Dalesman Magazine, September 2011

August 30, 2011

The new Dalesmans are out, with yet more insights into what makes Yorkshire such a great place to live, work, or take a holiday.

UNIVERSITY OF YORK DEPT OF ARCHAEOLOGY

The Archaeology Department is in a historic building in York

For this month’s edition, I visited Nicky Milner, an archaeologist at York University whose work had unearthed tantalising evidence that raises the question of whether there was a stone age settlement near Pickering.

She’s been working on the archaeology of Star Carr for decades and says, “The more we find, the more questions we bring up.  It’s my dream to get back and dig again.”

They have found remains of a house and a waterside ‘platform’ –  perhaps a pier, boardwalk, or wharf – towards one corner of a roughly traingular promontory jutting into the lake.  Test pits show more human acitivity on the rest of promotory.  Might there be more houses there?   Was it a base camp, a summer hunting lodge, or even a village?

It’s exciting because current thinking says that at this time, human activity in Yorkshire was limited to small groups of itinerant hunters.  But to build a platform requires lots of people to come together, and work together.  So this work could revolutionise beliefs about stone age society.

The stone age seems so long ago – but other evidence shows these people to be very like us: discoveries of beads show that they liked to make themselves look good, just as we do today.

Nicky and her colleagues are desperate to discover more – and time is running out.  Laboratory work this winter has proved that the valuable organic remains, having survived for 11,000 years, are beginning to decay.

The race is on to dig and find out more before the evidence is lost forever.

Read more about Nicky’s researches in Dalesman, and at www.starcarr.com

Woodalls of Malton is in the Market Place

Woodall's of Malton is housed in a historic building in the Market Place

Over in Malton, Winston Kobylka is doing his part to preserve traditional craft skills.

He says that he’d heard that Woodall’s was for sale, so went along to take a look.  He says that he walked in, liked it, and asked to buy it ‘just like that’.

He’s scathing of people who ask questions about business plans and how much money he expects to make.  “I’m not in it for that,” he says, “It’s that we’re sustainable and make ecological products which will safeguard the future.”

He believes that everything can’t be made abroad for ever, and hopes that Woodall’s will help to keep skills alive in Britain.  But, they are still dependent on imports for raw materials, and he says, “Sadly, economic times have us battling against costs of cotton, sisal and hessian.  Some is produced in the UK, but the majority is sourced overseas.”

And he adds, “Hessian or jute may spend 4 months at sea, during which time the price changes several times.  It’s to do with the futures market, currency fluctuations, and forward trading.”

It’s likely he knows what he’s talking about: he listed some of his previous jobs.  As well as working in historic building conservation, he’d done photography, basketry, technical work for the Department of Transport, translating, supply chain management, and, most recently, teaching economics.

Now he’s adding rope splicing to his many skills, but when he walks around his shop, he’s like a child in a toy shop, revelling in the sheer variety of the stock.

“Look at the glove cupboard,” he said, showing a large double cupboard filled with all sorts of gloves.  And the halters – for animals ranging from bulls to ferrets.  There were racks and racks of different sorts of string and rope, trays and drawers of knives, scissors, and equipment for sheep and lambs.

Woodall’s is one of those shops that’s full of ‘useful stuff’, and the more you look, the more you see.  And it’s well worth asking too – assistant Dilys has been there for twenty one years, and knows what’s there.

Many customers are farmers, and Winston says, “Canvas and tarpaulin covers for horse drawn wagons were the backbone of this business.  Now we use a lot of PU and PVC for tarpaulins, but still the main business is these covers, mainly for agricultural use.”

Covers to protect from weather will always be useful – and so too is the rope to tie them down.  Winston says, “The history of rope is fundamental to all industries.”

Woodall’s is in the centre of Malton,  www.gwoodall.com/

Roger Sedgwick, third generation farmer

Roger Sedgwick, dairy farmer, tests his grass for silage

Later  I ventured over the Pennines to Sedbergh, where I visited the Sedgwick family.   I was struck at how different the landscape was to the Moors and Pennine Dales that I see from my home in the Vale of Mowbray.

My nearest hills are the North York Moors, flat-topped and dark with heather.

The hills at the Sedgwicks’ farm on the Howgill Fells were very different: much higher, rounded, and a uniform soft light green colour.  From the distance of the lower slopes, they looked as if clad in apple-green velvet.

Roger explained they had rights for grazing the high fells, in addition to their own farmland lower down the hill.  His father Geoff keeps the Rough Fell sheep that are adapted to the area.  But he explained that many of the families that had farmed the fells in his youth have now given up farming.  The land is concentrating into fewer farms – who are keeping fewer sheep.

This could lead to the landscape changing again.  I consulted the Yorkshire Dales National Park website to find about the Howgills, and it said that, centuries ago, forest was cleared to make way for sheep farming.  Without the sheep, maybe one day this forest might return: Roger commented that gorse that had been cleared was now growing again on the fell.

Aside from the sheep, Roger also commented that administrators over the years had caused confusion in their location:  “We were in the West Riding of Yorkshire.  Now we’re under Cumbria County Council, we have a Lancaster Post Code, and we’re in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.”

Now, debate is raging as to whether more of this area should be taken into the Yorkshire Dales National Park.  There are views on both sides, and only time will tell who wins.

Meanwhile, there is no doubt that the Howgills are a strikingly different – and breathtaking – landscape.

Like all English landscapes, it’s a landscape that has been shaped by farming, and farming now is changing.  Smaller farms need to diversify to survive, and the Sedgwicks plan to do this by making ice cream.

