The Pennines Have Long Been Known As 'The Backbone of England

4 A VIEW FROM THE HILLS The Pennines have long been known as ‘the backbone of England’, climbing up the spine of the country all the way from Derbyshire to Northumberland. Alf Alderson begins this two-part feature in our series ‘A View from the Hills’ by exploring the landscape of the southern and central Pennines. England’s Backbone HE MEANDERING picturesque, occasionally dramatic, Pennines are perhaps often brooding – even threatening. one of the best-known This long, rambling mass of hills hill ranges in Great and peaty moorlands is occasionally Britain.They weave up punctuated by peaks such as Pen- the centre of England, y-Ghent or cliffs such as High Cup Tfrom the Peak District at their Nick, exposing the stone that usually southern end, through the Yorkshire lies submerged beneath it; but for the Dales to the North Pennines and most part the high places of the Northumberland in the north, Pennines feature long stretches reaching as far as Hadrian’s Wall.The of wide, open peat bog. high places are bunched into three It is perhaps an irony that the main groups of hills: the peat moorlands, which are so characteristic moorlands of Derbyshire to Aire Gap of the wildness of the Pennines, in the south; the central moors of Aire resulted from the early interaction Gap to Stainmore in the centre; and between humans and the landscape. last, the northernmost stretch, the Once the Ice Age had done its work Y High Pennines from Stainmore to the and the retreating glaciers had left M A L A River Tyne, ending just south of exposed the rounded hills and valleys / S L L E Hadrian’s Wall. All along their route, of the Pennines, great forests of oak, W R magnificent moorland dominates the elm and lime took advantage of the E T E P scenery, sometimes enchantingly moist ground on the upland plains. RIGHT The brooding, dark heights of the Kinder Scout plateau watch over the valleys of the Peak District in the southern Pennines. 54 4 Hadrian’s Wall Carlisle A69 River South Tyne Cross Fell Durham Teesdale Mickle Fell Stainmore Common A66 Darlington M6 Yorkshire A1 Whernside Dales Ingleborough A65 Pen-y-Ghent Settle Malham Gargrave Y M A Skipton L A / S I River Aire /Aire Gap L L I G N Haworth E V Bradford E Leeds T S Hebden Bridge / Y M A M62 L A Huddersfield / R E T S I L L Peak A Manchester c M District L I E Kinder Scout N S I Edale Sheffield L L No O rth H D I V 20 Miles A D ABOVE The village of Edale in Derbyshire marks the acidic bogs that dog the many prefer the semi-arctic conditions of the start of the Pennine Way. walkers who try to cross them today. It the high Pennine plateaux may soon LEFT Grindsbrook, seen from the Kinder is as if the ghosts of the trees that once be displaced, as a result of warmer plateau in winter.These forbidding conditions covered these high plains are exacting winters and less and less snow.The provide a perfect habitat for birds, plants and a petty revenge on the descendants of mountain hare would probably be animals normally associated with Arctic tundra. their destroyers.Today the wide-open, better off retaining its muddy-brown windswept moorlands continue summer coat throughout the year but OPPOSITE ‘Soldier’s lump’, the original trig point to draw those answering the call it seems only right that even the on top of Black Hill, is now surrounded by paving of the hills, disturbed only by the wildlife has that same streak of to prevent further erosion of the peat bog. plaintive trills of the curlew and cussedness for which the area’s human The forests did not outlast neolithic the whirling wind. residents are so well (if perhaps a little humans, however, who plundered High on the wind-scoured moors of uncharitably) known. this seemingly vast resource for the southern end of the Pennines That said, when you wander generations to build their early around Edale, if you are especially through the landscape above Edale societies. Eventually, of course, cutting observant, persistent and simply you get some idea where that down great swathes of the forest downright hardy, on a cold winter’s cussedness might originate – the bleak exposed the remaining vegetation, day you may just catch sight of one of moorlands, black peat ‘hags’ and which rotted down and formed the the Pennines’ more unusual residents cloud-scudded skies of the Dark Peak R dark, waterlogged peat that now sits on – a mountain hare. If it’s well into are enough to bring out the flinty O L Y A the moors. Beneath the peat, deep winter, the hare will be sporting its streak in anyone. Even the great, T R E down in the ground, the hard, winter coat of white, the better