Spring Newsletter www.place.uk.com 2019 Happy new year! PLACE spring conference – P. 1 Other Spring events – P. 2 We have decided to send this first newsletter of PLACE AGM – P. 3 2019 to everyone as hard copy. Those of you who Reports on past events – Pp 4 - 8 normally receive newsletters electronically will get Publications – P. 9 the next two as an e-mail attachment. PLACE information - P. 10 REMINDER: PLACE subscriptions were due on 1st January – still only £5.00 a year! If you have not already paid by cheque or standing order, please use the enclosed form to renew your subscription. Please also consider setting up a standing order for future years. SPRING CONFERENCE 2019 The Changing Nature of Conservation Saturday 6th April, Clements Hall, York, 9.15am – 4.45pm The nature conservation movement in Britain has seen enormous changes over the past century or so, from the first tentative steps to protect species and sites to national and international initiatives to manage whole landscapes in harmony with the natural world. Great changes are likely to occur within the present century, too, so it is timely to review past progress and consider how our relationship with the landscape and its wildlife may alter in future years. This conference brings together representatives from major conservation bodies, who will present personal views of the changing nature of conservation: • Sir John Lawton, keynote address: ‘Making Space for Nature: past, present and future’ • Rob Stoneman (YWT): ‘The Wildlife Trusts: from preservation to dreams of a Wilder Future’ • Laurence Rose (RSPB): ‘4319 years of bird conservation’ • Richard Baker: ‘Alien pest invaders’ • Jeremy Purseglove: ‘Making Space for Water’ • Tim Thom (YWT): ‘Getting to grips with peat’ • Phil Lyth (Farming and Wildlife): ‘Farming with Wildlife in a changing world’ • Brian Walker: ‘Changing attitudes in the Forestry Commission’ There will also be displays and bookstalls. The venue is Clements Hall in York, where there is parking nearby and easy access to buses and trains. The conference fee of £10.00 per head includes coffee and tea. Participants may bring a packed lunch or patronise one of several places to eat in the vicinity. To book your place at this major event, please complete the booking form and send a cheque to the PLACE Office, payable to ‘PLACE’, no later than Friday 22nd March. Please use the enclosed booking form for all events and book orders Page 2 GUIDED TOUR OF HALIFAX VISIT TO FOXGLOVE COVERT, Thursday 21st February 2019 CATTERICK GARRISON Wednesday 27th March 2019 Local historian David Glover (President of the Halifax Antiquarian Society) will lead us on a Dr Margaret Bastow will lead a visit to this Local guided tour around this fascinating town in Nature Reserve managed by the Ministry of Calderdale, famed for its former textile industry Defence. Foxglove Covert is known for its rich and chocolate manufacture and home to many wildlife, including plants, birds, amphibians, impressive public buildings. In the morning we reptiles and insects. Habitats include woodland, shall look at the exterior of the minster church ponds, a lake and open moorland and there is a (there will be a chance for those who wish to go bird hide on the nature reserve, so bring inside later on). Then we shall proceed to see the binoculars! Piece Hall, the Library and the Square Chapel before a lunch break. In the afternoon we shall Meet at 11.00am prompt in the car park of look at the Town Hall (below), where we shall Catterick Golf Club (grid ref: SE 172974). Access have a guided tour of the interior, and a few is via the A1 (junction 52 for Catterick), and other buildings of architectural note. A6136 to Catterick Garrison. At the large roundabout in the centre of Catterick Garrison, go straight ahead on the Leyburn Road. The Golf Club is on the left (post code DL9 3PZ). Parking on the nature reserve itself is limited, so the plan is to double up passengers at the Golf Club. Drivers will need photo ID to get through the security barrier on to the nature reserve. Cameras may be used on the nature reserve but not on the camp. We shall have a short talk at the Meet at the front of the railway station at nature reserve centre at 12 noon. 11.00am. Bring a packed lunch (weather permitting!) or patronise one of the many local Cost: £5.00 per head. Please book in advance. places to eat. Bring a packed lunch and wear walking boots or Cost: £5.00 per head. Please book in advance. very stout shoes. The Golf Club café is open from 10.00am. Stained glass in the Chapter House th Joint lecture with Yorkshire Philosophical Wednesday 24 April Society and Royal Geographical Society Dr Hilary Moxon will introduce her recent Tuesday 