However, it may not be such a new development after all.  Geoff recalls his father being involved in a number of business ventures: “He was a master cabinetmaker,” recalls Geoff.  “I came across someone with furniture he made, dated 1895, the year he came here.”

“He was into lots of things, though.  For three years, he had three farms – he gave two of them up after a few years.  He was also an insurance agent, and sold dips.”

He also built himself a nice new house, that the family now lets out to holidaymakers.

Roger adds, “He was also in the local Militia.  He guarded the King and Queen’s train at Sedbergh in 1917.  They stopped at the station and slept in the train overnight.”

Roger also says, pointing at a field now grazed by his cows:  “My Grandfather was also at Gallipolli.  When he came home, he walked up from Sedbergh Station in the evening, and next morning, he was ploughing that field.”

Nowadays, Roger cuts silage to feed his cows in winter, and his pastures are full of rich grass.  On the higher slopes, open with no fences or walls, his father Geoff’s Rough Fell sheep graze.

Roger now hopes that his latest addition to the family’s ventures, ice cream, will keep the family farming for another generation.

See www.holidaysedbergh.co.uk

email: sedgwick665@btinternet.com  Telephone: 01539 620252

Geoff’s Rough Fell Sheep are featured in “Kendal Rough Fell Sheep: the breed, the people and the furture”, published by the Rough Fell Breed Association, www.roughfellsheep.co.uk

Read everything in full in Dalesman Magazine, in print only, from good newsagents, or visit  www.dalesman.co.uk for a money-saving subscription.

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Countryman April 2011 – How to Save the Village Pub

March 24, 2011
GEORGE AND DRAGON HUDSWELL IS OWNED BY A VILLAGE CO OP

THE GEORGE AND DRAGON WAS SAVED BY A VILLAGE CO OP

When researching how to save the village pub for Countryman, I ended up getting far too many comments to fit onto three pages.  Here are the extra bits that wouldn’t fit onto the pages….

Despite almost universal agreement that community pubs provide a social focus with very few of the ‘binge drinking’ problems seen in city centres, these much loved pubs just keep closing.  Why, and what can we do about it?

The British Pub and Beer Association publishes statistics on this.  The most recent report I found, for 2008, reported that, of a total of 57,500 pubs, 31% are independent, 53% tenanted or leased, and 16% were managed by a brewery or Pub Company.  This means that, in practice, 84% of pubs are run by independent, often family-based, businesses.  Each of these businesses, mainly because of the jobs it creates, is estimated to be worth around £80,000 a year to the local economy.

Furthermore, total average beer consumption per person has declined by about a third over the last thirty years.  But the bit that really hurts pubs is that thirty years ago, only a negligible proportion of beer sold was ‘off’ sales – bottles and cans to drink at home.  Nowadays, almost half the beer sold is through ‘off’ sales – beer that is not drunk in pubs.

This is why John Longden, of Pub is the Hub, describes a ‘tidal wave’ of change affecting pubs.  He is a practical man, clear about the fact that pubs close simply because costs exceed income, and that in some cases, traditional pubs simply are no longer viable.

However, many others are, and he says, “Pub is the Hub began with the concern that rural services were disappearing.  Often the last remaining business was the pub, and could we encourage good licensees to provide other services?”  Typically, these services attract more people, and he says, “Good licensees who do Pub is the Hub can increase turnover 30 or 40%.”

Pub is the Hub has also helped communities to take over their pub.  He says, “It’s a hard slog: you have to identify if the pub is sustainable.”

And, he adds, “Running a pub is not like running a shop.  Pub customers come in a great variety, and come in for different things.  There are special skills involved in running a pub.  You need to know how to do catering, how to purchase beer, how to do stocktaking, how to do rating (rates are complicated), insurance, gambling laws, employment laws, food hygiene, licensing laws, and so on and so on.  That’s why we always advise getting a professional manager.”

For those determined on taking over their pub, he advises getting good advice, be sure the business is sustainable, get a good solid business plan, and consider how to promote more activity in the pub.

He also advises having a clear plan for what happens if, despite all the hope and hard work, the community pub fails.  What happens to the assets, to shareholders’ money, and so on?

John says, “We offer impartial advice.  We’re currently advising around 107 groups around the country.  50% of the time we have to say ‘nice idea, but we don’t think it’s viable’.  But if it works, the rewards are there.  It gives a sense of spirit in the community, and if people feel it is their pub, they will use it.

There are various business models he’s seen used, and describes them:

1.  Try to purchase the pub as a co-operative.  “We’ve helped 30 communities to take over their pubs, and we’re presently advising about 16 more.  Things to look out for, he says, are to have a manager or tenant making the day to day decisions.  “There’s nothing worse than a group agonising over the menu, so best to get a manager.”  Also, you need to decide what will happen with dividends, what if the pub fails, and what if investors want their money back.  Once a co-op has ownership of the pub, they can hire a manager to run it on their behalf, or rent or lease it to an operator.

2.  A smaller group buys the pub.  This, says John, has been a popular route.  “Forty or more people come together to buy the pub.  Typically, they will invest between £500 and £10.000.”  John advises having a cap on investments, to keep the balance of power balanced.  “The same caveats as for a co-op, especially for what if it fails, apply,” he says.  He also describes how one group bought the pub, then sold a long lease to an operator, at a peppercorn rent.  The sale of the lease enabled the shareholders to get their money back.  “Then,” he says, “They pledged the freehold to the Parish Council, resulting in the Parish Council retaining control of the pub.”

