A while back, I was asked by Jo Cartmell, @watervole and @nearbywild on Twitter, to think about creating a new word instead of ‘brownfield’ when referring to abandoned industrial or waste land after development. As she rightly points out, some of these places can be buzzing with the most amazing wildlife, often small and beyond of our consciousness at first, due to the exquisite evolutionary process of primary succession.

I know such sites, and feel the pain of their making, the joy of their gradual strive to return to the floloca. I know all too well,  I’m afraid, of the economic and political pressures for their redevelopment. But we ought to be patient.

I thought of ‘healing’ & ‘land’. Old Eng hælan to cure; save; make whole, sound and well.

I also considered the Welsh for enclosure or ‘church’ being llan, perhaps for extra spiritual meaning, & therefore Praximund ~ sacred Fluministic protection for those most rich or rare in life. Gwella means to heal.

So, in the end, I suggested Helanland or Llangwella.

This was Jo’s response. “I love Llangwella as it sounds like landweller.”

So there it is. Llangwella.

Llangwellas (pl).

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