The aim of the Poetry Path is to introduce a permanent and integrated interpretive experience into the landscape that is assimilated as part of the heritage it promotes and conveys a powerful message about the farmer’s role in the countryside. It addresses the need to maintain a sensitive but viable hill-farming regime in relation to the natural environment as a resource both for nature conservation and recreation as well as food production. Dick Capel of East Cumbria Countryside Project conceived the idea and managed its implementation in conjunction with a steering committee consisting of local people in partnership with landowners. East Cumbria Countryside Project is committed to utilising the arts, which arouse people’s emotional ties with the countryside, as a vehicle for interpretation. This is strongly linked to the economic need to attract more visitors to an area where the main resource is its beautiful landscape. East Cumbria Countryside Project, Warwick Mill, Warwick Bridge, Carlisle, CA4 8RR tel: 01228 561601 e-mail: [email protected] The poetry path is funded by: - and sponsored in kind with generous discount by Stancliffe Stone Company Ltd. poetry path a year in the life of a hill farmer Twelve short poems written by Meg Peacocke have been carved by lettering artist Pip Hall on blocks of stone installed at intervals along a circular route of public paths either side of the river Eden on the outskirts of Kirkby Stephen. Carved decorative motifs with each poem depict some of the activities associated with every month of the hill farmer’s year and rubbings can be taken from these using paper and a crayon. Poetry Path route map - see inside back cover Dick Capel, Pip Hall and Meg Peacocke The landscape we have around Kirkby Stephen today, with its patchwork of fields, dry stone walls, hedges, small woods and shelter belts along the river valley and rising up to the high bare hills, is the result of a partnership between farmers and nature that started thousands of years ago. Nowadays it is predominantly sheep rearing country. Some cattle are kept but the hill farmer’s year mainly All these aspects of countryside revolves around the care of sheep, management are inextricably linked particularly the Swaledale breed. Small woods were coppiced in and interdependent and all of them rotation maintaining many of the entirely reliant on the farmers who wildwood’s ecological characteristics, work so hard to reconcile our In prehistoric times it was all a hedges were planted as field frequently conflicting demands on forest-covered wilderness, teeming boundaries providing sheltered the natural environment. with wildlife, where our earliest ‘corridors’ for wild birds and animals ancestors made small clearings for and hay meadows introduced a their huts when they were hunters haven for wild flowers and insects. The poetry path, which is located and gatherers. Then as time went on along the south boundary of the and their agricultural skills developed Farmers in the 21st century have to officially designated North Pennines they cleared more and more trees to This harmony was largely be wildlife managers and custodians Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, make room for crops and grazing coincidental arising from the of the natural environment as well as is a celebration of the hill farmer’s animals and so the ‘wildwood’ farmers’ need to synchronise with food producers and maintain a ancient and enduring relationship gradually diminished. the natural scheme of things and be balance between these demands. with the beautiful landscape in and self-sufficient. Since the Second Kirkby Stephen’s landscape is around the upper Eden valley. World War huge advances in farm spectacularly beautiful and still rich By the thirteenth century almost productivity and transport have in wildlife and local farmers are the nothing of the original wildwood made it possible to over-ride first to acknowledge that it is these The route starts at ‘Swingy Bridge’. survived and most of the fragments ecological processes. Developments attributes that make it such a special It is advisable to leave cars in Kirkby of woodland that remained were in mechanisation and chemical area in which to live and work. But Stephen and walk along Nateby managed for timber production. In technology have subjected wildlife to they also know that an ecologically Road past the Primary School to the succeeding centuries, as marshy unprecedented pressures detrimental robust countryside is a crucial factor Bollam Lane. This is signposted valleys were drained and agriculture to its survival so that nature in relation to the high quality of ‘Public footpath to Stenkrith’ and evolved and became more conservation is now greatly their meat and dairy products and ‘Public bridleway to Hartley and centralised and efficient, some of the dependent on modern farmers that its importance as a resource for Nateby’. Walk down Bollam Lane cleared woodland on marginal land making a conscious effort to recreational access and tourism is of and the poem for January is on a regenerated and farming practice facilitate habitat management as an great significance to the rural stone to your right where the path coexisted in harmony with wild nature. integral part of their role. economy in Cumbria as a whole. meets the river Eden. The sky’s harsh crystal, Hedge laying wind a blade, trees stripped, Although dry stone walls are the grass dull with cold. Life january main means in this area by which is a kernel hidden animals are kept secure in fields, well in the stone of winter. laid hedges also provide very effective barriers. Hedge laying is an ancient technique where trees planted along a field boundary are cut three quarters of the way through their stems close to the ground and then pulled over at a 35 degree angle. They then produce shoots growing up vertically from the main stems and, after a few years when the shoots are big enough, the process is repeated. Over many years, if done properly, this provides a dense barrier of living vegetation, which is also a marvellous habitat for a huge variety of wildlife. Go through the kissing gate then over the footbridge and continue along the track to the small stone barn where you will find the February poem. Snowlight peers at the byre door. Neither day nor night. february Four months ago we fetched the cattle in, safe from reiving wind and rain, months of standing and shifting, burdened Cattle brought in for the winter with patience. When will winter end? Many sheep farmers also keep beef cattle and these are kept indoors during the winter to protect them Thin strakes of sun on the byre floor. from the weather and ensure that the dormant grass in the fields is not Fork a load of silage out, damaged. It also facilitates a more straighten your back to watch them shove efficient way of feeding them with their muzzles in, and wonder if they crave hay and silage and provides a steady the hazy nights when they can roam supply of dung for spreading on the among tall summer grasses, sleek and sound and warm. fields to fertilise the next year’s new growth of grass. Follow the track through the bridleway gate and turn right. This is an ancient ‘hollow way’ which has been used for hundreds of years and was probably the original main road between Kirkby Stephen and Nateby. Watch out for the March poem where you cross a stream. Walling Most of the dry stone walls, which march are so characteristic of these rocky, hill country landscapes, were built over a hundred years ago when the early wallers had an abundance of From field stone to hand. Dry stone walls need and fell regular maintenance and the considerable skills involved are run cold handed down through the run small. generations. March is usually an I am the rain opportune time to repair gaps which tear in the eye may have appeared during the winter. blood in the vein I am the sea. A little way further brings you to a wonderful example of dry stone walling by master waller Steve Allen which incorporates the poem for April. Coltsfoot, celandine, earliest daisies. Twin lambs race to the mother, baby cries, april Mam! Mam! jolt out of them and now they jostle the ragged ewe, boosting each split hoof high off the bitten turf. Lambing time Pinching jaws and hard curled coats Hill sheep are bred for their hardiness are braced against these April suns and sleets. and the ewes usually have their lambs outdoors. This involves the farmers in a constant round of checking their condition and sometimes assisting in the births. May’s poem is another one built into a section of wall constructed by Steve Allen and is located at the beginning of the stone bridge ahead, which crosses the old railway. Gathering and marking sheep Penned in a huddle, the great tups Once the lambs are big enough they are clints of panting stone. The shepherd lifts may are tagged and marked and moved a sideways glance from the labour back onto the fells with their of dagging tails. His hands are seamed with muck mothers. Sheep have to be gathered and the sweat runs into his eyes. regularly throughout the year for all Above us, a silent plane has needled sorts of reasons including removing the clear blue. Paling behind it dirty wool from around their tails a crimped double strand of wool unravels. (dagging) to discourage parasitic flies. Collie dogs, renowned for their intelligence and initiative, provide indispensable assistance to the hill farmer. Cross the bridge and follow the path as it bears right, and the June poem is on your right, carved into a gritstone block.