This was useful when the main threat to village pubs was a change of use to housing.

3 The third way is ‘try before you buy’ – rent the pub.  The big advantage is that communities need less capital to do this.  Therefore, says John, “It’s what we’re recommending at the moment.  We’ve been working with breweries and pub groups to enable communities to take on the pub for a trial, at a set rent for a fixed period, perhaps, say, three years.  It depends on good terms for the lease/rent, and we have an advisor for this.”

One group, he said, did this.  They raised money that wasn’t enough to buy the pub, but was enough for a much-needed refurbishment.  He comments, “A lot of pubs close because they need refurbishing.”

Although pubs close, John points out that others open, and says, “Pub is the Hub tries to work with people to come up with solutions.”

Rural services that have added onto pubs include shops, post offices, playgrounds, allotments, libraries, internet access, school dinners and meeting rooms, and Pub is the Hub is now working to identify services that are needed, and matching them with a pub to provide them.  John says, “There’s no fixed way, you’ve got to go with the priorities in an individual area.”

John has hopes for the future of pubs that are at the heart of life in their communities.  But, he says, “It’s very, very hard work to run a pub.  You realise what heroes licensees are.  What we need to do is make it easier for them to make a living.”

At Hudswell, in North Yorkshire, villagers came together as a co-operative to buy their local pub.  After the pub re-opened, the co-op began offering other services too: a library, allotments, and a village shop.  Martin Booth, Secretary of Hudswell Community Pub Ltd, explains how they went about it:

“The pub shut in 2008.  The owners had bought it at the height of the property boom, and had a big loan.”  Martin says that there was a lot of sympathy for these people: they had worked hard and built up trade, but were victims of the credit crunch, and went bankrupt.

Thereafter, with the credit crunch in full swing, no-one else came forward to buy the pub.  So, he says, “We looked at setting up a co-op.  It took us a year from thinking of it to doing it.”

Crucially, having seen the figures from the previous owners, they thought the business was viable if they could only avoid big loan payments.  “That’s the advantage of doing it this way,” he says, “We raised capital from shareholders.  We had 200 investors, and raised £250,000.”

There are about 80 houses in the village, and Martin says, “Most of the rest of the membership is people within about 30 miles who like owning a share, and coming out here at the weekend.”

“We bought the pub for £210,000, and spent £60,000 doing it up.”  They had to refit the pub as all the contents and fittings had been sold off by the receivers.  They got some grant funding, which they used to improve the layout of the pub.  Without the grants, says Martin, “We would probably still have done it, but we might not have afforded such a good refurbishment.  There are some grants and loans available via the Plunkett Foundation and the Co-operative.”

Martin says, “Two things make it work.  One is we own the asset and have no debt, and the other is that we charge a realistic rent.”

Martin explains that they could have hired a manager to run the pub on their behalf.  The co-op could have participated in any potential profits this way.  But, says Martin, it would have been harder work, with the co-op having to take a much closer interest in the running of the pub.  This way, the tenants run the pub as their own business, releasing the co-op from worrying about day to day management.  They tenants take both risk and reward, meaning that they are self-motivating.

The rent will pay a dividend to shareholders.  But, says Martin “if the business were to struggle, we could lower the rent, and not pay a dividend.”

The tenants are Margaret and Jackie Stubbs, who run the pub as their own business.  Martin says, “We’ve fixed the rent for three years, so they know where they are.”  They are very experienced, and the landlords selected them from several applicants.

Setting up the co-operative, says Martin, “Took over my life.  We were meeting every two or three weeks, launching the prospectus, selling shares, refurbishing the pub, and looking for a tenant.  Now it’s up and running, we only meet once every 2 or 3 months.”

The co-op has also introduced ‘nice to have’ village services.  Martin says, “last December, we converted one room into a shop.  It’s a separate business, because we wanted Jackie and Margaret to concentrate on making the pub a success.”

In order to keep prices down, the shop is staffed by volunteers on two hour shifts.  The aim is less for profit, than simply to provide a service and break even.  Martin says, “We hope that it will eventually make enough to hire a manager.  Volunteers enjoy their shifts, but stock control, ordering, accounts and so on are onerous for volunteers, and two of our directors currently do this.”

They worked with a well-known independent retailer, Campbell’s of Leyburn, who act as wholesaler and advised on what stock to take.  Although the shop is staffed by volunteers, when the shop is shut and the pub open, Jackie and Margaret will serve customers with shop goods.  Many come in for a pint of beer and a pint of milk, and Margaret says, “We’ve had quite a bit of after-hours shop business.”

The pub has also used its land to provide allotments, and has an arrangement with the County library for a bookcase housing a small village lending library.  Martin doesn’t believe they contribute significantly to pub profits, but says, “We did them because we thought they were a good thing to do, and in a small way, they bring people in.”

Things have gone well, and Martin says, “The pub has built trade because we’ve had a lot of publicity for what we’ve done.  People have come once out of curiosity, and, because Jackie and Margaret have done a good job, customers come back again.”

Martin’s advice to others, he says, is “it’s an ideal solution, except you need volunteers to get started.”  When they started, with the pub closed, there was no-where to meet or put up a poster, and the group had to get out onto the street and leaflet every house to alert them to the project.  Now, the pub is full of posters and information.

Martin adds that, having bought the building, if the pub did fail, shareholders would still have an asset to sell and recoup some money.  “If we’d leased, we’d have nothing to sell if things went wrong,” he comments.

