Autumn Newsletter

www.place.uk.com 2014

Last chance to book for our autumn conference!

Yorkshire’s Religious Heritage, c. 1780 –c. 1910 A celebration of the contribution of religion to our cultural heritage in the ‘long 19 th century’ Saturday 11 th October 2014 St Wilfrid’s Church Hall, Duchy Road, Harrogate

• George Herring – The church of England c. 1780 – c. 1960: declines and revivals • Barbara Windle – “Let your lives speak”: putting religious experience into social action • Paul Toy – Divisions in the Methodist movement in the early 19th century The talks will be followed by a tour of St • Leo Gooch – Revival or transition: the northern Catholics before Wilfrid’s Church (above) – one of the and after 1850 jewels of Harrogate church architecture. • Paul Toy – Developments in religious music in the 19 th century Cost: £25.00 (£20.00 for • Peter Hills – The parish church in the 19 th century: restored and retired/unwaged), including coffee/tea new and finger buffet lunch. Please use the booking form enclosed .

YOU BE THE JUDGE! An irregular short course for the autumn

Have you ever wondered what really goes on inside a court room? Now is your chance to find out. Anyone can observe the courts in action by simply visiting a courthouse and sitting in the public gallery. There is no charge for this – but there is also no guidance or help in understanding what might be going on.

If you would like to understand more about the courts in the UK, then come to Bedern Hall on Tuesday afternoon at 2.00pm on 18th November. Aileen Bloomer (currently a magistrate on the York & Selby Bench) will talk about a typical day in a magistrates’ court and after discussing some of issues around sentencing, will invite you to be the judge. The cost for this afternoon session will be £5.00 and will include tea/coffee.

As a follow-up for those who are interested, and at no charge at all, it will be possible to visit the magistrates court and observe a sitting on either Friday 21 November or Monday 24 November with a magistrate to help you make sense of what is happening. If you arrive at 9.00am, then you will be shown around the Magistrates Court building (including the cells if possible but this cannot be guaranteed) before settling down to observe the morning sitting which starts at 10.00am and usually concludes at about 1.00pm. If you do not want to see round the court building, then please make sure that you arrive at 9.45am at the latest. There are no lifts for public use in the courthouse and going round the whole building will involve stairs – indeed, getting in to the courthouse involves stairs. These follow up visits will be limited to 10 people maximum on each day so please indicate your preferred date on the booking form – and if you are interested in coming and able to be flexible about the date, that would be greatly appreciated.

REMINDER: There are a few places left for the repeats of Alison Sinclair’s walks around York. ‘Roman to Restoration’ takes place on 11 th September and ‘Restoration to Modern’ on 25 th , both starting at 2.00pm. Anyone who wishes to come should contact the PLACE Office by 5th September at the latest. Page 2 Join us for our pre-Christmas event on This will also be an opportunity to Thursday 11 th December from 7.00 to celebrate the tenth year of PLACE as an 9.00 pm in Bedern Hall, York, when independent charity. David Wharton-Street will present: A buffet supper is included in the price The History of Carols of the event. Please use the enclosed The majority of the presentation will consist booking form to secure your place, of playing carols, to identify their origins and and mention when booking any special evolution. Be amazed at where some of our dietary requirements. The cost will be carols come from, and listen to the finest £20.00 per person (£15.00 for renditions in the world from our own retired/unwaged people). This event is cathedrals and colleges. A carols sing-song likely to be very popular, so early will follow (with words supplied if needed). booking is advisable .

Joint autumn outings with the Royal Geographical Society

The secrets of Lake Gormire – a guided walk led by Chris Speight and a North York Moors National Park Authority ranger. Saturday 20 th September 11.00am–2.00pm . Lake Gormire is one of Yorkshire’s scenic treasures. The walk will go along the ice-cut escarpment edge, following a stretch of the Cleveland Way. Meeting point: North York Moors National Park Centre, Sutton Bank, Thirsk, YO7 2EH. Free to attend , contact Chris Speight for further details and to book in advance: [email protected]

