Where city meets country

A view from the highest point of my walk, looking over to the top of Allerton, a district of Bradford, once a village and now a suburb of the city; a finger of urban development reaching out into the countryside. The two Chellow Dene reservoirs (see Thursday's post) lie hidden in the small valley among the trees beyond the golf course.

Settled majesty

'There is a serene and settled majesty to woodland scenery that enters into the soul and delights and elevates it, and fills it with noble inclinations.' Washington Irving

Chellow Dene

I often opt to stay fairly close to home on a British Bank Holiday and the recent August 'day off' was no exception. I went for a walk that involved, to some extent, revisiting old haunts. This is one of the two reservoirs at Chellow Dene, built in 1853 (it's the same age as Salts Mill) by Bradford Corporation to provide a stable water supply for the city of Bradford. The lakes are no longer used as a water supply but instead the wooded valley is managed for recreational purposes. It is a haven for wildlife, notably owls and herons, and a rare fern (the Rusty Backed Fern) can be found growing in the stone walls. It's very close to the city. In fact, years ago when my daughter was small we lived just south of this area, close to the hospital. I used to bring her here in her pushchair to watch the ducks. It was a pleasant twenty-minute walk and, living in a very built-up area, it was lovely to have a green, wild space so close to home. This time I entered the woods at the other end, which is a couple of miles from Saltaire and did a circular walk.

Red route

Another shot taken whilst wandering around Bradford University. Sometimes it's good to get away from nature and history and try some different images - though I have plenty of personal history here.  This was where I was a student.

Untitled

Bradford University again - a view of the recently built glass Atrium. (It was the weekend and so there were few students around.)

Five red Henrys

A bit of a random image but it caught my eye. It's one of Bradford University's residential blocks. I think the red items on each landing are vacuum cleaners.  There is a make called 'Henry' that's red and has a cute face painted on.

Art in the Pen 2013

I love browsing art exhibitions, galleries and fairs so I really enjoyed a recent visit to 'Art in the Pen, the North's Visual Art Fair'. Held in Skipton Auction Mart, this is an annual exhibition/sale of art of all kinds. It has been running for eight years now and each year it has got bigger and better. The Auction Mart is the town's cattle auction market. (You eventually get used to the rich aroma as you wander round!) This year there were 124 artists, each allotted a cattle pen to turn into a mini art gallery. It's high quality art, though some of it is surprisingly affordable. (I bought a beautiful and unusual silver ring for not very much at all.) I am always interested in the photography on show - everything from beautiful landscapes and wildlife to more creatively processed work - but there are also wonderful paintings, prints, sculpture, ceramics, textiles and jewellery. Most of the artists are based in the north of England and so a lot of the work has a local flavour. It's a really good place to chat to the artists too.

I've seen some of the exhibitors' work before (Saltaire Arts Trail is a similar high-end event) but that never diminishes the pleasure and there is always something new to discover. I am interested how some work grabs my attention (and not always for reasons I can define) while others leave me cold. It's a good job we're all different.

The photographic artist Daniel Shiel produces some interesting stuff - mostly vibrant collages of textures and colours. (You can maybe spot some of his work above.) Nicola Taylor's 'visual fairy tales' are moody, compelling, like the Bröntes in pictures. If I'd had the money, this year I'd have walked off with a print from Janis Goodman - probably one of her quirky Saltaire pictures. I contented myself with a few of her cards. Katherine Sainsbury does some wonderful pieces (mirrors, teapot stands, pots and vases) made of smashed vintage china, that would look great in the right setting.

Kilnsey Old Hall

It's curious how many of the houses I feature here turn out to be for sale! This is Kilnsey Old Hall, a beautifully restored Grade II listed dwelling, dating back mainly to the mid-17th century but with parts believed to go back to medieval times.

As I've said before in this series of posts, Kilnsey was at one time a monastic grange belonging to Fountains Abbey. There is evidence that a Manorial Court was held here (when local disputes were ruled upon, and petty criminals tried). The gatehouse, in the foreground of my photo, which once extended into an arched gateway, may have remnants of the old courthouse. Behind the house is a small chapel, now a holiday let.

