Summer newsletter 2015 - Place

Summer
Newsletter
2015
www.place.uk.com
Skelton Beck in
the lower valley
Visit to Saltburn-by-the-Sea, Weds. 10th June
A chance to explore the beautiful valley woodlands alongside
Skelton Beck and learn about Saltburn town, in the northeast corner of our area. Meet at the Woodlands Centre (NZ
665208) at 11.00am. Park either in the pay-and-display car
park on the sea front (NZ 667217) and walk south up the
valley beside the stream (c.15 minutes) or on Albion Terrace
(NZ 665210) near the children’s playground and walk down
the zig-zag path through the woodland (5 minutes). After a
cup of coffee we shall have a guided tour of Saltburn town
and the lower valley, led by local historian Philip Thompson.
We shall then return to the Woodlands Centre to eat our
packed lunch. In the afternoon, we shall walk south up the
valley to the old railway viaduct and back. An optional walk
on the beach and tea at one of the cafés will complete the
day. Bring a packed lunch and cold drink. Wear walking
boots or very stout shoes, as some of the paths are steep
and rough in places.
Mount Misery excursion,
Weds. 1st July.
PLACE members are invited to
join the Helmsley Archaeological
and Historical Society on this free
visit to see remains of C18-C19th
rabbit warrening on the North York
Moors. Brian Walker will show us
rabbit ‘types’, banks (below) and
enclosures dating from the
industrial-scale
warrening
to
provide felt for hats, as well as
remains from various earlier
stages in the development of
warrening.
Park at Mount Misery Farm (SE
946894). Access via minor
unclassified road from Troutsdale,
junction at SE 939901. Further
details from Brian Walker, e-mail:
b.walker827@btinternet.com
tel: 07932 491075.
Cost: £5.00 per
head. To book
your place,
please use the
enclosed
booking form.
The viaduct and
meadow area
Get out and about with
PLACE this summer!
Events from June to September
Bradford city walk,
Sat. 4th July.
Helmsley Walled Garden
tour, Thurs. 23rd July
PLACE members are invited
to join members of the Royal
Geographical Society on this
walk, led by Prof. David
McEvoy. Meet at 11.00am
outside Bradford City Hall,
Centenary Square, Bradford,
BD1 1UH. The walk will look
at Bradford’s transformation
from a provincial town to an
international hub. It will end
c.2.30pm, allowing time for
an optional curry at a
traditional Pakistani café.
This event is free but
booking is essential. Tel:
01274 511382 or e-mail:
d.mcevoy@ljmu.ac.uk
Designed in 1758, the walled garden was
originally established to provide fresh fruit,
vegetables and flowers for the Feversham
family of Duncombe Park. It was leased out
after the first world war and continued as a
commercial enterprise until 1982, when it fell
into disuse. It was rediscovered in an
overgrown state in 1994 by Alison Ticehurst,
who set about restoring it, helped by local
volunteers. Park in the public car park near
the castle in Helmsley and walk through to
the walled garden (SE 608837), where
refreshments may be purchased before our
guided tour starts at 5.15pm. Cost: £6.50
per head. Booking form enclosed.
Page 2
FORESTS OF THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
Brian Walker will lead this three-session short course on forestry on Weds. 8th, 15th and 22nd July.
The course will offer a chance to learn about Britain’s woodland heritage and what the future might hold. In the
first session we will visit a restricted site managed by the Forestry Commission near Helmsley, which has one
of the most important ancient tree assemblages in Britain as well as semi-natural woodland. In the second
session we will visit Cropton Forest, near Pickering, to learn more about why and how C20th plantation forest
was developed. In the third session we will visit Langdale Forest, north-west of Scarborough, to see how
forests are being prepared for a difficult but sustainable future.
People will be informed about meeting places when
they book. You can book for all three sessions or for
individual sessions. Each session will begin at 11.00am
and end c. 3.00pm. Please bring a packed lunch and a
drink. There will be some off-path walking, so stout
shoes or walking boots will be needed, especially for
the first session. Waterproofs should also be carried,
as the course will go ahead come rain or shine! Dogs
will be allowed on leads. Cost: £5.00 per session.
Please use the booking form enclosed with this
newsletter.
Right: Modern forestry in Langdale Forest.
Walk in the Hawnby area
Tues. 4th August
David Wharton-Street will lead this walk on the
North York Moors, postponed from 2014. The six
mile walk, with 180m (600 ft) of ascent, will start at
Hawnby. Meet at 10.45am.outside the village hall
in Lower Hawnby (near the post office cum shop),
where parking is available (grid ref: SE 543894).
