The Empty Square is a piece of land near Ousefleet, East Riding of Yorkshire.
Though not exactly empty it is the most featureless.
on the OS maps
Last Saturday on a very cold night I went to find it.
Leaving Goole on the A161 I drove through Old Goole heading East. The road follows the river banking that exists to hold the River Ouse at bay. The land is very flat but beautiful even at night.
The fields and villages that line the road were still covered in thick, frozen snow.
You leave the A161 at Swinefleet following signs for Reedness. You pass through Reedness and Whitgift, both a collection of houses rather than villages.
After a few miles you come to Ousefleet. This is, once more, a small collection of houses with what looks like an old church hall. Next to the hall is a sharp turn right down Narrow Lane.
On Saturday thick ice covered Narrow Lane so I had to park the car and take the rest of the journey on foot. By now it was very dark and cold. The road was too icy to walk on so headed for the grass verge.
By now I realised that there would not be a sign or anything to tell me if I had found it. Luckily the maps on my phone were accurate enough to tell me where I was.
Hopping over a hedge and standing under a power line that hovered over a field I believe I found it.
The darkness stretched from horizon to horizon with only subtle shades to tell me where the land ended and the sky began.
I took a couple of photographs although, as the space implies, there is little to see.
Not far from this place my father is lying in a nursing home dying of cancer.
I took this photograph.
Post Script – He passed away 4 days later in the early hours of February 17th 2012 with his family around him.
tony wade 