- 4 months ago
Countryfile - Yorkshire Champions
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00You can stop now, let go.
00:02Alright. Yep.
00:04There we are. Let's have a look, shall we?
00:06How about that?
00:08Hey, John. Is that a good one? Do you want a job?
00:30I've spent around half a lifetime telling stories from all over the UK countryside.
00:45Well, that's quite a climb.
00:49But now, in four special countryside programmes, I'm back on home turf.
00:55Frame the sun. Frame the sun. Don't you know that?
00:57No. Get yourself organised.
00:59Nobody says that to me. Exploring the traditions.
01:03You can taste the difference, can't you?
01:05The heritage. Oh, yeah, there we go.
01:08Hiya! Hiya! Whoa!
01:10Yay!
01:12The legacy and the characters.
01:15Oh!
01:16That make me so proud that I was born here in Yorkshire.
01:21Would you like to drive?
01:23Really? Yeah.
01:25I'm an engine driver.
01:29I'm an engine driver.
01:33To me, the UK countryside is the best place on earth.
01:37But it was in Yorkshire where, on my bike and in my youth, I first discovered its joys.
01:44And all these years later, it still draws me back.
01:48For me, Yorkshire has it all.
01:51Wild moorlands.
01:53Rolling dales.
01:55Stunning coastline.
01:57And some of the friendliest folk you could ever meet.
02:01And every place has a story to tell.
02:04Today, I'm in the Yorkshire Dales, uncovering the legacy of three extraordinary women who dedicated their lives to capturing the traditions of this rural community.
02:16Ella Pontefract, Mary Hartley, and Joan Ingleby.
02:26In the 1930s, they started documenting rural life here in the Dales.
02:32Their work became one of the richest records of 20th century Yorkshire.
02:37And lay the foundations for the Dales Countryside Museum.
02:43They paid close attention to every detail.
02:46It's not just a diary.
02:48It's a total record of everything she saw in the Dales.
02:52Highlighting traditions they felt were in danger of fading away.
02:57How many people these days are making ropes like you in the old way?
03:02In the whole of the UK, there's only 11 of us.
03:04And why do you do it?
03:06Why do I? Because I love it.
03:07What's not to love about this?
03:09And capturing the spirit of the Yorkshire they knew and loved.
03:14What does this mean?
03:15I'm fast for a bit of band.
03:17No idea.
03:19I'm fast for, I'm stuck, I'm short of a piece of string.
03:22Well, I would have never guessed that.
03:24We'll also look back through the Countryfile archives.
03:28Celebrating others who brought the landscape to life.
03:32Whether on paper.
03:34He produced these beautiful little clarion handbooks.
03:38They're tiny.
03:40Or by preserving the old ways.
03:43The anedict, anedict, tetheredict, rotheredict, bumfit.
03:47That these royal champions fought to keep alive.
03:50Shall we see them in action then?
03:52We'll give it a go, yeah.
03:53Boys will come.
03:54They're good.
03:55Today I'm in Wensleydale.
04:01I'm starting the day in Hawes before I head on to Askrick later on.
04:06Just a couple of the places captured so vividly by Ella, Mary and Joan.
04:13At the heart of the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes is their remarkable collection.
04:18A window into local life as it once was.
04:22And to find out more about them, I'm meeting the museum's curator, Fiona Roscher.
04:31Well, Fiona, tell me about these three amazing ladies.
04:34Well, Mary Hartley and Ella Pontefract and Joan Ingleby were friends who had a real passion for the Dales.
04:41They used to come out on holidays and they would do tours, walking tours together.
04:45And initially, Mary Hartley and Ella Pontefract worked together as a literary partnership.
04:52Mary would do the illustrations.
04:54Mary was an artist, so she was a very accomplished engraver.
04:57And Ella was a journalist and had written short stories.
05:00So they came together and decided that they would write stories about the Dales
05:04and the different Dales that they were moving through on their walking tours.
05:07But then, sadly, one of them died?
05:10Yeah. So, very sadly, Ella Pontefract died.
05:13She died from high blood pressure, which couldn't be treated at that point.
05:16That was 1945.
05:18And that was a real blow to Mary.
05:21But she was very determined to continue the work.
05:24And Joan Ingleby came to Askrick and they formed a new partnership there.
05:29Did you ever meet them?
05:30I did. I knew Mary and Joan for ten years.
05:33What kind of people were they?
05:35Hugely passionate.
05:36Really passionate.
05:37Very kind.
05:38I was a young curator coming into their world.
05:41It was quite intimidating at the time to be working with them.
05:44But you could ask them any question.
05:46They got all the knowledge there.
05:48They were great authorities on Life in the Dales.
05:51They were.
05:52They were real pioneers.
05:53So they were pioneers in terms of oral history, social history and local history.
05:58They were very keen on collecting items, which I think is sometimes unusual.
06:02So they would also collect things that were linked to women, to the farmers' wives.
06:07You know, dairying, cheesemaking.
06:09So every aspect of life, whether it was how to make a quilt, how to make a rag rug,
06:13as well as the workshop and the trade side of things as well.
06:16So they captured many aspects of life.
06:18And I think in doing so, because they've got the oral history, that actually helps to explain the objects and it puts them into context.
06:25And if it wasn't for Mary and Joan then, you wouldn't really have this kind of exhibition?
06:31No, definitely not.
06:32So we're very, very lucky that they were pioneers and they didn't want to see things leaving the Dale.
06:36They wanted the heritage of the Dales to stay within this area.
06:39Without Mary, Joan and Ella, there wouldn't be the collection that we have today and there wouldn't be the museum that we have today.
06:45As Ella, Mary and Joan were capturing the spirit of Yorkshire, over in Suffolk, writer Ronald Blythe was doing the same for his own patch of the countryside.
06:57Margarita went to explore his story a couple of years ago.
07:01Ronald Blythe was a true son of Suffolk. Born here in 1922, he was to make it his life's work to capture the magic of this countryside through his writing.
07:17He wrote more than 30 books, including poetry, essays and novels.
07:22But his name will forever be associated with one book in particular, his 1969 masterpiece, Aikenfield.
07:30This place was a full and intricate restatement of everything which my family had heard and seen and understood for hundreds of years.
07:42And that was what Aikenfield was really about.
