Why the Wolds are worthy of international recognition
MOST PEOPLE associate Beaujolais with the popular light bodied red wine from eastern France, but Beaujolais is also the name of the province in which it is produced – a lush landscape of granite hills, vineyard-patched slopes and wood-covered valleys spread along the Saône River.
Beyond France, however, few know of the area’s picturesque character, and to remedy that, Unesco last year designated Beaujolais a Global Geopark in recognition of its beautiful terrain, rich heritage and culture.
Now, there is a suggestion that the Yorkshire Wolds should also be added to the Global Geoparks list, which besides Beaujolais includes the volcanic island and popular holiday destination of Lanzarote.
Like Beaujolais’s landscape, the Yorkshire Wolds are not well known outside the UK. No plonk is produced in Pocklington and you will search in vain for a Château Wetwang in supermarkets. But what has raised the area’s profile in recent years is the work of David Hockney in his acclaimed Bigger Picture paintings and exhibition, proving that when it comes to visual appeal the Wolds can match any landscape.
Eye-wateringly beautiful chalk valleys like those around Warter and Millington have long deserved wider recognition. But it is one of the great anomalies of the English landscape that while the chalk seam’s continuation on the south side of the Humber, known as the Lincolnshire Wolds, was designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty back in 1973, no such honour has been bestowed on the Wolds.
To advance the Geopark bid, a meeting of all interested organisations will be held in Pocklington next month.
One of those supporting it is the Yorkshire Wolds Heritage Trust, whose chairman Rod Mill captured the atmosphere of the Wolds at a conference last year when he said: “You may walk deafened by invisible skylarks, through half-grown barley waving in the wind all the way to the horizon, or drop down an ancient track way through quiet ash woods to seemingly endless deep winding valleys accompanied by bleating sheep and the silent low-flying barn owl quartering a dale in the long evening shadows.
“You could end your walk at a friendly village pub savouring the ale from the barley in the fields rising up above you, or just sit with a map on your knees and wonder why ancient people constructed all those dykes.”
He added that it was a special area worthy of understanding and well-planned care for its future.
“I’m not talking about preservation – it’s a working environment – it just needs looking after sensitively, and any planned changes to be done with a view to protecting and improving.”
He quoted the Unesco definition of a Geopark as a single geographical area of international geological significance, which it certainly is, and mentioned using the Wolds’ natural and cultural heritage to give locals a sense of pride. To that I’d like to add that it’s an area in which the rest of Yorkshire should also take great pride.