Image by freefotouk via Flickr

Today I have a Yorkshire Dales miscellany gathered from around the blogosphere, items that have caught my attention and that I hope will interest you. They cover quite a wide range of topics, from archaeology and photography to the re-establishment of an ancient job. It would be nice also if they added to the visitor numbers of the sites I’ve found and enjoyed. (By the way, this is quite altruistic; I have no commercial connection with any of these sites or their owners).

Yorkshire Dales News: Cash help for Dales parishes

One of the ancient trades of the Yorkshire Dales, the parish lengthsman, is to be partially resurrected long after the job disappeared, thanks to grants from the LEADER programme organised by the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust. …

This next item, about the current consultation on the proposed extension of the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales national parks is a few weeks old now, but is still highly relevant.

Yorkshire Dales News: National park extension: CLA urges locals to …

The CLA is urging people who live and work in the area covered by the proposed extension to the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Park Boundaries, to be sure of how the changes could affect them before responding to the …

Next are two “-ologies” – archaeology and ornithology. The first of these I’ll be watching over coming months to see if anything anything especially interesting emerges as I’m currently preparing to launch a new blog on archaeology for the non-specialist and it would be nice to have a linkage between the two sites.

Yorkshire Post: Power work in Dales turns up Iron Age site

ENGINEERS burying power lines in the Yorkshire Dales have unearthed a piece of ancient history which has baffled experts. Along-buried strip of ash and burnt material …

National Park Authority: Farmers help wading birds to survive

Wading birds are being given a helping hand by farmers in the Yorkshire Dales. Arkengarthdale and Swaledale are hotspots for wading birds like curlew, redshank, lapwing and snipe, and the farmers are working with …

And finally, a photogallery:

Landscape Photography blog by Tristan Campbell, Harrogate based …

Yorkshire Dales · Nidderdale · Pateley Bridge · Harrogate · Wharfedale · Outer Hebrides. Landscape Types. Moorland · Seascapes and coastline · Trees and woodland · Skies and clouds. Seasons. Winter · Spring · Summer · Autumn …

That’s it for this time. More again soon.

The Lake District has been getting quite a bit of TV publicity recently.  We’ve seen a presenter “swim-hiking”, a hotelier doing an overnight two-length swim in Windermere – that is, the full length of Windermere and back – and although I am not an addict myself I understand that even Coronation Street has been showing a honeymoon by the lake. All of this is on top of the weather reports and recovery from the recent flooding.

Here, however, is an item that I’ve not seen anywhere else apart from the National Park web site, an important meeting tomorrow, 20th January :

Lake District National Park – Bassenthwaite Reflections

A pioneering nature reserve will be the focus of a public meeting to forge future action plans for the special wetlands area. The Lake District’s first reserve of its kind at Dubwath Silver Meadows, near Bassenthwaite Lake, will come under discussion at a gathering on 20 January. People will be asked for ideas and help in safeguarding the future of the seven hectare site which is managed by a local farmer for wetland flora and fauna. Heritage Lottery Fund backed Bassenthwaite Reflections …..

On the artistic front there’s a new exhibition starting at Brantwood, Coniston.

New Exhibition at Brantwood Coniston

Coniston artist Joy Grindrod says, “This Saturday is the start of my latest exhibition “Peat Light”, held in the Severn Studio at Brantwood, Coniston. There will be new work showing, many are of local scenes and some Scottish landscapes. It will be showing until 7th March …”

Some Interesting Links – Recent Items on Other Sites

• Britain’s big freeze in pictures: Derwentwater in Lake District turns to ice (telegraph.co.uk)
• Country diary: Lake District (guardian.co.uk)
• Fell walker swept away by avalanche survives (guardian.co.uk)
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Usually when I recommend a Lake District book it’s one that I already own myself. I prefer to do this so that the blog does not degenerate into an undiscriminating commercialism.

Today, though, I’m making an exception. Although I’ve seen and admired Mark Denton’s The Lake District: The Panoramas on a number of occasions, for some unaccountable reason I’ve never actually bought a copy. However, I’ve seen this book of remarkably beautiful photographs praised so many times that I’m putting it up here anyway.

This would make a marvellous gift for a friend or family member who loves the English Lake District, or even to introduce someone for the first time to this wonderful part of the country.