Wear walking boots or very stout shoes and bring
a packed lunch, drink, waterproofs and suitable
headgear, according to the weather. Afternoon tea
will be available at the shop when the walk
finishes.
Cost: £5.00. Please use the booking form.
Visit to C19th Gothic Revival Churches
Weds. 19th August
Margaret Bastow will lead this follow-on visit from
our autumn conference on religious heritage. We
will visit two churches by William Burgess in the
Ripon area: Christ the Consoler at Newby Hall and
St Mary’s at Studley Royal (below). The former
was described by Pevsner as “of great opulence
but elephantine calibre” and the latter as “a
Victorian shrine a dream of Early English glory”. An
optional visit to the church of St James the Great at
Baldersby, by William Butterfield, will provide an
interesting contrast.
Meet at 10.30am in the car park adjacent to the
church at Newby Hall (SE 360679). Access from
the south end of Skelton on Ure. Turn into the
gateway to Newby Hall and look for the church on
the right (N.B. No facilities). We shall be driving to
the National Trust visitor centre at Fountains
Abbey for lunch (bring packed lunch or sample the
café there) before visiting the church at Studley
and later the church at Baldersby. Cost: £5.00.
Booking form enclosed.
Page 3
Field visit to the Washburn Valley
Weds. 2nd September
The beautiful Washburn Valley (left), west of
Harrogate, contains reservoirs and managed
woodland. The area around the reservoirs has been
developed for its amenity value, with parking and
good all-weather paths.
We shall visit Fewston, with its fine C17th church and earlier C14th belltower. During construction of the adjacent
heritage centre, remains of 165 individuals were exhumed, some of them identifiable and some with relatives still
living in the area today. If time allows, we will also visit Timble village, made famous by the book Timble Man:
diaries of a Dalesman by John Dickinson, which gives an account of the area in the late C19th as industrialisation
was making an impact. Meet in the car park west of Swinsty Reservoir, SE 187537, at 10.30am. Bring
packed lunch and a drink. Walking boots or stout shoes are advisable. Cost: £5.00. Use the booking form.
Heritage Tourism and the Regeneration of
the Seaside Town
PLACE autumn conference
Famous Yorkshire Geologists
Joint meeting with the Historic Towns Forum
at Whitby, Thur. 24th September
Sat. 3rd October
With the new Coastal Revival Fund in place to help
kick start the revival of at-risk coastal heritage, there
has never been a better time to revisit the issues facing
economic rejuvenation in our historic seaside
settlements. This one-day conference, in collaboration
with our partner organisation the Historic Towns
Forum, will focus on issues and solutions surrounding
retail, tourism, local economy and the ‘unique selling
point’ of our coastal and seaside heritage. There will be
lectures, a guided tour of Whitby and time for debate.
The venue will be the Sneaton Park Hotel and the cost
of the conference will include coffee/tea at the hotel
and lunch in the town. A fuller programme will appear
in the autumn newsletter but bookings are open now.
Cost: £20.00 (£15.00 for unwaged/retired people).
Please use the enclosed booking form.
2015 marks the 200th anniversary of the
publication of the first geology map of England
and Wales by William Smith, ‘the Father of
British Geology’ (above). A version of the
Yorkshire section of this map is currently being
constructed by the Yorkshire Philosophical
Society as a walk-on map in the grounds of the
Yorkshire Museum in York. In our conference,
we shall be considering several famous
geologists associated with Yorkshire and the
contribution they have made to the study of
geology. In the morning, we shall have talks at
York St John University:
• Prof. Robin Butlin (on P F Kendall and Mary
Kingdon Heslop and their contribution to the
development of physical geography in
Leeds)
• Peter Robinson (on William Smith and
Martin Simpson, a C19th geologist)
• Dr Chris Hill (on Tom Harris, a fossil plant
specialist)
• Dr Tony Cooper from the British Geological
Survey.
In the afternoon, we shall move to the Yorkshire Museum (10 minutes’ walk), where Stuart Ogilvy, the Keeper
of Geology, and colleagues will show us around the exhibits and geology collections. There will also be an
opportunity to see the walk-on geological map of Yorkshire (due for completion in July).
Cost: £20.00 (£15.00 for unwaged or retired people), including coffee/tea and buffet lunch. Please use
the enclosed booking form.
