Upstream of medieval New Bridge, lingering mist enhances the chill of the valley bottom, hundreds of feet below the summit of Hingston Down. After weeks of rainy weather, turbulent water swirls through the gorge-like course beneath Blanchdown Wood, where – on a rare bright morning – sun lightens the topmost branches.
Here in Clitters Wood, dripping trees overhang flattened ferns beside the squelchy riverside track of puddles, rotting oak and chestnut leaves. On the steep wooded hillside, which is riddled underground with old mine adits and shafts, lurid moss shrouds the tree trunks, branches, fallen limbs, saplings, sprawling roots and stoned hedgebanks. Among the trees, stretches of bare land consist of “burrows”, or spoil heaps of waste from ore processing, stained red with hematite and known as “redlands”.