07:47The book is a portrait of 80 years in the life of a typical Suffolk village, told through a chorus of local voices.
07:57There was such a lot of singing in the villages then. And this was my pleasure too.
08:03Boys sang in the fields. And at night, we all met at the forge and sang.
08:08We managed all right. It was hard. And if it was a dry summer, so that the pond disappeared, I walked two miles there and back for a couple of pails of water.
08:18I'm old now. The water came from a spring.
08:20I have these deep lines in my face because I've worked under fierce suns.
08:29Aikenfield has earned a special place in the hearts of those who love the countryside, such as the nature writer and novelist Melissa Harrison, who lives ten miles down the road from Charlesfield.
08:42Melissa, how did Aikenfield come about?
08:45Ronald Blythe was a warden here at St Peter's and he talks about walking around the churchyard and looking at all the names on the graves and realising that these people have been completely lost.
08:54No one knew what they looked like or who they were. And he set out to interview people in the village about their lives.
09:01He spoke to everyone from blacksmith to farmers, grave diggers, district nurse.
09:08So he was capturing everyone, every sense of the village.
09:10He captured everyone's voices.
09:13He changed the name of the village to Aikenfield and Aiken is from the old English word for oak.
09:18And he changed the names of the people that he interviewed as well. And he took those names from headstones.
09:24And what makes Aikenfield such a special book and Ronald Blythe such a great writer?
09:30He had a veneration for the past and for history, for everything it taught us and all the people that came before.
09:36But he was also really clear-eyed about the need for change. And he was really curious about the future too.
09:42To be a good writer, you need to be a good listener. And above and beyond anything else, that's what he was.
09:48It's something that he wrote about himself. He wrote,
09:51It's likely that the solitary nature of writing and the accumulated quiet in which writers spend most of their writing lives affects our listening capacity.
10:00I have come to regard even the most extrovert, colourful and predictable people as mere displayers of the tip of the iceberg so far as their full reality is concerned.
10:10One thing that's inescapable in Blythe's writing is just how hard life was for many farm workers.
10:25Long hours, low wages and hard graft. It's a reality that was captured on screen when Aikenfield was turned into a film in 1974.
10:36But it weren't pleasant then, that's a fact. We had depressing jobs which lasted so long. It made life seem worthless.
10:46Thankfully, life has become a little easier.
10:50Kathleen and Brian Martin have farmed at Monadon, the village adjoining Charlesfield, for the past 50 years.
10:57Both their families were part of the farming community captured in Aikenfield.
11:03Brian, can you tell me a little bit about this photo?
11:05The photo is the Martin family at harvest time, the children of my great-grandfather, so they're obviously my great-aunts and uncles.
11:12It must have been taken pre-First World War, because this one, who was Geoffrey Martin, was actually killed in the First World War.
11:20And when you see a picture like this, does it recall for you the tales that perhaps grandparents told you about working these farms?
11:27Oh yes, yes, I know it was hard work.
11:29A lot of the men really were worn out by the time they retired.
11:34Village people in Suffolk, in my day, they worked to death. It literally happened.
11:40It's not a figure of speech. I was worked mercilessly.
11:43But I'm not complaining about it. It was just what happened to me.
11:48The only sad thing, I think, is now that farming is something you do on your own.
11:55Whereas, before, farming was a community.
11:58And the whole family got involved.
12:00Yes, that sense of community that you might see in him.
12:02The sense of community has gone from farm work.
12:05Because you get one man sitting on the combine, another one on the tractor, and they probably talk to each other on the phone, but that's about it.
12:12Around five years ago, Kathleen and Brian decided to give up most of their land to contract farmers and take a well-deserved break,
12:20with Brian having farmed this land alongside his father since 1967, the very year Ronald Blythe started researching Aikenfield.
12:28And how do you feel about the changes since the time that Blythe wrote the book?
12:34We were happy with our time in farming. We enjoyed our time in farming.
12:38But it is becoming more difficult, more pressurised than it was.
12:43But farming will continue. It must continue.
12:46But in what form, I'm not sure.
12:49The countryside is forever changing, but some habits die hard.
12:53Brian has brought 30 breeding ewes back to the farm to keep himself busy, while Kathleen has found a flock of her own.
13:04She's now a priest at the very church where Blythe was warden.
13:10Kathleen, is there still a sense of threads of Blythe's book that run through the village today?
13:14Yes, I believe there is. Country life, we remember the past as well as we look forward to the future.
13:22So definitely, I would say there still are threads around.
13:26And the community, the purpose of joining together, being there for each other, is still very much alive in the village.
13:33The landscape that Blythe captured so unforgettably in Aitkenfield may have irrevocably changed.
13:44But thanks to him, we have a unique record of the people who made this place what it is.
13:50Like Blythe, our three Yorkshire champions knew it was the people who gave this landscape its character.
14:04And they set out to capture it with words, drawings and artefacts.
14:10Back at the museum, Fiona is sharing with me some of the treasures they gathered.
14:16Well, you've brought me now to the reading room in the museum, and this is where a lot of Marie and Joan's works are still preserved.
14:27It is, yes. So we've got a big store here. A lot of things are actually kept in there if we can't bring them out on display.
14:33So these are very precious things that we've brought out today.
14:36This is one of Marie's diaries from 1934.
14:39It's not just a diary, it's a total record of everything she saw in the Dales during that time.
14:48It is, yes.
14:50He first met a man reeling drunk and discovered that his horse had become bogged and was nearly drowned.
14:57And the men who succeeded in pulling it out drank in the pub at his expense.
15:01Yeah, little snippets of life.
15:04A little snippet of life, absolutely. And as well as writing her diary, there were lots of books, didn't they?
15:10They did, yes. Over 30 books. This is one of the earliest.
15:13Marie was very much the illustrator in this, and Ella the writer.
15:16This is one of the wood blocks that Marie engraved.
15:19And there it is, on the page.
15:21These were leaves for the chapter headings.
15:23And sketchbooks as well?
15:24Sketchbooks. So this shows what a fabulous artist Marie was.
15:28This is of Wensydale, so there are lots of different scenes.
15:32This is Apposet Bridge.
15:34And then we've got the River Uwe.
15:36There's a farmer at work there.
15:38Yeah, so anybody that she saw, she was quite an avid sketcher.
