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Great Writing - Home > Non-Fiction > Kettlewell's Dry Stone Walls and Scarecrows
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Non-Fiction
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| Kettlewell's Dry Stone Walls and Scarecrows | |
| By Josie | ||||||||||||
| 06 December 2007 | ||||||||||||
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DRY STONE WALLS Did you know that you can take a course to learn how to make dry stone walls? They are not just flung together anyhow. They have to make them to last, and like a good marriage partner they must be solid, reliable and straight as a die. I bet you'd never made the comparison before, but I've given you something to think about now. Dry stone walls are called “dry” because no cement is used in them. Stones used are made of either sandstone, gritstone or limestone. - - - Oh, rather than I tell you exactly how difficult it is to make a dry stone wall, go on a course or read about it. I mention dry stone walls because they are higgledy piggledy all over the fields of the Yorkshire Dales, and this together with field barns, hay meadows and limestone pavements are the features that people associate with the true landscape of the Yorkshire dales. There are walls as old as c.600 BC in Swaledale. The oldest walls in the Yorkshire Dales date back beyond the first Millennium BC. They have survived the unyielding barrage of rain, wind and often snow. The greatest time of construction would have been between 1760 and 1845 during the Enclosures Act. The sheep is the symbol of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and for good reason. This is sheep country and, together with the criss-cross dry stone walls which mark the field boundaries, the countryside is alive with the sound of sheep. When I came to live in Yorkshire, 20 years ago, I wrote to a friend: “All I seem to hear is the sound of running water and sheep here in Yorkshire.” In many places you’ll find many more sheep than people. ONWARDS TO KETTLEWELL Kettlewell, originally called Cetel Wella or Chetel’s Spring, is situated on one of Britain’s favourite walks, The Dalesway. This is an 84 mile trail from Ilkley in West Yorkshsire to Bowness on Windermere in Cumbria and a large part of this scenic walk goes through Wharfedale, including Kettlewell. If you saw the film “The Calendar Girls” and remember the village of “Knapely”, this was, in fact Kettlewell. If it were not for all the tourists who flood into this area, especially in the summer months, this village would seem to be a place of peace and quiet beauty. Its limestone terraces with their fringes of hazel and rowan coppices give to the area a particular beauty. Kettlewell, lying in the centre of the Dales is a popular village with active people for, gathered at The Blue Bell Inn or the Kings Head Hotel you will find potholers, climbers and walkers chatting about their day’s activities in the area, and one popular destination is Great Whernside under which sits the Village. Great Whernside is a mountain that dominates the skyline north-east of Kettlewell, 704 metres above sea level. It is Yorkshire’s fifth highest peak and separates Wharfedale from Nidderdale. It is sometimes confused with Whernside by Ribblehead. KETTLEWELL’S SCARECROW FESTIVAL In 1994 there was a fundraising event organized for the local school which serves much of Upper Wharfedale. It was a Scarecrow Festival. The response was enthusiastic, to say the least. Over one hundred scarecrows appeared in gardens, hidden places, and even on rooftops, and everywhere else that a scarecrow could be put. The event was successfully repeated and grows year by year. Now thousands of visitors come to Kettlewell over a nine day period in August. The whole community is busily engaged in making and renovating scarecrows, producing and serving home made produce to feed to the many visitors, but the problem, of course, is finding somewhere for all the cars to be parked. It is here that we leave Kettlewell, where walkers are spoilt for choice with some of the best walking in the Dales. Tomorrow we go past Kilnsey Crag, formed during the ice age, and visit one of the most popular little towns in Wharfedale – Grassington. Please join me then.
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