Farm Graveyard, Colyford, Devon

This is a couple of miles or so up the road from where I live and was a great place for taking photos of delightful rural rust and abandoned farm machinery. Some machinery was obviously still in use, moved around or disappeared and subsequently replaced with others now and then, but my favourites are the old things that had been left to decay into the undergrowth.

It's also a fabulous area for blackberry picking...can't beat apple and blackberry pies with lashings of steaming hot custard for delicious autumn puds!

 

Most of the photos were taken on the first visit, on the kind of summer day that's perfect for 35mm photography; partially cloudy and damp, which make the colours zing. The first photo of the derelict tractor is one of my all time favourites.

 

At the entrance to the field is a huge pile of bricks beneath the brambles and other vegetation, where some pieces of machinery have been left, along with old bales of hay.

Amongst the bricks I spotted the delightful remains of a 1970's style wrought iron, glass-topped table. That and the bricks made me wonder if a house had been demolished here some time ago.

On a later visit, some of the undergrowth had been cut back to reveal a circular saw with a very rusty tank nearby.
 

Another later addition, below, was this trailer. Although only there within a short time since a previous visit, it looks as though it was abandoned years ago.

And an old muck spreader, below.

I had another look whilst walking past some time later, and it's been changed quite drastically. Many of the trees between the field and the main road have been cut down, and most of the machinery has been removed. All except for the wonderful old tractor and the horsebox.

I haven't been there for a few years now but I read in the local newspaper that planning permission had been sought for building on, which is a shame and a very sad fact today when we are losing farmland and other green-belt havens at an alarming rate in Britain.

And finally, another photo of the lovely old horse box surrounded by huge teasels and other wild flowers. Something to cherish as I have great memories of some happy times spent here - and also a reminder for a delightful place that's no longer there in this rapidly changing world.

EDIT: A brief update, which I'm writing on July 10th 2022, to say that the planning permission for building was successfully opposed. However, there's now another plan being forwarded by a different building company. It doesn't entail this field but it does surround it, using up a lot of the green wedge up to the Wetlands Nature Reserve. The plans will be on view this tuesday, which I hope to be going to. Fingers crossed we can oppose it! :)