15:42And what have we got here, then?
15:44Looks like some sort of ledger.
15:46Yes, so this is Marie and Joan's stock book, as they called it.
15:49This lists everything that they collected as they were writing their books and collecting the different things.
15:54Good, that's me. Hundreds and hundreds of entries.
15:58Yes, a bit of a Bible for us, because it's got every person listed and the provenance of each object.
16:03What's the object you've got over there?
16:05So this is a knitting stick.
16:07A knitting stick?
16:09Yes, sometimes called a knitting sheath.
16:11So this was used so that the people could knit on the move.
16:14You'd have lead miners who would knit on their way to work.
16:16Farmers, children, everybody knitted.
16:19Yeah, they.
16:20It would have gone in the belt and the knitting needle would have come out here and you could knit on the move.
16:25Knitting was a key way of supplementing your income.
16:29Most people could have been smallholders and they needed the knitting income to be able to survive.
16:36Another trailblazing woman who cherished the landscape around her was Ada Lovelace, daughter of the poet Lord Byron.
16:44She often wrote about the freedom she found in the wild beauty of Exmoor.
16:53Last year, we visited the area to see a project working to restore the natural world she once knew and loved.
17:01My name's Lucy Shipley and I'm the Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record Officer.
17:10So what I do is maintain a really rich database.
17:16Photographs, drawings, documents, historical sources, kind of weaving all of that together to create a record of Exmoor's history.
17:23So I'm here in Culbone Woods today on the north coast of Exmoor.
17:31So all of this woodland used to be owned by Ada Lovelace and we're trying to recreate the vision that Ada had for this woodland.
17:38Ada Lovelace was born in 1815 and she would grow up to become a really extraordinarily gifted mathematician.
17:47I think most people would know her today as the world's first computer programmer.
17:52So she worked very closely with the inventor Charles Babbage and he developed what he called his analytical engine, which is really a thinking machine.
18:00Ada wrote the code to make it do the calculations that they wanted to see it perform.
18:08So Culbone Wood is part of the estate of Ashley Coombe House, which Ada moved to after she married William King, who later becomes Lord Lovelace.
18:18He writes to her and says that he wants to make this hermitage worthy of her.
18:23And I think for her, this magnificent place, this beautiful wild slice of the Somerset coast, it just must have felt like freedom for her for the first time.
18:34Freedom to think, freedom to pursue her own interests and be her own woman.
18:39I think sometimes the best way to understand Ada is by reading her own words and she left behind the most wonderful archive of letters to all these different people she's writing to.
18:48This is a letter to a Somerset scientist who she's corresponding with and she says all and everything is naturally related and interconnected.
18:59And when you come to a wood like this, you can just see that all around you.
19:03The interconnectedness of the wood ecosystem.
19:07And I really feel like Ada's genius was in noticing that.
19:10So she's got this very rational, mathematical, hard evidence based way of thinking.
19:17But then also she has that passion for beauty and the picturesque.
19:21She can see the broader perspective.
19:23And when you can do both of those two things together, that's really very special.
19:28And she immediately becomes very much involved in the management of the estate.
19:33Adrian William put through it these drives and we think there were five of them of a mile long each.
19:43The plan now is to start actively working to restore some elements of their vision.
19:50Graham McVitie is the woodland officer overseeing the restoration of the footpaths.
19:54In the 1980s, there was a series of landslides further down and we quickly tried to restore this footpath.
20:05But it obscured the original layout of the footpath as intended by Ada and William Lovelace.
20:13So the plan here is to try and reinstate that footpath on its original line.
20:17Peeking through the greenery are traces of masonry that would have been part of the original landscape they designed.
20:26All the features are still there. The dry stone wall is still there.
20:30And it's amazing that after 200 years, that's still so, so intact.
20:38I mean, it's quite rough old stone. It is just the local sandstone.
20:42But it's been very skilfully put together.
20:45There would have been plenty of skilled artisans around that Adrian William would have employed to do this kind of work.
20:52Pretty substantial and in pretty good condition.
20:54It's obviously holding the hillside back beautifully for us still.
20:57Completely. Yeah, I'm quite optimistic that once we've removed this material,
21:01we'll have a nice, complete, original wall there.
21:04That it'll give a bit more interest to people walking along here.
21:08And it'll show better how it connects in to the viewpoint, just a few metres up there.
21:19And this is one of the viewpoints.
21:23This is clearly kind of one of the focal points of Ada and William's landscape.
21:28It was a way of bringing the guests out onto this point to appreciate the ruggedness and wildness of nature and the views out across the Bristol Channel.
21:39Wow. It is extraordinary. You can see for miles, it feels like.
21:43Absolutely. It's pretty spectacular.
21:45But one of the really interesting aspects that we hadn't appreciated is there was a mature white peam stood right in front of us.
21:56So there are literally just a few hundred of these species within a mile or two of where we are stood now.
22:03The entire world population of these micro species has found nowhere else.
22:07This is one of the biggest ones that we have.
22:10And it's just really interesting that it's here, right on this viewpoint.
22:16And we've been trying to propagate these as well.
22:18So we have one of the Sorbus margaritae, which is actually taken from this tree here.
22:23This tree?
22:24This exact tree.
22:25And we'll be collecting more seed and trying to propagate them in future.
22:29Replant them as close to the parent trees as possible.
22:32Again, it's so speculative, but I can't help but feel that Ada would approve of you continuing her and William's work.
22:38With her inquiring mind and her interest in botany, I think she would completely appreciate what we're doing.
22:53Back in the Dales, it wasn't just the landscape Ella, Joan and Mary set out to capture in their work.
23:00As the world around them moved on, they were determined to record the old skills that shaped rural life here, before they faded away.
23:12Mary Hartley and Joan Ingleby spent much of their lives here in Askrig.
23:17And today, one local woman is continuing their legacy by keeping a traditional craft alive.
23:24Ropemaking has deep roots here in the Dales.
23:29For more than a century, out-of-weight ropemakers in Hawes kept the craft alive.
23:35When the workshop closed its doors in 2022, one of its former employees decided to carry on the tradition.
23:43Caroline Rogers set up her own rope-making business here in nearby Askrig.
23:50Caroline, how many people these days are making ropes like you in the old way?
23:55In the whole of the UK, there's only 11 of us.
