THREAD

What the f**k is wrong with people!

In late summer last year we moved to the village of Gilsland, a small community straddling the counties of Northumberland and Cumbria. The area is steeped in history,

Romans were based here at the fort of Birdoswald, Bronze Age artefacts have been found, and the potential of Iron Age boundaries, but it’s something more mysterious that’s the cause of these tweets.

The Irthing Gorge cuts the county lines, a semi-ancient woodland, full of gnarly trees, lichens and ferns, it’s been our regular walk over the last few months. Hidden in this deeply cut valley is the Popping Stone.

The Popping Stone is thought to have been in use since the Bronze Age, a place of courtship, marriage proposals, immortalised by Sir Walter Scott’s proposal to Charlotte Carpenter in 1797.

A curiosity, a piece of intrigue in a beautiful woodland glade. A place to sit and watch, as many of have done before over hundreds of years. That was until this week.

The land has recently been parcelled up and sold. Sometime over the last week the new owners, have decided to drive a digger down to the Popping Stone and remove it from its place, ‘to gain access to the woodland’ as I’ve been told today.

I despair.