Do you ever wonder what the forgiveness of nature looks like? If you do, then head for Teesside. Here, in the heart of the area’s vast petrochemical installations, lies Saltholme. This RSPB reserve is home to reed beds, lagoons and scrub galore. A salt mine since medieval times, in the 1930s Saltholme became a “laboratory farm”, a place to test not only each new fertiliser created at the nearby ICI works, but every pesticide, insecticide, molluscicide, herbicide, fungicide.