There’s no doubting that Mark Denton is an outstanding landscape photographer. He has worked not only on rural but also on city landscapes including books on Edinburgh and London.  You might also like to take a look at his Yorkshire volumes: Yorkshire Moors & Wolds and The Yorkshire Coast.

Janet’s Foss, near Malham – Image via Wikipedia

With the beginning of 2010 not only am I expanding the blog to cover a wider area of the North of England (see my post about the changes at Around-England 2010) but I’m also starting a series of news updates about different areas of the region which I hope will interest people. My aim will be to bring to the surface items that might otherwise be missed, as well as giving easy access to different angles on already well-known news. So here goes with No. 1 of the Yorkshire Dales series.

The BBC early evening series on Great British Railway Journeys, fronted by Michael Portillo, has visited several of the areas covered by this blog – including the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales. If you’ve not seen the programmes you can catch the series on BBC iPlayer.  (This link takes you to last night’s programme; the others are easily found from there).

I had of course remembered Portillo’s earlier political career and his time as Minister for Defence, but had forgotten that he was previously Minister of Transport.  It was fascinating to hear him say that among all the many things he was involved with over those years in Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet he considered the saving of the Settle to Carlisle railway line, and especially the great Ribblehead viaduct, to have been one of his major achievements. Here’s another blogger’s take on the programme as it visited Dent.

The Barrister Blog: Blacksmith in Dent in the Yorkshire Dales
One of the people who is featured is Lucy Sandys-Clarke who is a blacksmith in Dent which is at the top of the Yorkshire Dales and just down the road from Sedbergh and the Howgill Fells. It’s fantastic to see traditional crafts …
Publish Date: 01/12/2010 20:13
http://timkevan.blogspot.com/

Ribblehead Viaduct, Settle-Carlisle Railway – Photo by: Andrew Barker – Fotolia.com

A second item for today comes from the editor of the Dalesman who earlier this week blogged about the consultation currently being carried out by Natural England into possible extensions to both the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales national parks.  Like me, he appears to be somewhat sceptical as to the merits of the scheme.  I’m not opposed to protection of the countryside, of course not, but am not at all certain of the benefits from layers of bureaucratic planning control.  In fact, I suspect that if they’d had planning authorities in the Middle Ages most of the beautiful natural and built environment which we now fondly protect would never have come into existence.

Proposed extension to National Park
A public consultation is currently under way on four proposed extensions to the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks. Residents, businesses and landowners are all being asked to let their views known to Natural England on …
Publish Date: 01/11/2010 7:58
http://www.news.dalesman.co.uk/

Having said that, I’ll once again show myself up to be inconsistent.  We certainly need planning authorities to slow the steady march of windfarms across some of the most beautiful areas of our countryside.

Yorkshire Dales News: Dales windfarm enquiry opens
One of the most important planning enquiries held in the Yorkshire Dales for many years opens next Tuesday (January 12) to decide whether some of the finest landscape in the north of England will be dominated by five huge wind turbines …
Publish Date: 01/06/2010 18:00
http://www.daelnet.co.uk/

OK, that’s enough for this week.  I’ll try to get another one out about the same time each week.

Searching through old photos today I came across the following picture of Gondola by a jetty on Coniston Water. It was taken on a cloudy day more than twenty years ago, and is not the world’s best photography, but I think it captures something of the atmosphere of Coniston on many days of the year – cloudy and not so bright – all part of the fascination of the Lake District.

When I first heard of the plan to broadcast this series of programmes on life in the English Lake District I did a search and the first thing that came up on Google was a page on the ITV.com website about a drama series called The Lakes, from the late 1990s.

It didn’t seem very appealing, especially if it was to be a re-run. But was it to be a new series on the same theme? After all, the last series was quite a success, capturing Bafta nominations and critical congratulation. So I thought I’d better do a search on the ITV.com website itself. Ah! That’s better! Not drama – at least, not fictional drama.

Starting with Episode 1 of The Lakes we’ll be seeing pictures of the lives of many people living and working in the Lake District during a busy summer season. I’m looking forward to January 4th, 8:00pm, ITV1.

In several earlier posts I have referred to Beatrix Potter, her association with the Lake District and her home at Hill Top Farm which is now in the care of the National Trust. In an earlier post about the day last year on which my wife and I found both of the National Trust’s Beatrix Potter locations closed I blogged about their incomprehensible policy of of having both the house at Hill Top and the Beatrix Potter Gallery in Hawkshead simultaneously closed every Friday.