23:58And why do you do it?
23:59Because I love it. What's not to love about this?
24:02And where did you get this equipment from?
24:04So, all the equipment's come from out-of-weight, the ropemakers, this sledge here.
24:09Yeah. That's at least 50, 60-year-old.
24:11Wow.
24:12The only thing that's changed over the years is they've introduced electricity to it.
24:17Back in the olden days, they used to crank it by hand, so they'd be one at one side and one at the other.
24:23Can you show me how it works then?
24:24Yes, come on.
24:25I'll give you a little demo.
24:27Mm-hmm.
24:28You walk up once.
24:29Mm-hmm.
24:33And then you hook it onto the far one.
24:36You walk back up again.
24:37Yeah.
24:38That's good exercise, isn't it?
24:39Oh, you can do quite a few steps a day on this.
24:41Yes.
24:42So, we're going to make a red dog lead, John.
24:45Right.
24:46I'll do it once, and then you can do the next one.
24:49OK.
24:51Watch very carefully now.
24:52Yes.
24:54So, I'm just going to tie it off here, and just gone over and under.
25:02Now, this is called a top.
25:04A top.
25:05A top, yeah.
25:06T-O-P.
25:07It goes between the strands.
25:08It's a three-strand rope, and it keeps all the strands separate, and it gets tighter, and then it moves forward.
25:20Wow.
25:21And then we put a little tie in, so that keeps the rope together.
25:26Yeah.
25:27If you were to take this rope off now, it would just all Constantina together.
25:31Right.
25:32So, you then need to put a little bit of backspin on it.
25:41Let it go.
25:45And there you go.
25:46Yeah.
25:47So, it's your job to be able to do it like that.
25:49Well, we shall see.
25:51Absolutely.
25:52Absolutely.
25:53In the past, in places like the Dales, local rope makers supplied farms working with heavy horses.
26:02A few years ago, Adam went to Coggs Manor farm in Oxfordshire to get a glimpse of what life was like in those days.
26:13I'm just a second generation farmer, and today farming is all about big machines, huge tractors and combines that we rely on to get the job done.
26:29But it was a very different story back in 1922, and I'm here with historian Professor John Martin to find out how farm life has changed over the last century.
26:48Back then, the way farms will run and the way they work to the land, very different to today.
26:56Oh, yes. Virtually the vast majority would have been taken by horses ploughing and cultivating the land.
27:02And with all of those horses, then, presumably they need quite a lot of land to feed them.
27:06Certainly, it's calculated that by the 1930s, the average working horse required about between two and a half to four acres of land to feed it.
27:15And so, nationally, where were we at?
27:17Probably 800,000 to a million horses.
27:22And what about, then, the introduction of tractors? When did that all happen?
27:25Well, a very, very small number of tractors were available prior to the First World War.
27:29There was an increase in imported tractors in the First World War in order to facilitate the ploughing up campaign.
27:34But the real increase in numbers wasn't really evident until the 1930s.
27:38And then that shift went in what sort of numbers?
27:41Exponential increase in the Second World War.
27:44You're rising from about less than 60,000 tractors in 1939 to about 180,000 by the end of the war.
27:51Goodness me. And then that was the end of the horse?
27:53Yeah.
27:54In a way, as a farmer, that sort of excites me that, you know, things are moving forward and technology is driving as it is now.
28:02But in another way, it's quite sad, isn't it, that all those gorgeous horses and that lovely way of working the land were starting to disappear?
28:09Yes. Very sad that they really couldn't compete with tractors.
28:18Despite modern machinery marking the demise of heavy horses in agriculture, a few dedicated people up and down the country are keeping the tradition alive.
28:28Bringo, what's up with you?
28:34I'm meeting champion ploughman Martin Kurzweil, who keeps alive the skills of farming with horses by taking part in competitions.
28:42You must be so proud to keep this tradition going.
28:45Yeah, yeah, I'll do my best.
28:47Because it is an art and it's a skill.
28:49It is.
28:50And, you know, it's dying out, so it's great you've taken it on board.
28:53Yeah.
28:54Shall we see them in action, then?
28:55We'll give it a go, yeah.
28:56Yep.
28:57No ploughing today, though.
28:58No.
28:59Get them on the chain, Harris.
29:00So for the beady-eyed experts, this is upside down, isn't it?
29:03It is.
29:04Because we don't have to trash the pasture.
29:05Just for a demonstration.
29:06Yep.
29:07Boys, walk on.
29:08Good boys.
29:09Together.
29:10They're so responsive, aren't they?
29:11Yeah.
29:12Listening to you.
29:13You don't have to shout, then.
29:14Just nice and quietly.
29:15Just quiet, yeah.
29:16I bet you keep quite fit.
29:17Yeah.
29:18Well, they reckon to plough an acre, you'd walk 11 miles.
29:21Would you?
29:22Goodness me.
29:23You've done incredibly well in competitions, haven't you?
29:26Yeah, not too bad.
29:27I've won the British Nationals now four times.
29:30You must be proud of that.
29:31Yeah.
29:32These percherons are similar to the shires and Suffolk punches that would have typically
29:38worked on UK farms a hundred years ago.
29:41Weighing around three quarters of a ton, they were ideal for power-hungry tasks such as
29:45ploughing or pulling fully loaded carts.
29:48There's only chance I could have a little go.
29:51Definitely.
29:52Yeah.
29:53Boop.
29:54Good boys.
29:55There you go.
29:56I have driven single horse before.
29:57I'm not sure I've driven a pair.
29:59Keep a nice gentle hold on them, not too tight.
30:01You'll just get the feel of it.
30:03All right then.
30:04Together boys.
30:05Walk on.
30:06Walk on.
30:07Good boys.
30:08There's something incredibly lovely about working with animals.
30:21Working the land out here in the fresh air.
30:24How am I getting on?
30:26Very well.
30:27Trying to keep it in a straight line.
30:30Can we stop them there?
30:33Yeah.
30:34Boop.
30:35Well, congratulations.
30:37It's fantastic to keep this going.
30:39Thank you very much.
30:40Hopefully we'll see you at a ploughing match somewhere one day.
30:43I'll try and take you on, but I don't really fancy my chances.
30:46All of us.
30:47Take care.
30:48Cheers.
