Wednesday 25 May 2016

With summer fast approaching we turned up in our winter togs for another chilly day surveying the gravestones. The winds were too strong to allow for RTI so much of the morning was taken up using triangulation to measure in the locations of ledger stones in the Garden of Remembrance.

One of the problems with a churchyard is that apart from the church building and the lych gate there are virtually no other fixed reference points – trees, boundary walls, pathway lights – these can all be moved or even disappear within a generation, so cannot be used. Triangulation can be quite inaccurate once you are so far from the fixed points that the tape bows no matter how hard you try to pull the tape straight. This has been a bit of a problem with the gravestones. We have considered obtaining a laser such as estate agents often use, but by the very nature of churchyards there’s usually another gravestone or a tree in the direct line of sight which would break the laser beam. We also thought about using a GPS unit – but the hand-held units are not accurate enough – a margin of error of 2 to 3 metres is of little use to distinguish gravestones that are less than a metre apart. 

The answer would be a theodolite of course – but that’s beyond our budget. We may be able to borrow one sometime – it’s something we may investigate as it’s important to know exactly where each burial plot is when you are dealing with a still active church.

At least with the ledger stones, lying flat on the ground, we can lay the measuring tape along the ground and this ensures an accurate reading – although there is the danger of losing the occasional volunteer in the flower beds.

There may also be some undiginified clambering under table tombs!

Lunch inside the church was interesting – whilst sampling Jennifer’s delicious marmalade cake we managed to hold a conversation over the noise of the roofing work taking place above us. Despite the weather closing in the builders seemed to be enjoying themselves, with lots of laughter which kept us entertained.  

We tried in the afternoon to carry on with some recording work but after an hour or so the rain set in and we had to abandon ship.

Jane Lunnon. 

Saturday 21^st May 2016

We had a very enjoyable day today as we were visited by Gareth and Nicole Beale from the Centre for Digital Heritage at the University of York. They brought with them Helen Petrie, a specialist in Human-Computer interaction.  In the morning we chatted over coffee and biscuits (really nice spicy Dutch ones that Helen had brought) bringing us all up to date with the progress of the project and discussing its future development.

There are some very exciting prospects for expanding our work into new avenues, especially with regards to the publication and accessible archiving of the mass of data we are collecting. Helen offered some very interesting ideas for developing the computerisation of our work, while Gareth and Nicole seemed very keen to continue working with us on rolling out the project into new areas.

After lunch (good buffet set out by Sue!) we strolled over to the churchyard and had a look at some of the more unusual monuments. We could hardly drag Helen away!

A good day.

Jane Lunnon

Wednesday 28^th April 2016

Well it was four seasons in one day today which was quite fun!

Despite the chilly temperatures it started out as quite a nice day and five of us set out on surveying and photographing the gravestones on the east side, and ledgers in the “Garden of Remembrance”.

There were spits and spots of rain which forced us in for an early coffee break, and again for an early lunch, to give our cameras and papers time to dry out. We felt sorry for the men on the church roof who continued working in the rapidly dropping temperatures, under increasingly grey skies.

Waiting for the hailstones to stop

In the afternoon, there was an ongoing battle with the elements – in-between a series of short but heavy falls of hailstones we retreated back inside the church, and then snatched a few minutes more photography before dashing back in again as the hailstones came back.

There were a few visitors to the church today – despite the weather it is the beginning of the tourist season, and passing ramblers and strollers often pop into St Mary’s. Let’s hope none of them got caught under the hailstones which came down about 3 pm and settled so thickly on the ground that it looked as though it had just snowed. 

At that point we surrendered and went home!

Jane Lunnon 

Wednesday 20^th April 2016

What a glorious spring day it was! Of course, that made it very difficult for the RTI – photographing the ledger stones in the Garden of Remembrance area of the churchyard proved awkward because the bright sunshine threw out the flashlight which is needed to create the various angled shadows which make the inscriptions legible. Hence, Sue had to spend half the day with her nose up against a large piece of plywood in a bid to eliminate the sunshine.

 

Sue confined to our equivalent of the naughty step.... 

Eileen and I however were able to fully enjoy the gorgeous weather by measuring and recording some of the gravestones at the west side.

  

Eileen enjoys a pleasant day in the sunshine

We had satisfying lunch at the Elm Tree Pub while a funeral service took place in the church. Afterwards, when the cortege had gone to the crematorium in Skipton, we returned to carry on with the churchyard survey.

