Bingley St Ives circular - return

Back in the country park, the path crosses the golf course and then skirts the edge of Harden Moor. There is some heather out, though it all looks a bit half-hearted this year, with really tiny flowers. It's been far too dry for it to thrive.  

Things are starting to look prematurely autumnal. The bilberry leaves (above) have turned to a deep russet, (not unattractive), the bracken is dying back and some of the young trees, especially the birches, are already yellowing and losing their leaves. 

I passed the landmark of Lady Blantyre's Rock, said to be where, in mid-Victorian times, the lady of the mansion would come to sit and read, and gaze out over the valley. Most of the times I've been here, the view over the valley was obscured by tall trees that had grown in the intervening period. Since disease attacked some of the trees and they had to be felled, the view has been restored. It still takes me by surprise!

There used to be a wooden sculpture of Lady Blantyre here. Someone recently saw it on an old blog post of mine and wanted to know why it they couldn't find it.  The answer is that my photo of it HERE was taken 16 years ago, so the wooden statue, already decaying in my picture, has since rotted away. Only the (even older) memorial stone remains. 

I was a bit surprised to see Ragwort growing. It is highly toxic to animals, especially horses, so I'd have thought they'd be trying to eradicate it on the estate, given the number of horses living there. It is, however, a bright burst of yellow quite cheerful in our hedgerows. 

Partway down the return route I passed the Coppice Pond, a man-made lake dating back to the 1330s.  Once apparently a mill pond and providing a plentiful supply of fish, it was later landscaped by the Ferrand family as a decorative garden feature. 

My path took me back through the lower woods, down to the car park. The cattle looked a bit bored... not much green grass for them to chew. 

Desperate

There has been no significant rain for about a month around here and nature is definitely suffering as a result. Grassy areas are now hay - yellow and dusty - and even the small pond in the nature reserve is drying up. The water lilies that normally float are sticking up like regular plants as the water level is so low, and the water itself is choked full of weed. I don't think it is harmful algae but it doesn't look very nice, smothering the pond. There are still some damsel flies around but it didn't seem quite the healthy and abundant environment I'm used to seeing there. 

I wanted a picture of the water lily flowers - and got a selfie too! It was only when I uploaded the image that I noticed that light green 'thing' at the top that doesn't really look very natural. I'm not sure what it was; perhaps one of those foam kneeling mats that gardeners use? Really needs fishing out, anyway! 

Skipton Castle Woods

Behind Skipton Castle, the old Springs Branch Canal is now blocked by a landslip but you can still walk that way. It's a pleasant circular walk through Skipton Castle Woods, once a medieval hunting ground, then a source of water power for the town's corn and textile mills and now a nature reserve. The canal ends and the path runs alongside Eller Beck and the various sluices that were made to channel the water to the mill wheels. 

There was a smattering of bluebells but not as many as I expected. Most of the slopes were covered in wild garlic. 

Part way round the trail, you arrive at the Round Dam, another sign of the industrialisation of the waterways in the area. It's now quite a peaceful spot and I sat and ate my lunch there, enjoying the tranquillity. 

At the far end of the dam, a heron was trying to find his lunch too.

Park life

Now the new exhibitions have opened at Cartwright Hall (the Turner Prize having been dismantled), I decided to take advantage of a dry day to have a walk round Lister Park and visit the art gallery. The crocuses on the banking beside the main road have given way to hosts of daffodils and narcissi. 

A circuit of the lake is always pleasant, though there are so many geese that the paths get a bit yucky. The statue of Peter Pan (a copy of the original in Kensington Gardens in London) was a gift to Bradford from the philanthropist Sir Trevor Pears. It's installed safely on a small island in the lake, though that does mean you can't see the detail of all the woodland creatures and faeries on the base. 

The bandstand has been located here since 1908. Its roof became unsafe and was removed in the 1980s, and has since been restored. I think it's still used in the summer. Many of our parks have a summer programme of music. 

The park is a nice mixture of open spaces, lawns and planted areas. At one time there was an outdoor lido too, though that has long gone. I enjoyed my wanderings, though the sunshine didn't last long!  

Coppice Pond

The largest area of water on the Bingley St Ives estate is the Coppice Pond, more of a lake than a pond in size. I think it was originally linked to a fulling mill - hence 'mill pond', I suppose. (Fulling is a process in woollen cloth making.) The Pond often has a sizeable population of waterbirds, though there didn't seem to be that many there that day. The lumpy thing on the left of the photo above is a wooden fish, leaping from the water. It's been there for many years and is now beginning to rot away. 

You can walk right round the perimeter of the lake, though there are only a few places where you can really get a good view of the water. There are fences around it and lots of shrubbery, so I never feel it lives up to its potential photographically. 

