Project Development II

Wow! Nearly a month since my last post. With all the holidays around Easter time has flown by but my locations for caches have mostly been passed. Now it is on to the detailing of the caches and the admin involved with getting them live on geocaching.com in time for the project launch on the 28th May.

I've still got to buy the containers for the caches and add their contents before I visit Upper Wharfedale at the end of the month to hide them. Lakeland looks like a good bet with their lockable food storage containers.

Now I know the locations of the caches I can get on with designing and producing the artist's book 'prizes' for successful discovery of the series. The edition for the artist's book will be relatively modest at about 50 to 75 as a survey of the National Park geocache series in Upper Wharfedale shows a maximum visitor number of 43 to a single cache in any one year.

The geocache that I hid at the Parkinson Building in Leeds seems to have disappeared into a void and needs replacing. Hopefully it will be back in the next few days.

Survey Trip - Reflections

Back in the studio now and looking back at last week's trip to Upper Wharfedale. Well it was successful in the number of geocaches found and most were of the 'waterproof' lunchbox type and a similar size to the containers proposed for GeoArtCache. Identifying locations for my caches was another matter.

I was surprised by how difficult it was to find suitable locations and this is made more difficult by the fact that I'm trying to let my research dictate the location rather than the other way about. I think though that I will have to be a little more creative with the locating and combine some of my facts and themes into less caches.

The caches have to be hidden thoughtfully and must not damage any structures or involve burying the boxes. There are a lot of stone walls around Buckden and they are tempting sites for caches but they are off limits - the farmers have a difficult enough time keeping these structures in good order without geocachers pulling them apart looking for a Tupperware box.

Staying on the subject of walls, it always amazes me the lengths landowners went to to identify the limits of their domains across rough ground. Massive walls were built or heavy-posted wire fences strung across some of our most inaccessible landscapes - the walls on Birk's Fell ridge for instance. I tried to imagine the army of workers that must have been employed to build and maintain them. Massive feats but dwarfed by the larger scale of the fells and skies.


These land divisions would have been laid down in the nineteenth century I assume but how much of what we see there today is original? Stone is being replaced by the more flexible medium of wire and wood post but there is still much to maintain and I imagine that if you have a wall in fairly good repair you don't want to spend money on new fences if you can get away with occasional rebuilding of gaps. On Birk's Fell there were certainly marks indicating that stretches of fallen wall may be rebuilt soon. A quick look around the Internet will show that there are plenty of people interested in the craft of walling (e.g. the Yorkshire Drystone Walling Guild offers courses and advice). They are also convenient features on which to explore the secret world of lichens and mosses so treat them with respect. To find out more the National Park also has a detailed introductory page.

Back to the geocaching. I did find enough sites to consider but I will now have to get these organised and find out if there are any landownership issues before I can fully commit to them. The locations will help to inform the artwork for the 'prizes' but I will make a start on developing this. So, lots to do but still seven weeks left before the official launch of GeoArtCache. Must get on...

Survey Trip - Day 2

The weather forecast the night before had promised a nice day (albeit still with a strong wind) today so it was disappointing to watch the grey clouds whizzing past while I ate breakfast. I didn’t hurry to get away and by the time I had my boots on and was ready to head out of the door the sun was out and everything looked much more appealing!


I had a loop up Langstrothdale and back along Birks Fell ridge planned but first I climbed up past Buckden Rake and over to Cray to discover further geocaches and survey potential sites. The wind pushed me quickly away from Buckden through the wood bare of leaves but with primroses flowering.

After signing the logbook at the Buckden Rake geocache I continued along the Rake. A curlew called its digital notes and was flung about by the wind. I dropped down to the stepping-stones and crossed round to the back of the White Lion before winding down through to Stubbing Bridge via the Packhorse Way geocache.

This is a pleasant little valley and the signs of spring and the bright sunshine really added to atmosphere. Amazing to think that there could have been a railway just across the other side of the Gill.


