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In a full day’s walk in the Addingham area of Wharfedale, Alison Armstrong treated UWHG members and guests to a far-reaching study of the local landscape and the variety of standing buildings - ranging from the pre-historic ‘cup and ring boulders’ on the High moor, via Roman roads, medieval water management, 17th century farmhouses, to the modern day ‘adaptations’ of former agricultural buildings.
As her broad programme, Alison took the sixteen strong group from the bustling Main Street of Addingham, via a dash across the rat-race that is the modern ‘walker-unfriendly’ bypass, through attractive areas of farmland, and wilder woodland, to the huge ragged outcrops of Addingham Moor gritstone, high above the distant Wharfe.
It was clearly apparent during the presentation the enormous debt that any student of the Addingham township owes to the life and work of local historian and landscape exponent, Kate Mason, who spent sixty years living at Reynard Ings, a farmhouse on the slopes of the Moorside.
Kate’s book ‘Addingham from Brigantes to bypass’ (1995) traced the history and selected a range of interesting facts supported by an account of what had happened in the village and its parish at varying times and the route that Alison had chosen, carefully reflected this thorough approach.
From our busy six hour plus circuit, it is impossible to dwell on each aspect covered, but mention must be made of the farm buildings we passed and had explained and their story outlined, of the details given of how the agricultural patterns of Addingham had changed over three millennia and the role that the underlying geology had in moulding today’s landscape both in form and function.
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Abandoned millstone in quarry on Addingham Moorside © Phil Carroll
The variety of topics covered ranged widely, from the botany of the flowering meadows to iron production, from gate stoops to the agger of a Roman road, from barn construction (and destruction) to the exploitation of the rock through the manufacture of querns and millstones, from building date stones to medieval industry and the resultant impact on today’s landscape, through an early hunting landscape to the huge changes in the housing on the Moorside in the last two decades.
The group were more than fortunate in having a walk leader with a comprehensive and detailed understanding and thorough knowledge of the history, geology and vernacular buildings of the area – an deep appreciation, that she willingly shared with others, of the many of the influences that make Addingham Moorside so varied and fascinating.
Phil Carroll
UWHG Information Officer
Further information
For a more detailed account, your attention is drawn to the book “Addingham: A View From The Moorside” jointly written by Alison Armstrong, Arnold Pacey and Malcolm Birdsall and available from Alison.
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