Page 4
REPORTS ON PLACE SPRING EVENTS 2015
Visit to Threshfield Quarry, 25th March
PLACE spring conference, 18th April
Twenty-two people attended this excursion to see a
former limestone quarry near Grassington, hosted by
our partner organisation, the Yorkshire Dales
Landscape Research Trust (YDLRT). Lime mortar
and agricultural lime were produced in small kilns
from the C17th on. Following the Enclosure Award of
1827, the quarry was designated as a public quarry
for the use of local people. It was not until the early
C20th that local entrepreneur John Delaney
developed
industrial-scale
operations,
taking
advantage of the opening of the railway from Skipton
to Threshfield in 1902. Coal was brought in to fuel the
kilns; lime and limestone were exported. Four large
kilns were built, with a fifth one added in 1934. David
Johnson showed us remains of the lime kilns (below
left) and the narrow gauge railway. Some of the
‘jubilee’ carts are displayed on site (below right, photo
by Richard Mallows). He also explained the various
tasks carried out on the site, e.g. by ‘packers’
(loading the kilns), ‘lime drawers’ (emptying the kilns
and filling the wagons) and ‘firemen’ (maintaining the
burn). It was dangerous work and various accidents
and health problems occurred. The area around the
old kilns has been excavated and conserved since
2008 and is now used for education purposes.
The Industrial Legacy and Landscapes of
Sheffield and South Yorkshire
The party then walked past the lower quarry, which is
intended for economic development, to the upper
quarry (below). Here Roger Martlew outlined plans
for new uses of the site. The YDLRT is hoping to
build a visitor centre, where the archaeology and
landscape of the surrounding area will be interpreted
for visitors. The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust will manage
part of the area for nature conservation, including a
sanctuary for native white-clawed crayfish. We are
grateful to David Johnson and Roger Martlew for
showing us around the site and sharing their plans for
the future with us.
This event, a collaboration between PLACE and
the South Yorkshire Biogeography Research
Group, with support from Sheffield Hallam
University and the Landscape Conservation
Forum, attracted over 70 people. Five morning
talks in the Sheffield Showroom and Workstation
were followed by two walks around the city
centre and along the River Don valley.
Left:
Sheffield
Workstation
Below:
PLACE
members in
the city
centre
(photo John
Watts)
The proceedings of the conference will be
published later this year. We are very grateful to
Christine Handley for masterminding this very
successful event and to the speakers and leaders
of the afternoon walks.
Winter walks in January and February
As part of the research for the forthcoming
PLACE Book of Winter Walks, a few hardy
souls turned out in the winter months to try out
the routes of two of the walks. Look out for news
of the book’s launch later in the year!
PLACE members approaching the
octagon tower, Studley gardens
Page 5
Visit to Southburn Archaeological Museum and Glebe Farm, Octon
On Saturday 11 April, PLACE members visited one
of the most interesting small museums in the East
Riding, the Southburn Archaeological Museum at
Southburn Farm near Driffield. This consists of finds
made by a tractor driver on the farm, the late Brian
Hebblethwaite, since the early 1960s and displayed
in one of the farm buildings. They date from all
periods between Neolithic and medieval times and
include flint tools and axes, pottery, jewellery and
clothes fasteners and a (damaged) chalk figurine of
possible ritual significance. There is also a
reconstruction of the Kirkburn warrior grave
excavation (the original is in the British
Museum).The display notices are excellent and
very informative and there is a wide range of handson activities on offer (below), such as pottery
making, weaving on a replica loom, handling
artefacts using a digital microscope,and playing
games such as Hnefetafi (Viking chess).
Glebe Farm, Octon, is the home of Robert and Judy
Burdass, and they accompanied us during the
afternoon, adding much to our knowledge and
enjoyment. The old farmhouse had become a store
when a new one was built in 1939, so it had been
untouched by modernisation. Its structure (dendrodated to 1670) is a late example of a medieval
technique, while its pastel interior spaces evoke
Victorian watercolours of humble cottages and
virtuous mothers. The initial use was as a longhouse (a through passage having cowhouse on one
side and human living quarters on the other) but
later a brick fireplace and chimney replaced the
animals; chimneys served the two other rooms, a
cast iron fireplace from perhaps the 19th century.
Glebe Farm, Octon
The museum is run by volunteers and open by
appointment and on certain open days and is
involved in school educational visits. This was a
very enjoyable morning and thanks are due to the
volunteers and to Richard Myerscough for arranging
our visit.
