Christmas walk: 18-12-12

This is an annual event which is organised by one of the volunteers and this year Clive volunteered to plan the walk and to arrange for the traditional lunch to be held at the Washburn Heritage Centre. Sixteen of us met at the Centre for a five mile walk in the Washburn Valley on a circular route which included Swinsty, Beaver Dyke and John O’Gaunt’s reservoirs.

Beaver Dyke

Swinsty Reservoir

We stopped for a cake break half way through the morning which gave us a better chance of admiring some of the Christmas headgear worn by our more traditional members and there was no doubt about the best – Howie’s, without any question. 

                                  

                                 Cake Break

At various points Clive explained the history of areas we walked through – an ancient monument (oddly enough a track rather than a building), John O’Gaunt’s Castle and other interesting buildings. 

Clive (blue hat) sharing local history knowledge

Bird life was good with three red kites and a buzzard being mobbed by two kestrels. A flock of winter thrushes – roughly 100 fieldfares and 60 redwing -  put on a good show among the species seen.

The weather stayed dry with the odd glimpse of some brightness. The paths were muddy and slippery and in two fields an enthusiastic farmer had spread a very generous amount of muck, but after Clive’s initial risk assessment and H & S instructions no-one came to grief.

By the time we got back to the Centre we had worked up an appetite for the soup, sandwiches and mince pies that were waiting for us, and it was something of a family affair with Sally and Pat, wives of Clive and Howie, looking after us. Excellent food!

There are various people to thank:

• Clive of course, for organising the whole thing.
• Audrey, who provided cake for us all at the mid morning break.
• Sally and Pat for the food and very professional table service,
• and the AONB for paying for it all.

There were four of our volunteers who unfortunately were not able to come, and Paul is in New York. We missed them, and they missed a very enjoyable day.

Tony

Historic Maps training day: 11-12-2012

This morning was yet another of those interesting, relaxing and cosy times for any interested NCVs. We were lucky enough to be offered the opportunity of a morning listening to Kevin Cale, the community archaeologist, telling us all about historical maps. 
If you want to find out more about the things he does as part of his job then visit:
http://www.communityarchaeology.co.uk/

Kev started by explaining how maps are just one of the many tools available to anyone interested in researching the history of an area and then detailed the different ways that members of the public can access old maps. These included:

• Record offices - for Nidderdale related maps you would go to either the Northallerton County (http://www.northyorks.gov.uk/archives); the West Yorkshire Archive Service at Morley (http://www.archives.wyjs.org.uk/archives-leeds.asp) or the Borthwick Institute at Heslington, York (http://www.york.ac.uk/library/borthwick/)

The Northallerton office has an extensive collection but you can only view them on microfiche. The other two offices can give access to the actual maps themselves.  

• Pateley Bridge museum - this has a small, but useful collection.

• Online via http://www.old-maps.co.uk  From here you can look at the maps electronically or order them in hard copy in different quality prints. Enter any place name in the search box and then select one of the historic maps listed down the right hand side of the screen.  

You can then zoom in and out to your heart's content looking for all the interesting things that are there. I can't wait to try this out for myself!

Kev then gave us a fascinating presentation of the history of maps, focusing on the Wath area of Nidderdale - from an early 1610 map to the most up-to-date lidar mapping techniques. If anyone is interested in doing any of this sort of research there are a number of local groups involved in history projects which Kev or the AONB's heritage officer, Sally Childes, can put you in touch with. You may even want to start your own group - again, Kev is the man to contact.

Kev  - thank you for a great morning (and thanks also to Sally Childes for the delicious home made mince pies served on arrival!!)

Ros (E)

Bryan's Wood: 4-12-12

The day started bright and sunny. Tony and Ros were at the Barn for 9:00am. Also there were Julia and Dave, two newcomers to the group. They picked up the necessary equipment and headed for Bryan’s Wood for 9:30 where they met with Anita, Colin, John and Jan.

Meanwhile Dave was leaning on the new five barred gate outside Kettlesing school admiring the new fences that had been erected by the group a couple of weeks ago. He was expecting Graham who, he understood, would meet him there with equipment from the barn so they could erect a stile over the post and rail fence.

The gang of eight wheeled their wheelbarrows through tracks broad and narrow carrying the equipment to the point where they were to construct a barbed wire fence. This was required to keep the cattle in the neighbouring field from becoming tourists in the wood.

After 15 minutes Dave decided he had waited long enough. He rang the office to ask for Graham’s phone number but there was no reply. So he phoned Tony who suggested that he joined the group in Bryan’s Wood. Here the first task was to erect three straining posts to take the strain when the wire was stretched between them. That took us until lunchtime when Colin had to leave us. 

The remaining eight had their pack ups and then enjoyed some flapjack which had kindly been left on Tony’s doorstep by Audrey.

Thus fortified we dragged ourselves back to work but quickly found our rhythm and amazingly we completed the fence with two strands of wire by the time the light began to fade at 3:30pm. 

Whilst John attacked an intruding holly bush with a bow saw ...

....others got to grips with fence post knockers

We dragged our wheelbarrows and other equipment out of the wood feeling very satisfied. We had made a very presentable fence that would keep out potential tourists for a good number of years to come. 

Hopefully Julia and Dave enjoyed their day and will join us again in weeks to come.

Dave (B)