Blossom IIII - Billesley II
'Deep love of the natural world is at the root of all environmentalism,' affirmed Paul Kingsnorth, recently in the BBC Radio 4, Start the Week interview with Wendell Berry and Kate Raworth. It was a much welcomed edifying discussion for anyone who values nature and sits outside the circle of academic environmentalism. Indeed, a great relief to hear gross domestic product (GDP) declared outmoded as a measure of economic success and heartening to hear Wendell Berry’s idea of community as ‘the common wealth of all the life that a place contains.’ Activism and the considered application of theory, separating the general from the particular, were also usefully discussed but at the close of the discussion - thoughts returned to my own neighbourhood, Billesley.
Billesley is the site of one of the earliest council estates to be built after the First World War. In 1919 the Birmingham City Council bought Billesley Farm and its surrounding fields and by 1931 some 3500 council houses had been built. The estate is now a mix of private owner occupied, council and privately rented properties, and is fortunately still surrounded by green spaces i.e. Chinn Brook Meadows, The Dingles, Trittiford Mill Park, Swanshurst Park and Billesley Common. The green spaces and sidewalks are largely managed by the City Council and have undergone their own transformation. Many areas have become less formal and labour intensive, and a diminishing number of trees line the pavements, but it’s the gardens of houses on the estate that have undergone wide scale destruction. Lacking the status of a conservation area, many front and back gardens that were once cared for have been reduced by unregulated building extensions for personal economic gain, and it’s not uncommon to see both front and back gardens entirely paved/concreted.
It’s hard to fathom where the connection with nature was lost, no plethora of reason seems adequate compared to Wendell Berry’s overarching view that, ‘we are living from nature in an economy that doesn’t value nature whatsoever.’ Becoming the machine has robbed many of their senses and the pleasure of being a part of nature. In these images, I’ve tried to demonstrate the harmony and sublime nature of trees, the three most prominent stand in the street where I live. Trees are a treasure of biodiversity in any setting but in an urban housing estate like Billesley they are critical to preserving life in a community that’s becoming increasingly bereft.