Capturing water – a guided walk in the Saddleworth area led by Robin Grey. Sunday 2nd November 11.00am–2.00pm. This walk will explore six reservoirs that were constructed in the 1800s to meet the demands of the rapidly growing population and to feed the canal system. Meeting point : Ogden Reservoir car park, Ogden Lane, Newhey, Greater Manchester, OL16 3TQ. Free to attend , please email for further details and to book in advance : gschris@cspeight .plus .com

Report on the 2014 AGM in Leeds Report on visit to Hagg Wood, Dunnington This year’s annual general meeting was held in the unusual setting of the Discovery Centre in Leeds and attended by 32 people. After a short talk by Clare Brown, the curator of natural science, we were given a fascinating guided tour of some of the collections (below).

At the AGM, Hilary Moxon and Brian Walker were re- elected as trustees and Christine Handley was elected for the first Eleven members managed to battle with the race time. meeting traffic in May to enjoy an evening stroll in this delightful wood, led by the Friends of Hagg Wood. Recorded as wood pasture in Domesday In the afternoon, Book, the wood was heavily felled for timber in we were led on World War II and replanted by the Forestry guided tours Commission in the 1950s. It became a around the city Community Woodland in 2003 and is gradually centre by two being restored to mixed broad-leaved woodland. It volunteers from contains many features of historic interest as well the Leeds Civic as a range of wildlife. Although the bluebells were Trust (right). past their best, many other wild flowers were observed during the visit. Page 3

Report on visit to Bramham Park, led by Peter Goodchild

In March and April this year, I gave a series of 6 lectures to members of PLACE about the development of landscape gardening in England from the 17 th to the early 19 th century, with special reference to Yorkshire. The series was called ‘Gardening the Landscape and Landscaping the Garden, 1600-1820”. The lectures were about the relationships, designed relationships in particular, between two things; the first being gardens and the second being the wider landscapes in which individual gardens are located whether the landscape in question is farmland, parkland, other, or a mixture. This is a rich topic and a significant one in connection with British perceptions of landscapes and all kinds of outdoor environments.

One of the principal themes is the change from geometrically based designs to a more free and naturalistic approach. The new naturalistic style originated in the 1730s. It evolved and became widespread not only in England but around the world and was known as ‘the English style’. Its moist famous practitioners in the UK were William Kent (a Yorkshireman), Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, and Humphry Repton. A very good local example of the naturalistic English style can be seen in the parkland at Harewood House. Brown and Repton, and others, advised here.

Peter describing one of the water features with the back of the house in the background

Temple, cascade and lake surrounded by mature trees

Bramham, by contrast, was laid out between about 1700 and 1730 in the geometrical style. Although it was later modified slightly by naturalistic landscape gardening, it is still one of the best and most important surviving examples in the UK of the geometrical style and indeed of ‘the Grand Manner’. ‘The Grand Manner’ is a very appropriate description for the layout of the garden and park at Bramham because the scale of the layout is in harmony with the scale and features of the local landscape and with the scale of nature that they represent. A plan was drawn up c.1725-c1728 by the architect John Wood the Elder and survives as an engraving. It shows three large wooded areas which are located, as it were, at the corners of a very large triangle. The area between them is taken up by the park. The three wooded areas are (1) the pleasure grounds which lie immediately behind the mansion, (2) Black Fen Wood, and (3) Whittle Carr. The whole design is stitched together by a series of straight narrow vistas, broad views, and architectural eye-catchers. The pleasure grounds behind the mansion are notable for their alleys between high clipped hedges, their water features, their perimeter walks with their views beyond the pleasure grounds, and the wild flowers at your feet. The plan of c.1725-28 can still be used and is a very effective guide because much of the layout survives as shown on it. And where there have been changes, the plan makes it relatively easy to imagine what was there before.

