sheep now graze. The pond was sadly lost to the hand of man, thus depriving the village of yet another rural character endowing feature, but it was the winter gales of 2015/16 that sealed the fate of the sycamore when it lost one of its lower and very sizeable bows. As might be expected, this was to be shortly followed by the even more brutal chain saw which downed the whole tree. Time will determine whether a replacement will be nurtured to allow future generations to admire another equally magnificent tree at this same location.