Is This The Ugliest Countryside In The Country?

[Yeti]

Well I was on the train the other day - I won't say where, that's for you to work out - and I went through some of the most shockingly vile countryside I have ever seen. Now OK the weather was grey and a bit misty, but even with some sunshine it would have looked revolting. I cannot explain how awful it was, I felt so sorry for anyone who lives in that area. Let's just say the ground was as flat as is possible and there were no hedgerows, just massive, massive brown fields that had been turned into giant prairies with ditches to channel away fertilisers. In fact the land had been horribly exploited, it was like one giant farm.

That second one looks like the aftermath of a nuclear war.

PS sorry about the quality of the pics - taken from my phone on the train.

[Azores Hi]

In fact the land had been horribly exploited, it was like one giant farm.

How awful for you, to think that farming is still going on in this country. How disgusting!

Lets turn all the farms into wildlife parks and import all the food. I'm sure there is some tatty old rainforest somewhere that we could pull down so that we farm that instead. At least then it would pretty up our countryside a bit.

[Yeti]

How awful for you, to think that farming is still going on in this country. How disgusting!

Lets turn all the farms into wildlife parks and import all the food. I'm sure there is some tatty old rainforest somewhere that we could pull down so that we farm that instead. At least then it would pretty up our countryside a bit.

I've seen farming before that does not involve giant agribusiness! The effect on the wildlife of these methods has been catastrophic. How about organic farming or on a smaller scale? It's all been ruined around there.

[Azores Hi]

I've seen farming before that does not involve giant agribusiness! The effect on the wildlife of these methods has been catastrophic. How about organic farming or on a smaller scale? It's all been ruined around there.

Organic farming is simply less productive. If the demand was there then all farming would be organic. Unfortunately there is greater demand for cheaper produce.

Less intensive=less efficient production. Again, we want cheap veg so what else do you propose?

If the whole country went organic we would comfortably see a 30% drop in production. This is in a society which is demanding more food.

Anyway. I do agree it is ugly, not all countryside is pretty and nor should it be. A few more hedgerows would be nice. Unfortunately they get in the way of the tractors!

P.s I would guess that it's Norfolk of Lincolnshire?

Edited December 17, 2008 by Azores Hi

[Yeti]

P.s I would guess that it's Norfolk of Lincolnshire?

Close... it was in between the two. I was on the train back from Cambridge, via Ely, to Peterborough and then N.

I can't help thinking that there could be a better balance though tbh.

[Greyowl]

Maybe you should get off your train and take a proper look at the area before you make statements like those.

[Azores Hi]

Close... it was in between the two. I was on the train back from Cambridge, via Ely, to Peterborough and then N.

I can't help thinking that there could be a better balance though tbh.

In reality Yeti,you would be hard pressed to see the difference between Organic and non-organic farming at a glance. The principle differences are in the types of fertiliser and chemical pest controls. There probably is some organic production going on there, I'd be suprised if there wasn't. At the end of the day, farming is farming. It's not always pretty, more often than not it's muddy, smelly and ugly. This country has been farmed for hundreds, if not thousands of years and you would be hard pressed to find much land outside of cities that isn't farmed to some degree.

I deal with a lot of farmers in that area and I agree, it's not the most attractive of landscapes and on a grey December day it can seem a bit post apocalypse! But there is beauty to be found there. On a spring day, surrounded by a vibrant green it can be quite uplifting and when there is a storm coming, there is nowhere else I'd rather be!

[Shiny_Bottom_1]

I was going to say Lincolnshire for one reason....theres no hills!

[Paul Sherman]

Also your Ugly is another mans quest especially in the Summer and Spring months when Huuuge Thunderstorms paint themselves across the blank canvass, this area is not called the Uk's Tornado Alley for nothing, I for one would not want some huge great Boring Mountain in me view and not see Storm Structures for Instance.

Paul S

[shuggee]

Well since that area is mainly land reclaimed from the sea over many centuries (hence dykes, lack of trees/bushes etc.), that's exactly the landscape that ought to be expected?

