To Lakenheath over slumped, rodeo roads yesterday. A once familiar route from Ely through Queen Adelaide, Prickwillow, Shippea Hill and down towards Beck Row. Still a landscape of dykes, big fields, lonely farms, straight roads and sharp bends. Still an unpeopled landscape of wheat, onions and potatoes. But now it’s all sky and soil, the landmarks that once gave the road rhythm and pace have gone: the Ely Sugar Beet Factory, which at night floated like a glittering liner moored by the Ouse, lost to rationalisation; the lonely Padnal signal box with its steep external stair destroyed by fire; and the Wellingtonia (?), a true Fen erratic, at Stock Corner, felled by wind or human hand. Time for a few strategically placed wind turbines.