DRYSTONE
WALLS
Provision and condition
Drystone walls are a classic characteristic
of the Dales landscape. They provide 7,500 km of field boundary.
The National Park Authority undertook a sampling survey in 1991
which, extrapolated, showed that 30 per cent of drystone field
boundary walling in the National Park is likely to be suffering
severe neglect. These findings were broadly confirmed by a further
survey in 1996 and represent a different picture from national
Countryside Commission evidence, which indicates a higher proportion
of neglected walls in North Yorkshire as a whole.
Conservation schemes
The National Park Authority operates three environmental
conservation schemes that extend to walls. The Barns and Walls
Conservation Scheme has paid 80 per cent grant to support work
on 10 per cent of established walling need in Upper Swaledale
and Arkengarthdale. However, the Authority faces pressure for
more expensive capital works to traditional field barns in the
areas covered by this scheme, which also covers Littondale, meaning
that walling takes second place. Two other schemes administered
by the Authority, which offer grants for walling, are the Farm
Conservation Scheme, which operates in two smaller dales in the
west of the Park and offers 80 per cent grant for walling and
the Malham Cove Walling Scheme, which offers 75 per cent grants
for external walls and 100 per cent grants for internal walls
(of limited economic value to the farmer).
MAFF administers two schemes which also include
grants for walling. The Pennine Dales Environmentally Sensitive
Area Scheme provides a grant of £14 per metre for walling
on some 28,000 ha of land within the National Park whilst the
Countryside Stewardship Scheme offers grants at £12 per metre.
A recent National Park Authority survey of farmers
showed that 75 per cent of respondents wished to see walls conserved.
Whilst only 10 per cent said they would stop maintenance/remove
walls in the absence of grants, 90 per cent said that grants were
important for the conservation of walls. The main weaknesses from
a farming perspective are the lack of an overall "whole farm"
approach (such as that being piloted by the Authority through
its Farm Conservation Scheme), under-funding of Countryside Stewardship
and lack of integration of the various schemes. The National Park
Authority, in reviewing its barns and walls strategy in 1998,
reiterated the desire to extend conservation grant schemes throughout
the National Park but does not have the resources to do this on
its own.
Skills
The demand for dry stone walling, prompted by
the availability of grants from the various schemes, has led to
a lack of suitably experienced wallers. This means delay in undertaking
work supported by grants and a 25 per cent increase in cost in
three years into 1998. Furthermore, wallers are being attracted
into the market who do not have sufficient experience, expertise
or skills and standards are noticeably falling.
Landscape and archaeological significance
Drystone walls, with field barns, hay meadows
and limestone pavement, are the features that people associate
with the Yorkshire Dales landscape. The forms and patterns of
field boundaries display agrarian change, particularly the distinction
between regular and irregular boundaries which shows the move
from earlier informal enclosure to statutory, organised forms
of enclosure. Drystone walls are particularly important in the
dale bottoms. It is difficult to date field walls, but walls as
old as c.600 BC have been identified in Swaledale. There are also
characteristic walls from the great monastic era in the Dales,
and recognisable medieval walls with wide footings. The oldest
walls in the Yorkshire Dales date back beyond the first Millennium
BC. Wall patterns provide valuable clues about landscape history:
parliamentary enclosure, previous land use, agricultural needs
and social history.
Ecological significance
Walls provide a degree of winter protection,
but generally semi-derelict walls are more interesting, ecologically,
e.g., use by whinchats. The field margins associated with walls
are important for a variety of beneficial insects, small mammals,
grey partridge and corncrake.
HEDGEROWS
Provision and condition
An estimated 1010km of hedgerows exist in the
National Park, of which over 30 per cent is in the Cumbrian Dales
and 20 per cent in lower Wensleydale and Coverdale. The main reasons
for a gradual decline (c. 1 per cent per decade) are neglect and
poor management rather than intentional removal. The costs of
hedge laying are a deterrent to good management, and trimming
by flailing weakens the hedge in the long term.
Conservation schemes
National Park Authority grants for hedgerow
restoration are limited to the two dales in the Farm Conservation
Scheme, offering 80 per cent grant. MAFF provides grant through
the PDESA and Stewardship (the former at £3 per metre and
the latter £2 per metre). The new hedgerow legislation is
complicated and inflexible, with considerable limitations on the
ability of a planning authority to achieve real conservation successes.
Skills
There is a real lack of expertise in hedge laying
in the Yorkshire Dales partly because walls have been the main
field boundary except in localised areas such as Dentdale, in
the Cumbrian area of the Park.
Landscape and archaeological significance
Hedgerows in the National Park give a softer
appearance to those Dales where they predominate, but otherwise
perform similar functions and display similar patterns to walls.
Dating hedgerows by species, as required by the Hedgerow Regulations
1997, is less accurate in the uplands than the lowlands. Evidence
of pre-historic hedges has not survived although below ground
evidence, such as post holes, can survive.
Ecological significance
The best examples of ecologically important
hedges are in the west of the National Park. These offer a habitat
for red squirrel, song thrush and pipistrelle, all short-listed
species in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. The optimum hedge
size (1m thick, 2m tall) is rarely achieved in the National Park
because of bad management and grazing pressure. Roadside hedges
and verges are important remnants of what would have been an extensive
woodland flora.
CHARITABLE
ACTIVITY
The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority
has a sister charity, the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust, which
administers a Millennium Commission funded project offering environmental
grants for a wide range of community and conservation projects,
including the repair of important walls. The National Park Authority
and Trust are looking at other opportunities for fundraising,
although it is unlikely that 80 per cent grant aid would be achievable
throughout the Park from public appeals alone. Another possibility
is a volunteer task force or a training partnership to meet the
skills shortage referred to earlier.
Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority
July 1998
