Stile 2

I have always viewed the stile as a humble, but interesting, structure; a basic means for the walker to pass over a barrier from one place to another. I had no idea that they had become so complicated!

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a STILE as:
an arrangement of steps allowing people, but not animals, to climb over a fence or wall

...which, in it's simplest form, just about sums it up.

In my ignorance, I imagined that most stiles were built on the spot, either by the landowner or by a group/organisation such as BTCV, National Trust or the National Park Ranger Service. (In fact, my eldest son spent his Y10 work experience week with BTCV, constructing a kissing gate stile on a path by the Trent - and jolly hard work he said it was too). What I didn't know was that stiles can now also be bought 'off the peg' and that all constructions are meant to conform to a new British Standard (the penalty for non conformity being prosecution of the landowner by the Highways Agency).

I wonder if this one conforms!

Erm... :)

For whom the bell doth toll

The golf course at Breedon on the Hill is neatly bisected by a public footpath. Of course, it's not uncommon to have footpaths running through, round or alongside golf courses (I can think of three more examples without even trying), but it's always struck me as a rather dicey business; walking in the vicinity of small, hard balls, generally travelling at high velocity. Those actually playing the game, have the distinct advantage of knowing the whereabouts of the other players before and behind them on the course; whereas the unsuspecting walker drops into the middle of the playing field without warning.

And that, we think, is where this comes in:

You certainly wouldn't describe it as pretty or ornate - functional might be the more appropriate adjective - but this bell hangs alongside the end of the line of trees, just where the footpath emerges to run downhill across the course. It seems a very sensible precaution to have a warning bell for the emerging walker as, at this point, the tee is out of sight over the brow of the hill and the path heads straight across the fairway.

Just one problem; we weren't walking downhill!

It seemed a bit late to bother ringing the warning bell after we'd risked life and limb to reach the sanctuary of the tree line.