Project 9: Change Second Attempt.

When I first attempted this project a while ago now my tutor wasn't convinced by my approach and recommended that I have another think on it and try and use it to build on my work for my Major Project in some way. Because my Major Project is kind of evolving into almost a study of change in my home village it seems a sensible step to take so below I've produced some images where this idea was in my mind.


To start with I thought about looking at the same scene during the day and then at night to see how the change effected it, to be honest this is a similar idea to what I originally set out to do looking at seasonal change in a landscape but in this case I've focused it on the same lines as my Major Project to make it more relevant

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What you see above are two near exactly the same view of one of the local pubs, the day view seems quiet dull and uninteresting in the fact you could almost believe the place has been abandoned, while the night view by the simple act of turning the lights on makes the place seem much more alive and functional. In truth when I first considered this idea I'd imagine that come the night view there'd by far more a presents of people being there's only two pubs in the village and they still make up a focal point of the community but I was a little surprised to find this view isn't strictly correct. Time and again you hear about how drinking pubs are slowly dying out with cheap booze available everywhere and more and more people choosing to stay at home and do there drinking. I never imagine this was true here but as you can see in the night view although the place seems more alive at the same time it looks completely deserted. It's worrying but like the local farming as I've already seen diversification is the only way to survive, in this example at least the pub is slowly becoming more reliant on the food it serves and on the bed and breakfast it offers while also using it's prime location in the heart of the village to it's advantage in gaining passing trade. Will both pubs survive in the long term? I highly doubt it but only time will tell.


Another example of change in the village that is possible more appropriate to look at is one I'm covering more closely in my Major Project in which farm land is being given over to the National Forest Project (see relevant Major Project section for more detail), this is possibly the biggest change facing the area today so it makes it a obvious choice to look at.

What you see here is a fairly familiar view to anyone from the area in that what was prime farmland 5-10 years ago has fallen out of use and now past into the hands of the National Forest Scheme. I don't want to repeat myself as I've already gone over this point in my Major Project section but what I haven't look at is whether I agree its the right thing to do. This area shown was once farmed by my Grandad and Dad as a child but over time it passed on to other local farmer and became less and less used. If left to itself it'd just end up as a mass of scrub land of no use to anyone so in this case the scheme can be seen as a rescue to land that otherwise would go to waste. Its also good because it encourages wildlife back into areas where modern farming methods had driven it away but I'm still left with the feeling that with a growing population throughout the country losing valuable farmland that isn't going to be available for use in a hurry isn't maybe the best idea. I think at this time its the best option but I fear in the long run we might regret not helping the farmers financially, to carry on might have been a better course then planting trees.