Saturday 29^th February 2020

Today we re-launched the Embsay-with-Eastby Walls survey, which we had abandoned a few years ago due to various problems.

We (the old hands - myself, Chris & Tony) met our new volunteers at Bobbins cafe in Embsay Mills. After a bit of breakfast, Chris explained the project. Out came his copy of the 1847 Tithe map for the parish, on which Chris has allocated a wall reference number to each stretch of field boundary. Each of these will be photographed, and recorded with a description and measurements. Hopefully we will end up with a characterisation map from which we get some idea of how the field systems developed over the centuries.

The weather held out surprisingly well, despite dire weather forecasts, so we set out for a training session along Brackenley Lane. It was a bit awkward as Saturday is a relatively busy day of the week for traffic along the lane, which despite being single track country lane, is used as a bit of a race track by some motorists. We split into two teams, although one team had to leave early for another class in the afternoon. The team which remained behind did extremely well, picking up all the recording processes without any difficulty, and we were very pleased with how much progress we made before the chill winds and sleet drove us back into Bobbins for a warming coffee. 

Jane Lunnon.

Friday 13th February 2020

Today we were back at Conistone, St Mary’s, to continue with the total station, kindly brought over by Toby from the DEBS project. He also brought with him two postgrad students, Laura and Erica, who wanted to learn about RTI photography. 

Since Alan was away on holiday I demonstrated RTI, with Tony’s help, and then let the students carry their own RTI on a gravestone. 

Then it was into the very cold church to process the photographs on the laptop – again I demonstrated the process, then let Erica and Laura process the second set of photographs by themselves.

They did an excellent job – picking up the whole technique straightaway. They were a delight to teach, and I really enjoyed my day with them both. 

Meanwhile the others tried completing the GPS survey of gravestones on the north side – but as the weather started to close in they were hampered by various factors, and by lunchtime had managed 2 rows. Over lunch we could see the skies darkening and sadly, decided we had to call it a day. 

Jane Lunnon