Badbury Rings "not a winter sports venue" warns Trust (From Bournemouth Echo)
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Badbury Rings "not a winter sports venue" warns Trust
9:00am Wednesday 23rd January 2013 in News
Badbury Rings "not a winter sports venue" warns Trust
HARDY snow fans took their sledges to Badbury Rings at the weekend, despite signs asking them not to.
The Iron Age fort, near Wimborne, proved a hit for a around 500 people with toboggans and sledges following inches of snow falling across the county.
The National Trust had placed signs around the area advising people not to use the site as a 'winter sports venue' with their sledges, skis and snowboards on the grass - but the signs were ignored, with one sledger scrawling "get a life" on them.
David Roberts, General Manager at the Kingston Lacy Estate, says the ban on sledging is because of the measures that the National Trust have put into place to preserve the land.
He said: “It is a very important archaeological site.
“We have had to cover some of the areas with mesh, which is under the grass, held in place with pegs. Over time, the grass has grown over them and so they cannot be seen so well.
“It is fine to walk on, as you can't feel them under foot, but a toboggan is a completely different type of thing, as it can catch on the pegs.
“Two years ago, we had a father and son, who went on their toboggan on Badbury Rings, and the boy came off and badly gashed his thigh on one of the pegs.
“If people choose to use their toboggans on the land, we can't stop them, but we would strongly advise them not to.”
Ian Kirk, 53, from Broadstone took these pictures.
He said: “I was at Badbury Rings on Monday, where I spoke to a National Trust ranger, who said there was about 500 people sledging on the ground.
“It also seems that there was a trail of blood left in the snow, where someone had obviously hurt themselves.
“Some people had been quite obnoxious when they had seen the signs and had written things on them, including 'Get a life' and much worse.
“Where the snow had worn down, where people had been on it, you could see the stakes and the pegs.
“What I find funny is that the signs were up, to tell people not to sledge on it, and yet they still were in their hundreds.”
Comments(8)
Holes Bay Curve
says...
9:53am Wed 23 Jan 13
http://www.bournemou
thecho.co.uk/news/di
stricts/eastdorset/8
754552.Watch_out_for
_hidden_dangers__war
n_parents_of_boy_inj
ured_while_sledging/
The National Trust have a duty to protect our countryside that they are charged to look after AND to protect the NT from the claim/claim culture.
mmmmmmm
says...
11:09am Wed 23 Jan 13
It was originally bare chalk,and looks rubbish with grass on,it would be cheaper and better to have it back to chalk again.
l'anglais
says...
11:11am Wed 23 Jan 13
That will deter people coming in.
The NT do so in car parks all over the Purbecks, can't see the difference here.
mary gathard
says...
11:58am Wed 23 Jan 13
Professor Zaroff
says...
12:35pm Wed 23 Jan 13
mary gathard wrote:Read the article.
i used to go up to badbury rings in 1950s it didnt do any harm then why should it do harm live and let live
Phixer
says...
1:34pm Wed 23 Jan 13
polblagger wrote:Calm down dearies, its only grass!!
Professor Zaroff wrote:Seconded, fool.
mary gathard wrote:Read the article.
i used to go up to badbury rings in 1950s it didnt do any harm then why should it do harm live and let live
guisselle
says...
2:10pm Wed 23 Jan 13
ski- slope here!
polblagger says...
9:51am Wed 23 Jan 13
What was really required was a sign explaining the accident risks.
Unfortunately I suspect the National Trust didn't put this detail down, so as not to encourage bogus law suits for fake or unrelated injuries.
This country is a disgrace.