Photos by delph246 : on the map, in Google Earth (KML)

It was placed where it was taken from.

If you are refering to Parc Slip, I would agree with you that it is now a little better than 20 years ago. But experts will tell you that restoration can never be as successful as what was there before and species are fewer.The land used to be fertile and good for cattle. Now it has bad drainage and the grazing supports mainly sheep.

I agree that this opencast has been here for far too long---40 years in fact!! The miners may not be getting dust in their lungs( they work in air conditioned cabs). Instead it blows on all the surrounding communities, polluting them instead! As for the land recovering, no doubt it will in hundreds of years time, but in our life times the quality of the soil will be poor and plant growth slow. This does not replace what was there before. The way forward is to invest heavily in renewable energy, and I don't mean just wind turbines, but also tidal and solar. Fossil fuels will soon run out.

Hi delph, very interesting, thanks for the info. I will add a thread to my site using your info, and i can do some more investigating into this ! Many thanks, and if you ever want to get rid of the ammo box........i'm your man. Many thanks.

is a vast improvment on the old chapel i used to pass it regularly on the way to work