27.Wednesday 28th July 2010

With other people away on holiday, or busy with other projects, it was just me today – here to carry on with the botanical survey. The skies were grey all day, with intermittent drizzle and light showers all morning and well into the afternoon. I managed to cover about a third of the site on the Reservoir side of the wall, before I decided to go over to the moorside and see if the sundews were still flowering on the moorside. They weren’t but I did find a couple of white thistles which was rather nice. The bracken is now very high, and it will be impossible to finish off the field survey in this area for quite some time now. I continued the botanical surveying around a couple of the mill ponds,

About 2.30 the skies became very dark, and I decided it would be best to seek shelter in the car. As I reached the car park the heavens opened and it seemed a good time to go home.

Apparently Ruth was on her way through the rain, and drove up to the reservoir very shortly after I left. She had a quick look at the mill features on the foreshore, and checked out the water levels.

Jane Lunnon, UWHG Archivist.

26. Wednesday 21 July 2010

We have been absent from Whitfield for a few weeks because we have been involved in the excavations of the Romano-British site at Chapel House Wood near Grassington (see our blog for the dig at: http://uwhg-chapel-house-wood.blogspot.com/), an annual summer dig for many of us.

Three UWHG members returned to Whitfield today, having recovered from the aches and pains of digging, to monitor the water levels at Embsay Reservoir. We found even more of the foreshore exposed, revealing a little more of the stone foundations of the mill buildings and old field walls.

Low water levels at the reservoir reveal more of the mill site © Jane Lunnon

Alan spent much of the day taking the opportunity to take technical photographs of these rarely revealed features, while Ruth checked over some details of our gazetteer of features and drawings, to assess how much more work we need to do here. She also measured and drew in the features newly exposed on the edges of the reservoir.

Alan photographing mill site features uncovered by lowered water levels

© Jane Lunnon

Jane focused on the botanical survey, and started the July checklist of flowering plants around the site, with the invaluable aid of Heather Burrow.

We were very saddened to see that one of our favourite parts of the mill site has been unexpectedly robbed out and covered with gravel. At the eastern end of the long boardwalk footbridge, where the footpath reaches the mill site, there was formerly the clear foundation of a short but interesting section of a double skinned field wall – solidly built, it was one of the few remains still evident of the old field boundaries which once divided Embsay Pasture, and could be seen on the 1847 tithe map. It is now inexplicably gone, the large stones shoved to one side, as a sad remnant of Embsay’s history.

Jane Lunnon

24. Wednesday 30 June 2010

Another very hot day with temperatures well in the 80’s! We have been so lucky with the weather, only having one wet Wednesday, since our delayed start.
Having finished the surveying of the sheep-wash area & the stream, David undertook a walk-over to investigate the western end of the field, being regularly interrupted by interested passers-by. It is getting very difficult to distinguish these ‘lumps and bumps’ now as the vegetation is getting so high.

Jane continued with her survey of the wild flowers, while Vera, Peter and Ruth completed a gazetteer of the area now exposed by the lowered water level of the reservoir.

Completing the gazetteer on the exposed foreshore © Jane Lunnon

Following a leisurely lunch, during which we chatted with curious walkers, and Peter lost his sandwiches to two eager dogs who quickly sneaked in behind him, work continued. Peter wore a different metaphorical hat as acting site photographer, photographing the exposed structures on the foreshore and in the cottage area. We were very excited to see the outlines of the cottage walls now showing up very clearly as scorch marks in the grass, after all the dry weather. Ruth continued to assist Jane in continuing to record more of the flora.

White foxglove © Jane Lunnon

At 4pm we all decided that we were too hot and exhausted to continue – all we needed was a shower and a long cold drink

Ruth Spencer, UWHG Chairman

23. Wednesday 24 June 2010

Another beautiful day.
David and Peter went over to the old sheepwash area to finish off the work they’ve been doing around here using the alidade. They completed the work by mid-afternoon.

The botanical surveying also continued today. This is a deceptively time-consuming job, as we scour the ground looking at each new flower, try to identify it, and map its distribution across the site. We managed to map about half the reservoir side – and we still haven’t done the moorside yet.