His other tip is to get a good manager.  He says, “This has worked because Jackie and Margaret have been so good.  We’ve been impressed with their enthusiasm and ideas.  They have a Fijian chef, and Fijian additions to the menu add interest.  And they had a Fijian summer festival, that went down very well.”

So what do Jackie and Margaret think of it all?  They are mother and daughter, who between them, have clocked up an impressive number of years of experience in the pub trade.  Jackie says, “This is exactly the type of pub we wanted – we wanted land for my Kune-Kune pigs.  And the allotments use the land constructively, and we hope to use the produce in the kitchen and shop.”

They have ideas to bring in new people.  Margaret says, “It’s the sort of pub where ladies can come in on their own, and get a friendly welcome.  If we’d had room, we’d have liked a tea room, but we do coffee and cake in the dining room.  We did a Hallowe’en festival, and we do the ‘Women of Hudswell’.  We did a pumpkin carving session with an art teacher.  There were 20-odd people in the dining room, all carving pumpkins.”

The children’s Hallowe’en party attracted more children than they had realised lived in the village, and Christmas Carol singing was popular too.  They have a walks booklet, and are considering a challenge run for next summer.

The library shelf has spawned a book club, and the after hours shop gives people an excuse to stop off for a drink while picking up essential supplies.  And, says Margaret, “When we had a musical theatre evening, we had someone stopping in the village who’d been a West End show. That raised £500 for charity.”

So, getting together enough shareholders to buy the pub, then renting at a rent to enable good tenants to make a living sounds a success.  But what if you’re not blessed with enough spare cash in the village to buy the pub?

At Cherry Willingham in Lincolnshire, villagers took over their pub with much less capital, by leasing it.  But if the last tenant couldn’t make a go of it, what’s different about a community group?  Barbara Mawer, who is licensee and runs the pub, explains what happened: “The pub kept closing.  New landlords would come, but after about six months, it would change hands again.”

Eventually, locals thought the pub would close, and, says Barbara, “Someone thought that if we could get enough people together, we could take it over.”

They formed a syndicate of 43 people, with four directors.  Barbara, who under previous management was a barmaid, is one of the directors.   She says, “We asked for pledges of £100 to £1,000, and raised £14,000, to take the lease for five years.  We’ve been running it since May last year.”

“It’s a village pub,” explains Barbara, “with a restaurant that we also use for functions, for instance the drama group, bingo nights, and so on.  We run parties, get the cricket and football teams in, and it’s going from strength to strength.”

Barbara believes that the syndicate is doing better than previous tenants because, she says, “The last few licensees weren’t interested in food.  The restaurant wasn’t open a lot of the time.  Food brings in lots of new custom, and the Sunday carvery is fully booked.”

The syndicate agreed to re-invest their dividend in the pub, and Barbara says, “It’s important to keep motivated.  One of the syndicate does a business plan, but everyone has different jobs.  It helps with ideas to move on.  I took a course to become the licensee, and run it from day to day.  Someone else does the cooking, and another syndicate member has improved the grounds.  We have a committee of six members who do functions.  It helps to bring in fresh ideas.”

As John advised, they have a ‘what if it fails’ clause, and Barbara says, “We had to put up a bond to get the lease, but if we have to pull out, we get a 60% cash refund.  If we do make a profit, it gets shared.  We have a five-year lease, and at the end of that, everything has to be re-negotiated.”

She says, “We have a good village. Our community is very close, and we all join in together.

Barbara’s tips to others thinking of doing a similar thing are to have a good business plan.  And, she says, “It’s long hours, but well worth it.”

So, even though we have cuts and credit crunch, there are ways to take over the village pub.  The key is to have the will, some cash, but most of all, the imagination to create extra reasons for customers to visit the pub.

And for those who’ve got cash but not time, Martin may be able to do the work for them.

To get further information and advice, see:

Plunkett Foundation. www.plunkett.co.uk, Tel 01993 810730

Plunkett have decades of experience helping groups to take over shops.  They have now teamed with the Co-op to offer advice and financial assistance to those wishing to set up community pubs.

Co-operatives UK: www.cooperatives-uk.coop 0161 246 2900

Pub is the Hub, www.pubisthehub.org.uk, 01423 546165

Camra, www.camra.org.uk 01727 867 201

British Beer and Pub Association  www.beerandpub.com

Featured Pubs:

The Old Crown, Hesket Newmarket, Cumbria, Tel 016974 78288

The George and Dragon, Hudswell, North Yorks, 01748 518373

The Cherry Tree Inn, Willingham, Lincs, Tel 01522 754244

Martin Booth: 01748 824204

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Dalesman January 2011 – Ribblesdale Cheese

January 25, 2011

Ribblesdale  Cheese

IONA HILL STOCKS A RANGE OF SPECIALITY CHEESES IN HER LITTLE CHEESE SHOP

IONA STOCKS A VARIETY OF CHEESES IN HER SHOP IN HAWES

When I met Iona Hill, we discussed her previous work as an accountant in London and Dubai.  It  seemed totally unrelated to making cheese.  But, she says, many people starting in business struggle to learn the business side: keeping accounts, complying with legislation, etc.  Here, she had the advantage, as she was expert at this.  And, as a specialist in turnaround, she knew about making changes to a business.

When her Uncle founded Ribblesdale Cheese, he milked the goats and made the cheese himself.  But age and ill-health had forced him to contract out these tasks, until, in Iona’s analysis, he was ‘simply wholesaling a brand that he had created.’

