32. Friday 21st January 2011

So what have we been up to over the winter? The snow and biting cold weather has kept us away, but that doesn't mean we haven't been busy.
Alan and Jane have been working on the botanical survey, cataloguing and editing a large archive of photographs and flora lists for the botanical survey, while the field survey team have been similarly tying up loose ends and preparing materials for the report.

We are now drafting the official report which will go out to the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and others this year, and discussing the best way to provide a more general readership with the project's findings. The team have had a couple of meetings to get the report writing under way.

Alan and Jane have been out today measuring up the habitat zones and checking them for descriptors to include in the report; Alan has also been taking additional photographs for the archaeological record. And Alison has re-visited the site to check on some of her ideas regarding the walls and boundaries.

Jane Lunnon

31. Wednesday 1st September, 2010

It was a glorious day of warm summer sunshine at last, for myself, Ruth and Peter who turned up for some more surveying today. We were able to go back onto the moorside and check out a few more details for the gazetteer of archaeological features.

Peter taking a GPS reading © Jane Lunnon

And Jane continued the botanical survey as usual. There are no new flowers emerging at this time of year, so this will probably be the final month for the year’s survey of flowering plants.

The water level of the reservoir appears to have settled at a half-way point – not as low as it has been, but still revealing quite a lot of the mill site which would normally be underwater. The longer the site is exposed the more stones are moved around or thrown into the reservoir – the site is losing its integrity little by little as the weeks go by, but thankfully, so far, there has been little significant damage except to the section of 18th century field wall, now destroyed, which used to lie on the popular footpath nearby.

The Mission Building continues to deteriorate gradually, but happily is still providing enough shelter for an owl to live there.

Ruth checking the Gazatteer © Jane Lunnon

We were asked recently if there were any traces of the old cottage gardens left on the site – unfortunately the botanical survey has found no evidence of the survival of vegetables, herbs or cottage garden flowers – introduced plants such as purple and yellow irises we know were first planted here during the past decade, while the white foxgloves are growing several hundred metres away from the mill site, so we cannot be sure if they originate from the mill workers’ cottage gardens.


Jane Lunnon

29. Wednesday 18th August 2010

Toothache notwithstanding, I joined Alan at the Whitfield site today to continue our botanical survey. The weather was very changeable again, and the shower cap proved very useful in protecting Alan’s camera! We are now finding that the rate of new flowers appearing has slowed down as summer progresses, and the survey went well as so much is just a repeat of last month’s inventory of plants.

We agreed that since we are new to this kind of thing, that we would focus this year just upon flowering plants, and leave grasses, lichens, mosses, ferns and fungi out of our report for UWHG’s Whitfield Project 2010. This makes things much simpler, and allows us to give more attention to producing a good data set and photographic collection based on this smaller botanical survey.

I left the site early in the afternoon, leaving Alan waiting for the latest shower to pass so he could photograph the last of the flowers on his list for today.

The botanical survey will continue again next Wednesday.

Jane Lunnon, UWHG Archivist

28. Wednesday 11th August 2010

It’s been a fortnight since we last on-site. If you want to know what we’ve been up to, then why not have a look at our blog for the Hartlington dig at : http://uwhg-hartlington.blogspot.com/ . Several members of UWHG have been on a thoroughly enjoyable week’s dig under the direction of David Johnson, at Hartlington, near Burnsall.

Now we’re back to Embsay again. Three of us arrived at Embsay Reservoir this morning to be greeted by a heavy downpour of rain – not what the weather forecast had promised at all. We sat in the car waiting for the dark clouds to roll on by, and eventually some blue (ish) patches appeared overhead, and we ventured out to continue our surveying.

Alan spent the day photographing various botanical specimens across the site, while Jane and Ruth started the morning by checking out a few more features of the old mill on the foreshore, making the most of the lowered water levels since the last proper field survey was done. However, we did notice that the water levels were not as low as they had been a couple of weeks ago.

Noticing that it is now the grouse shooting season, we made the most of being able to get on to the moorside before it is closed to public access. Jane spent the rest of the day starting the botanical survey for August, around the sheepwash and mill pond areas, while Ruth checked out the details of the Gazetteer of features, making sure we had all the features identified and numbered correctly on the moorside. Alan continued with his photography.

We had a leisurely lunch, despite the constantly changing weather – from hot and sunny to cold, overcast, drizzly and windy – and back again to hot and sunny. A small boy thought he’d found a good toy, and we spotted him just in time, marching cheerily off with one of our red flags, which had been set down to mark some fungi Alan was going to photograph after lunch. Poor little chap – we had to ask him to give it back. At the end of the day, the 3 of us met up at the bogbean pond, and sat down for a cup of tea, and a long discussion in which we put the world to rights.

Jane Lunnon

22. Wednesday 16 June 2010.

With the archaeological field survey on hold for the summer, our attentions turned to the botanical survey of the Whitfield site. It was a perfect day for wandering around the reservoir area drawing up a checklist of flowers. The recent improvement in weather has resulted in an eruption of flowers across the site, and the distribution patterns show a remarkable difference from a week ago.