30:49Boys.
30:50Boys will come.
30:51Good lads.
30:54It's wonderful to see people like Martin keeping these ancient farming practices alive.
31:00Well, Adam's certainly kept a tight rein on those horses.
31:06I just hope I don't end up tying myself in knots with this rope.
31:11The challenge is on for me to turn this into a dog's lead.
31:16A proper bit of roping.
31:17Absolutely.
31:18So, first of all, if I remember rightly, tie it onto here.
31:22Walk the walk.
31:24Yeah.
31:25Yeah.
31:26That's it.
31:27And back down again.
31:28To the outside one.
31:29Yeah.
31:30Yeah.
31:31And then back up again.
31:32How many times a day do you do this?
31:34Just a few.
31:35Just a few.
31:36And then back down again.
31:37Back down here.
31:39And cut it about there.
31:41Yeah.
31:42Cut it about there.
31:43Right.
31:44Right.
31:45Now you need your top.
31:46Just like that.
31:47Yeah.
31:48Keeping that in the middle.
31:49Yep.
31:50Right.
31:51Come to me.
31:53Carry on.
31:54Oh, yeah.
31:55There we go.
31:56Carry on.
31:57Whoa.
31:58Yay.
31:59How about that?
32:00And then you're going to need to go and put some back twists in it.
32:03Turn that.
32:05Right.
32:06You can stop now.
32:07Let go.
32:08Yep.
32:09There we are.
32:10Let's have a look, shall we?
32:11About that.
32:12Hey.
32:13John.
32:14Is that a good one?
32:15That's really good.
32:17That's very, very good.
32:19Thanks for showing me the ropes.
32:20Not a problem.
32:21So, now we're going to turn it into a dog lead.
32:23To see if it's strong enough.
32:24Absolutely, yeah.
32:25Right.
32:30So, in 2023, I had Rishi Sunak here when he was Prime Minister and he made a blue rope.
32:35Oh, yeah.
32:36Was it as good as mine?
32:38No.
32:39It wasn't.
32:40He walked too slow, so he had rather a stiff rope.
32:43And I did tell him not to give up his daytime job because he wouldn't be suitable as a rope maker.
32:49Whereas you, definitely, I'd give you a job tomorrow.
32:52Oh, thank you.
32:53That's very well.
32:54How about that?
32:58So, this is a real test now.
33:00All right.
33:01Afty!
33:02Come on, boy.
33:03Sit down.
33:04Wow.
33:05This is our test dog, is it?
33:06Yes, it is.
33:07There we are.
33:09Yes, that really works.
33:11Come here.
33:12Come here.
33:13Come on, let's go for a walk.
33:14Oh!
33:15What do you think of your lead?
33:16There we go.
33:17How about that?
33:18The working lives and customs of the Dales were recorded in a series of books by Joan, Ella and Mary.
33:29Joan and Ella led the writing, while Mary, who specialised in wood engraving, brought the stories to life with her prints.
33:37Last year, we met another local printmaker continuing to capture the spirit of the Dales in her work.
33:44My name's Hester Cox and I've lived in the Yorkshire Dales for ten years.
33:54I specialise in collograph printmaking and I use all different kinds of materials to create these printing plates.
34:01Unlike some printing process where every mark you make has to be considered and thought about, there is an element of serendipity.
34:09You never know exactly what it's going to look like until you've printed.
34:14When I come into the studio, it definitely feels like I'm in my own kind of world and surrounded by the things that I love.
34:20I've got barn owl, curly feathers, there's some golden plover in there, various different oyster catches, that kind of thing.
34:29It's almost like natural treasure.
34:31Other ones have got shells in that I've collected in the beach, stones, one says skulls.
34:37That's probably a bit gruesome, but lots of rabbit skulls and things.
34:42It's a compulsion to me, really.
34:44So I'm an avid collector and it's all things that I've seen when I've been fell running.
34:49Well, it's a perfect counterpoint to life in the studio, which can often be about kind of sitting around and concentrating for long periods of time.
34:59To be able to then go run up a hill gives you a real sense of kind of like movement and a real sense of freedom as well.
35:08You can be out in full sunshine, the birds singing.
35:12The next it can be foggy and you can hardly even see the top of the hill.
35:19Not only does it inspire my work in the sense that I love the landscape, but it's also a kind of meditative process.
35:26While my body's engaged in kind of jumping over stones and running up rocks and what have you, my brain kind of gets a kind of clarity of thought.
35:34I find that I can solve like, say, printmaking sort of conundrums that I've got or I kind of develop ideas while I'm actually out engaged doing something else.
35:44And you get to places that other people don't get to, kind of running along little trots and sheet paths and things.
35:50I'll be going for a run and I may not be going out to look for specific things, but I might find something that's kind of like quite special to me.
36:01Other people might just disregard them, but it could be just a feather from a skylark, say, or from a curlew or a lapwing.
36:07I've just taken photographs of it so that when I get back in the studio I can remind myself of the things that kind of characterise it.
36:14A lot of the time I use them and then draw from them and then I make printing plates of the object and then print so that they look like the object, but they're actually printed onto paper.
36:27When I cut into the surface of the board, if I cut firmly enough with the scalpel that I cut through the top paper layer and then if I peel that away I get this kind of lovely rough texture underneath.
36:38And where you've got texture it holds more ink and comes out darker and where you've got smoother areas it wipes cleaner so that you get more of the light of the paper coming through.
36:47So it's kind of working up the different textures to create different tones and then some of the other work comes from actually doing very fine intricate cutting.
36:57Then I'm able to put ink onto the whole surface, I really work it into the surface, getting the whole thing covered.
37:02And then I end up taking the majority of that ink off, like polishing it off with little bits of paper so it just sits in all the little indentations of the printing plate.
37:10And it requires a lot of pressure and when you peel the paper off that reveals the print and all those textures that you created have held the ink in different ways and you can see the kind of tones coming through.
37:22So some of the markings on this are lovely and delicate.
37:25My idea now is that I'm going to take different bird feathers that I've collected from the various species that I'm interested in.
37:32That's what's lovely, you find something like this, which I think is a lovely thing, and then I'll actually use them in a piece of work.
37:40And also I don't really know where it'll lead and that's quite nice, I quite like that.
37:44I never really kind of set out to depict the things that I saw in the landscape.
