Pete Bowler 

A Country Diary: North Yorkshire

A Country Diary: North Yorkshire
  
  


We gathered, some 80 of us, in a hotel a few miles outside Catterick. Landowners, parish councillors, naturalists and others, all coming together for the launch of an exciting new vision for the washlands alongside the rivers Swale and Ure.

East of the Yorkshire Dales lies a wide vale of fertile soils through which the two rivers snake their way southwards. The Swale, leaving Swaledale near Richmond, the Ure emerging from Wensleydale at Middleham then meandering by Ripon to pick up the Swale at Ellenthorpe Ings, east of Boroughbridge.

Although the vale has a rich agricultural history, beneath the soils lie sand and gravel deposits. These have been quarried for centuries, leaving behind wetlands, lakes and marshes. It is these workings, or former workings, which Siobhan Walker, from the Swale and Ure Washlands Project, sees as a huge opportunity for nature conservation. She can also see potential for sustainable economic benefits.

Several sites along the two rivers have already been restored naturally, providing new habitat. Siobhan's vision is to see created a network of such sites, linking with existing wildlife areas, enhanced by the establishment of reedbeds, wet woodland and conservation headlands on arable fields.

Outside, the wind whipped autumn leaves across the hotel lawns. Inside, the audience heard of the rich history and archaeology scattered across the vale. Castles at Richmond and Middleham point to the strategic military importance of these rivers, the Thornborough Henges, near West Tanfield, and the huge, towering obelisk-like Devil's Arrows at Boroughbridge. Man has left his indelible mark on this landscape since Neolithic times. Siobhan Walker's project aims to leave a wildlife- rich, culturally diverse area from the present day.

Although this was the launch of a vision, its objectives are already being realised. With the backing it has from all the local sand and gravel extraction companies, it could really work. The washlands form part of the natural flood defences of the vale, soaking up water which would otherwise hit the towns and villages. Left to stand longer, it percolates through the ground to the aquifer, available then for crop irrigation in summer.

It is a long-term plan, but it takes vision to see such things to fruition.

 

Leave a Comment

Required fields are marked *

*

*