Baxters Pond

Hidden in the woodland at Bingley St Ives is a small pond known as Baxters Pond, named after the man who restored it - John Baxter - in 2004, in the 40th year of his employment on the estate. 

It's a sweet little spot. I imagine in summer, when there'll be more colour and plant growth, it'll be even more magical. I'll have to go back and see.  

It's not especially deep but the water was crystal clear and I spent some time enjoying the reflections and patterns captured within it. The more I looked the more I could see animal heads too, in the shapes of the rocks round and about.  A ram? ☝ A lamb? 👇

Yeadon Tarn

Yeadon Tarn is a man-made lake, sited between Bradford and Leeds, next door to Leeds-Bradford Airport. (You can perhaps spot an aeroplane on the runway in the distance in the photo above.) It's not a very exciting lake, really, but it makes a change for me to go up there and have a walk round the perimeter. It's sometimes used for sailing. There's a small yacht club there but I don't think I've ever seen a boat out on the water. 

There was a sharp shower just as I arrived but it was over in minutes. The rain we're now getting isn't doing much to reverse the summer's drought. I'm presuming it's the drought that has led to the bright turquoise hue of the water, as I don't think it usually looks like that. Maybe there's an algal bloom in it, though it didn't seem to be deterring the birdlife or the fishermen. 

Someone had scattered seed for the ducks, though the little white one was very tentative and kept getting pushed out by the others. I felt rather sorry for it! 

 

Taking the scenic route back home

From the top of Shipley Glen, I walked down through the woods where outcrops of millstone grit stud the valley side. The views over the Aire Valley from here are far reaching. At the top of Trench Meadows a huge tree has fallen, its bare branches looking like the ribcage of some mythical giant. 

I wandered down to Crag Hebble Dam, built in 1911 across the stream called Loadpit Beck to supply water to the dye works at Salts Mill.  It's a peaceful spot though, like many of our water courses, the dry summer has led to an overgrowth of algae that rather spoils the beauty. 

Another ancient bridleway links the mill dam with the Milner Field estate, once home to Titus Salt Junior. 

The boundary of the estate here is marked by a peculiar metal 'kissing gate', erected in 1872, known locally - for obvious reasons - as 'The Birdcage'. 

Another track leads along the estate's boundary to one of the two gatehouse lodges built for the mansion at Milner Field. The mansion itself was demolished but the gatehouses remain and give an indication of the heavy Victorian Gothic style of the original building. 

Again, good views from here looking out towards Shipley. (Saltaire is hidden, to the left.) The cows belong to Milner Field farm, once the home farm for Salt's estate, which still continues as a dairy farm. 

From the gatehouse, the broad straight drive back down to Saltaire is the Coach Road, once the main carriage drive up to Milner Field House. 

 

Hirst Lock Nature Reserve

Although I walk past it several times a week, looking down into it from the road above, it's quite a while since I actually went into the little nature reserve by Hirst Locks. It is growing abundantly and looks wonderful. The pond looks really healthy, with water lilies in flower and plentiful pondlife. I watched both dragonflies and damsel flies skitting across, their iridescent bodies and wings catching the sun.  

Some small trees that I thought at first were in blossom proved, on closer inspection, to be those pretty flamingo willows with pink and white leaves, Salix integra.

The reserve has an interesting mixture of wild and garden plants. Meadowsweet is in full flower right now and there was lots of that around the pond. The hot pink feathery spikes by the path are, I think, a variety of astilbe - a gorgeous colour. 

Water and woodland

I took a friend up to Kettlewell, in Upper Wharfedale, for the day recently. She is thinking of having a retreat and I suggested the Christian community at Scargill as a possible place to stay. It seemed a good idea to visit for the day to show her what it's like. It's one of my best loved places, only an hour's drive, and very much a 'thin place' that enables a deep spiritual connection. We stopped for a coffee at the café at Kilnsey Trout Fishery. The view over the fishing lakes is a favourite of mine and I always take a photo there. The leafy trees meant you couldn't see the imposing overhang of Kilnsey Crag in the distance but it's still a gorgeous vista. 

After exploring Scargill House, its chapel and its grounds we went for a walk up through the woods at the back of the estate, along a track that leads up to the Dalesway long distance footpath. We didn't go very far as it was rather wet, but we did go through the gate that I love on that path. It always feels like passing 'from darkness into light' along there! 

Water : garden

Where a garden is large enough, it's always nice to have a water feature or two, not just for the visual effect but to support wildlife as well. Harlow Carr of course, with its 58 acres, has room for several: a large lake, a stream and many smaller pools and ponds. At this time of year the waterside plants come to life. 

There are lots of yellows, with varieties of marsh marigolds among them. I can't work out what the white spear-shaped flowers (above) are, maybe arum lilies?

In one of the ponds, the bogbean was in flower. The white star-shaped blooms have a curious, feathery appearance.