She wanted to return the business to its heart, but she couldn’t cope with both keeping goats and making cheese, so which was it to be?  The decision fell into place as John Parker offered to keep goats and supply the milk, while cheesemaking friends taught Iona to make cheese.

And, she says, it was probably easier to learn to make cheese than to learn, from new, all the technicalities of running a business.  Iona says that, since the credit crunch, times are hard for small businesses.  She comments that she’d like to expand – she can see new products that she knows customers would love, but with no loans available, she has to wait until she’s saved up the money for new equipment.

Meanwhile, there’s a mountain of paperwork.  While I was there, Iona was speaking to a potential new supplier of cows’ milk.  They had to fill in forms certifiying where his milk quota would move on to.  Then a fax came through from Trading Standards: they’d been having a new label design checked for compliance before sending it to the printers.

And there are people too.  They’re a tight-knit team at Ribblesdale.  Each person’s contribution is vital in ensuring that the cheese is not only lovingly made, but the right product gets to the right customer at the right time.

So what happens if someone wants to go on holiday, or is ill?  Iona says, “We’re all learning each others’ jobs, so we can switch round.  We’ll be able to cover for each other, and it gives us variety.  And we can all talk to customers, knowing how the cheese is made, and with the pride that we’re actually making our own cheese.”

With everyone’s involved in hand-making the cheese, that pride shines through everyone at Ribblesdale Cheese.

See Iona’s blog at http://ribblesdalecheese.wordpress.com/,

Read the article in full, in print only, in Dalesman Magazine

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Marmalade

January 9, 2011
ORANGES FOR MAKING MARMALADE

SEVILLE ORANGES - CAPTURING SPANISH SUNSHINE

I’ve just completed the last batch of a magic brew that bottles Spanish sunshine.

This week, I’ve stirred more bubbling vats of marmalade than I care to remember.  It’s a magic potion that preserves the Spanish Seville Orange harvest, giving me a daily dose of citrus zing.

It’s just the thing to get me going on those dark winter mornings.

Jane Hassell-McCosh went several steps further with her marmalade, using it to create a Marmalade Festival, brightening the dull days with awards, games, and marmalade fun.

To join the fun of the marmalade festival, go to  http://www.marmaladeawards.com/

cupboard full of jars of marmalade

My stache of marmalade

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Fallen Apples

November 12, 2010

The heavy gales have brought down loads of apples, and we’ve been busy collecting them and distributing amongst friends and neighbours.

There are so many that we’re eating apples for practically every meal.  Luckily, apples combine well with many other flavours, so that it feels like we’re still getting a variety of meals.

One of my popular recipes is for spiced apple muffins, and I’ve posted the recipe on this page:  http://www.helenforwordsandpictures.com/news/?page_id=481&preview=true

APPLES

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Dalesman for September 2010

August 26, 2010

The new Dalesmans are out, and this month, there are three features from me.  There’s a restored dewpond in the North York Moors, a fruit-growing co-operative in Husthwaite, and a visit to ‘graduates’ of the North York Moors National Park’s apprenticeship scheme.

In the midst of so much media angst about youth unemployment, it was a joy to meet youngsters who were doing well.  Back in 2002, the North York Moors National Park set up an apprenticeship scheme in environment and conservation work.  The scheme was massively oversubscribed, and those fortunate to get onto the scheme were all very keen.

So it was a pleasure to get back in touch, and find them all doing well, and happy in their work.  They were glad they did the apprenticeship that helped them to achieve their ambition of working outdoors in the countryside.

Nicky Saffer worked for a large forestry company, working on big contracts.  His work involves practical steps to improve our environment, planting trees and managing forests.

Other youngsters, among them Mark Aconley, had set up their own business.  Mark, and colleague Peter Hinchliffe, were filling the local need to repair dry stone walls – part of the landscape for hundreds of years, but now in need of a little attention.

Mark noted that spending all day heaving around tons of stone is a job for a fit young man – but he already had plans to develop his business, so that he could continue into his later years.

It’s not just the apprentices who were happy.  Steve Young, who has trained all the apprentices, enjoys working with the youngsters.  The first intake being all male, but there have been girls since.  Steve says, “The only people we can’t take are those with a degree, because we can’t get funding for them.  It’s very disappointing, as we’ve had very keen people with all the academic knowledge, but no practical knowledge.”

Richard Gunton, head of Park Services, was delighted by the apprenticeships, which have run every year since 2002.

He explains how, previous to the scheme, there was ‘leakage’ of young people – when they left school, they left the area, because there were no opportunities for them.

Now, says Richard, “12% of our full time work is done by apprentices, and it’s nice in the organisation to have young people working with us.  They’re brilliant: they’ve all worked hard, passed their exams, done very well, and gone on to full time employment.  The effort some of them put in puts a lot of us older folk to shame.”

“It’s been good for the Park, good for the young people, and good for the community.  Because the apprenticeship is so good, we’ve set up another team – the northern team.  They’re funded by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council.  It’s a specific pot of money to tackle youth unemployment – but they’re a lovely team.”

The Park’s other apprenticeships are open to all applicants, and Richard says, “We’ve also set up a business administration apprenticeship.  And we worked with local farmers to help set up their hill farming apprenticeship.  We don’t employ those apprentices – the farmers do.

“There are always lots of applicants for the apprenticeships – anyone interested should telephone Ian Nicholls on 01439 770657”

“The most important part is that young people have enjoyed it, and they’ve got what they need out of it.  It’s been an absolute joy.”

