throwing before it a trench for drains—a rough temporary road and bare strips of earth

[Coffee Break]

I read this part, "throwing before it a trench for drains—a rough temporary road and bare strips of earth ", but am finding it difficult to understand it. Could you please let me know what it means? Here is the excerpt:

Dick lowered his magazine to his knee and looked out of the window. At first it was all houses and factories and small bare gardens—but gradually the gardens grew larger and greener, and sometimes the open country would shyly push itself forward, to be driven out again by another mass of houses. Sometimes there would come quite a wild field with countryfied bramble hedgerows, but generally a narrow strip of new, unfinished houses stuck into it like a dagger point, throwing before it a trench for drains—a rough temporary road and bare strips of earth where the turf had been rolled up for the dagger point to go still deeper.

- R. C. Sherriff, The Fortnight in September, Chapter 8

This is a novel published in 1931, which describes a fortnight in September in which an English family consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Stevens, Mary, Dick, and Ernie go on a holiday. While traveling by the train to the holiday destination, Dick is looking out of the window.

Here, I am having difficulties in parsing this sentence.
I guess that there is, a wild field with hedgerows to begin with.
But, in this wild field, a narrow land composed of new houses penetrated thereinto, just like a dagger point being stuck into the ground.
And this narrow land has thrown (is provided with), before itself, a trench for drains...

But then I wonder what "a rough temporary road" and "bare strips of earth" are connected to. Would they be connected to "throwing", perhaps...? Or some other thing...?

 

[Barque]

Don't take "throwing" too literally. It means that in front of the new houses, the builders had provided for drains to be constructed in the future.

 

[Coffee Break]

@Barque,

Thank you very much for the explanation.
Oh, so "throw" just means that there was provided a trench in front of the narrow land on which houses are built!

Then, as for the part after the emdash—would it be okay to understand that all three of the nouns ( (1) a trench for drains, (2) a rough temporary road, and (3) bare strips of earth) are "thrown (=placed in front of the houses)"...?

Or would it be that the latter two nouns ( (2) and (3) ) are in apposition with (1), whcih means that the (2) and (3) are explanations—or another way to describe (1)...?

 

[Barque]

A trench for drains had been "thrown" before the houses.

There were also temporary roads and bare strips of earth in places where the next phase of construction was to begin.

 

[tedmc]

The on-going construction works with the unfinished structures, temporary drains and rough access roads are an unwelcome change from the green and soothing scenery of the countryside. They were likened to the landscape being stuck with a dagger, thrown (rudely) in with unsightly features typical of a construction site. They are temporary but an eyesore nonetheless.

 

[Coffee Break]

@Barque and @tedmc,

Thank you very much for the explanations.
Then, if I understood correctly, the sentence could be broken as:

Sometimes there would come
(1) quite a wild field with countryfied bramble hedgerows, but
generally a narrow strip of new, unfinished houses stuck into it like a dagger point, throwing before it a trench for drains—
[there would come] (2) a rough temporary road and bare strips of earth where the turf had been rolled up for the dagger point to go still deeper.

...so "there would come" have two objects... I guess.

Or it may be that, (2) does not have any verb attached to it, but just an unfinished phrase, making it an imperfect construction... In that case, (2) is not in apposition with "a trench for drains", but is just another thing that is there along with "a wild field with countrified bramble hedgerows".

I sincerely appreciate your help.

 

[Tarheel]

@Coffee Break It's creative writing. What does that mean? Well, for one thing, it's a bit different from what you will ordinarily see. Does it work? I think so.

I want to ask you to shorten your posts, but I don't want to dampen your enthusiasm. Maybe I'll just have to get used to the idea that when I open one of your threads I'm in for some serious reading.

 

[Barque]

Then, as for the part after the emdash—would it be okay to understand that all three of the nouns ( (1) a trench for drains, (2) a rough temporary road, and (3) bare strips of earth) are "thrown (=placed in front of the houses)"...?

I understand it this way. The construction's unusual but I wouldn't say it's wrong.

 

[Coffee Break]

@Tarheel and @Barque,

Thank you very much for the explanations.
So there are three nouns, grammatically, "thrown" in front of the houses!

I want to ask you to shorten your posts, but I don't want to dampen your enthusiasm. Maybe I'll just have to get used to the idea that when I open one of your threads I'm in for some serious reading.

Yes, my threads are a bit long, aren't they? I tend to write at length, trying to convey as much information as possible in the hope of explaining the full context...
I always appreciate your help for reading my threads and explaining.

I truly appreciate your help.

 

[Tarheel]

@Coffee Break No, not the threads. The posts. The threads don't tend to be that long.

@Barque is really good at explaining things, isn't he? He's almost as good at it as I am.