37:53It was only when I moved to the Yorkshire Dales that I felt so connected to the landscape.
37:59And now the things that I see when I'm out running or walking I want to depict in my work.
38:06Some of these landscapes are really precious.
38:09So if my work can kind of highlight and get people interested in certain species or in certain landscapes, then I feel like it sort of gives it an extra depth to it.
38:20I'm not just making pretty pictures for people to hang on their wall.
38:29I'm exploring the work of three women who dedicated their lives to preserving the rich heritage of their beloved Dales.
38:37But Ella, Mary and Joan weren't the only ones to champion the true value of the Yorkshire landscape.
38:44In 1900, one man from South Yorkshire started a movement to open up the countryside for everyone to enjoy.
38:54In 2017, Ellie followed in his footsteps.
38:59For a region renowned for its steel and coal, South Yorkshire is greener and more picturesque than you might think.
39:11But it's that mix of industry and landscape that gave rise to a movement that changed things for all of us.
39:20At the dawn of the 20th century, Sheffield was a place of industry, coal, iron and steel.
39:32A city of heat and hard graft.
39:35Working conditions were tough.
39:38The forges and steel mills, blast furnaces and pits were places of noise and clamour.
39:45The countryside felt like a world away.
39:48That was until one man's vision brought that world a little bit closer.
39:56George Herbert Bridges Ward was an engineer in a Sheffield steel works.
40:01He fought for access to the countryside and championed its enjoyment as a release from the grime and toil of the working life.
40:09In 1900, he founded the first working men's walking group in Britain, the Clarion Ramblers, and they had a powerful call to arms.
40:19Is the world getting hold of you? Is your life becoming a round of drudgery and a mere figure? Are you becoming a mere machine, something with movement but without mind?
40:33Do troubles and sorrows and worries press on you unduly?
40:37Then go and find these woods and vales and moors and get your heart's ease there.
40:45What new life wine can be drunk? What unsullied happiness awaits you outside this grimy city, this ugly picture in a glorious frame?
40:57I'm hoping local historians Terry Howard and Rowley Smith can tell me more about Ward and his pioneering club.
41:05Ward was a visionary.
41:07To him, walking in the countryside wasn't just pure escapism.
41:13He believed that if you could get people out into the countryside, into fresh air, he started to make the whole person.
41:21He had a saying about the trinity between legs, eyes and mind.
41:27Legs to get you out onto those hilltops, those moors, those woodlands, those open spaces.
41:33Eyes to look, explore, discover, but the mind, it's a place to go and think and reflect so he can face the following day, the following week better.
41:50The Clarion Ramblers met every Sunday, rain or shine.
41:54At its height, there could be as many as 200 members venturing into the nearby Peak District.
42:04And to guide them on their way, something special.
42:07He produced these beautiful little Clarion handbooks.
42:11They're tiny!
42:12Tiny little books and the typeface is very tiny too.
42:15Oh yeah.
42:16It's basically the programme of walks for the forthcoming year.
42:19Mhm.
42:20They were also little gems of outdoor literature really.
42:22And he quoted people like John Ruskin, Henry David Thoreau.
42:27So they weren't just about going on this walk and this is how you do it.
42:30It was inspiring people as they went on the walks.
42:33It was.
42:34It was inspiring them to enjoy the outdoors and to enjoy the literature of the outdoors too.
42:40Nearly all land back then was privately owned with few rights of way.
42:47What was his philosophy on access to the land?
42:51Well, he was an inveterate trespasser himself, but he used to go singly, you know, on his own or in very small groups.
42:59He called it the gentle art of trespass.
43:01So he wasn't looking for confrontation with landowners.
43:04He thought the way forward was through talking to landowners.
43:07Understandably, landowners felt differently, but Ward pressed on undeterred.
43:17In 1900, he began the first of many peaceful trespasses in the Peak District.
43:23It was another 30 years before the famous mass trespass on Kinder Scout.
43:30This trespass made headlines and even Ward himself was opposed to it.
43:35It succeeded though in bringing the fight for access to wider public attention,
43:40and is credited with laying the ground that led to the Pennine Way and the creation of our national parks.
43:54The Barrel Inn at Breton was one of Ward's favourite places to start the walks.
43:58So it seems like the perfect place for a reunion.
44:07Len Johnson and Graham Baxby were just lads when they walked this countryside with Ward.
44:12You both must have been incredibly young at the time.
44:14I first came here in 1939.
44:16How old were you then?
44:17Five.
44:18Five.
44:19Oh, just a little boy.
44:20You were going out on rambles as a five-year-old.
44:22I didn't walk all the way.
44:24He certainly took part.
44:25Yeah.
44:26And you've got some photos there.
44:27Can you have a quick look at those?
44:28But then, in 1941, this was outside the Barrel.
44:34That's me stood on the wall, the white youngster.
44:37Such a youngster.
44:39And then here's Ward with his specs.
44:41Yes.
44:42And how old were you, Len?
44:43I was 17.
44:4417.
44:45When I first came out in 1946.
44:53Now, I've brought something with me that few people will have ever seen,
44:56but which will really bring the memories flooding back for Len and Graham.
45:03That's Ward's very own rucksack.
45:05Yes.
45:06That was well-loved and worn, wasn't it?
45:07Yes, it was.
45:08My goodness.
45:09Warding right the way through.
45:10But there's more in here.
45:11The treasures continue.
45:12Let me show you some other bits.
45:15You'll remember what he looked like.
45:17These organs.
45:18Yeah.
45:19Bifocals.
45:20He always wore these.
45:22That's amazing.
45:23Check this out.
45:24I think this is the most exciting part of all.
45:26Ward's actual boots.
45:28And they are extraordinarily heavy.
45:30They're heavy, yeah.
45:31Oh, my goodness.
45:32All that weight's taken across them all.
45:33They've got nails.
45:34They've got them.
45:35Have a look at that.
45:36Is that familiar to you?
45:37Indeed.
45:38Yes.
45:39There's triple hobnails in the middle.
45:41There's the coonies, the hardened ones around here,
45:43that came around the edges, protected the edge of the sole,
45:46and enabled you to dig into the rough terrain.
45:50Did you have pairs like this?
45:51Yeah.
45:52Originally, yes.