The distributions indicate that the site consists of many more mini-habitats than we had realised – the mill site itself showing how disturbance from the activities of the mill, cottages and reservoir construction has affected the ground in different ways.

Alan spent much of the day on macro photography of specific plants. Every now and then we could see a head popping up out of the hollows and behind embankments as he made precise adjustments to the camera or tripod.

Cuckoo flower © Alan Williams

So far we have found the variety of plants is not as wide as we anticipated, and what we are finding are mostly very common species found all over the Yorkshire Dales. But in a way, the typical nature of the plantlife here means that the area may be seen as a useful model for studies elsewhere.

Jane Lunnon, UWHG Archivist

19. Wednesday 19 May 2010

It was a dull sky but warm and still today, with hardly any breeze. A perfect day for Alan’s flower photography and for the swirling flies which were attracted by our hi-vis jackets and bright white drawing boards. It’s quite distracting trying to work when flies are mating on your survey plans!

The botanical survey is taking up most of Alan’s time at the moment.

Alan preparing wild flowers for photography © Jane Lunnon

While Ruth tackled some particularly difficult hachuring, Jane and Vera spent some time plotting flower distribution patterns. We are surprised at the lack of a profusion of spring flowers compared to other places in the Dales, which leads us to wonder what this will tell us about the history of land use and management on the site.

We are now beginning to see the end of the survey almost in sight, at least for the reservoir side.

Jane recalls when her great grand uncle was in the 17th Lancers © Alan Williams

However, we do probably need one more session to tidy up some loose ends. Then we just need to wait for the water levels of the reservoir to go down so that we can survey any foundations of the mill which are currently under water. A small part of the old mill is already exposed although the water levels are still high. Pat, Phil and Peter gave this a priority to survey as we noticed some vandalism to the site has taken place very recently, certainly within the last few days. We shall be fervently wishing for a dry summer this year, so that the rest of the old mill’s foundations are exposed – and hopefully we can get there before the vandals.

In the meantime, Peter did his best to carry out some underwater archaeology.

Peter's version of underwater archaeology © Jane Lunnon

And there are still some bits to do on the moorside when the vegetation dies down in winter.

Jane Lunnon, UWHG Archvist

11. Wednesday 23 March 2010

It was a bit of a murky morning, but that didn’t deter our newest UWHG member, Vera, who thoroughly enjoyed her first day out field surveying.

Despite the slightly grey day, spring is clearly on its way, as the frogs were very active in all the streams and ponds (as only frogs can be!), and there are an increasing number of walkers, who are naturally very curious about this little army of people wandering around in hi-vis jackets wielding tapes and clipboards.

We continued the measuring and drawing of the mill ponds and water systems on the moorside. There’s still a lot to do, but it’s starting to all come together.

Alan and Phil spent some time on the Embsay Reservoir side of the boundary wall in order to set up a base line for when we leave the moorside. We only have a short time left before the grouse nesting season begins, and we will need to leave the moorside in peace.

We had two finds today – a piece of a clay pipe bowl which was obviously made from a mould; and a rusty old car horn from the early 20th Century, which was blocking one of the culverted streams.

Jane Lunnon, UWHG Archivist

7. Field survey – 24 Feb

Whitfield Sike Mill lost in the cold February mist

It snowed last night so there was little point in starting our field drawings today – we took a day off and stayed warm!





Jane Lunnon, UWHG Archivist

6. Documentary Research Group – 17 Feb

This evening the Group met for their second meeting. The prospects for a long-term historical study of the parish are good, and individuals within the group are beginning to pool some interesting ideas on how the project can develop once the field survey is finished. We followed with a short introduction to palaeography. Jane ran a short workshop to help everyone “get their eye in” to reading old handwriting, and of course, set some homework!

Jane Lunnon, UWHG Archivist

5. Field survey - 17th Feb

Determined to complete the gazetteer that we started last week, our team of volunteers split into two groups – one went back onto the moorside to sort out some queries and make sure nothing had been missed.

The Moor side team in hi-vis jackets set off into the mist....

The other group kept to the Reservoir side of the site, where much of the Mill once stood. We compiled a similar gazetteer of features – walls, concrete floors, rubble mounds, the mill dam, the pit (possibly a sluice or wheel pit), and even a garden path.

The Mill side team survey remains of the old Mill at the side of the Reservoir

The weather was kinder to us this week. Nevertheless the freezing temperatures finally got the better of us and we adjourned again to the Elm Tree. Happily we had virtually finished on both sides of the wall and were pleased with our efforts.

Boz: "So when do we go on a PROPER walk, then?"

Jane lunnon, UWHG archivist

4. Field survey - 10 February 2010

Having been frustrated so many times by the cold weather conditions throughout January, at last the weather forecast promised today was a good day to start the field survey proper. Volunteers met in the car park at Embsay Reservoir, and despite the freezing cold we bravely set off up the bridle track towards the Mill site. A light dusting of snow on the ground made it all look rather pretty, and on a more practical level, helped to highlight the earthworks around the former mill ponds. We spent about 3 hours drawing up a gazetteer of man-made features we identified in the landscape on the Moor side, giving each a unique reference number, and roughly plotting them on a map of the area. The snow and the wind came and went – every now and then the skies cleared and the sun came out, and just as we thought it was turning out to be a nice day, back came the snow and grey skies. Eventually as Embsay Crag disappeared under a thick blanket of fog, we decided enough was enough, and made our way back to the Elm Tree pub to thaw out.