It’s a long time since we worked in the sunshine, and it made for a very pleasant day.

Jane Lunnon

30 April 2016

The long cold wet winter continues... 

Despite a favourable weather forecast we found ourselves out in a cold, breezy, damp spring day.

In the morning Jennifer and Jane started out with good intentions to measure up some graves on the west side. No sooner had we started than it began to drizzle, making our record sheets wet, so we retreated inside the church. 

Despite some rather long coffee and lunch breaks because of the weather, we did actually make a start on some data entry onto our laptops. 

After lunch, Alan and Sue braved it out to do some photography outside, but I decided to stay inside the church, to keep (relatively) warm, and type up some data instead. 

The weather has been unkind to this project - causing considerable delay in getting the RTI photography done, but otherwise the project is going very well. As we collate the data we are finding lots of connecting themes, and developing lots of ideas for interesting ways to analyse the data. 

Jane Lunnon

23 March 2016

After the long cold, wet winter, outdoor work in the churchyard resumed today - The scaffolding is up around the church ready for work to begin on replacing roof tiles, which is good as the winter rain has been causing a great deal of damage to the interior walls. 

Carpets of snowdrops in St Mary's churchyard

While Alan and Tony worked on the fiddly job of RTI photographing the ledger stones in the garden of remembrance where ashes are interred, the rest of us measured in some locations of graves on the west side, using the good old-fashioned technique of triangulation. We're using specific corners of the church building and buttresses as fixed reference points. Sometimes intervening gravestones get in the way  which means the measuring tape has to be raised above them - and that's where a broom becomes a very handy tool!!

 

To explain - the broom handle provides a resting point to keep the tape on the same vertical plane as the location being measured. 

It was a bitingly cold day and we soon got numb fingers. After a warming cuppa at lunchtime Alan and Tony continued with the ledger stones while Sue and I recorded which graves are being attended - that is, are still visited by relatives. At this time of year the churchyard is a riot of colour as there are many bouquets and fresh cut flowers being brought for Easter 

We were also visited by a local cat - a very beautiful feline that often drops by to have a little look at what we're up to. 

So another good day's work was done by the team. 

Jane Lunnon

Update - March 2016 

Work on the project continues steadily. 

On 25th February Chris gave his presentation on the Embsay-with-Eastby boundary stones to the Skipton & Craven Historical Society. It seemed to go very well and there was a good audience which asked lots of interesting questions afterwards. 

He's virtually written up the paper for this project, and is currently setting up the appendices and drawings to go with it. 

Spring is almost here despite the snow a few days ago. And that means we must resume the walls surveying again soon. The weather is so unpredictable it's difficult to plan ahead but we will get out there again before the vegetation grow too high for us to see the walls.

We're still researching the lives of men from Embsay and Eastby who served in the First World War, and some of that research will be posted up on our project pages on the Upper Wharfedale Heritage Group website. David is working his way through the fascinating archives of the Parkers and Chippendales who had a long association with the villages. And of course, there are several queries arising from the churchyard project which we are investigating, leading us to some very interesting stories which we might use on our next graveyard tour. 

Our involvement with the St Mary's Church survey of the graveyard resumes again this week - hopefully the weather will hold out so we can start surveying the north side on Wednesday. Otherwise there's plenty of data to type up if it rains! 

Work on transcribing the school's archives also continues - there's a surprising amount of information to type up, but we're slowly getting through it, and the data is being entered into our genealogical database. A history of the British School (as opposed to the National School) is planned, but needs quite a bit more research.

A small group of us recently visited a local house which has always intrigued us - it has undergone many renovations and re-fits over the centuries but we suspected it was 17thC in origin. So with the help of vernacular buildings expert, Alison Armstrong, and at the kind invitation of the owners, we explored the wonderful roof beams and other clues dotted around the interior and exterior of the house. 

Indeed it does seem to have been built in the 17thC and some of the beams appear to be very high-quality oak of the monastic period - the question is, where did they come from? Did these cruck beams hold up a barn that perhaps stood on this site before the house was built - or were they pinched from the ruins of the old Embsay priory nearby? We are ridiculously excited about it. 

The Parish Council recently made their archives available to us - unfortunately these mostly relate to the 20th Century - no one seems to know where the 19th Century documents have gone. Nevetheless we can find some interesting history in these and will soon be looking at the earlier documents more closely. 

Jane Lunnon