I was talking to Alan Bell at Sidmouth, and he told me that someone has written an extra verse to his song Windmills, about wind turbines. He wasn't sure how he felt about them   

The thing about wind turbines, as opposed to windmills, is that they get put up in greater numbers in windy places, and in wilder places than windmills were.

But I still think they can be pretty beautiful. And I'd have thought that it ought to be possible to design them so they wouldn't be any more dangerous to birds than windmill sails.

In days gone by when the world was much younger
We harnessed the wind for to work for mankind
Seamen built tall ships to sail on the ocean.
Landsmen built wheels the corn for to grind

Around and around and around went the big sails
Turning the shaft in the great wooden wheels.
Creaking and groaning, the millstone kept turning
Grinding to flour the corn from the fields...


For the rest of Alan Bell's song (without any wind turbine verse), here is the link to it in the DT - Windmills