Someone once told me that Hull Pot was the biggest natural hole in England… mind you, another person told me that Birmingham was the biggest hole in the country but they could have been alluding to something different. Without a person in the shot it’s difficult for viewers of the photo to imagine the scale of this chasm – which can come as something of a shock to the unwary as they march along the path from Horton-in-Ribblesdale to Foxup beneath Penyghent. It’s around 90m long and 30m wide with sheer drops all round – and no warning signs. I thought the waterfalls might have been more impressive this morning after all the recent rain but it wasn’t to be, and I’ve yet to capture them in full flow. Today I headed back to Horton via the Pennine Way down Ribblesdale where the views across the valley were gorgeous. Here a cloud has just enveloped the top of Ingleborough.
Do over-zealous planning rules restrict our individuality? Bit of an unusually deep question for me and my blog I know, but this was a discussion that cropped up following a glass or two of red recently. I’m all for preventing the building of a branch of Burger King at the top of Ingleborough but do we really need to gain permission from some bureaucrat to paint our front door red or our garden gate purple? Those of you from towns might wonder what all the fuss is about but if you live in the Yorkshire Dales you’ll know that planning rules can be a nightmare. I was in Shropshire recently – in a lovely area full of natural and man-made beauty – where several touches of individuality had created a quirky, interesting and vibrant place, and residents were rightly proud of their town. The woman who painted her house with spots did receive some negative comments from a few but the planners eventually agreed to allow the design. I imagine she would have been dragged through the streets by her hair and burnt at the stake in some dales villages. What do you think? Take the poll… I’ll not report you to the Thought Police.
It’s a shame you can’t hear this photo. I popped out for a bit of air at lunchtime, despite the rain, to see how Stainforth Force was looking. I could hear the mighty thundering of the Ribble from several hundred yards away; standing beside the fall it was deafening. Perhaps it doesn’t look so impressive in the photo but you have to remember that this is normally a short series of falls… at times today it look like one powerful cascade – and incredibly there were salmon trying to leap against the flow. Daft beggars.
The packhorse bridge here is one man-made structure no one could ever object to in the dales.
Walking above Ribblesdale this afternoon I realised that a degree in meteorology wasn’t necessary to deduce I was about to get an almighty soaking. So I took this photo, tucked the camera away in my bag and braced myself for the downpour. Head bowed I battled back to the car. The label on my cagoule says waterproof – but it doesn’t say leakproof. My drenching lasted less than ten minutes but the wetness stayed with me a hell of a lot longer. Strong winds soon blew the storm clouds up the dale and I hung around to see if the new light following quickly on behind would illuminate Penyghent from the west. It didn’t, but as can be seen in the other photo, the cloud clung to the peak, looking like smoke rising from a slow-burning peat fire. The scene may have improved later on but as I was starting to smell like a wet old dog I wasn’t hanging around to find out.
It’s not so long ago that the government’s major political push concerned letting local people decide on local matters – it was called Building the Big Society wasn’t it? I presume from the decision last week to allow the construction of yet more housing in my village of Long Preston in Ribblesdale that the Big Society idea has now been abandoned.
Residents didn’t want any more housing, the Parish Council were against the development and the Highways Department objected to plans for the site. However, the Yorkshire Dales National Park’s appeal inspector, Norfolk-born musician William Weston, gave the go-ahead for the development.
Well, at least the park authority can can say to the faceless Whitehall bureaucrats ‘look what good boys and girls we are, we’ve ticked one of your required boxes’ and provided some ‘much-needed’ and also ‘affordable’ housing.
Hands up anyone who knows what ‘affordable’ means in the context of housing.
The site on Green Gate Lane lies within the Long Preston Conservation Area and I have to admit it is currently a little run down, but that in itself doesn’t necessarily mean it must be turned over to a developer who then makes a fat profit at the expense of a lot of misery to others.
We are talking here of 13 houses – maybe not a lot for a town but a fair percentage of a small village – perhaps 300 extra cars journeys per week down a single track lane which joins on to School Lane (self explanatory) then on to the busy A65 (which in Long Preston alone feeds 30+ direct vehicular accesses).
