Don't Wait for the Gate Weight!

Keeping things in. Keeping things out. Gates are intriguing places. Even putting aside the metaphysical notions of rites of passage the ingenuity used in how to make the materials and construction work to fulfil the purpose of containment and exclusion is always worth a look. The shape, size and substance of the gate itself, latches and catches, hinges and swing, posts and stays, ground clearance and height. If all goes well it’s a quick opening snick, an oiled push/pull and a satisfying ker-plunk as you re-latch it and you’re through and on your way without a second thought.

Therein lies the problem. The very popular path from Cockermouth town runs through fields up the ridge of Watch Hill to the edge of Setmurthy forest on the brow. This afternoon, damp and quaggy underfoot, with a dull sky threatening rain I can see three lots of people ascending ahead of me and have passed a runner and dog-walker coming down. There are 3 gates dividing the pastures on the way up, stopping separate flocks of sheep from mixing and rotating into a woolly meringue of mayhem. It only needs a gate left carelessly open, - perhaps not pulled too properly, or courteously propped for Gramps who’s trailing behind with his arthritic leg, or last one through is Gemma, only six and can’t get enough momentum to shift a 5 bar, or someone gets a shoe-full of sheep-shit at the inopportune moment, or it’s more fun to cycle through if there’s an unimpeded run, or a mercy dash for the  elderly border terrier with the dicky heart, or, or, or………

Then it’s a sheep field day because it’s their defining nature to immediately investigate a gap, preferably as a flock, particularly if there’s another flock to mix with, and certainly if there is a reason for them being kept apart.

So here the farmer has sensibly put no trust into the fastening capabilities of his public and has weighted the gate with a girt great lump of hawser chain so that whatever the circumstance it will always be swinging towards closure.

Of course, that means that we’ll all have to wait for Gramps as he’ll never have the strength to push against the load on his own and little Gemma will have to make it through pretty smartly, because it gathers momentum as it goes, and with any luck Taylor, Lee and Curtis will end up with bent front wheels where they cut it too fine.
And I’ll sit carefully this evening, having learned the hard way - never wait for a weighted gate.