The visit was conceived as a field trip that would illustrate on the ground some of the concepts and ideas that I had spoken about in my lectures. Yes, I had incorporated illustrations into my lectures, but there is no substitute for seeing actual examples on the ground for oneself. There were 19 of us on the guided walk. It was a beautiful late Spring afternoon and, yes, everyone had a copy of John Wood’s plan to help them understand the layout and where they were in relationship to it. Our thanks go to Nick Lane Fox for permission to visit. Peter H. Goodchild . Page 4

Report on visit to Pickering Castle and Howsham Mill and Kirkham Priory visit St Gregory Minster, Kirkdale Following his interesting and stimulating short course on the Norman Conquest in Yorkshire, Robert Wright led a fieldtrip to Pickering Castle on 28 th June. This is a site of a number of periods, beginning with the motte and bailey of the Conqueror’s time in timber, which was gradually rebuilt in stone. The curtain walls of the inner bailey date from the 1180s, the donjon either from then or from the early years of Henry III (1218-1236), while the outer bailey curtain walls (below) go back to Edward II’s reign (the early 1320s). We thoroughly explored all these; fortunately the weather kept dry. On 7th June, about 30 PLACE members braved the rain to visit Howsham Mill (above) and Kirkham Priory. The mill, an attractive building by John Carr and listed as derelict in the latest Pevsner/Neave volume on the East Riding, has been thoroughly restored. We were given a full account of this by Martin Phillips and Stephen Pickering, stonemason, who were involved in the restoration, while Richard Myerscough told us about the building materials that had been used. This was followed by a barbecue beside the mill which was most enjoyable ; fortunately the rain had temporarily subsided.

We then moved on to Kirkdale Church (below), which dates mainly from the end of the Anglo-Saxon period. The nave has the standard Anglo-Saxon proportions and long-and-short work and can be dated to 1055-1065 thanks to an inscribed sundial above the south door recording the rebuilding of the church by Orm, son of Gamel, in the time of King Edward and Earl Tostig. There are remains of Anglo-Saxon crosses probably from an earlier church, both inside the church and built into the walls. There is also a fine west doorway and jambs and columns of the chancel arch (the arch itself is In the afternoon, some of the party proceeded to later). Kirkham Priory for a tour led by Margaret Atherden. Richard Leggott. The rain returned though only as light drizzle and we had a very informative look round this attractive site. There is not much left of the church apart from one lancet window at the East End, but there is an attractive lavatorium in the cloister by the refectory door, and an impressive drain servicing the reredorter. The site drops abruptly to the south of the cloister, so that the refectory (above) is entered at ground level from the cloister, but is at first floor level on the other side.

Many thanks to all the speakers and organisers and not least the barbecue cookers for an enjoyable day. Richard Leggott . Page 5

The First World War in Yorkshire On 9th August Amanda With the outbreak of war in Peacock, First World War Amanda addressing the group 1914 work on the reservoirs Heritage Officer for [John Watts] ceased and the camp became Nidderdale AONB, led a an infantry training base, walking tour of the being expanded in size with archaeology of Colsterdale for additional temporary a group of 19 PLACE accommodation in bell tents. members. The First World The establishment of the War story in the area has its Leeds Pals, the 15 th Battalion origins in the demand for of the West Yorkshire water by the industrial towns Regiment, in 1915 was a of West Yorkshire in the 19 th reflection of intense patriotism century. Competing towns and civic pride. Skills learned built a series of reservoirs at the camp included trench such as Roundhill and Earthworks in the pasture field show the craft and drilling. Practice Leighton. Leeds Corporation positions of the former huts at Breary Banks trenches and rifle ranges are planned a reservoir for the still discernible in the valley of Colsterdale but it landscape. In 1916 the use of was never built owing to the camp changed and it geological problems. became a POW settlement for German officers. A navvy camp was constructed in an elevated With peace in 1918 the camp position at Breary Banks on reverted to being a base for land owned by the Swinton construction workers and it Estate, initially to house the reached its largest extent in construction workers for 1923 when it had 49 huts and Leighton Reservoir 1903-11. even a cinema. The site was A narrow gauge (two foot) decommissioned in 1926 with railway was established for The Leeds Pals the ending of work on the memorial the transport of materials. reservoir at Leighton. The Conduits, small dams and workers moved on to the pipes were laid out for the construction of Scar House proposed Colsterdale Reservoir in Upper reservoir. Breary Banks Nidderdale. The huts were eventually accommodated dismantled and reused for 700 families in a series of agricultural use. The footings wooden huts laid out in remain but are grassed over clearly visible terraces. now. Pastoral farming has These huts were fully been good for the serviced with piped water, preservation of the site, which sewerage and electricity. surprisingly is not listed. York Each hut had a bath and a University are undertaking a range. The complex had its Derelict Wesleyan Chapel programme of archaeological own shops, a school, a basic [John Watts] inquiry. In 1935 Leeds hospital and a mission hall. Corporation built a memorial Despite the state of the art to the Leeds Pals, which sanitation, an outbreak of indicates the commemorative smallpox occurred. In 1911 importance of the site at Lord Masham paid for the Breary Banks and its construction of a Wesleyan extraordinary use during the Chapel, which is the only Great War. It is difficult to extant building at Breary imagine the past military Banks. activity of such a remote and peaceful site. Philip Mander. Page 6