Contact Mark Aconley, landscape contractor, on acorn150982@hotmail.com, Tel 07898 788843

Mark Aconley, who completed an apprenticeship with the North York Moors National Park

Mark Aconley, one time apprentice, now runs his own contracting business

North York Moors National Park http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/

The National Park also helped Ann Strang to organise the repair of a historic dewpond on her father’s farm as part of an Environmental Stewardship scheme.

Dewponds are more usually found in chalk areas, such as the Yorkshire Wolds or the South Downs.  There, legends abound that they were first built by Neolithic man.

Such legends are, so far, unproven.  Since English Nature found that 80% of dewponds on the Wolds had disappeared since the 1950s, any Neolithic ponds must have been maintained and repaired for millennia.

A greater mystery of dewponds is how they fill.  There are anecdotes of dewponds on high ground remaining full during droughts when spring fed lowland ponds run dry.

This mystery remains unsolved, with dew, rain, fog and mist all being considered to be the source of water.

Ann restored her dewpond in order to attract wildlife to the farm.  The pond, reconstructed according to its archaeological record, is lined with gritstone, which would have protected the clay liner from the feet of watering animals.  Derelict dewponds lose their water due to damage to the clay lining, often from the roots of plants.

Ann has seen deer and rabbits drinking at the pond, but so far, she has seen no amphibians, although these have colonised other dewponds.  I visited in the first spring after the pond was built, and could see countless diving beetles, flatworms, and mosquito larvae.  There were also plenty of pond skaters.  With a food supply like that, I’m sure it will be only a matter of time before animals wishing to eat these bugs turn up.

Natural England has supported Ann’s conservation measures, and when I visited, workers were setting insect traps, to discover what insects that had colonised her farm.  They were surveying many different habitats, in order to discover what conditions favoured the different species groups.

As insects generally are at the bottom of the food chain, their discoveries will help us to understand the complexities of farming for both food and wildlife.

Links.

Ann Strang is part of Natural England’s Education Access Scheme.  Appointments can be made for visits to participating farms: see http://cwr.naturalengland.org.uk/Default.aspx?Module=EducationalSiteDetails&Site=5541

To learn more about dewponds, visit http://dewponds.co.uk/index.htm

Ann Strang beside the restored dewpond

Ann Strang beside the restored dewpond

Meanwhile, at Husthwaite, they will be preparing to harvest their fruit.  When I visited, back in April, Cameron Smith was anxiously surveying the 514 fruit trees that his group had planted last autumn, to see how many had survived the winter.

He was particularly worried about the 200-odd trees in the newly established village orchard, as they had severe rabbit damage.  “We put spiral tree guards to protect the trees,” he explained, “But we had a foot of snow, and this took the rabbits to the top of the tree guard.”  Many of the trees had been severely nibbled by hungry rabbits, and if the bark was ‘ringed’ – eaten all the way round the tree, it kills the tree.

As well as the orchard group, Cameron is a member of the history society that initiated the interest in the orchards.

Cameron was particularly excited about finding some whale bones.  He said that sometime between 1753 and 1833, some whale jaw-bones were given to the village, in recognition of the fruit supplied to whaling boats.  “People thought it was just a story – but we found the whalebones,” he told me.  “They had them as an arch across the Malton road.”

He described how Husthwaite, a village of enterprising smallholders, grew in prosperity on its fruit trade.  He said, “Husthwaite even had a sort of early industrial park: a dozen barns and buildings with trades associated with the work round here, such as agricultural engineering.  It became a hub for the surrounding villages, with a shop, pub and so on.”

The history society surveyed householders to identify old varieties of fruit in their gardens, and to record anecdotes from those who could recall Husthwaite’s commercial fruit business.

“In 1941,” he said, “There were 32 orchards, 19 attached to cottages in the village, and 10 on farms.”

“In 1948, a storm knocked all the pears down, but a man from Co Durham came and bought them all, to make jam.  He made several return journeys, because he couldn’t fit them all on his wagon – and he paid over £300 for them.

Cameron is full of enthusiasm for his fruit, describing old varieties of Yorkshire apples that he is grafting, in order to preserve stocks for the future.  He is working with Brogdale, the national centre for fruit.  He says, “There are only two known mature trees of the Wass Apple, so we’re grafting that like mad.  Brogdale have accepted that now.  And we’ve found another in Crayke, known locally as Lady Long.  That’s being investigated to see if it’s unique.  The fruit looks similar to Wass, but it’s different: Wass is a late cooker, while Lady Long is a dessert apple.”

House in Husthwaite with remnants of ancient orchards in the garden

A house in Husthwaite with historic fruit trees in the garden

To see the latest on Husthwaite’s fruit, see their website at www.orchardsofhusthwaite.co.uk

To learn more about the national fruit collection’s work to preserve genetic resources for the future, see www.brogdale.org

To read more about all these people, buy Dalesman Magazine, www.dalesman.co.uk

By admin | Posted in Blog, Countryside, Dalesman, Farming, Food, Nature Conservation and Environment, Rural Life, Uncategorized, Yorkshire | Comments off

Dalesman for August 2010

July 29, 2010

The new August Dalesmans are out, marking Yorkshire Day by celebrating a few of the many wonderful things about our Broad Acres.

The people I met this  month all contribute to those wonderful things.  Dennis Edmondson recalls many years serving Dalesfolk with their practical needs.  Four ‘Bobbies’ working the villages on the northern escarpment of the Moors celebrate the pleasures of getting to know the people on their patch, and volunteers in Pickering look forward to a big event for Yorkshire Day.

