Day 8 - AONB

When I was a child, for two successive summers, our family went on holiday to Swanage in Dorset. Swanage is a very beautiful south coast resort with plenty to see and do. I remember attending a beach mission for a couple of afternoons, with craft activities, games, stories and great fun. I remember enjoying the splendour of Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door, and a great walk across Studland Nature Reserve. We visited The Tank Museum at Bovington and learned all about Lawrence of Arabia, and up the road we discovered all about the Tolpuddle Martyrs. We were in the heart of Thomas Hardy country, so we visited the cottage in which he was born and in which he wrote some of his novels. I remember exploring the ruins of Corfe Castle and enjoying Sunday Worship at the Congregational Church there – a place I returned to some 12 or so years later to complete a 6 week summer student pastorate!

I also discovered that it was part of the Dorset AONB.

Now I know that sounds like something stuck on the end of your Church Meeting, but this one actually stands for Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The idea for these AONB’s was created within the 1949 Countryside Act, which also formed the basis for our country’s National Parks. The first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty was awarded to the Gower Peninsula in 1956, and to Dorset in 1959. The National Association of AONB’s website states: “An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is a designated exceptional landscape whose distinctive character and natural beauty are precious enough to be safeguarded in the national interest.”

Have a look on the map that accompanies this reflection. Do you live in one or live near an AONB? You might notice that AONB’s only exist in England, Wales and Northern Ireland – sorry Scotland! (Although the argument could be made that the whole of Scotland is an AONB!)

I am very lucky that I live just 12 miles from England’s largest AONB – the Cotswolds. It is great to visit Stow-on-the-Wold, Broadway Tower, Burford, Bourton-on-the-Water and the wonderfully named villages of Upper and Lower Slaughter. And that is just the northern reaches of the Cotswolds.

You know, the more you think about it, the more you open your eyes, there is beauty all around us. I recently visited Rutland Water and was blown away by the majestic and splendour of this rural idyll. Of course, there are plenty of places that we have desecrated and destroyed and taken away their natural beauty, without a second thought for the delicate balance of nature. Too many to count.

And yet I could stand alongside the Psalmist all day long and proclaim:

“When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers — the moon and the stars you set in place — what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them? Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honour.” (Psalm 8:3-5 NLT)

That reminds me of the obligation we have to care for creation, and we should earnestly and seriously shoulder that responsibility. Do let me know where your Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (official or unofficial) is, I’d love to know.

And let’s always praise and pray to our gracious God.

Creator God,

you made the goodness of the land,

the riches of the sea

and the rhythm of the seasons;

as we thank you for your gracious providing

may we cherish and respect

this planet and its peoples,

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

(Church of England Creation Collect)

Neil Chappell