Mouse-ear chickweed © Jane Lunnon

Jane tried some macro photography, but as the afternoon progressed it became too windy and impossible to photograph flowers as they danced about in the breeze. Now that the grasses are coming up there will be a lot more to look at – identification of all these might take us quite a bit of time!

Geophysics on the mill site © Jane Lunnon

We were joined today by an archaeology post-graduate student and her colleague as she conducted her own geophysics survey of the mill site. Hopefully, her results will give us a little more information on the exact location of some of the buildings which are now completely invisible on the surface, and maybe the route of the mill-stream as it passes out of the mill-pond and apparently under the modern footpath.

Jane Lunnon, UWHG archivist

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

21. Wednesday, 2 June 2010

Sensing the end in sight, some team members were especially keen to complete the survey today, and we certainly had the perfect weather for it.

On-site discussion © Jane Lunnon

While some took the opportunity to discuss on-site the implications of some recent work by the Documentary Research Group, others made the most of the low water levels of the reservoir to survey features revealed on the foreshore. They made excellent progress and by the end of the day were happy to declare their section done.

Surveying on the foreshore © Jane Lunnon

In the meantime, the other team, having enjoyed an interesting discussion about the site, tidied up a few loose ends on their part of the survey drawings. Some work still remains for David using the alidade, and of course, if the water levels go down any more there may be more features to plot in. Next winter, we will also need to finish off the moorside survey.

However, the documentary research continues, as does the botanical survey. The flowers are now beginning to flourish all over the site, and will need to be recorded on a weekly basis for a couple of months or more. We also look forward to the arrival next week of a Masters student who will conducting a geophysics survey on the site. So there is still plenty to do over the summer.

Jane Lunnon, UWHG Archivist

20. Wednesday 26 May 2010

Normally we start our blogs talking about the weather, but this time I’ll come to that later.
With two of our team away on holiday, and another two on an excavation elsewhere, we were a little short of people today. Our photographer Alan will be most put out to know that another solitary bogbean flower has blossomed in one of the millponds, and he has missed his chance yet again to get a good photograph for the botanical survey.

Bogbean flower © Jane Lunnon

However, I hear he is thoroughly enjoying himself this week digging with our friends, the Ingleborough Archaeology Group, at their Mesolithic site at Kingsdale. (For more information about this exciting site see their website at; http://www.ingleborougharchaeologygroup.org.uk/ )

Vera was helping David with the alidade today over by the sheepwash and Moor Beck area, hoping to finish it off. Heather turned up to conduct her botanical survey – She wandered around inspecting the plantlife and we look forward to her report on the latest checklist of species.

Ruth and I also had high hopes of “tidying up” a few loose ends and completing the survey with just the final bits on the moorside to do in the winter (when the vegetation dies down), and the parts of the mill site which are currently underwater (which will hopefully be uncovered if the water levels go down this summer).

But of course, it didn’t work out that way – we didn’t get any base-line surveying done; we didn’t even get as far as putting the drawing board set up on the tripod. But, despite that, it certainly wasn’t a wasted day. Chris, from the project’s Documentary Research Group, came up to visit the site and discuss his findings with us. Looking closely at various old maps and plans, and combining his engineer’s approach with Ruth’s archaeological eye, we were able to walk carefully over the mill site looking closely at some of the surviving features, and coming up with new questions and observations. Luckily, the water levels have receded since last week, revealing a little more of the reservoir foreshore, so we were able to tie the maps up a little better than before with some of the features.

Ruth and Chris checking the site against old maps © Jane Lunnon

We even found some built walls where we had previously thought only rubble lay under the grass, and by inspecting some changes in wall structures were able to clarify some issues over the relative positions of two different building phases.

After Chris went home to revise his interim report on the site, Ruth and Jane had planned to start surveying in the afternoon. But as we settled down to lunch the skies became very gloomy and grey (here’s the obligatory weather report), and raindrops started to fall. So much for the heatwave we’ve been enjoying for the last few days. The breeze started up, bringing a chilly penetrating dampness straight across the water. We eventually agreed that by the time we’d set up our base tapes it would be time to pack up, and so took the decision to call it a day, as the rain threatened to set in for the afternoon.

Never mind, we can get back to it next week.

Jane Lunnon, UWHG Archivist