Jane Lunnon, UWHG Archivist

3. Documentary Research gets underway – December 2009

The Documentary Research group have already made several visits to archives and record offices across Yorkshire – documents relating to Embsay are scattered surprisingly widely, partly because the parish used to lie within the West Riding of Yorkshire, but was later incorporated into the county of North Yorkshire. So far we have found relevant documents in archives at Skipton, Leeds, Bradford, Northallerton, Halifax and Wakefield. In tracking down these documents we have found the A2A online catalogue the National Archives Access to Archives; see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/ ) extremely helpful as a starting point.

So far, the majority of the documents we have come across are from the early modern period – that is, the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries – although we have also come across printed transcripts of earlier sources such as the Poll Tax of 1379. For the most part, the primary sources are providing us with a mass of data on property owners through several centuries of Embsay’s history.

We are also working on the parish registers, a copy of the tithe map of 1847 and references to the parish in the local newspaper, The Craven Herald and Pioneer (which takes us back to 1855).

Jane Lunnon, UWHG Archivist

2. Setting up the Doc Research Group – September 2009

In order to inform the field survey which was planned to begin in the New Year 2010, the Documentary Research Group was established in the autumn of 2009. Local Embsay residents were invited to join us for this, and a small but enthusiastic group formed, which is now very actively engaged in gathering a wide range of primary sources which may help us to better understand the history of the Whitfield Mill, and the development of industrial activity within the village, as well as up on the moor above.

On 29 September 2009, the new group made an exploratory walk around the Whitfield Mill site. We found plenty to think about, and several questions and issues were raised about the Mill, the development of the village and the impact of human activity on the landscape.

Our interest lies in the history of this area before 1900. Ten years ago a very comprehensive project was carried out by another local group who produced a range of resources to celebrate the Millennium, in which they traced the history of the parish during the Twentieth century. The results of this fascinating work can be seen in copies of their files now held at the Skipton Public Reference Library, including Monika Butler’s detailed account of the building of Embsay Reservoir at the beginning of the century (1900-1910).

Jane Lunnon, UWHG Archivist

1. UWHG Whitfield Project launched

The first walk with Miles - June 2009

Way back in June 2008 the Upper Wharfedale Heritage Group (UWHG) invited Miles Johnson from the Yorkshire Dales National Park to lead one of our summer evening walks – he chose to take us on a tour around the site of the former cotton mill beside the Reservoir above Embsay, near Skipton. Lying just within the boundaries of the National Park, the village of Embsay is a large commuter village, but was once a thriving industrial centre with spinning mills and a tobacco mill (which was later a tannery).
As Miles guided us around the reservoir and over to where Whitfield Sike Mill used to stand, he dropped several heavy hints to the effect that it would be really great if someone would research the history of the Mill, and carry out an archaeological survey of the area. We all agreed that the surviving features around the site, including the old mill ponds on the moor land behind the reservoir, were all very interesting.


Encouraged by our interest, Miles continued dropping those hints throughout the rest of the tour, and by the time we returned to the car park at the end of the walk, we knew we should seriously consider the possibility of adopting Whitfield Sike Mill as a UWHG project!

Several months of negotiations and discussion followed, with some Committee forays to investigate the potential of the site. The industrial archaeology enthusiasts among us became increasingly excited by the idea of the project and so UWHG finally offered to launch a Phase 1 study, which would consist of two strands – documentary research and a field survey.

Phase 1 is to focus upon the area immediately around the Mill site, up to the former sheepwash to the east, and onto the moorside, to include the old mill dam ponds. The site is divided into two parts – to the south is the grassland around the Embsay Reservoir which was opened in 1910 and now belongs to Yorkshire Water Authority. It’s a popular place for locals to walk their dogs, and is dominated by the last remaining standing building from the former Mill.

This barn-like structure once acted as a storehouse for the cotton, but during the construction of the Reservoir was a base for the Navvy Mission Society, which aimed to provide a Christian ministry to the navvy workers. The more observant walkers will also notice that the boundary wall between the Reservoir area and the moor above, contains clear traces of the terrace of cottages that once stood here, built to house the mill workers. The houses themselves were demolished when the reservoir was built, but the blocked up windows can still be seen in the wall.

On the other side of the wall is the grouse moor belonging to the Bolton Abbey Estate. A popular bridleway lies nearby, heading up to Embsay Crag. It runs straight between three of the former mill ponds, which can be identified by their large embankments. A footpath branches off taking walkers down to the east end of the boundary wall and the site of a former sheepwash which now lies underneath a wooden footbridge.

Jane Lunnon, UWHG Archivist

For more information on UWHG see our website : http://www.uwhg.org.uk/