The main part of the house was built in 1648 for Christopher Wade. His son, Cuthbert was a captain in the Royalist forces of Charles I in the English Civil War. After a chequered history, the property was bought in 1998 and has been carefully restored to a very high standard by the Wilkinsons. Sonia Wilkinson has researched and published a book about the history of the Hall and the area. (See here for an interesting press article).

Look at the sales brochure. It's a fabulous house!

Kilnsey

Nestled in the shadow of the huge limestone cliff that ends in Kilnsey Crag, the hamlet of Kilnsey these days seems much less significant than it once was. The through road skirts the edge of the village, so most people don't stop to explore. I was lucky enough to be able to join a guided walk, led by members of a Dales archaeology group, who explained the interesting history of the area. It grew up alongside Mastiles Lane, which comes over from Malham Tarn and was originally a Roman marching road known as Strete Gate (a Roman camp has been discovered close by) and later an important drovers' route. Sheep were brought to and from the rich summer pastures, when the area was a monastic grange,farmed by lay brothers attached to the Cistercian monastery at nearby Fountains Abbey. The monks used to provide accommodation for travellers. Cattle were driven down from Scotland on their way to be sold and packhorses used the route to carry fleeces and other goods. It was a bustling place!

The 17 or so village houses, many of which date back to the 17th century, cluster around the village green, the field in my picture bounded by drystone walls - a rough, sloping pasture that is a far cry from the manicured village greens of many English villages. At one time this area held a lime kiln (limestone was burnt to produce lime, used in building mortar, for whitewashing walls and for agriculture). The tallest building in the centre of my photo is Kilnsey Old Hall and lime would have been used in building that. In later days the village became a popular place for day-trippers and there were two pubs - The Tennants Arms (named after a prominent local family), which still trades, and The Anglers Arms.  Nowadays, the main attractions are still the pub (which does meals too), Kilnsey Park and Kilnsey Crag, which is a huge overhang and attracts serious climbers.

There's also the annual Kilnsey Show, an agricultural show famous for its fell race, when runners run right up to the top of those cliffs and back down, over 1000ft in a mile, with a suicidal descent down 'the chimney'.  If you have a few minutes, check out this video. There is a rumour that someone once did it carrying an ironing board!

Kilnsey's Clapper bridge

Easy to overlook, this ancient clapper bridge sits alongside the much more recent wooden bridge that forms the entrance to the Kilnsey Park Trail.  Many clapper bridges date back to medieval times and are a very simple way of crossing a stream or river, using huge slabs of stone resting on the banks at either side, or on stone pillars when the span is large. This particular example, spanning Sykes Beck, is thought to date back to when Kilnsey was farmed by the lay brothers attached to the monastery at Fountains Abbey.

A babbling brook

For once, our British summer has been just that - summer. Warm - even hot for a while, plenty of dry, sunny days with a healthy smattering of rain. This babbling brook (Syke Beck) in the Yorkshire Dales was flowing fast but isn't in spate. The fresh, clear water comes from a spring a little further upstream, fed by rainwater percolating down through the limestone uplands into underground chambers. The cave-system feeding this stream has not yet been discovered but a team of divers are trying to do just that.

There is no way I could be a caver... just the thought of lowering myself down a tiny, dark hole into the unknown underground gives me the shivers. (Try typing 'caving' into Google images!) They then have to wade or swim up the flowing water underground, sometimes diving through narrow, flooded sumps - all in the hope that they will reach an amazing underground cave. Some of those that have been discovered are spectacular - but even that isn't enough to entice me. A few have been opened up so that visitors can have a tour inside (take a look at the website for White Scar Cave). They might well be worth seeing, but I'm not keen!

Flora and fauna

Kilnsey Park is run as a highly sustainable venture. The estate's lakes and fish hatcheries are fed by natural springs, created by water soaking through the limestone uplands into underground chambers. The streams then surface lower down in crystal clear mineral springs. The estate has its own hydro-electric plant harnessing the water of Sykes Beck, which provides enough electricity to meet all the site's needs, with the surplus sold to the National Grid. 

