Sandown Lands go back to agriculture - ploughing begins this weekend - dog walkers lose a regular exercise spot

This weekend the southern field of the Sandown Lands has been ploughed and dung has been delivered to the other two fields in preparation for turning the soil over there too. 

One of our regular readers contacted us, he was quite surprised to see the tractors and said he thought a lot of people that walk their dogs on the fields would be upset to see the activity too. 

For some years now dog walkers have made use of all the fields during the period they have lain fallow and for some of them this may indeed come as a shock. Perhaps a couple of signs indicating what was going to happen may have been appropriate but now, instead of costing the Common Good money with a yearly cut the fields will at least be bringing in some revenue. 

In this article here posted around this time last year the Gurn wrote about the forthcoming prospect of an agricultural lease for Sandown. Finally it seems one has been agreed. That previous article was not without an hint of irony though as many of the problems associated with Sandown in the past stem from a previous agricultural lease, one or two Gurnites posted  comments on that article. 

Picture below, Larger image here (three tankers just visible in the Firth) and more pictures here .