45:53My goodness.
45:54You'll remember them fondly.
45:55And what did the Clarion Club mean to you?
45:58You didn't see most of the people during the week.
46:02So when you went on Sunday, you met all your friends again.
46:05We hadn't seen each other all week.
46:07So we would have a really good chat, see how they all get it on.
46:10Yes.
46:11Families would get it on.
46:12Yeah.
46:13It becomes a family of its own then, doesn't it?
46:14It became a family of its own.
46:15And how about you, Graham?
46:16One of the main things in my life.
46:18I lost my wife in just 2001.
46:21When she lost her, I did say that I've got two things in my life.
46:26One was my wife, the other was a Clarion.
46:30Yeah.
46:35Companion over a thousand hills.
46:38Friends through a hundred dales.
46:41Scamperer over rocks and screes.
46:44Master of the maddest gales, thou art second wife to me.
46:50Someday, we'll write a book.
46:53Dedication is to thee.
46:55Then, a temple we will build where the summit commands the sea.
47:00My boots, that temple's due to thee.
47:08In 2015, the Clarion Club finally hung up its boots
47:13after more than a century, the club was no more.
47:17But for Ward and people like Len and Graham,
47:20it left an important legacy.
47:23Walking meant freedom.
47:33Well, if you're thinking of going rambling in the holiday week ahead,
47:36you'll want to know what the weather's going to be like.
47:38So, here's the country fare forecast.
47:48Hello. Well, we're seeing a little bit more in the way of sunshine today.
47:51And so, it has been a warmer kind of day as well.
47:53We've seen temperatures peaking about 26 degrees in the West Midlands.
47:57Most of us have had those brighter weather conditions.
48:00But most of us have not seen much rain so far this month.
48:03If you live in the south, there's been barely any.
48:05Whereas Western Scotland, some decent falls have been with us over recent weeks.
48:09However, we're all going to see some rain in the week ahead.
48:12At its heaviest across Western areas.
48:14And this change to much more unsettled weather conditions has taken over two weeks to form.
48:19Back on the 9th of August, we had these thunderstorms in West Africa.
48:23Brought a bit of flooding to Cape Verde.
48:25By the 11th, this had become Tropical Storm Erin.
48:28By the 15th, Hurricane Erin, as it approached the Caribbean,
48:32explosively deepened.
48:34And by the 16th, this monster had winds of 160 miles an hour in the center of the hurricane.
48:39Since then, it's been weakening.
48:41Here it is, passing the eastern side of the United States.
48:43Just past New York, if you like.
48:45And to bring you bang up to date,
48:47this area of cloud you can see on the satellite picture,
48:50is that same remnant area of low pressure that's got Hurricane Erin mixed in with it.
48:55And it's this that's going to bring a real change to our weather picture.
48:58Dry tomorrow, yes.
49:00But we'll see rain and showers pretty much through the rest of the week.
49:03And that's all down to what was Hurricane Erin
49:05that formed over two weeks ago near West Africa.
49:08Amazing, eh?
49:10Overnight tonight, well, we're looking at dry weather conditions
49:12with cloud breaks, some clear spells around,
49:15temperatures about 11 to 14 degrees Celsius.
49:18Tomorrow, on the whole, we're looking at a dry and a sunny weather picture.
49:22OK, we will see some rain approach Northern Ireland,
49:25but probably arriving in western counties late on.
49:27The winds picking up here as well.
49:29But otherwise, decent weather for a bank holiday for Northern Ireland, England and Wales.
49:32It's warm and sunny for most of the day.
49:34Temperatures could reach around 28 or 29 degrees in the warmest spots of West England.
49:39That's where the heat is going to be at its most intense,
49:42but warm pretty much across the board.
49:44Make the most of that because by Tuesday,
49:46the area of low pressure that contains Hurricane Erin,
49:49or the remnants of it, will start to throw us rain and showers across the UK.
49:53The shower is always most frequent across western areas of the UK.
49:56Probably not too much in the way of rain at this stage for eastern areas of Scotland,
50:00eastern areas of England, where it will continue to be relatively warm.
50:03By Wednesday, well there's the low still with Erin mixed in with the middle of it.
50:07We see this band of rain working around the periphery of it,
50:11and this is going to be bringing some heavier downpours across the UK.
50:14With rain starting off in Northern Ireland,
50:16spreading to Wales, western England, heading northwards and eastwards.
50:19Could be some quite gusty winds on this feature as well for a time,
50:22with showers following behind.
50:24Temperatures will continue to ease.
50:26Generally, we're looking at highs into the upper teens or low 20s.
50:30Heading into Thursday's weather picture,
50:33it's a case of rain and showers again in the forecast,
50:35although perhaps some drier weather for eastern England, eastern areas of Scotland.
50:39Closest to the area of low pressure,
50:41that's where the showers are going to kind of merge together
50:43to give some lengthier spells of rain and some heavier downpours.
50:46Could be some thunderstorms mixed in with that,
50:48and it's a similar picture into Friday as well.
50:51Loads of showers around, some of them ganging up together
50:54into lines that could bring some fairly prolonged downpours,
50:57and again some thunder is likely, but at least there'll be some sunshine
51:00between any of those heavy downpours.
51:02Temperatures for most of us into the high teens,
51:05so a trend for the weather getting cooler.
51:07So, hot and sunny for your bank holiday Monday.
51:09That's not bad, but then a change to unsettled weather
51:12with some much needed rain on the way.
51:14Thanks to Erin.
51:24I'm in the Yorkshire Dales looking into the lives and legacy
51:28of Mary Hartley, Joan Ingleby and Ella Pontefract.
51:32Through writings, drawings and collections,
51:35they preserved a way of Dale's life
51:38that otherwise might have slipped away.
51:44A few years ago, we met another trio of women
51:47just as determined to keep Yorkshire's heritage alive,
51:51this time through song and language.
51:54We are Lynn, Tess and Rosie.
52:12We're a a cappella singing trio.
52:14We sing folk music and we're based in Otley in West Yorkshire.
52:18And our name is Yantan Tether,
52:21which is named after the counting system
52:24that was used to count sheep in the Dales and Cumbria.
52:27Yantan Tether
52:29The sheep counting system is an old Bretonic language
52:36which is related to the Celtic language.
