Yorkshire Walks

Excavator attachment for a tractor - it was all I could see to photograph

We set of at about 9.45am and walked through the village to turned right at map ref. SE 703398 on to a lane heading north out of the village. After about 400m we turned left on to a track heading westwards toward the river Derwent.

This morning my brother-in-law drove us to the village of Ellerton close to the River Derwent and we parked near the village duck pond at map ref. SE 708399. There was thick mist everywhere, but it was forecast to lift during the morning.

Walking through the mist toward the river Derwent

Walking through the mist toward the river Derwent

We caught glimpses of various birds including oyster catchers, small flock of medium sized brown waders (no chance of identifying them in the mist), pairs of geese, pair of reed buntings and half a dozen swans near Bubwith.

In about 700m we reached the floodbank at the side of the Derwent. The mist was still thick and we could barely see the river from the floodbank. At the floodbank we turned left to head south. The mist hardly lifted at all.

Willow tree leaning over one of the drainage dykes

One of half a dozen large rectangular enclosures on the river side of the floodbank - what were they for?

Checking our position - this large dyke was one of the few landmarks in the mist

Flood strand line but on the landward side of the floodbank

In all we followed the floodbank for about 4.5km to the main road at Bubwith. As we walked through Bubwith there was a sign proclaiming the best porkpies in Yorkshire if not the world at a farm shop/ butchers in the village. My brother-in-law was clearly in a generous mood and he bought us a pie each to eat for our lunch. Very good they were too, nice crispy pastry, tender meat with no gristle and just a little gravy.

As we were approaching Bubwith we met two twitchers from Skipton who were dismayed at the mist because they had driven down from the clear weather in Skipton to the misty lowlands by the Derwent in the hope of spotting a pair of American Widgeon that had been reported in the Derwent nature reserve. Oh dear!

Two twitchers from Skipton disappear into the mist
searching for American Widgeon

Bridge over the Derwent at Bubwith

Swans on the derwent at Bubwith

Then we spotted a monster willow just beside the path.

In the village we turned left off the main road at map ref. SE 713364 along a lane heading north. Even with all the drainage and the river floodbanks this is still low lying wet land and there were several large old willow trees along the way.

Dead sycamore on the path to Aughton

Three roe deer near the path to Aughton

Anyway you can register your interest with the project now and report any trees you know about so I have reported our monster willow. It's 8.2m round the narrowest part of the main trunk which I think must make it well over 300 years old. It must date from the time the land here was first drained.

I have recently become involved as a volunteer with "The Ancient Tree Hunt". This is an attempt to register all the ancient trees we have and I believe the project is to be launched officially in June.

One of several large willows on the path to Aughton

Our monster willow 8.2m round the girth at about 1m high below all the branches

Cutting 25 hectares of lawn turf

The fields turned out to be used to grow lawn turf. The fields were huge, I estimated they were around 25 hectares each and a vast tractor and array of mower blades was cruising back and forth cutting the grass.

After all this excitement with the willow tree we reached the road near the village of Aughton at map ref. SE 712385. We turned left and walked into the village to turn right after about 800m at map ref. SE 704386 on to a path across the fields.

An American Widgeon for our twitcher friends
( I downloaded it from a royalty free web site)

I have to say that these vast fields of turf looked to be in far better condition than my little lawn at home. The path across the fields led us back into Ellerton and by now the sun was breaking through and the mist had gone! In the sunshine I took a photo of the duck pond where we had parked, and we drove down the village to look at the church on the edge of the village. The whole walk had been about 11km and had taken us 3hours 45minutes at my current ponderous pace. In spite of the mist it had been a very interesting little walk

The duck pond at Ellerton

The church at Ellerton