[multi cellular thunderstorm]

I've always thought I would like to see such flat land, with the huge expanse of sky, especially for sunsets and storms.

I think you've been a bit harsh there Yeti, with words like vile, revolting, awful, horrible. I would imagine on a sunny summers day with CBs all around it would be a great place to be.

Only place i've seen which is flat is around the Solway Firth in Cumbria, but that'll all change next year on the storm chase. From what i've seen the Midwest is pretty flat

[sammie]

Not gonna lie, this is hillarious, just be glad you weren't on a train though the Midwest.

[peterf]

Organic farming is simply less productive. If the demand was there then all farming would be organic. Unfortunately there is greater demand for cheaper produce.

Less intensive=less efficient production. Again, we want cheap veg so what else do you propose?

If the whole country went organic we would comfortably see a 30% drop in production. This is in a society which is demanding more food.

Anyway. I do agree it is ugly, not all countryside is pretty and nor should it be. A few more hedgerows would be nice. Unfortunately they get in the way of the tractors!

P.s I would guess that it's Norfolk of Lincolnshire?

hedgerows are being reinstated as we speak,

funny enough we are being paid to replant the very hedgerows,that our clients were paid to rip out in the 70s.

it's a funny old world.

dry stone walls also being reinstalled, at a huge cost i might add.

but there's no denying it looks a lot better.

[Paul Sherman]

I've always thought I would like to see such flat land, with the huge expanse of sky, especially for sunsets and storms.

I think you've been a bit harsh there Yeti, with words like vile, revolting, awful, horrible. I would imagine on a sunny summers day with CBs all around it would be a great place to be.

Only place i've seen which is flat is around the Solway Firth in Cumbria, but that'll all change next year on the storm chase. From what i've seen the Midwest is pretty flat

And also on Platuea's Mark. On the Caprock Escarpment it is as flat as a pancake and nearly 4,000 feet above sea level. In fact you can almost see the curvature of the earth, and sometimes the views are at least 70 miles Parts of Western Kansas are very flat as are the Eastern parts of Colorado, also the Corn Belt in Eastern Nebraska, there are also a lot of hilly areas which we will show you as well.

Paul S

[Chris Knight]

Close... it was in between the two. I was on the train back from Cambridge, via Ely, to Peterborough and then N.

I can't help thinking that there could be a better balance though tbh.

Eh up, and I was wondering if they had reinstated the track between Hull and Withernsea. When the trains had windows you could open, you could catch the heady whiff of the Holderness pig farms too. Magic!

[J07]

If you want flat, try the Nullarbor!

Nothing notable about that countryside Yeti passed; I agree it looks grim but no more so than many other parts of the country.

[Yeti]

If you want flat, try the Nullarbor!

Nothing notable about that countryside Yeti passed; I agree it looks grim but no more so than many other parts of the country.

That's just so unfair, nowhere else in Britain comes close to looking that bad. I've been to many places in the world but for me nowhere compares to the Lakes, the Dales and the Highlands.

In fact parts of Norfolk are also very nice, with thatched cottages and Broads etc, but that part of the Fens gave me the creeps. I suppose there's no crop-growing up here as it's all sheep and dairy (which IS attractive) so that's one reason.

But how you can say that many parts of the country look grim I've no idea, you don't have to go to New Zealand to find nice countryside you know

[jethro]

To be fair Yeti, those parts of the countryside you find so attractive (and I agree, they are) are just not suitable for intensive, arable farming. The countryside is, and has for a long time, been shaped by farming - it's a giant, open-air factory. All those dry stone walls dividing up the Dales and Cotswolds, pretty though they are, were only built to contain livestock; livestock which to some degree rely on those vast arable fields to supply grain, beet etc for feed.

We really do need those vast areas of arable land to feed us. They're not designed to be aesthetically pleasing, they're designed to be as productive as possible. No one would expect to find the inside of a food production factory pretty, what you photographed is exactly that; a food factory and we need them.

[Greyowl]

That's just so unfair, nowhere else in Britain comes close to looking that bad. I've been to many places in the world but for me nowhere compares to the Lakes, the Dales and the Highlands.

