Yesterday (Monday 10th June 2013) I was coming back down through Dalton Crags, when at the top of the lower Crags, I met a family party consisting of Dad at the advanced age of 93, along with his daughter and son in law who again had just retired having reached the age of mid sixties. I could see the old man was wearing a red “St Dunstans” type of baseball hat and walking with a cream coloured stick. So I then presumed, the gentleman was perhaps sight impaired, and this was actually confirmed by him in later conversation.
He went on to say that he lived on the Fylde and
that his daughter now lived in Sussex, and today they were making their regular
pilgrimage to visit his late beloved wife who was buried at the nearby Dalton
Woodland Burial Ground, he also added that when she was alive they both loved
coming for walks up on the Crags and that was also why he was up here today.
He continued to tell me of how his wife, when she was alive
especially loved this area (Dalton Crags) for its sounds of birds and nature
and that the burial site was selected as the ideal spot, and that one day in
the future he himself would also be buried there, and the daughter and son in
law also said that they hoped also to be buried there when their time came.
I went on to tell him that only a couple of weeks ago, I was
having a walk through the Woodland burial site, and the woods were alive with
lots of mixed birds songs with some rarities like a pair of Chiffchaffs, Marsh
Tit, Treecreepers and Goldcrest, along with the most common of birds the
Chaffinches, Greenfinches, Blackbirds and Thrushes and choristed throughout
with the beautiful calls from local Robins and Dunnocks. Even during the hours
of darkness a Tawny Owl "hoots" whilst sentinel.
So he was delighted to hear this.
I did also tell him that there was something really special in these
woods also. In that I have seen on two
separate occasions a pair of Brown Hares which seemed to have made the woodland
their home too.
I also told him that each morning I pass through the lane locally
called “Nineteen Trees”, the lane which divides the Woodland Burial Ground from
the Dalton Crags and its woodlands, he knew where I meant. And all last week (June 4th week
2013) whilst traversing along Nineteen Trees (at approx 6.30hrs) the sun was
shining so bright, you could not help but look to your left hand side into the
Woodland Burial Site whilst on passing, and you would witness a most
spectacular sight, of a small patch of bluebells (maybe some 10-15 ft diameter
but laid further back in the woodland, perhaps some 20 to 30ft from the
boundary wall) and it seemed as though they were lit or highlighted by a “shaft
of light” being shone on them, as though a spotlight was shining from the heavens. The reason those bluebells
were at this particular spot in the first place is more than probable because
of the “shaft” of light which had been caused from circumstances on the
opposite side of the lane, eg: Here
there is wooden forestry gate with room to park two or three cars, and behind
the forestry gate, it was a clearing and forestry track which takes you further
up to the commencement of the lower Dalton Crags. Because there were no trees at this point, the early morning sun
managed to penetrate and shine right down the open channel and finished at the
point of the bluebells, making this such a spectacular sight for anyone lucky
enough to witness it. A sort of mini
effect you would perhaps get at somewhere like “Stonehenge” were light hits a
opening at a certain time of day which then allows a shaft of light to be
displayed and forwarded.
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