52:40It used to be spoken all over the country
52:42when the Romans invaded,
52:44but then when the Anglo-Saxons came along,
52:46they pushed that language to the sort of uplands
52:49and the western parts of the country.
52:51Yantan Tether
52:54The mother pip she counted
52:57More recently, it's only been used in very few places
53:00like Cumbria and the Dales.
53:02The counting is in groups of five.
53:05So you can imagine it originated
53:07by somebody counting on the fingers of one hand
53:10and then it goes up to 20.
53:12It only goes up to 20 in any of the dialects.
53:15Once they got to 20 sheep,
53:16they would either put a pebble in their pocket
53:18so they knew they'd counted 20
53:20or they'd move their thumb down a notch on their crook
53:24and then start counting from one again.
53:27And the numbers often rhyme in pairs
53:30so it's been used in nursery rhymes
53:32in the Swaledale version.
53:34It goes,
53:35Yantan Tether Mether Pip
53:37Heser Sezer Acker Conta Dick
53:40Yannadick Tanadick Tetheradick Metheradick Bumfit
53:43Yannabum Tanabum Tetherabum Metherabum Jigit
53:48It's pretty funny, I think.
53:51People didn't move very much between the Dales
53:53because the hills were so high
53:55so each dale had its own dialect.
53:57So we come from Wharfdale
54:00so that's Yantan Tether meaning one, two, three.
54:03In other Dales it might be Yantan Tetherer
54:05or just slight variations on a theme.
54:08Yantan Tether Metherpip She Counta
54:13The song we're singing today is quite a sad poignant song
54:17called Old Molly Metcalfe.
54:18It's all about an old shepherdess upon the moors
54:22trying to look after her sheep
54:24but eventually dying of exposure
54:26so it's quite a dark, bleak song
54:28but it is beautiful
54:29and it uses Yantan Tether in the song
54:32so we love singing it.
54:33Yeah, we are all big fans of sheep.
54:35I used to be a vet
54:37and they're probably my favourite animals to work with.
54:41Also, they are pretty good singers.
54:44They can recognise each other's voices
54:47so mother and lamb will be able to recognise
54:50each other's voices in a field.
54:52Yantan Tether Metherpip She said
55:02Across Yorkshire the old words and phrases
55:09that once shaped daily life
55:11are in danger of being lost.
55:13But Rod Dimbleby is working hard to pass them on.
55:17As chair of the Yorkshire Dialect Society
55:20he teaches others how to speak the language of the landscape.
55:25How's your Yorkshire Dialect?
55:27It's not very good, no.
55:29What does this mean?
55:30I'm fast for a bit of band.
55:33No idea.
55:34I'm fast for, I'm stuck, I'm short of a piece of string.
55:38Well, I would have never guessed that.
55:41I think any Yorkshire words that I used to know
55:46kind of got ironed out at school.
55:48Oh, indeed.
55:49Does that happen with you?
55:50Well, education doesn't encourage dialect, does it?
55:52And we learnt at a very early age
55:53not to use dialect in the classroom.
55:55Where does it come from then
55:57the Yorkshire dialect originally?
55:59It's Germanic.
56:00So the Angles came over in the 5th century
56:03and then the Vikings came later.
56:05The Angles came from North Germany
56:07and of course the Vikings from Scandinavia.
56:09All Germanic language.
56:11When the French came later
56:13they didn't talk to peasants up north
56:15so there's very little influence of French,
56:18the Romance languages, on Yorkshire dialect.
56:21What are classic Yorkshire dialect words then?
56:23How about frame the sen?
56:25Frame the sen.
56:26Frame the sen.
56:27Frame the sen.
56:28Don't you know that?
56:29No.
56:30Get yourself organised, get moving.
56:31Everybody says that to me.
56:32Frame the sen.
56:33And do you think a lot of people would think
56:35that's slovenly talk, you know,
56:37and so you have to speak your English correctly.
56:41Well, you say I'm from Bratford.
56:43Now, Bratford, is that sloppy talk?
56:45Bratford?
56:46Is it a laser way of saying Bradford?
56:48Now you see, I used to teach German as it happens.
56:51Bradford means broadford.
56:53If you translate that into German,
56:55broad is bright,
56:56ford is foot,
56:57put the two together,
56:58you get brightfoot.
57:00Bratford,
57:01brightfoot.
57:02And this is what our dialect does.
57:03It preserves language from the language from which it came,
57:06which had been lost in standard English.
57:08So, the Yorkshire Dialect Society,
57:10are you winning the battle?
57:12Or is the dialect slowly disappearing?
57:15Well, there is a deep, latent interest in preserving our dialect.
57:19It is part of our heritage.
57:21And we like to preserve our heritage,
57:23so why not our wonderful dialects?
57:25It was this heritage that Ella Pontefract,
57:28Mary Hartley,
57:29and Joan Ingleby worked so hard to protect.
57:33Their dedication saved stories that might otherwise have been lost,
57:37and Mary and Joan were awarded MBEs in 1997
57:42for services to Yorkshire's history and culture.
57:45And thanks to the museum they founded,
57:48their legacy lives on.
57:51Is that it?
57:52Have we done?
57:53Yeah, that's it.
57:54All right.
57:56That's John Fettel then.
57:57John Fettel.
57:58Love that.
58:02Next week,
58:03Hamza and I are heading to Bolton Abbey,
58:05along with a very special guest,
58:07to judge this year's photographic competition.
58:12I love this one.
58:13Yeah, yeah.
58:14Two hands for me.
58:15Okay, that's six hands.
58:16And it's emotional, isn't it?
58:18Ah, beautiful bird.
58:19One of my favourite birds in the UK.
58:22It's a dipper.
58:25I love it.
58:26It just shows how much love our viewers have.
58:29We've got so much more to look at.
58:33So, see you then.
58:34Bye for now.
58:35Bye for now.
58:41Amazon.
58:42Turtle hatchlings are waiting for rain,
58:44so parenthood can begin.
58:46Timing is everything next on BBC One.
58:48On British Soul,
58:49with claims of the throne.
58:51James Norton stars in King and Conqueror,
58:53a new drama at 10 past nine.
58:55taki
58:59people
59:06haven't seen my captives,
59:09like a rail and all bloody
59:18amazing.
59:20Hmm.
59:21or
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