Part of the estate is a water-meadow - an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest), with an abundance of meadow flowers and grasses, including many orchids.  The rare Lady's Slipper Orchid was once though to be extinct in Britain. In the 1930s a single plant was discovered, growing in a remote (and now secret) location in the Yorkshire Dales. Kilnsey Park is one of the places they sought to reintroduce it, in 2007, and it first flowered here in 2009. One precious specimen, amid tight security, was exhibited this year in a 'Yorkshire garden' at the Chelsea Flower Show.

The abundance of nectar sources make it natural to keep honey-bees, and there are hives and an observation hive (with glass panels behind doors) that you can open to watch the bees at work. It's fascinating.  Most people are now aware of the importance of bees to our world's food supply and the dangers they face - disturbances to their habitat, the recent run of poor/peculiar weather, pests and diseases and a mysterious phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder. So it's crucial that we do all we can to support our bees. Places like Kilnsey form a vital part of that work.

They also have a colony of native red squirrels, at present kept safe in enclosures. Hopefully one day the introduced grey squirrel population locally will be eradicated so that the reds can safely be released into the local area.

NB: I did not use flash on this photo! The hive is illuminated by spotlights that reflected on the glass.

The agile trout

Kilnsey Park, where the three alpacas have gone to live, started out as a trout farm. (There has always been a tradition of fishing in the area, from the earliest days when lay brothers from Fountains Abbey farmed here, through Victorian times when the river was noted for its fishing.)  Over the years the farm has diversified very successfully to become a visitor attraction, with activities for children and a host of interesting conservation features.

However, trout farming, fishing and smoking are still its main focus. There are attractive spring-fed lakes where you can learn to fly-fish and, when you've landed your catch, they will prepare it ready for you to take home to cook. The Kilnsey Trail meanders through the estate, past the various fish nurseries, where baby trout are nurtured into fully grown adults in a series of raceways until they are ready to be harvested or released into the lakes. You get a packet of fish food with your entry ticket and it's wonderful to watch the big muscular fish leaping and thrashing to catch the pellets. They really make the water boil.

There are, apparently, four different type of trout on the farm - rainbow, blue, brown and golden. I'm not sure what type those in my photo are, though they had a distinctive pink stripe. I brought some of the smoked fillets home and they are absolutely delicious, melt-in-the-mouth tender, with a lovely subtle flavour.

Journey's end

After all the excitement of the alpaca trek starting in Saltaire (see my Tuesday 6 August post), I felt it incumbent upon me to pop up to Kilnsey to see how they were settling in. As you can see, they were looking decidedly perky! The one on the left, particularly, has a really cute face. It's hard to see the black one's features in my photo but I'm not upset about that as it was hard to see them in actuality. I've never seen such a black black!  There was a competition to name them... I haven't heard the results yet. Any suggestions?

The Puddle Stones

PUDDLE - A poem by Simon Armitage

Rain junk, sky litter. Some May mornings Atlantic storm horses clatter this way, shedding their iron shoes in potholes and ruts. Shoes that melt into steel grey puddles....

This is one of several poems written by Simon Armitage, commissioned by the Ilkley Literature Festival and imove. Each poem has been carved, by Pip Hall, in rock at a different location along the Pennine Watershed (the highest part of the Pennines) from Marsden to Ilkley, forming a trail known as the Stanza Stones Poetry Trail.

"The gritstone pavers were reclaimed from an industrial site near Bolton. Originally quarried on the Yorkshire moors in the nineteenth century, and transported for mill-factory flooring, they have made their return journey, over a hundred years later, to rest on Rombalds Moor. The holes cut in the stones still have rust in them, showing where iron machinery was once set. In places where the iron fixings wouldn’t budge, they have been cut out, leaving rusty stumps. For a poem which begins ‘Rain-junk’, using these recycled stones seemed appropriate.” Pip Hall

Thimble Stones

Venturing a little further along the moorland path, which has been recently paved in reclaimed Yorkshire stone and is a little piece of beauty in itself (some of the stones have patches of paint and rusty nails sticking out of them, testament to some previous incarnation) I came to this ancient place - the Thimble Stones.

They are huge rocks of millstone grit, and you may be able to see that two of them support a smaller boulder caught in between. This natural monument may have had some significance to our Neolithic and Bronze Age ancestors (before 2000BC). Rombalds Moor has a high incidence of 'cup and ring' marked stones.

