The flight of the heron

This is a poem by Robert Macfarlane:

Over two years ago I made this film about a house on the main street of our village. The house is lost behind a jungle of shrubs and trees and although we have lived in the village for 15 years we had, as a family, never noticed it! In this film the passage of time and what we see, and do not see, are explored.

The Flight of the Heron:

To play this short film please click here or on the image above

105 Henderson Street is a large, complicated house, now in a state of severe disrepair. It was built by the village baker, James Drysdale, in the late 1840s. He called it “Oak Bank” but it was subsequently renamed “Woodside”. James Drysdale was once the Provost of Bridge of Allan. It was Provost Drysdale who arranged for the ornamental Heron to be placed on top of the Nineveh Fountain. This fountain is a stone’s throw from our home. A heron often visits our pond.

When I was at Secondary School, Firrhill High, my English teacher, Mrs Macauley had us read “The Flight of the Heron”.