Field fire....

[AJB Temple]

Locals reporting a field on fire near to one of our fairly elderly nearish neighbours, about 4 fields away (and across a road). Believed to be arson according to Next Door gossip. Concerning, especially as there are two stables of horses very close by. Fire engines in attendance, but reported they have run out of water. We can't see smoke, but we can smell it. Hard to understand why people do this - if indeed it is deliberate. Grassland is tinder dry.

 

[duke]

Nutters everywhere.

 

[Cabinetman]

Or even the sun through a broken bottle base, or lightning? Knew someone who didn’t quite have a sofa on fire from sunlight through bulls eye glass in the window.

 

[AJB Temple]

Could be Ian. But there were two separate simultaneous fires close to each other, the press reporting a large fire at a field near Wagon Lane near the private airstrip, and a separate fire in a nearby agricultural building. Locals suspect targeted. Fire Brigade (who put reports out on what they did and which vehicles attended) have not expressed a cause.

 

[Doug]

We went to an open garden the other weekend it was a large impressive place which at some time in the past had had a Japanese tearoom with matching garden, that was until a glass globe garden ornament had focused the suns rays onto the tearoom.
According to the owner of the place it all went up in minutes, rather frightening that something sold as an ornament could produce such devastating results, just goes to show.

 

[AJB Temple]

I remember being taught this as a little kid: using a magnifying glass to burn holes in paper. Seemed harmless at the time. Local finger pointing in predictable directions is going on. Best thing would be some rain. It's another blazing blue sky day again today.

 

[AndyP]

Field next door recently sold. New owners are having problems with planning permission for a house. Not seen them for months. Grass now dry and overgrown and an obvious fire risk. If it did catch my barn and workshop would be toast. Town hall are now involved in getting something done. I’ve just taken photos of barn and workshop contents just in case.

 

[AJB Temple]

I was brought up in farming and my grandfather used to burn the stubble fields after harvest, then plough. I can't recall it ever being a problem, though no doubt accidents happened. You rarely see this nowadays as everyone is into direct drilling which is better for the soil.

 

[RogerS]

Stubble burning was effectively banned in the United Kingdom in 1993 under The Crop Residues (Burning) Regulations 1993 due to safety, smoke nuisance, and environmental concerns. It used to provide an exhilarating gliding experience if not a tad scary.

 

[RogerS]

Field next door recently sold. New owners are having problems with planning permission for a house. Not seen them for months. Grass now dry and overgrown and an obvious fire risk. If it did catch my barn and workshop would be toast. Town hall are now involved in getting something done. I’ve just taken photos of barn and workshop contents just in case.

Could you not pop over the fence and create a firebreak ?

 

[Eric the Viking]

I have a 22" WW2 searchlight mirror, which belonged to my father. He used it for microwave experiments and demonstrations.

If you use it with sunshine in this weather it won't muck about with smouldering - a 2x4 will instantly burst into flame, as soon as it reaches the focal point (8", helpfully sandblasted onto the rim with a stencil in 1944).

Obviously I am very careful where I store it.

 

[SamQ aka Ah! Q!]

When I'm lived in north Ulster, you could look across Lough Foyle and see a sizeable part of the Innishowen Penninsula wreathed in smoke as the heather (and gorse) was "burned back - to enrich de land".
Ecological nonsense. Carbon pollution, wildlife incineration and habitat destruction in the name of "traditional management". Mismanagement more like.
No, there were no grouse (worth talking about) up there, but "oor grandas did hit so weer doin' hit too!".
Ejits.

 

[AJB Temple]

I agree actually. But this was a long time ago and before complex unploughed drilling became a thing, field debris was a nuisance and hindered turning the soil (which was a thing then). My grandfather was back at the end of the horse pair ploughing generation (He was in WWI), then moved to tractors - which were very small compared to today. Unfair to call them Ejits Sam as time rolls on and knowledge grows.

Its intersting that post harvest in our area, the largely clay fields are too dry to be drilled and harrowing results in surface skates. Orchard crops are under sized and hedgerow berries are ripe but mostly underdeveloped (unusable). In our kitchen garden though we are getting huge crops of aubergines, tomatoes, chillis, peppers and cucumbers (including globe varieties).

 

[SamQ aka Ah! Q!]

But this was a long time ago and before complex unploughed drilling became a thing, field debris was a nuisance and hindered turning the soil (which was a thing then).

That may have been the case with you. Our rich alluvial, reclaimed, soil ploughed easily, followed by harrowing. I grew up driving various Masseys and even a wee grey T.V.O. Fergy.
Incidentally, I saw a seed fiddle being used as late as 1987/1990,just outside Rostrevor.
Sounds like fine clay soil where your family was. It doesn't turn and break as loams or alluvials will, it slices!
As to judging folks as "ejits", I grew up where nothing was questioned, no-one dared anything different; suggesting alternatives met with frowns and shakes of the head. Rigid traditionalists. Ejits.

 

[SamQ aka Ah! Q!]

field debris was a nuisance

Just a thought: do you mean "stubble"?

 

[fuse]

There was a snippet on the news this week with a 12 yr old caught on camera setting a scrub fire.Police let it slide.

 

[Accipiter]

When I'm lived in north Ulster, you could look across Lough Foyle and see a sizeable part of the Innishowen Penninsula wreathed in smoke as the heather (and gorse) was "burned back - to enrich de land".
Ecological nonsense. Carbon pollution, wildlife incineration and habitat destruction in the name of "traditional management". Mismanagement more like.
No, there were no grouse (worth talking about) up there, but "oor grandas did hit so weer doin' hit too!".
Ejits.

Same/similar would happen when we lived up on the moors outside of Slaithwaite and overlooking Marsden: so called controlled moorland/heather burning... by the gamekeepers for the grouse... was quite scary watching the fire spreading over the moor and being controlled with boards (?) on 'broom handle' type timber... to beat it out! More so at night time. That was back in 1981~86...

Some recent moor fires (2023/24) up there almost took out a friends smallholding...

 

[Accipiter]

There was a snippet on the news this week with a 12 yr old caught on camera setting a scrub fire.Police let it slide.

Hope he was warned of the error of his ways and not just told "don't do it again"?

 

[SamQ aka Ah! Q!]

Same/similar would happen when we lived up on the moors outside of Slaithwaite and overlooking Marsden: so called controlled moorland/heather burning... by the gamekeepers for the grouse... was quite scary watching the fire spreading over the moor and being controlled with boards (?) on 'broom handle' type timber... to beat it out! More so at night time. That was back in 1981~86...

Some recent moor fires (2023/24) up there almost took out a friends smallholding...

Yes, Frank. The wholly artificial practice of "maintaining a grouse moor" is, to some extent, a more controlled, less dangerous, situation than the out-of-control fires across two continents recently. But, and it is a massive "but", the concept behind it is, as I said, wholly artificial and utterly contrary to the Laws of Nature. It's to.keep going a practice originating in the Middle Ages or even, The Dark Ages: hunting for "sport"(??) Really? Every shot kills a bird instantly, cleanly? The "sportsmen" (and women) never maim or wound a bird so that it suffers a lingering death? "Sport" my arris.

 

[Accipiter]

Yes, Frank. The wholly artificial practice of "maintaining a grouse moor" is, to some extent, a more controlled, less dangerous, situation than the out-of-control fires across two continents recently. But, and it is a massive "but", the concept behind it is, as I said, wholly artificial and utterly contrary to the Laws of Nature. It's to.keep going a practice originating in the Middle Ages or even, The Dark Ages: hunting for "sport"(??) Really? Every shot kills a bird instantly, cleanly? The "sportsmen" (and women) never maim or wound a bird so that it suffers a lingering death? "Sport" my arris.

Yep... the reason I was given for 'burning back the heather' was for new growth for the young grouse... and stopping the old grown heather from being too coarse for them - so it had to be burned back. I didn't agree with it but wasn't in a position to say or make any difference...

The only "sport" I'm aware of is Falconry and hunting with hawks or falcons.... your hawk either catches the prey or it doesn't... but that's a different topic best not going into.