Context images from “The Woods – a Year and a Day” exhibition, Ashton Court Visitor Centre, October 2001.
‘The Woods – a Year and a Day’ exhibition featured large, single images, on the reverse of these were what I named the ‘context panels’; below is a sample of some of these panels ‘in situ’
There were eleven panels, the first seven were factual (though sometimes also lyrical!) interpretations of the woods, so looking at evidence of how the woods were used in the past, their management, wildlife, and clues to current recreational use; this set were themed as ‘Place through Time’. The other four, Time through Place, record visits made with my family and our friends between 1987 and 2001, plus a few ‘out of time’ extras!
In the set of images below you can view all the photographs from each of the panels, including explanatory notes and captions.
Click on any photo below to open an enlarged image.
The Woods – A Year and Day: Place through Time
Panel 1: location
West Tanpit Woods, Durban’s Batch and Oxhouse Bottom (referred to for simplicity in this work as ‘Tanpit Woods’), cover an area of roughly 10 – 12 hectares and consist of mixed trees, combining some ancient woodland and more recent plantings of broadleaved and coniferous varieties.
The trees grow on the sloping sides of the Y shaped valley formed by anumber of small, spring-fed streamsthatrise along the southern edge of the woods. These join in the centre becoming the Markham Brook, that flows north to join the River Avon at Pill, the village where I live.
Ordnance Survey photograph showing Lower Failand with Tanpit Woods in the centre. Ref: 074 97/119 taken 30 04 1997 Waymarker from one of our birthday party treasure hunts in the woods.Pill Creek where the Markham Brook joins the River Avon.View south from home in Pill. The dark sloping horizon line in the centre is the tops of the trees in Tanpit WoodsFrom this point on the path through the fields between home and tanpit Woods I can see both the house and the woods by turning 1800.West Tanpit Woods in its surrounding landscapes, with views from and towards my home.
Panel 2
January 1999February 1999March 1999April 1999May 1999Moonlight June 1999August 1999September 1999October 1999November 1999December 1999New Year’s Day 2000Views from the lower entrance towards the woods over a year.
Panel 3
March 1999June 1999July 1999October 1999December 1999New Year’s Day 2000Views north towards Durban’s Batch section of woodJanuary 1999June 1999September 1999December 1999Path through beech trees towards Oxhouse Bottom
Panel 4
March 1999June 1999July 1999August 1999November 1999December 1999Collapsing branches by stream, bottom of Durban’s BatchDecember 1999New Year’s Day 2000February 1999August 1999November 1999A pair of ancient oak trees on the east side of the stream
Panel 5
Deer tracks. May 1999Buzzard feather. July 1999Woodpigeon eggshell. July 1999Lace-web spider’s web. July 1999Orb-web spider’s web. December 1999Wolf spider on wild garlic. May 1999Comma butterfly. July 1999Garlic snail. May 1999Cockchafer approaching hogweed July 1999Robin. December 1999Wildlife, and traces of.
Panel 6
This pair of old oaks are on a ridge that may be the remains of a 17thC field boundary.Boundary stone on Durban’s batch: “E. Hathway”Forestry vehicle tracksScum from excess nutrients running off fields in the stream’s catchment area.Forestry sign.Forestry ID tag on Ash tree.Barbed wire remains of cattle fencing.One of several pumps in the woods, once used by local farms and houses for water supplies.Waterfall constructed decades ago as part of a control system for trout-rearing ponds further downstreamShotgun cartridge. Pheasants are reared by neighbouring gamekeepers.Evidence of past and present management and work practices in the woods.
Panel 7
Ramblers. New Year’s day 1999Christmas decorations on yew tree. New Year’s Day 2000Den on island, December 1999Bootprints on path. March 1999Plank bridge. June 1999Self-walking dog (barking) from house at edge of woods. June 1999.Scramble bike tracks. January 1999Tobogganing. December 1989Sawdust marker for cross-country runners. February 1999.Night light and candle wax. New Year’s Day 2000Lost hat on stile. New Year’s Day 2000.Examples of, and clues to current recreational use of the woods.
The Woods – A Year and Day: Time through Place, family and friends
Panel 8
On the way to Tom’s 7th Birthday partyWill’s 4th birthday partyDamming the stream4th Birthday party presents7th Birthday Penknife party cakeTreasure huntTom and a rockTom, Will and snowSnowpathsSnow warriorFamily and Friends – 1988
Panel 9
Log jumping……stick wielding……tree climbing childrenThe woodland floor quilted with wild garlic leavesAnother birthday shared with family and friendsCatapult competingThe first time I’d seen primroses in these woods was just a few weeks after my Dad had diedJunior picnic porterA visit to the eye hospital after Tom’s home-made rabbit snare went wrong. No serious damage!Family and Friends – late 1980s – early 1990s
Panel 9
Winter gatheringUnlikely teen-exuberance at being in the woods againDen made by Will and local friend over a summerQuiet moment by the streamBoisterous moment in the autumnWill’s woodland sculpturesAnother ‘extended family’ gathering plus a visitor from Canada, a friend of 35 years. My Mum, in her late 70s, among the bluebells, her last visit there. After shed died, 15 years later, we scattered some of her ashes in this spot.Tom being Tom Transparent Tom in the streamFamily and Friends – mid to late 1990s
Panel 11 – an amended version of the original panel displayed in the exhibition, here as a memento of the end of an era, and in loving memory of those who came here often but who are no longer with us.
My feet, as I sat in a favourite location in 1995My feet in the same spot in 2000 with the earlier photoThe devastating Foot and Mouth epidemic of 2001, preventing access to the woodsFirst visit to the woods after the restrictions were lifted, late summer 2001The last photo of the bendy beech, my favourite tree, with a photo of itself in spring. It was felled in 2002, more about it hereThe little kids from panel 8 and 9, now adults in 2001……but reluctant posersTom and family-friend Meg’s 21st birthday party…Tom, brother Will and friends they’ve grown up with, at the partywith treasure hunt…and fireworksFamily and Friends – late 1990s to 2002. Not all the photos here were in the exhibition panel as they were taken after the event in 2002 – the year our elder son, Tom, and family-friend Meg (also appearing on the earlier panels, were 21, when we recreated the 7th birthday party seen in panel 8, with many of the same guests, we included a treasure hunt and modest fireworks as we had 14 years previously.
Liz Milner 