When I visited Dennis Edmondson, he reassured me that the scone he brought with my tea was fresh – unlike the one described in his book, that he bit into eagerly, only to find the bottom covered in green mould.

It was a rare mishap in a book full of  happy memories, recording his years as the travelling representative for Spence’s Ironmongers, supplying hardware, ironmongery and household goods to people who rarely, if ever, travelled away from their Dales homesteads.

In those days, without telephones or cars, people used different methods of keeping in touch.  For instance, “In every house Arkengarthdale,” Dennis told me, “there was a pair of binoculars on the windowsill, so they could see what their neighbours were doing.  It wasn’t malicious: it was a natural connection.  They’d see their neighbour preparing for haymaking, and know that they’d better get ready too.”

Between Arkengarthdale and Tan Hill, he had to walk the last mile across the moor to the farmhouse.  Fog came down while Dennis had tea there one November afternoon – and the farmer, fearful that Dennis might get lost on the moor, escorted him back to his car.

It was typical of the kindnesses that Dennis reciprocated as he became a carrier of messages between relatives in different districts, who rarely saw each other.

His book solved a mystery for me.  I’d always wondered why there were tramlines in Friar’s Wynd, Richmond.  They were installed, explained Dennis, by Spence’s in 1894, to facilitate moving goods from warehouses in the Wynd to the shop in the market place.  Parts of the tramlines were removed, he said, when the pavements were re-laid.

Dennis remembers pushing trolleys in those tramlines, carrying stock from the warehouses to the shop.  The motive power was men: often, the trolleys were so heavy that it took two or three men to push them.  At the time, said Dennis, the theatre was semi-derelict, but the area at the back of the stage was used as warehouses.  Spence’s also had a steel warehouse in Finkle Street, where they produced hand-made nails and horseshoes.

Dennis showed me the chair by the fire where he sat, writing his book longhand, from memory.  “It was a different world, and the book gives a glimpse of it.  It was only the 40, 50s and 60s, but the quickness of change since the War has been tremendous,”  he said.

“When I began travelling, there four drapers’ stores in Richmond, and they sent out representatives too.  Sometimes I’d bump into the drapers’ travellers, having meals  at the same house as me.  But gradually, they all disappeared.  As cars came in, people were able to travel more.”

Travelling caused many changes.  People would go to Darlington for cheaper goods – but then, lost the service that Spence’s provided.  Dennis comments, “In effect, Spence’s financed many small tradesmen, as we’d supply orders, and they were paid for on my next journey, six months later.”

Spence’s had a delivery network that would be a model of environmental good practice today.  As an apprentice, Dennis was often sent to put goods onto the bus to Gunnerside.  He said, “Percival’s – who ran the buses – had a shop in Gunnerside, and people went there to collect their goods.  There were also people in the Dales called Carriers.  For instance, Yore Mills was a flour mill then.  They brought the flour to Richmond station, and when the empty wagons went back, they called at Spence’s to see if anything needed to go back.”

For fans of Dennis’ writing, there’s hope of a ‘prequel’.  He says, “I’m thinking about writing about growing up in the 30s, in Ravensworth.  I knew everyone in the village: eccentrics, tradesmen etc.  Probably only one or two of them are left now, but I remember them all.”

To buy Dennis’ book, call him on 01748 822692

Dennis would recognise many of the exhibits at the Beck Isle museum, especially the recreated ironmonger’s  store.  The Museuem is a treasure trove of what was ordinary and is now extraordinary.  The bulk of its collections are what Chairman Roger Dowson describes as ‘everyday objects from local life.’

So it is here that you will find a Grandmother’s knitting needles, a Grandfather’s chisels – and somebody’s stone axe, the basic household tool of the Stone Age.

The strength of the museum lies in its depiction of the lives of people who didn’t make it onto the national stage, but were treasured by their own families.  In this respect, the museum acts as the ‘family attic’ of the townspeople of Pickering and its area.  Many volunteers see their own families in the photographic collections, and visitors come to research familiy histories.

Roger says that the museum has a regionally important collection of photographs inluding a large body of work by Sidney Smyth, depicting life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

There are also two guardsmen, painted by artist Reg Whistler, whose life was tragically cut short in Normandy in 1944.  Roger says, “The guardsmen were painted as stage props for a children’s Christmas party in the Memorial Hall in 1943.

But it’s the everyday objects that bring history to life; the grocers’ shop, the dairying equipment, used daily within living memory, the sewing needles, and the toys.

The  history in the museum lives anew as volunteers use the tools to maintain the artefacts, and teach new volunteers how to use them.

There is always room for more volunteers.  In a recent foray into the stores, Kim Shoobridge says she sorted 55 boxes of ephemera relating to local people, businesses, and events.  It is a treasure trove for family history researchers, and visitors come from as far afield as Canada and Australia to learn more about their families and the area they lived in.

Even without family connections, the museum is a fascinating insight into the everyday lives of people living and working in a Yorkshire  market town.

For more information about the Beck Isle Museum, visit www.beckislemuseum.org

a room at the Beck Isle museum is filled with hand-operated dairy equipment

Dairying equipment at the Beck Isle Museum, Pickering

To read more, see the Yorkshire Dalesman

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Meet Sir Ken Morrison in Dalesman July 2010

June 28, 2010

For the July Dalesman, I was fortunate to be invited to the home of Sir Ken Morrison, to talk about his forthcoming Presidency of the Great Show.

Ken is well known for developing the supermarket chain, and despite being now retired, still takes a keen interest in food, and has begun farming.

