CORNER OF YORKSHIRE

THE daffodils of Farndale in the North York Moors survived decades of illegal picking, and in the 1960s they almost disappeared beneath a reservoir scheme for Hull. A public outcry saw that proposal abandoned and today Yorkshire’s famous golden hosts are a popular attraction.

According to legend the wild daffodils Narcissus pseudonarcissus, smaller than commercially grown flowers, were first planted in medieval times by the Cistercian monks who lived at Rosedale Abbey on the other side of Blakey Ridge. Their fame goes back to the early 20th century when a Teesside printer, Michael Heaviside, produced a guidebook raving about Farndale’s “thousands and thousands of daffodil blooms”. A business opportunity was quickly spotted and the flowers soon ended up on local markets. In Middlesbrough people can still remember women knocking on doors to sell bunches of wild daffs. In the 1920s and 1930s the daffodils were further threatened by increased car ownership and hoards of visitors, which led to the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England organising patrols during the flowering season, normally from the middle of March until late April. One of the first acts of the North York Moors National Park when it was designated in 1952 was to formally protect the daffodils by creating the 2000-acre Farndale Nature Reserve. A quaint reminder at the entrance to the reserve is a metal sign threatening visitors with a £5 fine if they “pluck or injure” the flowers. Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 the penalty is £5,000.