It is too big

 Solar to the left of us, olives to the right - here we are, stuck on the A-221 with you.

Solar power taking over English green and pleasant fields is an issue of contention.  Spain has less green, and more challenging patches of land and the land is covered with a huge solar plant, courtesy of PSFV Escatron.  It has two reviews.  Three years ago David gave it an unworded five stars.  10 months ago Aaron Kukn was less kind.  One star ‘Its to big you cant see something’

It is a day to admire the immenseness and as we are going to do olives in a big way soon  We appear to have visited solar power before - although, given we must have done towards 1000 of these I can’t remember when. I get this at work. Last week a student said, do you remember, when we couldn’t go on a foreign trip you turned the class into a coach and a plane and we went to Poland.  The answer is no… well, no…… ok, maybe.  Where were we?

Look, we’ve a bit of time on our hands and we’ve mentioned monasteries being privatised by the government so let's say something about it.  While Henry VIII had noticed the fact monks had simply huge amounts of land knocking about not really doing much with it and it would be an absolutely splendid idea to give it to people who could use it properly.  By and large the Spanish monarchy felt they ought to be pro-team monk until they became Enlightened in the late 18th century.  They remained with such views till 1924.

During the reign of Charles IV, in September 1798, the Confiscation of Godoy was launched by Mariano Luis de Urquijo and Miguel Cayetano Soler, the Secretary of the Treasury. Charles IV obtained permission from the Holy See to expropriate land belonging to the Jesuits [boo!]  and other religious entities, including hospitals, hospices and residential colleges. Altogether, the confiscations accounted for one-sixth of the Church's property

Juan Álvarez Mendizábal (prime minister of Queen Regent Maria Christina) and Pascual Madoz (finance minister of Queen Isabel II) were responsible for the two most important liberal confiscations. The 1836 Ecclesiastical Confiscation of Mendizábalnwas the one that hit locally.

The division of land was entrusted to municipal committees, which, to everyone’s surprise, took advantage of their power to create large lots that were affordable only for very wealthy oligarchs. Small farmers could not enter competitive bids, and the land was bought by nobles and the urban bourgeoisie, preventing the development of a rural middle class, which was to have long term consequences.

Because the confiscation applied only to regular clergy members, the Church decided to excommunicate both the sellers and buyers of the land. As a result, most people chose not to buy lots directly. Instead, they made their purchases through intermediaries.

Others came in and did the like.  In 1855 Finance Minister Madoz sold off lots of land: 35% belonged to the church, 15% to charities and 50% to municipalities.  It lasted until 1924 when Jose Calvo Sotelo repealed the confiscation laws and church state relationships have been utterly harmonious ever since.