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| Self-portrait above Harden Clough |
The weather forecast for Tuesday came true. Bright and beautiful. I drove northwards out of Sheffield towards Huddersfield but near the hamlet of Victoria turned west towards the high Pennines and parked at Harden above sparkling reservoirs.
At first it was bitterly cold - my hands whipped by an icy northern wind but relief arrived when I entered the shelter of the pine forest at Ellentree Brow. In this plantation there's an abandoned hamlet called Hades - a great name for a settlement don't you think? Lord knows what former inhabitants did up there on the edge of the moors - probably quarrying stone and in the wintertime it would have been like hell - miles from anywhere. Hades indeed.
Yes it's wild country up there that's for sure. You come across isolated houses and tumbledown farms but it's not somewhere I would want to live. This isn't "escape to the country" with roses growing up the trellis and ducks waddling to the pond as bees hum amidst pink geraniums. Here there are few trees and often the only sounds you will hear are the rushing of wind, the bleating of sheep and a sudden cacophony from fly-away grouse. It's very exposed. Like the bare rocks of ancient quarries.
But I saw this fellow in a young conifer plantation and snapped him a split second before he flew away:-
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| A robin on Copthurst Moor |
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| Like a bird on a wire - starlings at Hade Edge |
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| Disappearing contrails above "The Bay Horse" at Hade Edge |
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| Looking to Hade Edge from the conifer plantation at Ellentree Brow |
Returning to my car at two thirty in the afternoon, the light was already fading:
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| Flight Hill Cottage in the fading December light |
When I studied Geography during my A level years, the Pennines were often described as "the backbone of England" but other words that seem to capture the essence of these hills were probably considered too poetic, too un-geographical - words like "hardy", "elemental", "windswept" and yes - "exposed", "wild" and "isolated" too. It takes a certain kind of human being to choose to occupy the very vertebrae of our country's spine.
I'm curious who owns the abandoned farm places? Do the farmers just no longer live on their land? If that was in the U.S., it would be a sign that the property was bought by developers who are just biding their time until they had politicians in their pocket who would let them do as they wished with the property. I hope it's different where you live.
ReplyDeleteAny land or abandoned farms and homes will certainly be owned by someone. These places are usually in hard-to-access situations and developers will have rejected them as being poor bets re. the investment required. It's kind of nice to see them crumbling back into the landscape from which they grew.
DeleteLiving as I have done for nearly 40 years on Lewis in Scotland's Outer Hebrides I understand what it is like living somewhere remote. Nowhere in The Pennines is as far away from a city as Lewis is. However having spent much time in or on The Pennines I can agree that it takes a certain kind of human being to carve out a living in that landscape. Even with modern transport and commuter living there is a sense of remoteness with which most people would not cope. And yet sometimes the romance of the desolation draws one so.
ReplyDeleteGB - I have been to the Inner Hebrides but not to Lewis and its sister islands. Any films I have seen of the Outer Hebrides reveal an apparent desolation, raw beauty, peace and isolation. Though I would love to visit, I could never see myself living somewhere like that. However, my imaginings probably bear little relation to your intimate feelings about Lewis based on forty years of living there. Have you previously blogged about this? Please direct me if you have.
DeleteI have a blog of my life outwith New Zealand in Scotland. It's Eagleton Notes. You'll find plenty about Lewis there.
DeleteJust butting in here - GB, I've been following lots of people from Lewis and other islands on twitter recently (don't shout it out, as I know YP doesn't like tweeting or twits ...) - fascinating places, interesting people!
DeletePS You have next year's Christmas card in your first photo. Superb.
ReplyDeleteDo you mean the robin or my shadow?
DeleteI sometimes wonder about my memory (assuming, that is that I can count up to 2). I meant, of course, the robin. I am a silly billy.
DeleteI rather fancy the sound of the hamlet Hades!
ReplyDeleteYou could be the mayor or an entrepreneur - developing a secret "domtom" business in the woods.
DeleteYou've lost weight YP
ReplyDeleteI'm just a shadow of my former self Earl John.
DeleteHello, this is my first visit to your blog - but definitely not my last! I have seen you commenting on Graham's (GB) blog and your nickname caught my attention. Through family ties, I visit Yorkshire once a year - wishiing I could do that more often - and feel very much at home there. That's more than enough reasons for me to follow your blog from now on.
ReplyDeleteHmmm... I spoke too soon. I can't find a "Follow this blog" button anywhere. Is it hidden among the fish?
DeleteLibrarian - thanks for dropping by and I'm so pleased that you have some Yorkshire links. Do you wear a flatcap and say "ee by gum"? I am not sure what a "follow this blog" button is. Maybe I will investigate and add one. Thanks for the tip. I shall also be visiting your place soon - giving you time to sweep up your blog, hoover the red carpet and make me a nice cup of Yorkshire tea.
DeleteFlatcaps don't suit me, I'm afraid, but I can say "gizzit" pretty convincingly.
DeleteHow do your other readers know when there is a new post on your blog? And how do you know when there are new Posts on those blogs you like to read? Maybe there is a method other than "following".
I'm a neat freak, so my blog is always ready for visitors :-)
Yorky ~ just to help you and the Librarian out ~ on your Blogger Dashboard you will find an ADD button under Reading List. You can add anyone's blog to that reading list and each time they publish it will appear in the list ~ for you to browse or read further.
DeleteMy Follow button started returning errors, so I removed it, and can't be bothered trouble shooting it.
Thanks, Carol - I shall add this blog through my reading list, then. Had no idea you can "follow" a blog any other way than by the "Follow" button!
DeleteThat is one thin looking shadow YP ~ you need some Christmas Pud! Great photos of the Penines ~ I like the one looking through the trees to the valley.
ReplyDeleteI must be true to my tribe Carol - Yorkshire pud, not Christmas pud! In fact it's the Yorkshire pudding diet that has seen my weight drop so that I am now little more than a walking shadow. In fact I get very nervous when the wind blows these days - in case I am carried away like an autumn leaf.
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