Simon English
England Revisited

On a telegraph post in field east of Birchfield House off the Ripley to Summerbridge Road in the Nidderdale Valley.

On a fence post by the wall where the electricity pole that I used in 1971 once stood. There is a new pole standing 10 yards further out into the field. Presumably when the original poles were replaced to carry a heavier supply a new hole was drilled further west rather than risk knocking down the dry stone wall by ripping out the old pole to use the original hole.

The beautiful dry stone wall runs strait down to the River Nidd and still in perfect condition. The field it borders used to be grazing grass but it is now dived into two by a new post and rail fence and in the common corner, where the fence adjoins the wall, the grass has been replaced by a tangle of brambles and thistles. Away from this prickly patch the grass was standing uncut and in fine condition with a fine mixture of native grasses rather than the coarse modern variety of rye. I learn on asking that this field has never been ploughed and has for generations been used for hay and grazing.

The divided field is to allow horse grazing for the new owners of the original farmhouse nearby which has been sold and the Farm and barns moved to new buildings up the hill. The business of farming has had to react to the drop in the price paid for milk by replacing the old dairy herd with Jersey Cows and the rich milk they produce kept on the farm where they have an ice cream parlour to make own brand ice cream. This is sold locally and more widely at festivals.

From point 20 looking south the big fields on the north bank of the Nidd are still arable and growing cereals. Beyond that trees still line the banks of the river and the track of the old railway on the south bank. On the other side of the valley the ground rises up to Gallow Crag which in 1971 was topped by a small belt of conifers on a moorland of what seems to have been bracken. The conifer belt is still there clearly now tall trees but surrounded by small trees. Whether this is deliberate planting or just allowing scrub and thorn to establish on the previous the open ground through concession of grazing would need further enquiries.

On this subject the farmer here told me a story about how, years ago, met an old lady in one of his fields. He used this old pasture take off one crop of hay then grazes the tups for the rest of the year. This annual routine had been the same every year within living memory. The old lady was the last of a family of amateur botanists who had privately been doing a plant survey of the field every ten years to track the changes in the plant populations there. She was familiar with every flower and grass, annuals and perennial. This was started by her father in the mid 19th century then taken on by her brother but she had no one to continue the tradition. I wonder what happened to all those notebooks and field maps now that the records kept by passionate amateur scientists of previous centuries are so important now that our generation is tying to find data to measure potential climate change.
Points 20 & 19