Coincidentally, my good friend and fellow blogger Alan Burnett visited these stones during his 'West Yorkshire in Ten Squares' project - see here for his interpretation.  This can be a trailer for our next joint collaboration....

Rombalds Moor

I decided to explore another of the Stanza Stones poetry walks, to find poems engraved on rocks on the high Pennine watershed. (See here for the walk I did last year). This one was closer to home, up on the Rombalds Moor, on the watershed between the Aire Valley and the Wharfe valley. It was an overcast day but it's always exhilarating to be up high where the air feels so fresh. The purple heather is just coming into bloom, which adds to the beauty. The views are stunning up there. You can see as far as Harrogate.

The curious white blobs on the horizon look like huge golf balls. (Perhaps appropriately, as legend has it that a giant lived on these moors. Perhaps he played golf?) In fact, they are radomes at the RAF station at Menwith Hill, which is a communications intercept and missile early warning station, operated jointly between the UK and the USA military.

Lincolnshire sunset

I've bemoaned before the fact that down here in my urban Yorkshire valley, with houses to the west, I hardly see the sky and rarely notice the sunsets. Not so for my sister. She lives in rural Lincolnshire - high up and on the flat lands. Lots of sky there.... She sent me this from her iPhone last week. Isn't it glorious? I'm proud to feature her as a guest photographer. I thought her photo deserved to be shared.... A lovely sunset seems to thrill nearly everyone; there's something instinctive about our response, I think. God's in his heaven, all's right in His world.

Two trees in summer

Those two trees again, showing another seasonal face.

For other photos of these trees, please click the 'two trees' label below.

And they're off...!

I'm getting a bit behind with posting photos... This was taken a week ago, at the start of a new 15k race, the Saltaire Shaker. It was a baking hot morning but that didn't deter runners, of all ages, from 36 clubs (including one from New York!) from taking part.  The race is designed to be scenic and all off-road, starting from beside Roberts Park and going along the canal towpath and through woods to Baildon and back.

I went to the park especially to take some photos and I took some nice ones of runners coming down from Hirst Locks - then silly old me managed to delete most of them from my camera before I'd downloaded them! Doh! I'm a very 'late-adopter' of new technology and it's only now that I have decided (dared!) to experiment with taking photos in RAW format. So it took me a while to figure out how to deal with them, and when I needed some more space on my memory card I forgot I had not moved this batch onto the computer.  Anyway, this is an historic picture, my first from a RAW conversion. I don't think I've mastered the technique yet... There are lots of things I've not yet worked out, and I am a bit wary of trusting my own eyes entirely to decide what the finished image should look like. (Too much choice is not necessarily good for me. One day things look better tweaked one way and another day I might decide I like something a bit different!) But the method gives many more possibilities so it seems worth a period of experimenting. I can always go back to jpgs if necessary.

If you go down to the woods....

Aire Sculpture Trail
More of the sculptures designed by local schoolchildren and sited along the new Aire Sculpture Trail between Baildon Bridge and Saltaire. I wasn't sure if I liked them at first but their cartoonish naivety is growing on me. There had to be an alpaca somewhere, I suppose!

I'll leave you to discover the rest for yourselves some day....

Tortoises, a frog and a slug

Aire Sculpture Trail
It's interesting to see what the children imagined might inhabit the area between the river and the canal. Here we have a pair of amorous tortoises, a skateboarding frog and a slug beside a salt pot (or should that be a Salt pot?)

Aire Sculpture Trail

Octopussy (see yesterday) is the first of a series of cast-iron sculptures installed as part of a new Sculpture Trail. The project, a collaboration between the local Council and several other bodies including the Canal and River Trust, Hive Community Arts and Newmason Properties, has been conceived to encourage people to use the footpath link between Baildon Bridge and Saltaire. Until recently this was quite an overgrown path and felt a bit isolated and dangerous. Potentially it's quite a nice walk (with the possibility of seeing a kingfisher on the way if you're lucky). It goes along the bank of the River Aire and up to the canal towpath, and provides a much quicker route into Saltaire from Baildon Bridge than going round by the roads. They have cleared a lot of the vegetation to open it up, and installed a series of fifteen sculptures along its length in a bid to make it a more attractive option.