In fact parts of Norfolk are also very nice, with thatched cottages and Broads etc, but that part of the Fens gave me the creeps. I suppose there's no crop-growing up here as it's all sheep and dairy (which IS attractive) so that's one reason.

But how you can say that many parts of the country look grim I've no idea, you don't have to go to New Zealand to find nice countryside you know

Why don't you come back and look at the Fens when it's spring and summer. You view is very biased towards hilly areas which I find boring with just grass and stone walls and OON's sheep. Very little major agriculture to look at. Most of that land you saw is reclaimed land. The ditches are for drainage not for fertilizers and are part of the 40% of prime agricultural land in the country

Have a look at the chalk pits in Kent, (the garden of England) The China clay pits in Cornwall, Slate quarries in Wales etc. I know what I would rather look at.

[Yeti]

Why don't you come back and look at the Fens when it's spring and summer. You view is very biased towards hilly areas which I find boring with just grass and stone walls and OON's sheep. Very little major agriculture to look at. Most of that land you saw is reclaimed land. The ditches are for drainage not for fertilizers and are part of the 40% of prime agricultural land in the country

Have a look at the chalk pits in Kent, (the garden of England) The China clay pits in Cornwall, Slate quarries in Wales etc. I know what I would rather look at.

Haha North Yorkshire was recently renamed the Garden of England!

But anyway, I do agree that the farming is necessary in East Anglia. It does not stop it being ugly though. And I must say, I have been to Holland many times, which has farming on just an intense a scale, and it seems more... aesthetically managed?

[Diane_W]

Just to balance it up here's a better view from Lincolnshire.

[Thundery wintry showers]

It does look fairly bad (and I've been through that countryside by both train and car from Norwich to various other places).

In my view, it probably is the worst-looking countryside in Britain, but I also think that, compared to derilict ex-industrial estates and the like, it pales by comparison as far as repulsiveness is concerned. Also, I've been through it on showery/thundery type days and the flatness facilitates good storm-watching, rather like Paul Sherman described.

The countryside around Norwich looks decent as far as I'm concerned (I wonder if that is primarily organic or wide-scale farming?) but then again, Norwich isn't as dry as the Cambridge area (630mm rain per year as opposed to about 550mm). I think some parts of the southeast look barren simply because the climate is dry.

[johnholmes]

Well since that area is mainly land reclaimed from the sea over many centuries (hence dykes, lack of trees/bushes etc.), that's exactly the landscape that ought to be expected?

sensible post and the area is partly responsible for the character that labelled it 'ugly' to be able to buy food in his supermarket at a reasonable price.

Its pretty flat round here and there are still piles of derelict pit tops/slag heaps, although big efforts are being made to make them look less unpleasant.

I'm not surprised anyone living in the area mentioned is not very impressed with the orignal comment.

I was born in the Peak District and lived, until the last 18 years, always in sight of hills and or sea, one simply gets used to it. After all most of us are lucky enough to have cars to enable us to go to places which we call attractive/beautifuul, whatever expression suits best.

[Greyowl]

Haha North Yorkshire was recently renamed the Garden of England!

But anyway, I do agree that the farming is necessary in East Anglia. It does not stop it being ugly though. And I must say, I have been to Holland many times, which has farming on just an intense a scale, and it seems more... aesthetically managed?

I live on the Fens and don't find them the least big ugly. I wouldn't move for the world except to another part of the Fens. Bye the way. Kent always has been known as the garden of England....it's not a new thing.

[jethro]

I lived for five years in Church Fenton, technically North Yorks but geographically, an extension of the Lincolnshire Fens. The landscape was identical, flat as far as the eye could see, few trees, dykes aplenty. I have to say to me, (and I come from the Cotswolds, long considered one of Britain's finest areas), it had it's own beauty, especially in winter. There's something really rather magical driving through fenland, long straight roads with Will O' the Wisp mist sitting three foot deep, a foot above the road. When it freezes (as it often does), there's nowhere better for a thick hoare frost, the whole landscape sparkles; it's wonderful.

I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder.