Eynsham in flood

I’ve decided that the entire English landscape has become one carefully engineered piece of dirt. From immaculately manicured public open spaces in London (parks and gardens make up 35% of the urban landmass, allegedly more than any other capital city in Europe) to pretty pieces of remnant vegetation and cultivated hedgerows designed to keep cows and cars carefully separated in the most aesthetically pleasing way possible.

Now I learn that even England’s wide green fields have a secondary purpose – they’re all very deliberate floodplains, designed to keep excess water out of the cities during the rainy season. Many of these ‘water meadows’ date to the 15th century, when lowlands would be deliberately flooded in early spring to ensure abundant vegetation once the waters receded.

This winter, those ancient meadows have been flooded for weeks at a time. As the land is so flat, entire areas are only covered to a depth of about 6 inches, but it looks damned impressive when the pretty little river Cherwell, shallow enough for punting and only about 5 metres across, suddenly swells to twice its depth and hundreds of metres across…

If only they could plan their cityscapes with the same skill, functionality and eye for beauty … sigh!

(PS I nicked this photo from Wikipedia - as it's in open cyberspace, I presume that's okay - if it's yours and that's not okay, please let me know!)