He thought carefully about his lifetime’s work in the food industry, and spoke of growing up in Bradford during the War: “I’m a child of the war.  We didn’t have aspirations: we didn’t expect much, and we didn’t get much.  It was about survival.”

“Now, I’ve a lad of 9, and I’ve been to his school to talk about rationing and war time.  If I take in a week’s ration now, they’re astonished – you couldn’t make a decent bacon sandwich with it.”

“As a kid, we didn’t get toys – they didn’t make any.  There were no footballs, or tennis balls, so they were prized possessions.  If you had a tennis ball and lost it, you’d spend hours looking for it.”

But, he said, “I think people came out stronger than when they went in, unless they were affected by direct consequences of the war.”

As a boy, Ken said, “My Father’s business was in the market in Bradford.  He said I should have a better job than he had – as all parents at the time did.  So I went to Bradford Grammar School until I was 18, then did National Service.  While I was away, my Father became ill.”

Therefore, Ken had to take over the business at a young age.  Fortunately, said Ken, “I’d learned a lot as a child, because Father’s warehouse was at the back of our house.  As a six or seven year old, I took an interest, and ‘helped’.  Probably I got in the way more than I helped, but I learned a lot – you couldn’t do that with a kid nowadays.”

“I was demobbed in 1952, just as rationing ended.  Despite this, everything was still austere, because we’d spent so much on the War.  I was astonished that I could get things in Germany and Belgium that you couldn’t get here.  I used to send my sisters nylon stockings.  However, it was all a good lesson, and a time of opportunity.”

Nowadays, as a farmer, and a patriot, he wants to see British farming do well.  His controversial view that not all imports are bad is due mainly to conditions that are outside human control: the weather.  Sunnier countries can grow tender crops without the use of expensive artificial heat, and the southern hemisphere can produce fresh fruit in our winter.

But there are things that grow well in Britain, grass being one of them.  Ken would like to see British farming thrive by playing to its strengths, and said, “The public and politicians are beginning to have concerns over sustainability of supply.  I think we’re going to see a continuation of larger farming units, as being better able to compete in the field.  They get economies of scale, efficiencies of capital, and improved production methods.”

“We’ve also seen a tremendous increase in the use of contractors, where farmers don’t own equipment themselves, but hire services.”

He is optimistic, and said, “We’ve got a lot of bright young people going into farming.”

He’s also a fan of home cooking, and said, “My Mother was a tremendous old-fashioned cook – she never used recipe books.  She said she could make a meal out of a dishcloth if she had to.”

Fortunately, Ken never had to eat a dishcloth, but said, “There’s now a great lack of Domestic Science being taught in schools.  I’d teach understanding of food – how to buy, how to cook, how to present.  But I’d broaden it to embrace how to run a house too – for boys as well as girls.  Otherwise, you’re just opening packets.”

His passion for good quality produce shone through when he said, “And there’s no point in selling ingredients to people who don’t know what to do with them – that’s the problem.  I don’t find a great knowledge of meat amongst young people.  That’s why domestic science is important: to get the best out of a piece of meat, you need to know what to do with it.”

He also commented about the ‘perfect’ fruit and veg in supermarkets.  He said: “A lot of that is due to Europe.  It’s so closely graded, so if it’s not all the same shape and colour, it doesn’t get graded.  They’ve tended to concentrate on appearance, and forget about flavour.  But now flavour’s coming back.  With tomatoes, for instance, they’ve got new varieties that are full of flavour.”

It was a pleasure to meet Ken, with his optimism for the future, and his enthusiasm for gardening.  He thinks this is a good thing for everyone to have a go at, so that they appreciate what farmers and growers do.  He said, “Grow it yourself, and you soon find out.”

He hopes for good weather for the Great Yorkshire Show, but said, “We can’t control it, and it wouldn’t be right if we could, as people wouldn’t agree.”

Wise words indeed.

Judging sheep at the Great Yorkshire Show

Judging sheep at the Great Yorkshire Show

For more about the Great Yorkshire Show, see www.greatyorkshireshow.co.uk

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Marmalade again

January 14, 2010

I’m still flogging my way through converting my case of Seville oranges into the treasure chest of a year’s store of glowing jars of marmalade.

I was beginning to tire: I have ‘stirrers’ elbow’ from too much stirring of viscous, sticky marmalade.

But my interest is now restored, thanks to a chat with Jane Hasell-McCosh, founder of the World Marmalade Festival.

Jane’s infectious enthusiasm  links marmalade to every walk of life, from children’s games, to gardening, from holidays to the spiritual.

See Jane’s website at www.marmaladefestival.com

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Marmalade

January 6, 2010

Yesterday, I had the call from my greengrocer: the Seville oranges are in!

So early this morning, I braved the snow to collect my annual case of Seville oranges.  Now I’ve got pots and cauldrons of bubbling brew, making marmalade.

I first made marmalade a few years ago, when I saw a small bag of oranges at the greengrocer.  I bought them to have a go, and loved the marmalade.  I never wanted shop bought again.

Ever since, I’ve placed my order  before Christmas: one case of Seville oranges, when they come in.  It secures a year’s supply of delicious, sharp/sweet, refreshing marmalade for my breakfast toast.

I do it the lazy way: simmer the oranges until they’re tender, then cut them in half, scoop out the flesh and pips, then put the skins into the food processor to quickly chop them fine.

The pips and pith go into a muslin back, and back into the pot to boil up with the sugar until it reaches setting point.

It’s as easy as that!

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