Summer 2013.

It's been an extremely busy summer - yet it would seem on the surface that not much has been happening with the Embsay project. Our commitments with other projects within the Upper Wharfedale Heritage Group have meant we haven't been able to give Embsay research as much time as we would have liked. However, that doesn't mean we haven't been fully occupied!

Jennifer Stearn with the Embsay Children's Centre summer school at Whitfield Syke (c) photo by Ruth Spencer

Work on the genealogical database is steadily ongoing - we now have over 11,000 individuals on the database and it's still growing on a daily basis. The archives of the Craven Herald newspaper are being searched for all references to Embsay and Eastby - since these are all on microfilm it's a very slow process and requires a lot of patience and eyestrain. We are nearing completion on our analysis of the census returns - Only 1901 and 1911 to go through now. We have also almost completed our extraction of data from parish registers / monumental inscriptions and related sources. A start is being made on other sources such as Wills at the Borthwick Institute. 

The survey of the field walls has been stalled by the high summer vegetation which makes it very difficult to examine the stonework closely, but work will resume in the autumn. 

The survey of boundary stones across Embsay Moor is almost complete - there remains just one last stone to record. A talk will be given on the findings of the survey at the Christmas meeting of the Upper Wharfedale Heritage Group. 

We are also preparing to give 2 talks at the Embsay Village Hall in October - details will be circulated nearer the time. 

Pat Carroll teaches two girls how to plot their finds (c) photo by Ruth Spencer

Some UWHG members recently spent a day at the Embsay Children's Centre, with children of various ages from 4 to 10 who were attending for the summer holidays.

Phil with a captive audience at Whitfield - or is it the other way round? (c) photo by Ruth Spencer

They took the children up to the Whitfield Syke mill, where Phil told them the amusing story about the water rights dispute. The children then went "fieldwalking" and took their finds back to the Centre in Embsay to process them. There were more finds waiting to be dug up in the Centre's own sand-pit.

Pat and Jennifer help the children dig up some finds in the sand-pit (c) photo by Ruth Spencer

And finally, the Embsay Research Team are very pleased to have a new member, John Weatherill, who is starting to tackle the large number of archive documents which need transcribing. This will open up a huge new area of information for us on the history of the parish. 

Jane Lunnon

Saturday 27 April 2013

5 of us spent another day surveying field walls  along Low Lane. We started at Water Lane (the footpath which goes off the road towards Eastby) and split into two teams, recording the walls on both sides of the road, finishing by the end of the day at the boundary with Halton East. 

Particularly interesting features that we recorded along the way were the pole gatepost which had probably been removed from its original location and is now acting as an anchor for the end of a wood and wire fence. Unfortunately it lies outside the National Park boundary so we can't submit the details for the Park's Feature of the Season database. But we have recorded it in detail. The variety of gateposts is really becoming quite interesting and we shall be producing a page for the UWHG website on the different types of gateposts that we find across the parish. Also of particular interest was the cast iron water trough we found set down into the ground, the remains of a structure which may have been a small barn or large animal enclosure, a beautifully built stone culvert running under the road, and an intriguing stone-revetted bank which runs behind an old thorn hedge. All things which we have driven past in the car hundreds of times without ever noticing before. 



On the way home we were careful not to disturb the duck in her nest in the roadside verge - let's hope her poor choice of nesting site doesn't prove disastrous when she hatches her ducklings. 

Jane Lunnon  

A day at Lancaster 

Saturday April 20th, 2013

The Embsay Research Group attended an excellent seminar run by the Centre for North West Regional Studies at Lancaster University. The topic was manorial documents - we were particularly interested in this as we are planning to study the large number of Court Baron documents that survive for the Manor of Embsay with Eastby. The lectures have given us a great deal to think about, and a very useful context within which to develop our study of 17th and 18th Century Embsay-with-Eastby. It was a well attended conference in very pleasant surroundings. 

All the lecturers were very good - Dr. Alan Crosby, of course, was entertaining as well as very informative, as usual.

