A pretty view of part of the Via Gellia, taken about 1929.
The writer J.B. Firth, however, was not easy to please and
he expressed some disappointment at "this much praised
highway. Lovely it undoubtedly is, for it lies in a deep
ravine, whose limestone sides rise precipitously to a great
height and are clad with trees to the very top. Such a
road cannot fail to please and the dense mass of varying
greens gives perpetual delight to the eye. But when that
is said one has said all. The ravine keeps an almost constant
width and never discloses its full delights. ... The pedestrian
is always being tantalised with the hope that at the next
turn of the road there will be a superb prospect, but the
prospect never comes"[1].
In 1929 all was not well in the Via Gellia and a complaint
was made at a meeting of Bonsall Urban District Council regarding
the state of some of the walls and fences. They were in such
a bad state that pedestrians were liable to fall into the
brook at the roadside. The Council decided to draw the
attention of the owners of the nearby mill, E. H. Bailey
Ltd., to the matter[2]. |