A short road walk brought me to Hubberholme. I wanted to have a look around the church here but unfortunately it was locked again. Several people have now told me the lock is on a timer but what time it is set too is anybody’s guess – somebody suggested it was once a week on a Sunday! The churchyard was familiar with names from my research in the archives and online – Beresfords, Tennants and Fosters lie in this quiet spot.

At Hubberholme I joined the Dales Way for a pleasant few miles up Langstrothdale. The cache here was quickly found as I walked alongside the river through fields of sheep and young lambs. Everything seemed very green. A clump of toothwort was obvious amongst the green.


At Yockenthwaite I broke away from the Dales Way for a look at Raisgill Flush for potential cache locations, a lovely view of the farm and its buildings and for a ‘coffee’ break.

The sky was looking a little more ominous as I continued up the Dale past a well-preserved limekiln, a stone circle and Yockenthwaite Cave. Each wall to cross had a similar but different solution to keeping it open to walkers but secure for stock – steps, little gates, stiles, etc. At Deepdale the path crosses to the south bank of the river before continuing up past Cowside to Beckermonds.

Here I turned away from the more frequently trodden Way to ascend towards the ridge. A group of walkers coming down warned of wet going on the top. Feeling tired today I stopped often to admire the view behind me and to pick out the ribbon of tarmac over Fleet Moss.

There was a track of sorts to follow but it was very wet in places. It always amazes me how wet the side of a hill can be! As I neared the ridge the wind started to battle with me and I was pleased to reach the wall on top and sit down for some lunch in its ‘shelter’. The walls here are built to allow a certain amount of wind through otherwise they would be thrown over. This means that they aren’t the best of shelter for weary walkers and you can end up with a cold back!

There was a softly defined path to follow along the ridge and the wall gave me enough shelter to make the going comfortable. The ominous clouds seen from the valley had given way to a more general blanket of wind-smoothed altostratus and lenticulars with a hint of clearer skies in the distance.

More looking for potential cache sites before taking in the cache near the summit of Horse Head Pass. The sulphurous yellow of the squat sedge flowers stood out against the other grasses. By the time I was cresting Sugar Loaf there was lots of blue sky above. Dropping down slightly much detouring was needed to bypass a large area of eroded peat bog before the bend round towards High Combe Stoop, its tarn and associated cache.


The views from the ridge were good. A distant haze didn’t matter much although the wind still wasn’t conducive to hanging around. Waves rippled across the tarns and curlew and grouse took flight. At Firth Fell a cache just beyond the trig point signalled the end of the ridge walking for today.

Walking back down the path I dropped into the shelter of the hills and the sun soon became very warm on my neck. Buckden, and the promise of afternoon tea, was obvious ahead of me. Before this there was another potential cache site to explore. This was a beautiful downhill stretch and the spring weather of today contrasted sharply with the end of yesterday’s walk.


I was down in the village in no time and rewarded myself with tea and cake (brack and honey today!) at West Winds before walking back towards the car park and the bus back to Skipton. I decided on one last detour (as I had a little time to spare) to look at a last possible site for a cache.

Survey Trip - Day 1

The weather had been improving on the train journey up from the West Midlands and by the time I reached Skipton there was even some sunshine. I got the bus up to Buckden via Grassington courtesy of the useful Pride of the Dales service.

The weather had evidently been bad for the last day or two as the River Wharfe had overflowed and there seemed to be water running off of every available hill. I dropped my bag off at my B&B and was heading out for an afternoon’s walk before 1:30 to check out some of my potential cache sites, think about some of the history I had uncovered and to find an existing cache or two.

New to walking in the Dales (and more used to hill walking on Scottish granite) I slithered up the slippery limestone climb above Eshber Wood. The day wasn’t cold but the sun had gone and I climbed towards cloud. I zigzagged up and cut across the head of Cam Gill - Cladonia were brilliant with their scarlet spore bodies and there was scurvygrass flowering on old mine waste. A small waterfall was being blown back uphill such was the strength of the wind.