We were delighted to bump into fellow UWHG members, Doug Grant and David Johnson, while we were there, and chat with them over coffee and lunch breaks.

A good day was had by all. 

** By the way, if you want to know how it went at our presentation on the Whitfield Syke Mill project at the National Park's Historic Environment Day, have a look at out Whitfield Project blog at:

http://uwhg-whitfield.blogspot.co.uk/

Jane Lunnon

Saturday, 2nd March 2013

3 of us continued where we left off a fortnight ago - Chris & Jane Lunnon, and Tony Stearn. We picked up the wall at Kempley Beck on Low Lane, and surveyed all the way up to Water Lane, which is the footpath turning up towards Eastby.

At first we thought what a glorious day it was going to be - beautifully clear blue sky and warm sunshine. But when you're loitering with intent you start to feel the chill getting to your fingers. Cyclists, walkers and joggers and pony riders passed us by, commenting on the gorgeous, spring day - but moving at a much slower pace, closely examining  walls and hedges, taking measurements and photos, and writing copious notes, we were getting colder and colder. Stopping for lunch we found ourselves wondering how much longer we could continue - indeed we gave up about 3pm and headed back home to Embsay at a brisk pace to warm up.

But it had been a successful day. We found several intriguing features, discovered the locations of some missing "walls", and we're becoming quite anoraky about gate posts!

Jane Lunnon

Thursday 21st February 2013

Four members of the ERG spent the day at the Archives of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society in Leeds - Chris and Jane Lunnon, David Turner & Tony Stearn. 

Chris unrolled three very large maps (late 18th to mid-19thC) on the large table in the Lecture Room and closely examined them for clues to old boundaries and trackways around  the parish. Despite the fact that Embsay itself was not actually on any of the maps, as they were all maps of neighbouring parishes, Chris did find some interesting pieces of information around the parish boundaries, which answered a few questions, and raised a few others.

We also looked at the field notes written up by J. Dobson when he surveyed boundary stones across the Yorkshire Dales in the early 1980s, the family papers of the Cooper family - three of whom lived in Embsay in the early to mid-19thC - and some documents of the Court of the Skipton Honour - these latter were mainly lists of jurors and constables from the 18thC but in our experience such dry lists can often prove very useful, as they provide evidence of social status and networks. 

We now wait for the photocopies of the documents we decided we'd like to transcribe in detail.
As usual we had lunch in the kitchen, and the staff very kindly let us have some of their chocolate cake!

As always the staff at Clarendon House were very patient and helpful. Our special thanks to Kirsty.

Jane Lunnon 

Field Walls Survey

Saturday 16^th February 2013

Six members of the ERG (Chris and Jane, David T, Sue, Tony & Jennifer) enjoyed a beautiful early spring day on a leisurely stroll along Low Lane, out of Embsay along the road towards Halton East. Armed with a copy of the 1847 tithe map, camera, tape measure and hand-held GPS unit, this was our first outing to survey the field walls around the parish. There are over 750 of these, and no doubt this number will increase as we find new ones that were built after 1847.

The purpose of the study is to identify the main distinguishing characteristics of the many different types of walls and other boundaries which lie within the parish, and relate these to the historic landscape.

It was a glorious day and although we had to dodge a surprising amount of traffic along Low Lane, we measured and recorded about 2 miles of walls and hedges. It was a bit of an experiment as we were testing out new field recording forms, but it all went well, and the day flew by.  It’s almost scary how quickly we are becoming real anoraks about all the minute differences between types of coping stones and gateposts!

As it turned rather chilly in the late afternoon we headed back to Chris and Jane’s house for tea, and delicious chocolate cake baked by Sue in celebration of our genealogical database of Embsay and Eastby reaching 10,000 individuals!

We’ve been working on the compilation of the database for over a year now, and probably still have several years to go before it’s complete. But it’s already proving to be well worth the effort as a source not only for family & individual life histories, but also for socio-demographic patterns, & other aspects of village history.

Jane Lunnon, ERG (UWHG) 

Photographs by Jane Lunnon