If you ever have an idea for a photo project and wonder how many photographs you should take. Listen to your friends, think it through and don’t show off by just picking a big number like 300 out of thin air.
The consequences could that on a wet miserable day in late November you might find yourself walking around a park you don’t want to be in. In a field up to your ankles in mud and cow muck. Getting rained on!
Today was possibly the least enjoyable walk I have ever had around ‘the park’ and I vowed never to return once this year-long project to photograph Temple Newsam near Leeds is complete. I took lots of photographs with my phone and this is one of the best and it’s terrible. It does give an impression of the day and my mood on reaching home!
Don’t mind me it’s a November/December thing. I also discovered today that there are planning applications being discussed for a permanent traveller site and hundreds of houses in the green belt land adjoining the park near to Colton and Bullerthorpe Lane. Infact near to where this photograph was taken.
When I started this project my aim was just to make a photographic record of my year visiting my favourite Leeds Park. I have tried not to express too many opinions about the city councils running of Temple Newsam or Leeds in general. That is not what this is supposed to be about.
I have to be honest and say though that further development on the Bullerthorpe Lane side of ‘the park’ saddens me. This is a beautiful area of open countryside that enhances Temple Newsam. There is a network of paths and trails which are a wonderful resource for the city that could be developed making the park outstanding instead of another city park hemmed in on all sides.
The city council though are not however much I wish they were a philanthropic millionaire Victorian businessman/woman who wants to create wonderful open spaces for future generations. They provide services, manage shrinking budgets and are no doubt under pressure from the private sector and government to sell, sell, sell and build, build, build. When did a city last create a park the size of those we have. I may be wrong but if it wasn’t for the Victorians we wouldn’t have a park of any significance in Leeds.
This is a country that sells school playing fields and prime farmland to build houses on frequently. In my lifetime I have seen the countryside around Temple Newsam shrink to a point where the park is nearly surrounded by the city. I suppose it will continue if not this year then five or ten years down the line.