Holmfirth-based sculptor Mick Kirkby Geddes worked with pupils in Wycliffe Primary School to design the sculptures and reliefs, and then made them in his workshop.

Aliens invade Saltaire!

Octopussy is a new addition to the Saltaire scene.... Find him sunning himself on the wall down by the entrance to Roberts Park, keeping his beady eyes on everyone who passes. Why? Come back tomorrow to find out....

Poppies

Sometimes a laid-back approach to gardening and maintenance can be a good thing. These bright poppies appear to have self-seeded into the cracks and gaps of the Yorkshire stone paving, creating this impromptu garden on the edge of the pavement, along one of Saltaire's streets of terraced houses.

Star Trek to Kilnsey

Photo © Bob Collier and used with permission

After running the story on Saturday, I was delighted to find in my inbox this wonderful photo of Jamie Roberts, setting off on his trek from Saltaire to Kilnsey with alpacas in tow (or perhaps towing him, you can't be sure!)  I don't think the alpacas are walking the whole way but they are a nice touch. They will be taking up residence at Kilnsey Park, to celebrate its links with Saltaire. Doesn't Jamie look the part? Let's hope the weather stays fine for him; it's a bit changeable this week and I don't suppose a Victorian gentleman's fine tweeds are much use in a downpour. Hopefully he has a voluminous cape too...

Because of work, I wasn't able to get down to Saltaire for the launch of the walk so a big thank you to Amanda Brown, of A2B PR, for thinking to send the picture to me. It was taken by (and is copyrighted to) Bob Collier, so Bob is starring as my guest photographer today and must be congratulated on a lovely photo.

The following text is taken from the publicity material:

Alpacas Star In Trek To Commemorate Yorkshire’s Mill Heritage

An important era in Yorkshire’s history was commemorated today when the owner of one of the county’s top rural visitor attractions donned Victorian attire and began a walk with a trio of alpacas in tow.

Jamie Roberts set out from Saltaire in West Yorkshire to return home to Kilnsey Park in the Yorkshire Dales as part of the Park’s 35^th anniversary celebrations. The walk is also honouring an important anniversary in the history of Salts Mill, one of Yorkshire’s and the world’s greatest industrial powerhouses in Victorian times and now a cultural centre and UNESCO World Heritage site. It was 120 years ago when Jamie’s great great grandfather Sir James Roberts took over Salts Mill from the family of the founder, Sir Titus Salt and saved it from bankruptcy.

As the mill’s fortunes – and those of his family – were largely built on spinning alpaca wool, Jamie decided it was a fitting tribute to start the walk with the camelid trio before they take up residence at Kilnsey Park.

Jamie is walking part of the route with the alpacas, from Salts Mill to Crossflatts following the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, before rejoining the route about 4 miles from Kilnsey. He said: “Bringing home the alpacas to Kilnsey is a fantastic way of celebrating my family’s heritage and connections with Salts Mill. The success of the Mill enabled my ancestors to purchase the Kilnsey Estate in 1911 and it has remained in our family ever since.”

“In 1978 we opened a trout farm and trekking centre and since then the Estate has gone from strength to strength not only as a visitor attraction but also as a centre for conservation and as one of the most sustainable businesses in the UK.”

A weekend of celebrations is planned at Kilnsey Park on 10-11^th August including family activities, outdoor performances, music and local food and drink. More information can be found at www.kilnseypark.co.uk

The alpacas are also local having been bred by prize-winning breeders at Carlshead Farm near Wetherby. 

New kid on the block

One of the shops on Victoria Road in Saltaire has been reincarnated yet again. During the time I've lived in the village, it has been a gift shop and Saltaire's unofficial information centre, then it became Magic Number 3 - a delicatessen/café that later transformed itself into an ethical clothes shop. Since then it has sold vintage housewares and been a pop-up exhibition centre. Now it has reopened as Radstudio, selling bright, stylish, contemporary items, the kind of thing that wouldn't look out of place in my daughter's home but would look very odd in mine!