On round Starbotton Out Moor to Cam Head and good views across Park Rash towards the lower slopes of Whernside - the top was lost to the cloud. I struggled to locate suitable sites for a cache round here and will have to look higher up. Rain was beginning to come in now although there were glimpses of brightness further afield. Unfortunately I was headed up towards the cloud.

A springy walk across Starbotton Peat Ground got me up onto the southern end of the ridge leading to Buckden Pike. The wind now was strong and quite damp making for quite a miserable trudge towards the Fox Memorial - a journey not improved by the atrocious conditions underfoot. Broad expanses had become quagmires due to the passage of many boots and the extreme weather.


At the memorial I quickly located the geocache and struggled to sign the book before quickly moving on following the fence along the ridgeline. Here the Park Authority had relocated the path to the west side of the fence to allow the other side to heal. With every leap over boggy patch the wind forced me almost into the wall and at the viewless summit of the Pike I forced my way into the wind to (successfully) find the geocache. Returning to the path the wind pushed me along across the slabs that had been laid here.

Not a day to hang about I was off again and keen to head back down to the Dale. Following the engineered path my map was torn from my hands to be saved by a wall. It wasn’t easy trying to re-fold the map in the strong gusting wind. Dropping out of the cloud at about 450m I was pleased to see some views again although the path turned me into the wind which made for hard-going.

I took in the geocache at Cow Close and then dropped down towards Cray to look out for potential cache sites before wearily and gratefully heading back to Buckden, my B&B, a bath and dry clothes. I would highly recommend my B&B – the West Winds in Buckden – if you plan to stay in the village. Tea and cake on arrival, chocolates and fresh fruit and flowers in the room and a lovely breakfast all at a very reasonable price. They’ll even do you a packed lunch for a small extra charge… with more cake in it. If you are not planning to stay I would still recommend you go to the tearoom to sample their range of homemade cakes (the liquorice one was unusual but nice).

The pub in Buckden is closed for the time being so I strolled up to The George at Hubberholme for dinner – a very filling affair accompanied by a nice drop of Askrigg Ale. The twenty-minute walk back to Buckden helped with digesting before bed!

Research Trip

I'm planning a two-day trip to Upper Wharfedale next week to put some of my archival research into context and to identify suitable locations for my series of caches. The weather for the Dales is looking very mixed for the next few days so I hope it settles down a bit. I'm going to catch the bus from Skipton to Buckden and have booked in at West Winds Yorkshire Tearooms B&B. I'm hoping to fit in some long walks to cover my long-list of cache sites so that I can clear them with landowners, etc. In the meantime fingers crossed for some calmer weather!

Busy Day

I had planned a tight schedule for a flying visit to Yorkshire and it mostly worked out.

I arrived into Leeds just after nine and rushed up to Parkinson Court to drop off postcards and a fake geocache for the book fair. It was a very windy day and I was blown to my next appointment at the county archives in Sheepscar. The staff here were very helpful and had got all the documents out that I had requested.

I had several documents to look at. As so often happens I lost myself in a tithe map! These are usually beautiful and informative items and the 1881 version for Buckden (BD113) was also large in scale taking up about 4 tables. Much was the same then as on current OS maps particularly the field shapes and using the apportionment book it was good to see some of the names that were associated with Upper Wharfedale 130 years ago... Hammond, Bastow, Macauley, Ramsden, Beresford, Lodge and Falshaw. I wonder if any of their relatives are still in occupation today.

There were new terms too: 'stinted pasture', 'sheep gaits' and 'turbary ground'. Much of the map was 'blank' with open hill as you may expect but there were also exquisite details such as individual gates and trees.

Of the 13,224 acres of recorded land in 1881 just under two-thirds was cultivated land and the major landowners were Hon. Isabella Ramsden with about 1,000 acres and John and Robert Charnley with just over 900 acres. Further out Beckermonds was named 'Beggarmans' and none of the present day forest around the hamlet was in existence.

