....this afternoon I went on an expedition to find teh source of the Ray, OK it wasn't Burton and Speke, but good fun.
Thinking about what I posted before, I assumed the Ray started at the bottom of Ladder Lane, by the side of Burderop Wood, but thinking about it, I'd never bothered finding the actual source.
So I traced it back alomg the edge of Burderop Wood, which was rather fine,
with the late winter sunshine glinting through the still denuded oak, ash stands and hazel coppice. Plenty of moss covered sarsens made the delving in nettle and briar interesting and the overhead mewing of buzzard made for excellent company.
I traced it back to the M4...which somewhat spoilt my reverie. Knowing the path on the other side pretty well, I couldn't picture a stream there, but going back around by the golf course and looking, I found teh stream coming under the M4 and flowing by Nightingale Farm.
Here it is joined by a number of drainage ditches, coming off the golf course, which complicate the picture, but a bit more delving in undergrowth produced the find of a spring....neatly surrounded by small lumps of sarsen, which ws providing the flowing water into the stream.
Ace
Tomorrow the source of the Cole.
