Westhorpe Lane

Being Wednesday I visited Byfield of course and made my usual bee-line for the pocket park. It was again a cold, windy day with showers of rain mixed with a little gritty snow. Needless to stay I didn't hang about and all I noted was a hardy fly with a bright yellow abdomen, Phaonia tuguriorum, soaking up a brief sunny spell by loafing on a gatepost. I fled and made my way to Westhorpe Lane.

Few would take issue with me if I asserted that Westhorpe Lane is the most attractive road in Byfield. Elsewhere, dotted around the village, there are prettier houses but in Westhorpe Lane there is not a single unattractive building.

A thorpe was a secondary settlement, otherwise known as a daughter settlement, and it appears as an old Scandinavian element in places such as Mablethorpe and Kingsthorpe. (Byfield itself was, in 1086, Bifelde: 'by the forest clearing or open land'.) Westhorpe is - or was - separated from Byfield by a stream, sometimes known as the Bell Brook.

Recently villagers have attempted to enhance Westhorpe Lane by planting snowdrops and daffodils along the verges. So far they make little impact but they will probably spread.

I'm not sure that the daffodils and snowdrops planted along Westhorpe

Lane, make much of an impact. 26 February, 2020

They are pretty enough but prettier by far, in my opinion, are the verges further along the lane where Sweet Violets, Viola odorata, grow. They are of the white variety, with only the sepals showing the colour from which these plants get their name. Most of the Sweet Violets around Byfield, and indeed Daventry, are of this colour form.

Sweet Violets are present in some profusion further along the lane but their

 fragrance probably goes un-noted. 26 February, 2020

The only other wild plants in flower were some specimens of Common Whitlow-grass, Erophila verna, and numerous clumps of Red Dead Nettle, Lamium purpureum. This will provide nectar for early-flying bumblebees but will continue to flower for the next ten months or so. It is an archaeophyte, a plant which was probably introduced to Britain but has been established in the wild since 1500. I have never seen Red Deadnettle in any situation other than on disturbed, cultivated or waste land.

Red Dead Nettle. Should we regard it as a wild plant?  Opinions differ.

Westhorpe Lane, Byfield. 26 February, 2020

What else should I mention?


The village pump still exists but no longer functions as such, being purely an ornamental feature. Ornamental or not, few passers-by would be aware of its existence, concealed as it is behind a brick wall.

The village pump hides behind a brick wall along Westhorpe Lane.

26 February, 2020

And then there is Wistaria Cottage, which I may have mentioned in a previous blog. Should we regard this as a misspelling? This glorious climber was named after Caspar Wistar, professor of anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania, but Thomas Nuttall, who first described and 'christened' the plant, seems to have got the spelling wrong.

Whoops! Whether it is right or wrong is a matter of opinion.

Wrong or not, by the rules of the I.C.B.N (International Code for Botanical Nomenclature) the name Wisteria must stand - to the vexation of gardeners everywhere! A similar situation exists with another plant just coming into flower. The botanically correct spelling of Aubretia is Aubrieta - but does it really matter to anyone other than botanists?