A particularly interesting document was the 1879 sale particulars for the estate of Buckden (WYL500/710). Accompanied by beautiful, hand-coloured plans the document provided a wonderful picture of the various aspects (and assets) of the estate. Of particular interest was the section on the deer park and plantations with its exotic specimens. I also noticed that what is today the National Trust office in Buckden was once the Cock Inn... unless I wasn't reading the map right.

Next I struggled back into the wind for a very quick visit to the Yorkshire Archaeological Society to look at a couple of documents in their care. Again the helpful staff had the documents waiting for me. One was a lovely simple little survey plan of Yockenthwaite stone circle from 1928 the other was a rather ragged bundle of field notes and skecthes for a survey of Thomas Foster's land around Buckden carried out by John Greenwood in May 1848.

Back out into the blustery weather and a dash to Leeds station to get to Wakefield. Unfortunately the trains were disrupted so I took the opportunity to grab some lunch and wait for the line to clear. After much toing and froing I eventually got a train to Kirkgate leaving me with a 15 minute walk across town in which I was nearly blown into the road by a gust but managed to grab a lamppost in time!

Again, more helpful staff had prepared my documents at the county archives here. I spent a couple of hours looking at documents relating to Wharfedale's industrial past as well as a quick look at a bundle of papers relating to a 17th century criminal act which was written in impenetrable hand.

Then it was a quick walk down to Westgate station for my train back south. A useful day that will provide lots of material to my artists book and may also inform the hiding place for a couple of the caches.

Project Development

I'm having some postcards printed up for the book fair and will collect these on Wednesday. I will then take these to Leeds on Thursday and then make a whistle-stop tour of three archives to research subjects/sites for the WSI geocaches.

I've got a long list of about 13 possible themes/locations and these will be whittled down dependent upon suitability of available hiding places. I will also start to develop the artwork for the artist's book that is the 'prize' for finding the caches.

Site Visit

I caught the train to Gargrave and cycled the 17 or so miles to Buckden for a meeting with the folks from Chrysalis, Jackie Calderwood and representatives from National Trust and the National Park.

The ride was fine - it wasn't warm but cycling kept the chill at bay. There had been snow in the area a couple of days previously but this had now thawed apart from on the fells. The roads were quite quiet as I took mostly back lanes through Hetton, Grassington, Conistone and Kettlewell. Spring was hinted at in the form of snowdrops but otherwise all was still muted.

We met at Town Head Barn in Buckden and had a productive meeting. After introductions we learnt a bit more about the area, some of the do's and dont's about geocaching in the National Park and also some potential themes and places to site caches. I tried to find a geocache that I thought was in Buckden afterwards finding that it was the co-ordinates for parking for a multi-cache!

The light was just begining to go by the time we finished our meeting and I headed back the few miles to Kettlewell and my B&B for the night. After settling in at the B&B and before an evening meal at the King's Head I had another failed attempt to find a geocache. This time in Dowber Gill I was beaten by the darkness and realising I was above the site of it on the side of a steep hill!

The following morning I left my bags and cycled out on the Leyburn road to attempt Park Rash. Another failure as my cycle-unfit legs and high gearing saw me off and walking before the first hairpin! A cycle, walk, cycle, walk approach eventually got me to the summit of Park Rash in miserable weather but a successful find of the geocache on Tor Dyke. I couldn't record my visit though as the log had all but dissolved.

I descended back down Park Rash (easier said than done) to try and find the micro-cache hidden at the foot of the hill. Another failure and a wet foot to add insult to injury. Tail between my legs I went back to the B&B to collect my bags and headed up Wharfedale to seek inspiration for cache sites and find a couple of the National Park caches.

I cycled all the way up to Low Green Field in deteriorating weather. Cars became fewer and further between and the road grew narrower until it turned into not much more than a track on the dead-end lane from Beckermonds. I tried hard to imagine the dale in the spring with green in the landscape and sun in the sky but it wasn't easy.

I passed the limestone pavement and continued up to the entrance to Low Green Field before I turned back in search of geocaches at Yockenthwaite. I left the bike by the farm and walked the short way up the hill to find the first one and then decided to walk on to the next one. It wasn't far and was easy to find. Both were in good condition and full of items left for swaps.

