Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Travel / Places to Visit => Topic started by: Eric Locke on June 18, 2009, 10:31:11 PM
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I often feel that most of us sometimes forget to visit our own natural reserves and protected areas in favour of the more "well known gardens"
One such reserve near to my home are the Aston Clinton Ragpits which is managed by the Berks Bucks and Oxfordshire Naturalist trust.
This small reserve is home to some 30,000 + orchids and is a wonderfull place to visit at this time of year.
Annual count of the fragrant orchid (Gymnadenia conopsea) usually passes 14,000 with also large numbers of Pyramid orchids (Anacamptis Pyramidalis) Common spotted orchid (Dactylorhiza Fuchsii) and common Twayblade (Listera Ovata ) .Also to be found are Helleborines and butterfly orchids and sometimes Bee orchids too.
This reserve also is home to many chalk loving flowers ,some of which are rare and also wild growing Daphne Mezereum . Also to be found are many insects , butterflies , reptiles and not forgetting the huge Roman Snales.
Eric
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A Few More
Eric
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Another Batch.
Eric
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And More ;)
Eric
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Wow, this is a marvelous place, Eric. 8) And it looks like this time of year it is at a real peak of orchid interest..... really super!
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Wonderful stuff Eric !! :o
What an exceptional place !!
Thanks for showing !
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Another new place for me to sample. Thank you Eric.
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Question...... what is a ragpit? I can find references in google to various ragpits, but no explanation of what exactly they are? I unfortunately can't read enough of that initial picture to see whether that explains it or not? I think it says something about chalk extraction, so is that the definition of a ragpit? I've checked a couple of online dictionaries and it doesn't exist in there either?
Thanks for any information. Just seems such a strange name. :-\
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Paul,
Found this it seems like they were for extracting chalk.
Aston Clinton Ragpits visitor information
A small but varied area of old pits at the foot of the Chiltern escarpment, once worked for superior quality chalk. Since the working ceased the site has been colonised by a rich variety of wild flowers, shrubs and animal life. Nine species of orchid flowering between May and July and over 30 species of butterfly have been recorded here.
Cheers
Mick
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Mick,
So I take it that ragpits is not a term in common usage over there then?
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Ragpits is not a term I'd heard before, Paul..... but then I'm in Scotland where chalk pits of any kind are not exactly common. Looking as hard as I can at the notice at the start, it seems to say that the term "rag" was a (local?) one in use for chalk pit extraction for the building trade..... ??? Not that I'm much the wiser for that! We'll need an "olde English personne " to explain, I think! ;)
Wonderful what we learn here, isn't it? 8)
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I think the original definition of the word 'rag' is probably lost in time. In some areas of England chalk rock is known as 'rag' but yet a particular kind of stone quarried in Kent is known as 'ragstone' but this is a sandstone derived rock. I haven't been able to find the word 'rag' in any of the Old English dictionaries but I have read elsewhere that 'rag' in Old English means rugged. Ragge is sometimes seen in Middle English and sometimes means rugged. Old Norse has the word 'rogg' (I can't do the twiddly bits!) which can mean tuft or shagginess and possibly could mean 'litchen'. Obviously the original meaning has a lead to modern english stone of various types.
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Thank you, olde Englishe personne! ;D ;)
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That's OK. I feel old today too, bloody cats are getting me down.
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That's OK. I feel old today too, bloody cats are getting me down.
Oh dear, yes, I gather that from your post in the Iris section. Very annoying indeed: I can offer to lend you Molly the lodging Westie for a couple of days.... she is very good at what she does............ ::)
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Thanks, but I'd prefer a rifle :o
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It is wonderfull that these "man made" sites produce such great sites for our native wildlife and the one that always comes to mind are the dissused railways.
I did forget to include a photo of the common twayblade - so here it is . :-[ ,although rather hidden in the surrounding grass.
Also , from a nearby site, is a photo of the very small and hard to find Musk orchid.
This orchid is only known in two sites in Buckinghamshire, but as it"s so small and un -spectacular, I guess many sites are yet to be found.
Eric
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Eric thanks for the pics I love to see orchids in the wild and You seemed to have a great day.
Also nice to get the meaning of Ragpits.
I can say that there does not seem to be any obvious modern use in the Swedish language of things like rögg. Rök means smoke and there have been some changes between Danish and Swedish regarding g and k but that word does not seem to fit well in these sentences. Maybe there is some in the other Nordic languages?
Thanks for a great time
Joakim
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Glad you enjoyed these Joakim.
This small reserve is a real treasure that is visited by so few ,which is great for the orchids and the rest of the wildlife here. 8)
Eric
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Eric,
Thank you for sharing your trip and the treasures growing there.
Kristl
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I did forget to include a photo of the common twayblade - so here it is . :-[ ,although rather hidden in the surrounding grass.
It seems there is a similarity between the English ' twayblade ' and the German naming ' Zweiblatt ' (= two leaves) for this plant - always something new to note!
Gerd
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Gerd.
This species of Twayblade (Listera Ovata) would be the same as you have in Germany, as the overall geographical area of this species is very large. This species covers almost the entire temperate zone of Eurasia.
It grows in thousands in this reserve and as far as I am aware is not even counted.
Eric
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Eric and Gerd the English name sounds very "Nordic or maybe Norse" and in Swedish it is "tvåblad" meaning "two leaves". The pronunciation is not that far from the English (or vice verse) ::).
Eric I agree that it is good for orchids not to have two many visitors but if too few the place can become "developed" since it is not used "anyway". Folks might not care that much either if thy during there 40 years living there never visited so there is a balance not always easy to maintain. I hope this "development" will never happen to this ragpit but just wanted to point out a danger with too anonymous places.
Thanks again
Joakim
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Joakim ,this 3ha (7.5 acres) reserve is either owned or managed (not sure which :-[ ) by the local Wildlife trust .
It has a volunteer warden who keeps a watch on the site.
It is grazed from Autumn to Early Spring and work parties help to remove scrub to keep it from being overgrown and also other management tasks.
So hopefully this wonderfull place is safe for many years to come. :)
Eric
Eric and Gerd the English name sounds very "Nordic or maybe Norse" and in Swedish it is "tvåblad" meaning "two leaves". The pronunciation is not that far from the English (or vice verse) ::).
Eric I agree that it is good for orchids not to have two many visitors but if too few the place can become "developed" since it is not used "anyway". Folks might not care that much either if thy during there 40 years living there never visited so there is a balance not always easy to maintain. I hope this "development" will never happen to this ragpit but just wanted to point out a danger with too anonymous places.
Thanks again
Joakim
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Eric, what a place with such beautiful orchids growing freely - it is amazing too how they can reappear after years once places are left to the wild - thanks for showing such a magical spot.
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nice spot, good to know its being maintained :)
i wonder if 'rag' could have some original relation to 'rock'? which is surely not too far from rugged etc...
hmm--dictionary.com turned up this under rag:
verb (used with object), ragged, rag⋅ging. to break up (lumps of ore) for sorting.
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Origin:
1870–75; orig. uncert.