VISIT TO WEST MILL, ASKRIGG, 13 TH August A group of twelve members met at St Oswald’s Church, Askrigg, Wensleydale and walked the short distance to West Mill to be met by Professor David Blake and his wife who have owned West Mill for the last thirty years. During this time they have done a good deal to re-roof and make safe the mill buildings, which now have listed status. The original part of the mill was dated mid-seventeenth century by Natural England, who also awarded grants towards re-roofing and the building of access steps. Its early use was as a corn mill with an external mill wheel. At a later date the wheel was incorporated into an extended building. Professor Blake restored the wheel to working order for about ten years but unfortunately, due to warping, the wheel now needs further restoration. Above: West Mill Below: David Blake (on right) talking to the Of the three mills which served Askrigg in the past West group Mill is the only one to have its wheel still intact. Water to operate the mill was drawn from Mill Gill diverted via a large pond and water shoot to power the wheel. The mill buildings, which are quite extensive, include a kiln room used for drying corn. The corn was spread out on the floor over ceramic tiles containing holes. Heat was provided by a fire in the room below.The mill house itself, separate from the mill building, was built in 1721. Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy visited the site in 1799 and it is described in a letter sent to Coleridge . Turner also visited the mill in 1816 when he was commissioned to illustrate the area. His sketches of the mill and wheel are in the British Library archive.

In 1887 the Burton family converted the building into a saw mill, changing its name from the original Mill Gill to West Mill, and some of the machinery from that time still remains. The Burtons made products such as hay rakes and coffins. Invoices from this period still exist showing supplies to a shop in Fossgate, York. In the early twentieth century the owners built a power house on land above the mill to house water driven turbines which generated electricity for the saw mill and local houses. This continued until 1949 when power was supplied by the National Grid. After our guided tour of the mill and lunch in the mill house garden Professor Blake walked us through land above the PLACE mill which he and his wife have developed as a wild flower group in meadow and where they have planted many trees. front of The day concluded with a steep walk further up the valley to Mill Gill Mill Gill and Whitfield Gill Waterfalls. Force Irene Young.

Sadly, our planned walk in the Hawnby area at the end of July had to be cancelled, as the leader broke a bone in his foot. We hope to re- schedule it for next summer. Page 7

Recent PLACE publications Price + P & P Date

The Future of the Uplands: Prospects for Northern England, £5.00 + £2.50 2014 Ed. Margaret Atherden and Veronica Wallace Wild Flowers on the Edge: the story of North Yorkshire’s road £9.95 + £3.00 2012 verges, Margaret Atherden and Nan Sykes Medieval Studies in the Yorkshire Dales, Ed. Roger Martlew £10.00 +£3.00 2014

Prehistory in the Yorkshire Dales, Ed. Roger Martlew £10.00 + £3.00 2011

Yorkshire Landscapes Past and Present , Ed. Margaret Atherden £5.00 + £2.50 2008 and Tim Milsom Land Use, Ecology and Conservation in the Lower Derwent £5.00 + £2.50 2006 Valley, Ed. Tim Milsom Back from the Edge: the fall and rise of Yorkshire’s wildlife, £3.00 + £2.50 2013 Ed. Margaret Atherden, Christine Handley & Ian Rotherham Yorkshire Market Towns: not just for shopping. Michael £2.50 + £1.50 2014 Hopkinson Langdale Forest: A case of mistaken identity. Brian Walker £2.50 +£1.50 2014

