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| | | From Shetland to the Scilly Isles, Open Country travels the UK in search of the stories, the people and the wildlife that make our countryside such a vibrant place. Each week we visit a new area to hear how local people are growing the crops, protecting the environment, maintaining the traditions and cooking the food that makes their corner of rural Britain unique.
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|  | | Preston Spring | |
Helen Mark travels to the Yorkshire Dales, forever a location manager's first thought as the quintessential rural landscape for feel-good drama such as All creatures Great and Small and Heartbeat. But this rural idyll is shaped as much by industry as agriculture. For 800 years the moors and highlands of the Dales have been used to mine lead which has left a structural legacy clearly visible today.
Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority
Helen begins her journey just outside Ripon on the edge of the Dales at Fountains Abbey, founded by the Cistercian order in the 12th century and meets Terry Frazier, who worked at the Abbey until his recent retirement. The Abbey ruins are of the most complete in this country - as you enter the grounds the church soars into the sky. The tower, the great empty windows, the row upon row of columns ending in the massive Chapel of the Nine Altars: a model for Durham Cathedral, it just needs a roof. It is surrounded by monastic living quarters of various kinds: cloister and chapter-house, the warming-house, the muniment room, parlours, dormitories, dining rooms, kitchens, washrooms, toilets, hospitals, guest-houses and mills with the tiny River Skell running in between. The storehouse or cellarium is particularly well-known for its 350ft of eerie stone vaulting. The recently restored water-mill had been in continuous operation for 800 years, providing a steady income for the monastary. The building was spared at the dissolution of the Abbey in 1539 because it was able to generate an income for the estate of £3 per year.
Fountains Abbey
 | | Fountains Abbey | |
Helen next visits Swaledale sheep farmer Raymond Calvert, who tells her that Swaledale sheep originated at the top of the Dales and are particularly good as mothers - easy to manage, easy to cross - and adapt well to surrounding areas, rearing a good lamb.
More on the history of Swaledale knitting
The Dales Knitting Tradition
Lead mining in the Yorkshire Dales dates back almost 2000 years and evidence litters the landscape. Martin Roe tells Helen that to the practiced eye examples of how this industry shaped the landscape are everywhere. Hushing, for example was the technique of using water to wash away the soil and surface debris to reveal the vein of mineral below and it was used extensively in the Dales. It can be detected in the deep boulder-strewn ravines that cut across the moors. The Romans first organised the mines into a large scale industry which was developed and extended by the monastaries as mining techniques improved, allowing more ore to be extracted economically and extending the life of the industry. Lead mining continued until the 1930s.
Lead mining in the Yorkshire Dales
Mining and agriculture have meant that the Dales have less woodland than most rural areas, in fact the Woodland Trust is so concerned about the lack of woodland in the Dales that it has launched its Dales Project appeal. Peter Leeson tells Helen about it as they walk through the ancient wood at Preston Spring. The Trust will work with Dales communities to help preserve and manage the existing woodland and enable them to thrive. Artist Ashley Jackson tells Helen about his love of the moors and Yorkshire.
Woodland Trust: The Yorkshire Dales
This week's competition
Who founded the Woodland Trust and in which year? Ashley Jackson has kindly provided this week's prize.
Last week's competition winner is Penny Beale, from Hastings in East Sussex.
Submit your entry by emailing [email protected] -->
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