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.