Welcome

Welcome to the winter update from the Upper Nidderdale Landscape Partnership. In this edition we review a year of farming blogs, look forward to our first city event at Kirkstall Abbey and update you on our tourism, community and access work, plus you can listen in on the latest oral history recordings.

Don't forget to keep sending us your photos of Upper Nidderdale as part of our Photo of the Month - the best are featured on our homepage and Facebook.

Nidderdale Coming To The City

We’re running a ‘Nidderdale Comes to the City’ event at Kirkstall Abbey in Leeds on Saturday 22 April. This free family-friendly event will showcase all the best bits of Upper Nidderdale, giving a hands-on experience of farming, heritage, nature, local crafts and lots more.

There’ll be everything from a brass band to build-your-own drystone wall to wild food foraging walks. Put the date in your diary!

Photo: Family-friendly events

Moorlands Oral History

Volunteers working on the Oral History Project have been carrying out interviews and their work is revealing some fascinating insights into life in the Dale over the last eighty years. We’ve interviewed a variety of people including farmers, gamekeepers and a former Middlesmoor school teacher.

Click to hear memories of growing up on a Nidderdale farm during the War and the shoot dinner. More extracts from interviews and details are on the project webpage.

There is still a lot of work to be done, so we’re looking for new volunteers to get involved with the interviewing and suggestions of people to be interviewed. If you’re interested in helping us develop a unique and invaluable record of life in Upper Nidderdale, please get in touch.

Photo: Moorland memories - family photo courtesy of Connie Bickerdike

Tourism Workshops

We’re working with local tourism businesses to develop tourism in Upper Nidderdale that will help visitors get out and explore the area’s landscape. One area of work is dark skies with Upper Nidderdale a fantastic place to stargaze. We've launched a business small grants scheme plus have a set of free promotional images that are available to local tourism businesses developing dark skies tourism.

Coming up soon we''ll also be publishing a set of online walking guides including an updated Nidderdale Way guide - watch this space.

Photo: Come and watch the stars in Nidderdale (Martin Whipp)

Under Our Feet - Community Arts

This year’s community art project is taking what’s under our feet, namely the rocks and geology of Nidderdale, as its theme. Stone sculptor Joseph Hayton is the artist for the project which has so far included walks, talks and a photography competition.

The project will culminate in a stone sculpture exhibition at Number 6 Studio Gallery from 7 to 16 July, during which members of the public can get involved in creating a piece of community stone sculpture. If you're interested in taking part, you need to get in touch with Nidderdale Visual Arts to sign up.

Photo: Charlotte Brotherton showing off her winning youth category photo with Phil Taylor from FolkFinders

Access Enhancement

Work continues to improve access on footpaths and bridleways across Upper Nidderdale. Recently we’ve upgraded the signage on the Scar House circular walk, as some of the old signs were in a very bad state. The new signs give clear directions with distances along the route.

Another major bit of work has been improving the circular walk that starts at Stean and follows the valley upstream. At High Riggs - with help from AONB Conservation Volunteers - we have created a permissive footpath as an alternative to the impossibly steep section of public footpath. And we have re-instated the stepping stones where the route crosses How Stean Beck.

Photo: Installing new signage

Farming Blog

We published the last in our series of upland farming blogs in January. The blog was written by local young farmer, Frances Graham, and ran for a year from January 2016. It provides an insight into farming in the 21st century in Upper Nidderdale. In her last post Frances talks about Christmas on the farm and looks back on the year.

Photo: Sheep shearing courtesy of Frances Graham

About the Upper Nidderdale Landscape Partnership

The Landscape Partnership is a £1.8 million scheme for Upper Nidderdale, funded mainly through the Heritage Lottery Fund. Launched in summer 2014, it will run through to July 2018 with two main aims:

to conserve and enhance Upper Nidderdale’s wildlife habitats and historic environment;
to enable people to find out, enjoy and get involved in looking after this fantastic heritage.

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Get in touch:
Nidderdale AONB, The Old Workhouse, King Street, Pateley Bridge, Harrogate, HG3 5LE
T: 01423 712950
E: uppernidderdale@harrogate.gov.uk
W: uppernidderdale.org.uk

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Nidderdale AONB · The Old Workhouse · King Street, Pateley Bridge · Harrogate, North Yorkshire HG3 5LE · United Kingdom