Name: Nature Calling
Price range: $

A man stands with arms outstretched, he looks like he has just finished a great performance. There are bright lights around him and the floor he stands on is reflective.

At Sharpenhoe - Begin

At Sharpenhoe - Begin¹

Lee Nelson

Take the slow track
loaded with sloes, track²
the track less travelled³
up the hill’s back
up the Clappers

Up to the space on top
warrened beneath and
honeycombed with tunnels in the air
passages from here to there

Look down and look across
the troughs
of the town now gone
now all there is
up here for us
is
secret and time
perspective and time

time-wind-stretched sun-seeking branches reach out
for Barton, Shillington, Silsoe
and beyond to Clophill, even Wixams, Bedford

A touch of class
to measure ourselves against
to keep our working anger sharp

Sharpenhoe Clappers, local lore holds it was used by the Romans as a kind of larder, stuffed full of rabbits and nettles; still plenty of nettles. The lower slopes are wooded, then there is a band of grass before a cathedral of trees on top. It can be cold and lonely up there, always windy, it can be beautifully private – sit in a tree on the northern edge of the crown, ears full of that wind and watch Bedfordshire roll away before you. Sharpenhoe was the first hill I climbed with my dad, when I was about 7 or 8 years old. We always climbed the back of the hill, the carpark on the other side was for tourists and dog-walkers.
Masefield
Frost