Unfolding the Landscape: Malham, North Yorkshire. Terry £2.50 +£1.50 2014 O’Connor Historical Landscapes of Yorkshire Textile Manufacture, £2.50 +£ 2.00 2013 Ed. Veronica Wallace Yorkshire Food and Diet, Ed. Veronica Wallace £2.50 + £2.00 2013

Wild Flower Walks, Nan Sykes £3.50 + £2.00 2013

Yorkshire’s historic landscapes and buildings at risk, Ed. George £2.50 +£2.00 2011 Sheeran and Veronica Wallace Yorkshire Folk Heroes and Legends, Ed. Aileen Bloomer £2.50 + £2.00 2011

Great Estates of Yorkshire, Ed. Veronica Wallace £2.50 + £2.00 2008

Global Warming: a Yorkshire Perspective, Ed. Margaret Atherden £2.50 + £2.50 2003

Wetlands in the Landscape: Archaeology, Conservation, £2.50 + £2.50 2001 Heritage, Ed. Margaret Atherden Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness: Fruit, food and wildlife in £2.50 + £2.00 2009 Yorkshire’s countryside. Ed. Margaret Atherden

Yorkshire Names and Dialects, Ed. Margaret Atherden £2.50 + £2.00 2006

City Walls – their conservation and use, Ed. Michael Hopkinson £2.50 + £2.00 2007

A Guide to the Wetland Heritage of the Vale of Pickering, £2.00 + £2.00 2001 Noël Menuge 'Letters from America': Nineteenth Century Emigrants Writing £1.50 + £1.50 2007 Home to Yorkshire. Michael Hopkinson Page 8

Visit to gardens in Seaton Ross in June On a glorious sunny evening, PLACE members were privileged to visit two beautiful gardens in Seaton Ross. We were green with envy at seeing the productive vegetable beds, colourful borders and attractive ponds in Roger Brook’s garden (left). Roger is a ‘no dig’ gardener and, judging by the gardens at Boundary Cottage, it obviously works! By contrast, Peter Williams’ garden at Weathervane House (right) is a woodland garden, with extensive lawns, a well-stocked greenhouse and an impressive polytunnel. After looking around both gardens, we enjoyed delicious home-made refreshments. Many thanks to Roger, Peter and their wives for their hospitality.

New Publication! We hope to publish the proceedings of The proceedings of the the 2014 spring conference on the PLACE conference, ‘The Yorkshire Coast later this year. Future of the Uplands’, has now been published. It See P. 7 for a list of all recent PLACE features chapters developed publications available for sale. from six of the papers given at the conference. Price : £5.00 + £2.50 P & P. Julian Sturdy MP has written to say the Parliamentary Group report on the PLACE has a new partner organisation, the regional future of Green Belts has now been committee for Yorkshire & North East of the Royal published and is available to view at Geographical Society with Institute of British appgreenbelt.wordpress.com . PLACE Geographers (RGS). See P. 2 for details of two joint members may be interested to read the walks this autumn. report, as we made a small input to it, following the work on the York green belt Two dates for your diary in 2015: by Michael Hopkinson . Saturday 18 th April, spring conference, Sheffield. Saturday 9 th May, AGM, Wakefield. Further details in the next newsletter, in January.

To contact PLACE: PLACE Board and Officers By post: Chief Executive and Company PLACE Office, N.B. This is a secretary: Dr Margaret Atherden York St John University, ‘virtual’ office Lord Mayor’s Walk, and is not Trustees: York, staffed . Ms Aileen Bloomer (Chair) YO31 7EX. Ms Christine Handley Dr Michael Hopkinson By phone: 01904 766291 (Treasurer) (N.B. this is the Chief Executive’s home Ms Hilary Moxon number. Messages may be left anytime) Mr Richard Myerscough Professor Terry O’Connor By e-mail: [email protected] Dr George Sheeran Mr Brian Walker Website: www.place.uk.com Ms Veronica Wallace