Then it was back on the bike for the ride back to Skipton station. I stopped off in Grassington for some much-needed food and to dry out a bit and was glad to finally reach the station and change out of my mud-spattered and soaked clothes to look (and smell) a little more presentable on the train.

Update

The first site meeting has been confirmed for Tuesday 22nd February in Buckden when we (Jackie Calderwood is also working in this area) will meet with representatives from the National Park and the National Trust. This will be a good opportunity to learn more about the area, have an explore and maybe find a cache or two.

Research has been continuing and I am beginning to finalise some themes and approximate locations. For the final decision a lot will depend upon availability of hiding places for caches in the right locations.

I also need to research the guidelines for hiding caches so that I am ready to hide the book fair cache and understand how to set up a multi-cache. The exact contents of the caches will need to be finalised although this will be influenced by the choice of container - to this end France-Leigh at Chrysalis is fast becoming an expert on Tupperware!

Artist's Meeting at Art Depot

I got the train to Skipton and decided to pay a visit to my first geocache en-route to the meeting in Gargrave. It was a beautiful, bright day which made for an enjoyable few miles via Sharp Haw. I found the cache there relatively quickly but the cold wind meant I didn't want to hang around too long and I soon descended down into the shelter of the trees below.

I carried on down to Gargrave in good time for the meeting. After welcomes and introductions we shared our plans for our individual projects. There was plenty of cross-over in approaches but also variety in how we would set things up and it should make for a strong and varied programme.

After the meeting Jackie and I walked back to the station via a detour to another geocache on the bank of the canal to the west of Gargrave. Both of today's caches were in good condition and have offered some options for size and style of container.

Research continues

Hartley and Ingilby's book is already opening up lots of exciting windows onto the Dales and some of the more obscure events and facts: the Settle Pig Yard Club; the Giggleswick Tarn Canoe; the Dent Fault and drumlins. Nowell's Limestone moss has come up in other research along with real ale and smelt mills.

The development of the Settle to Carlisle railway is also fascinating if a little off my designated area. I'll continue to research the Dales in general and Upper Wharfedale specifically in books and online.

Secret Worlds

One of the aims of the Geo Art Cache project is to introduce new audiences to art and to geocaching. It doesn't take very long to realise how obscure some of our interests are. Geocaching is certainly not widely understood and some of the themes that inform my art practice are often the overlooked aspects of the world we inhabit.

With this in mind it didn't take me long to start compiling a list of some of the hidden worlds of the Yorkshire Dales that could be illuminated by a geocache - mosses and lichens, cycle hill climbing and fell running for starters.

Artist's Meeting, etc.

The other artists selected for the Geo Art Cache project are Jackie Calderwood and rednile. We'll all be getting together at the Art Depot on 3rd February to discuss our ideas and the practicalities for the project.

We've all been sorting out the paperwork for the project and begining to look at the areas we are going to work with. Jackie and I are in the Yorkshire Dales and rednile will be in the Wolds. I bought a copy of The Yorkshire Dales by Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby and although written in the 1950s it gives a good idea of the landscape, traditions and infrastructure of the area.

Garmin etrex

Being a keen hill/mountain walker I have been aware of GPS for a few years but have never felt the need to buy one because a) what is wrong with a map and compass and b) they can be expensive. But now with being successfully selected for the Geo Art Cache project I decided it was time to invest.

I plumped for the Garmin etrex - a mid range model with an accurate altimeter. This was a feature that is important in the mountains. I spent Christmas trying to set it up and then took it with me on a New Year trip to Scotland and tried it out on a few Munros. I quickly found out that it is only as accuarte as the information you give it and six-figure grid references aren't very useful!

Hurray!

Today I have been told that my proposal has been successful and things will get underway in the new year. I'm looking forward to working with the team at Chrysalis, meeting the other artists on the project and getting to know the Yorkshire Dales - a part of England I've only visited once.

Homework for Christmas: start to research the area and also learn about geocaching.