No 2 Victoria Road started life as Ellis Shaw's butchers in the 1860s. In 1880 it became a confectioner's, making wedding cakes amongst other delicacies. By 1935 it was a baker's shop, and the family that owned it expanded into No 3 as well and 'lived above the shop', eventually letting the shop itself to a variety of other businesses. It became the Information and Gift Centre in 1993, run by Roger and Anne Heald.  (Information gleaned, with thanks, from Roger Clarke's book about Saltaire's shops: 'A penny for going'.)

The family Silver

I happened to call in Salts Mill on my way home from work the other day to buy a greetings card. They sell a wonderful selection. (Of course, I came out with a book too. That always happens!) Anyway, unusually, I entered by the recently improved car park entrance. I was delighted to find that immediately on entering you now go through a small gallery dedicated to the late Jonathan Silver, the entrepreneur who, in 1987, saved the mill buildings from dereliction after the textile business foundered. His contribution to Saltaire is arguably nearly as great as that of Sir Titus Salt himself, and yet he was a humble man and until now has had little in the way of memorial and barely a mention around Saltaire itself.

I've recounted the story before: how the mill closed in 1986 and appeared to be slowly sinking into decay. Along came Jonathan, a local businessman, just 37 years old at the time. He had run several businesses (antiques, furniture, art and men's clothing) and had some experience of regenerating Dean Clough Mills in Halifax. He negotiated to buy Salts Mill, with a huge vision to turn it into a vibrant mixture of gallery and retail space and new commercial ventures. 25 years on, that vision has been handsomely realised, though sadly Jonathan himself did not live to see its complete fruition. He died of cancer in 1997. The enterprise has continued to be carefully nurtured by his family. His widow Maggie, brother Robin and more recently his daughter Zoe are all involved, together with a talented team who have ensured that Jonathan's vision for a thriving cultural, retail and commercial centre continues to develop and bring life to the old mill, to Saltaire and to the local area. (See here for an article written by Zoe Silver and here for an obituary written by the artist David Hockney, Jonathan's friend, whose artworks now fill the mill's galleries.)

Trekking to Kilnsey

On the way back from Buckden, we pulled into the car park at Kilnsey Park for a few moments, to enjoy this lovely view. The rock in the background is the distinctive Kilnsey Crag, an overhanging limestone cliff popular with climbers. Kilnsey Park is a working trout farm (fish farming here dates back to the 1200s, when the monks of Fountains Abbey bred carp here) and it has diversified to provide all sorts of interesting amenities, including a fish smokery, nature trails (with rare orchids), fly fishing, farm shop and a restaurant. It's a beautiful spot and I keep meaning to visit Kilnsey 'properly' to enjoy all it has to offer.

There is an interesting connection with Saltaire, as the Kilnsey Park estate belongs to the family of Sir James Roberts, who took over Salts Mill from the Salt family. Kilnsey Park is now run by Jamie Roberts, the fourth generation of the family to live and work on the estate.

I have just found out that Jamie is planning to walk from Saltaire all the way to Kilnsey with a pair of alpacas, to commemorate both the 35th anniversary of Kilnsey Park and the 120th anniversary of his great great grandfather Sir James Roberts saving Salts Mill from bankruptcy. His trek starts next Tuesday 6 August at 11am, beginning from Salts Mill along the canal towpath from Saltaire towards Bingley. Anyone interested is invited to join him for parts of the way. More info on the Saltaire Village website. There is a weekend of celebrations planned at Kilnsey on 10-11 August.

Carnival

Hot colours in a hanging basket, outside the Buck Inn at Buckden, up in the Yorkshire Dales.

Lazy sunny afternoon

I'm having so many lovely jaunts lately that I am having a job to keep up with all the photos I've been taking! I took this one when I went out for a special lunch to celebrate the retirement of one of my friends from work. We drove miles up into the Yorkshire Dales, right up into Upper Wharfedale to a little village called Buckden. There's a nice old pub there called The Buck Inn, a favourite of people taking walking holidays. The Dalesway long-distance path passes through the village. It was a very hot day so we had our meal inside. The thick stone walls of such old buildings keep the inside cool. Afterwards we sat outside in the shade of the umbrellas and enjoyed the fresh air, the pretty flowers, lovely views and good conversation.