to seasoned hillwalker Alfred Wainwright N K L U impervious grit the glaciers could not protect it from predators.Today, many himself described Bleaklow as ‘an A F A destroy collected the water and created mammals, birds and plants which inhospitable wilderness of peat bogs 56 BEAUTIFUL BRITAIn / WINTER 2006 BEAUTIFUL BRITAIn / WINTER 2006 57 A VIEW FROM THE HILLS FAR LEFT The L EFT Water tumbles A BOVE The distinctive ‘rock over the rocks in the distinctive, sphinx-like pavement’ of exposed woods at Hardcastle shape of Pen-y-Ghent, limestone at the top Crags, near Hebden the lowest of the of Gordale Scar, Bridge, where the Yorkshire Dales’s near Malham, in the footpath leads up famous ‘three peaks’, Yorkshire Dales. on to the moorlands. at around 2273ft. over which progress on foot is valley of Calderdale.The dark whipped uplands.This is the southern in its insatiable appetite for the fast rock have been worn and etched by illegal to remove or damage limestone very arduous’. monument of Stoodley Pike gazes end of Brontë Country, the area that transport of goods and materials. the elements to form bone-like from these sites. Meanwhile, many Whilst forbidding, these uplands blankly down from its rock-strewn hill inspired the Brontë sisters’ writings, And then the hills begin to rise again. patchworks, the limestone pavements. adventurous potholers have found can also be both inspirational and on to the fussy network of roads, canal including Emily Brontë’s Wuthering North of Skipton, you enter the Now a rare habitat, the pavements and much more constructive leisure uses exhilarating at the same time. As you and railway that sprang from Heights. Once away from the tourism Yorkshire Dales National Park and surrounding crags have long been for the eroded fissures in the rock, Y M A L walk across the moors for hours, the industrialization in the valley below. It trail around the Brontë ‘shrine’ at the impressive limestone country plundered for their natural rock which in places plummet deep A / Y H wind whipping your ears and your was Hebden Bridge’s position, nestled Haworth, it is possible to recapture around Malham. resource. Mines and quarries extracted underground in gorges, caves and P A R boots scuffing bogs and gritstone, you among these hills, with their plentiful some of the wildness of the The three gritstone-capped, minerals and stone from the hills and dark caverns. G O T feel as if your head is scraping the sky. supply of cascading water and fast- moorlands, where it is easy to have the limestone peaks of Whernside – the large boulders of limestone were once The all-important limestone, O H P The hills here are dominated by the flowing rivers – a natural source of world to yourself for long stretches at highest mountain in the Dales, at over removed, burned and crushed for their together with glacial deposits, has also G N I L P dark, signature peak of Kinder Scout. power for the weaving mills – that a time. 2400ft – Ingleborough, and Pen-y- lime, either for use in improving soil helped to ensure better soils in this I K E At 2088ft, the Kinder Scout plateau fuelled the town’s rise to prominence Heading further north, away from Ghent, both rising above 2200ft, or to make mortar. The remains of area.These support a diverse grassland, K I M is the highest point in Derbyshire. from its humble beginnings as a small the Peak District, you come to the dominate the rugged landscape of the limestone kilns can still be found all good for sheep grazing, and this has / N O S When the wind blows, the local bridge for the packhorse route first substantial gap in the line of the Yorkshire Dales north of the tiny, over the Dales.Today, quarrying encouraged sheep and cattle farming P M A waterfall, Kinder Downfall – or through the Pennines.The moorlands Pennines: the flowing, fertile valley of picturesque village of Malham. All continues on a much-restricted scale on a larger scale than has been possible H BB Y around are the limestone scars, stark but the precious limestone pavements elsewhere in the Pennines. O ‘Kinder Scut’, as it was once known that bear down on the town offer an the River Aire. At its heart lies R / and from which the plateau derives invigorating change to the almost Gargrave, which has long provided an white outcrops of limestone, exposed are at risk of destruction from a rather Y M A L its name – creates a plume of spray claustrophobic narrowness of the important east–west link through the and scraped by glaciers and weathered more suburban threat: the stone blocks We continue our exploration of the A / Y E that can be seen for miles.

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