By John Cole

The Compost Heap

So far we have been looking at things geographically. We can just as well do so historically - looking at how things have evolved and changed over the years.

In suburban areas and large modern council estates the history is short and easily told. In large towns and cities it can be very complicated indeed.

The simplest story to tell is perhaps that of the larger modern village - more or less the Commuter Village as caricatured in 'do you know your neighbourhood?'.

It is hard to find a metaphor for what has been happening in larger villages over the last 100 years or so. Perhaps the nearest is to compare it with a compost heap!

In a compost heap layers and layers of rubbish are piled on; they get hot: they rot down; and eventually they merge to make some very fertile soil.

Admittedly in many villages the ‘heat’ can get quite fierce between different sections of the community - and the rotting down can take quite some time! It is also true that - as with a compost heap - if too much new material is piled on too suddenly (as when a huge new housing estate is built on the edge of a small village), the process doesn’t work at all.