IF NAMES mean anything then Blakeney's Furnace Bottom was perhaps the ideal place for burning victims of the foot and mouth cull. To the north is the lane known to locals as Pig Street – one might think another prosaic link with the grim goings-on in a field remembered by many for more happy occasions, for it was once the site of the annual village fair and is still known as the Fairground Field.
But Blakeney's furnace has long gone and Pig Street's name is nothing to do with agriculture or animals. It was simply the route used to transport pig iron from the works in the valley bottom to the Viney Hill road and on to Severnside for export from the ports of Gatcombe, Purton and Lydney.
This week the smoke and stench has been vile. First rotting carcasses then burning carcasses.
It has been a very public cremation and many people have asked simply: Why?
Why so close to a busy main road? Why so close to the village? Why could the carcasses not have been taken to the site of the first pyre at nearby Old Street Farm?
The reason, say Trading Standards, is that in the case of foot and mouth the fire has to be brought to the animals.
"There will be a similar massive pyre at Berkeley where there are three or four incidents in close proximity," said a spokesman.
The Blakeney fire brought the public into direct contact with the full horror of the disease and the view-points above Furnace Bottom attracted hundreds of onlookers.
"It was like looking into the mouth of hell," said local historian Brian Johns.
Like so many others he expressed concern that the Fairground Field had been chosen.
Chairman of Awre Parish Council, Mr Glyn Bullock, said he was aware of local concern but had received no official complaints.
Meanwhile the axe hung over the entire population of Forest sheep on Tuesday.
A government epidemiologist toured the district on Monday to check the flock.
"The situation has reached a critical point. There has to be an assumption that there has been contact with affected animals but so far there have been no confirmed cases in the Forest sheep," said the spokesman.
So far around 50 sheep have been slaughtered having been found straying outside the statutory Forest.
One sheep owner, Glyn Barclay, has been fined £2,800 for allowing animals to stray outside the permitted area and more prosecutions were likely to follow, said the spokesman.
"We are still receiving quiet numerous reports about sheep outside the statutory Forest. Any found within 3kms of a confirmed outbreak will be put down," he said.