The cottage on the left of my photo at the junction between School Lane and Green Gate Lane was partly demolished by a wagon trying to negotiate a left turn a couple of years ago.
The authority claims there isn’t enough housing in the National Park yet hundreds of properties in Long Preston and elsewhere in the Dales are second homes or holiday lets. Local estate agents are packed with houses for sale. And what is the point of building more houses when there have been very few new jobs created in the vicinity for donkey’s years, and also the schools and authorities are scratting round for funds and resources. I know first hand that slow internet connections in the Dales drastically prohibit the creation of new businesses for employment.
I get the feeling that the park cares little for Long Preston – you’ll not see one of those quaint little sheep motifs signifying you’re entering the National Park in this village, despite Long Preston being the park’s ‘gateway’ from Lancashire.
I wonder what the planners’ decision would have been had someone applied to turn the site into a horse riding centre – or even a ‘horse hotel’ for the newly designed Pennine Bridleway which passes close by – which would certainly have benefited the community? Or how about a proposal for a youth centre or hard-play area for local children? Unfortunately these wouldn’t have ticked any boxes.
The thin edge of the developing wedge was pierced into Long Preston a few years back and it is now pushing open the door even further. I’m no NIMBY, I care about fair play and this Dales community.
Stare for long enough at my photo of the Hoffmann Kiln at Langcliffe in Ribblesdale and you’ll see an enormous eye looking back at you… or maybe it’s just me being over-imaginative who can see it! This is a rare building, a remnant of Craven’s industrial past when lime used to be burnt here. The kiln, named after the German who invented it, has stood since 1873. Most tourists drive straight past unaware of its presence just off the road to the Three Peaks. It closed in the 1930s. There was a tall chimney here once but strangely, just as it was due to be demolished in 1951, it fell down on its own accord, the day before the planned ceremony, when there was no one around.There’s no charge for looking around the kiln so I’m surprised more Yorkshire folk don’t visit.
As I was heading away from Ribblehead the other night after watching the sunset, this little train trundled very slowly across the viaduct. I’d heard some time ago that toxic waste is sometimes taken along the line from the north west. Can anyone fill in the detail? The truth is out there! Anyway, I thought it made a nice picture.
Here’s the rainbow talked about in my last blog. You may not be able to see in this small copy of the photograph but on the left is part of a ‘double’ rainbow – a reflection of the strong rainbow on the raindrops. The other photo shows a ray of late sunlight flitting down Kingsdale with Ingleborough and rain clouds in the background.
Last night’s weather show in north Ribblesdale was brilliant. I sat as near to the end of a rainbow you can get, watched mighty clouds marching rapidly across the sky changing the scenery by the minute. From beneath the arches of Ribblehead Viaduct I saw a fine sunset. In Kingsdale I witnessed shafts of sunlight light up first the western slopes of Whernside then like a great theatre spotlight switch across the valley to Ingleborough. I got so giddy I took eighty photos – thank goodness for digital cameras. The top one shows the sunset from underneath the viaduct, with the flat top of Ingleborough on the left; the other shows the light on the viaduct a couple of moments before the sunset. Keep looking here for more pictures (not compulsory – just a suggestion.)
I’ve come across many quirky little places as I’ve wandered around the Dales. This unique scene shows a peculiar mix of dales landscape, industrial intervention, nature’s guile and man’s ingenuity. You’ll only come across this strange spot if you head up Littledale on the path from Ribblehead Viaduct to Bleamoor Tunnel. Victorian builders of the Settle-Carlisle railway created a channel to divert the stream; a tree managed to root itself in the minutest of cracks on the wall top; then recent wall builders decided the tree’s efforts should not be in vain and left it room to grow. Some folk find Man’s meddling with the countryside downright irritating, but now and then it can prove interesting and entertaining. Further along this track – the Craven Way – are some fabulous views over Dentdale. Walkers can also branch off up Whernside or follow the line of the tunnel to Dent Head from here.
