Banburyshire Rambles Photo-Journal

This green lane is a somewhat less wholesome mirror of Mosseycorner Lane south-east of here. The location of Brackley Sewage Works near the bottom of the lane also detracts from the country scene somewhat.

This lane is certainly popular with cyclists. A few have passed in the short time I have been walking along here. Given the graffiti on the empty bridge parapets of the disused Banbury to Verney Junction Branch and Great Central lines, which cross the lane near the bottom, it's also an area where the local youth have turned the desolation of the urban fringe into an informal adventure playground.

The panorama below shows the view east along the Great Ouse valley, beginning at Grovehill Farm on the left (where HS2, shortly after the end of the Westbury Viaduct, will disappear behind the farmhouse on an embankment), and then crossing the valley floor until it meets the tree-lined route of the Great Central Railway.

It is the intrusion of new development into the urban fringe that will have the greatest impact on the use of this area for recreation. As Brackley spills out along the Ouse valley, hemmed in by the noise intrusion of the A43 trunk road, the relatively quiet space provided by sites such as this increases their importance. HS2 will extend the level of urban intrusion in a broad band to the east of Brackley, making it progressively harder to escape into the tranquillity of the countryside.