26th February, 7.30pm, Tempest research into the narratives in the windows in Anderson Hall, York York Minster's thirteenth-century Chapter House. By tracking the panels back through Dr Neil Macdonald – Is the history of flooding historical descriptions of the windows and at York representative of UK and European examining visual clues in the glass and the flood trends? Minster's repair records it is possible to suggest or confirm the original chronologies. Please Entry free to PLACE members. bring binoculars and note that delegates need to be prepared to stand. The talk, with questions, will last approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. Dales Archaeology Day Meet at 11.00am Saturday 30th March, Giggleswick School prompt inside the West Door. Maximum This is an annual event celebrating number: 20. This is a archaeological research in the Yorkshire Dales free event but National Park. Tickets cost £15 (£12.50 for full- advance booking is time students/YAS members). To book a place, essential. either phone 01969 652343 or book on-line at: http://retail.yorkshiredales.org.uk/products/archa St Paul escaping eology-day-school from Damascus. Page 3 PLACE Annual General Meeting and Members’ Day Saturday 11th May, Hull We are holding our AGM and Members’ Day in Hull this year, in the James Reckitt Reading Room, Hull Central Library, Albion St, Hull HU1 3TF (within a few minutes’ walk from the railway station). The timetable for the day is as follows: 10.00am Coffee/tea on arrival. 10.30am Talk by local historian Dr David Neave, on ‘Hull: History and Architecture’. 11.30am PLACE Annual General Meeting. 12.30pm Lunch break – bring a packed lunch, use the on-site café or eat elsewhere in the city. 2.00pm Guided tour by Paul Schofield, illustrating the historic buildings and architecture of Hull. Meet at Queen Victoria’s statue in the centre of Victoria Square. The tour will last no more than two hours. Attendance at the morning events is free but there will be a charge of £4.00 per head for the afternoon tour, payable in advance at the time of booking. Please use the booking form to confirm your attendance, whether or not you wish to come on the guided tour. At the AGM, three trustees will be stepping down. Two have indicated that they do not intend to stand for re-election, so there will be at least two vacancies on the Board this year. Anyone interested in being nominated as a Trustee should contact the PLACE Office for a nomination form and further information. Completed nomination forms must be returned by March 31st. Our application to become a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, as approved at the last AGM, was submitted in August 2018. We are currently responding to points raised by the Charity Commission. We will update members in the next newsletter. FIELDWORK AT MAY MOSS THIS SUMMER PLACE is continuing its involvement with vegetation monitoring at May Moss on the North York Moors, in conjunction with the Forestry Commission and the North York Moors National Park. Two new PLACE volunteers joined us last year and we hope others will be tempted to join in this coming summer. Dates for 2019 are: Thursday 6th June Thursday 4th July Thursday 1st August No prior botanical knowledge is required but a good pair of wellington boots is essential! If you are interested, please contact the PLACE Office for further details. Brian Walker monitoring plants within a quadrat Page 4 REPORTS ON PAST EVENTS OTLEY CHEVIN WALK, OCTOBER 2018 On a day of glorious sunshine and unbroken blue skies, ten PLACE members and one small dog assembled in the East Chevin Road car park for this circular autumn walk of c.4 miles on Otley Chevin. Led by Margaret Atherden, we followed a section of the Forest Park’s Geology Trail in the morning and part of a trail of wood sculptures in the afternoon. The whole of the Forest Park was designated a Local Nature Reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1989 in recognition of its wealth of wildlife and geology. Before setting off, Margaret gave us a brief outline of the geology: Millstone Grit of the Upper Carboniferous c.315 million years old, a series of alternating beds of sandstones and mudstones laid down in a deltaic environment when Britain was close to the equator. Starting on the Addingham Edge Grit, we walked west along the trail, passing on our left examples of geological features both small and large: a rare exposure of tidal laminites – thin beds deposited in very shallow water in a single tide – and huge blocks broken off from the crags above, allowing us to examine cross-bedding. The massive quarried faces of the crags were colourful in the sun, with rusty red iron staining and green mosses.