However, not far away on the other side of Windermere, in Bowness, is The World of Beatrix Potter Attraction – open every day of the week, which especially for children who’ve been disappointed at Hill Top and Hawkshead is especially important on Fridays.

This Beatrix Potter attraction in Bowness-on-Windermere is the only one in the UK licensed by Peter Rabbit’s publishers. It is open almost all around the year, closing only on Christmas Day and for part of January. (Check their web site for the latest information on opening dates and times).

All 23 of the tales of Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddleduck, Squirrel Nutkin and the other animal friends are brought realistically to life indoors, even with the smells of the country farmyard.

In the “The Miss Potter Room” there is an introduction to the life of Beatrix Potter, both as Miss Potter and as Mrs Heelis with fascinating exhibits and films. You can also buy Peter Rabbit gifts and collectibles in the shop, and enjoy some good food in the Tailor of Gloucester tea room.

Special Beatrix Potter events are organised throughout the year, including Peter Rabbit Tea Parties (for which you are advised to book in advance).  As this item is posted in December 2009 the attraction’s website already has listed many events for 2010.

Next to the entrance into Grasmere village churchyard is an old house.  It was once a schoolhouse but in 1854 Wilfred and Sarah Nelson moved in with their family of two daughters, and this became the home of Grasmere Gingerbread.

Sarah was at this time in her late-thirties, and had been employed in a number of wealthy homes in the kitchens.  It was in one of these that she had experimented with her recipe for gingerbread and brought it to perfection.

During the second half of the nineteenth century  not only did Lake District tourism grow in general terms but more specifically the flow of visitors to Grasmere increased enormously following the death of the poet William Wordsworth.  The Wordsworth family graves became a place of literary pilgrimage, and for fifty years Sarah supplied a growing clientele with her unique gingerbread until she died in the early years of the twentieth century.

Today, more than one and  a half centuries later, Grasmere Gingerbread is still made to Sarah Nelson’s original recipe, a closely guarded secret, and is sold from the same house by the entrance to Grasmere village churchyard to its many thousands of visitors every year.  I suspect that Sarah, for all her belief in her unique formula, would have been astonished to know the number of countries in the world to which her gingerbread has travelled.

The Westmorland Gazette reports that plans are afoot for major changes to the provision of tourist advice in the Lake District.

Several existing advice centres are to close and in future it looks as though information provision will increasingly have to be funded by the tourist industry. I’m not going to express an opinion on the proposals as I have not been able to look at them in any detail. However, I hope that, whatever is eventually decided, there will continue for years to come to be adequate access for Lake District visitors to reliable advice in a wide range of locations.

New £300k plan to provide Lake District tourist advice centres
MORE than £300000 could be made available to help set up new tourist information facilities across South Lakeland.

Winter visits to the Lake District are the subject of a 12-page beautifully illustrated feature article in the January issue of Country Walking magazine. The idea that Cumbria is a northern county to be visited only in the summer is well and truly demolished by its photographs. The Lake District is beautiful throughout all seasons of the year.

Most appropriately, given last month’s disastrous “once in a thousand years” rainfall and flooding of many areas of the Lake District (not only those prominently featured in the national news media), the article concludes with a reminder that it is still possible to donate to the Cumbria Flood Recovery Fund and Fix the Fells.

For those who are not feeling up to energetic outdoor exploration during the winter months there are of course many indoor attractions and activities that are open all year round, mostly of a unique Lake District character unavailable anywhere else.  I referred to some in the Coniston area in a recent post on this site, and plan to add more along this line in the near future.

Finally for today, I see on the Ordnance Survey’s online-magazine blog a suggestion that hikers might expand their interests to take in rock climbing.

Lake District hikers may enjoy rock climbing

Ordnance Survey, 8 Dec 2009

Those on a hiking or camping holiday in the Lake District may wish to follow the advice of the Daily Mail and indulge in some rock climbing while they are there.

I do agree, but given that it’s now cold, wet and in high places icy, I hope that anyone taking up the suggestion will get good advice, watch the weather and the clock, go prepared and well-equipped, and not add to the mountain rescue statistics.

And then finally finally, don’t forget to subscribe to Country Walking magazine so as not to miss an issue. Click on the image below to subscribe.