Richard Leggott
We stood in a field opposite the cruck-framed
house, looking on to the hamlet of Octon, while Jon
Kenny gave us a historical fly-by, back to medieval
times when the inhabitants would have thought of
themselves as belonging to the township of Thwing,
and when perhaps more cruck-houses were lined
up along the lane; even the field had unresolved
humps and lines that might have been house
platforms, or ridge-and-furrow. Richard Myerscough
produced a pair of metal divining rods, and several
members experimented with sectioning the
particularly prominent ridges which marked the site
of the medieval chapel. Richard also explained the
relevant geology, in particular the presence in the
Great Wold Valley of a form of chalk strong enough
to be used in building: the severe faulting and
movement it had gone through had changed its
characteristics.
Interior roof, showing
C17th crucks
The crucks can be best appreciated upstairs, where
the roof is open to the laths carrying the pantiles
(originally, thatch). The two pairs of crucks can be
seen to have been from oak trees split length-wise.
Plain but strong carpentry fixed the A-frames, and
purlins and rafters followed. The crucks thus bore
the weight of the roof, allowing the walls to have
been made (in the earliest examples) of wattle and
daub, or reinforced ‘mud’. Now the outer walls are a
mixture of hard local chalk and brick. The textures
and colours of the domestic interior were satisfying,
local materials converted into a solid house. Like
the series of objects found at Southburn, the treetrunks, straw and plaster told of centuries if not
millennia, of trial-and-error and slow advances in
comfort and productivity.
Rita Wood
Page 6
Research Grants from PLACE
New Book!
PLACE has awarded several small
research grants over the past few
years, for topics including the study of
market towns, an investigation into the
1918-19 flu epidemic and the York
Mystery Plays. We welcome further
proposals from anyone who is working
independently on research projects
relevant to the people, landscape or
cultural environment of Yorkshire.
There is a very simple application form,
available from the PLACE Office, so
members are invited to submit
proposals now for amounts up to £500.
George Sheeran’s research into the
Islamic architecture of Bradford is the
subject of his talk to the Yorkshire
Philosophical
Society,
Royal
Geographical Society and PLACE on
May 12th. The book resulting from this
research is just about to be published
and is the first to address this
important and interesting topic. The
book may be ordered at the prepublication price of £5.00 (including P
& P, where appropriate). Please use
the order form attached to the
booking form to reserve your copy.
NEW PUBLICATION!
The proceedings of the 2014 spring
conference in Scarborough, ed. Brian
Walker and Veronica Wallace. Price:
£2.50 + P & P.
TO
ORDER
ANY
OF
OUR
PUBLICATIONS, PLEASE USE THE
ORDER FORM ENCLOSED.
Yorkshire Villages Research Project
Led by Michael Hopkinson, PLACE is embarking on a
new research project, to investigate the social and
economic landscape of Yorkshire villages. Change has
always taken place in the countryside but the resurgence
of a desire for rural living, together with advances in
electronic communication and pressures on Green Belts,
have created significant challenges for village
communities. We seek help from PLACE members in
analysing the history, development and current situation
in the villages of North and East Yorkshire. If you would
like to get involved, please contact Michael via the
PLACE Office for a briefing pack.
To contact PLACE:
By post:
PLACE Office,
York St John University,
Lord Mayor’s Walk,
York,
YO31 7EX.
N.B. This is a
‘virtual’ office
and is not
staffed.
By phone: 01904 766291
(N.B. this is the Chief Executive’s home
number. Messages may be left anytime)
By e-mail: place@yorksj.ac.uk
Website: www.place.uk.com
THE MOSQUE IN THE CITY
BRADFORD AND ITS ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE
George Sheeran
SOME PLANNED FUTURE EVENTS
• Autumn 2015 – Visit to Wortley Forge (a
follow-up to the spring conference talk
• Dec. 2015 – Christmas event and launch
of The PLACE Book of Winter Walks
• Spring conference 2016 on Woodlands
• Spring 2016 - Short course on Yorkshire
Theatre
• Summer 2016 – Visit to Harewood House
(to mark Capability Brown’s tercentenary)
• Autumn conference 2016 on the Yorkshire
Wolds Landscape
If you are a user of social media, such as
Facebook or Twitter, please help to publicise
our events by mentioning them! Don’t forget to
let us know if you change your e-mail address.
Reminder: photographs wanted for the
PLACE website! Please continue to send us
your digital photos for the events page of the website.
Summer scenes will be needed in the near future.
PLACE Board and Officers
Chief Executive & Company secretary:
Dr Margaret Atherden
Trustees:
Ms Aileen Bloomer
(Chair)
Ms Christine Handley
Dr Michael Hopkinson
(Treasurer)
Ms Hilary Moxon
Mr Richard Myerscough
Professor Terry O’Connor
Dr George Sheeran
Mr Brian Walker
Ms Veronica Wallace
(until 9-5-15)
The next newsletter is due in early September