Baysdale

A weather-worn carving of a grouse in a shooting butt. Probably done by Roland Close, local archaeologist and estate worker who lived in Baysdale. Other butts in the sequence have a similar carving.

I suppose it would be petty of me to whine about this anthropogenic change to the moors created by mowing of the heather moorland. I should be thankful that this moor is no longer being burned and great plumes of smoke waft across the skyline but I fear the random patches of the old black swiddens did seem more pleasing than this new chequerboard effect. ‘Swiddens’, as you may recall, are the burnt patches of heather, and swiddening is a centuries old practice, pre-dating its ‘modern’ purpose of promoting the growth of young heather as food for the grouse chicks. It was the first step in turf graving, the cutting and gathering of the underlying peat for use as fuel, a practice no longer in use. In a record of the manor court of Fylingdales of 1682, the burnt moor looked “like a quilt that had been worked’’. Swiddening also provided an opportunity to gather the ling ‘gouldens’, the name of the partly-burnt storks, tie them in bundles and send them into towns to be sold as ‘kindling’. A task usually carried out by the older women. It may take up to fourteen years for a new growth of heather to become established after a burn, however during this time the swidden may be colonised by a variety of other plants. It’ll be interesting to see what the recovery and diversity of mowed heather is like. Diversity is of course the enemy of grouse management. In a hard to read dialect poem by the Yorkshire poet, Stanley Umpleby (1887-1953), the task of swiddening is depicted: Hoo can a poor fella ‘at’s choak’d up wi’ smeek I’ t’toon, where he’s sattled ti addle his keak. Fergit his au’d frinnds, an’ hoo all used ti sing Awaay ower t’moors bonnin’ swiddens o’ ling. An’ noo we ‘a’e March here. Ah knaw they’ll be, Oor Jack, Bill an’ Tommy. Aye! all theer bud me. An’ if war wiv ’em Ah seear Ah a’ud sing, Awaay ower t’moors bonnin’ swiddens o’ ling. For sources and references see my blog Link

Looking west along the northern side of Baysdale.

Looking NE.

Looking north.

Looking west from the road above Hob Hole.

Looking SW into Baysdale.

Looking NE from the road.

Looking NW from the road at the top of the steep hill.

A steep road descending into Hob Hole.

The grassy area at Hob Hole.