Dales expansion is a (road) sign of the times
WHEN PLANS were first mooted to extend the Yorkshire Dales National Park into parts of Cumbria and Lancashire, they were not given the warmest of welcomes by some on the other side of the Pennines.
Many living in the areas affected feared that 500 years after the House of Lancaster won the decisive battle in the War of the Roses, Yorkshire would finally get to exact its revenge.
There were concerns the move would result in a further erosion of the Red Rose county; however, a year on since the new boundary lines were introduced on Yorkshire Day last year, peace appears to have broken out.
Fifteen miles from the Yorkshire border in Cumbria, the first of 10 new signs has recently gone up telling drivers they are about to enter the national park and those behind them admit they have trod carefully to avoid stoking up historic rivalries.
Stevie Hastie, the national park’s area manager, told The
Yorkshire Post that the old county name of Westmorland, which was airbrushed into history 40 years ago along with Cumberland to create Cumbria, has been resurrected in the hope of alleviating any lingering opposition.
Now those passing through the newly extended park are informed in large letters that they are entering the Westmorland Dales, with the Yorkshire Dales National Park given definite second billing.
According to Mr Hastie, the signs – and the new boundaries which saw the park extended by almost 160 sq miles – have been a success and, dependent on funding, it is hoped the rest will follow in the next 12 months.
AS THE crow flies, the quiet country road on which Steve Hastie is standing lies roughly 15 miles inside Cumbria from the North Yorkshire border. But beside him on the grass verge, a new metal sign informs drivers they are about to enter the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
Eventually, 10 of these signs will appear on Cumbrian roads, all part of the process of bringing the best part of 160 square miles of the county into an already huge national park that reaches as far south as Bolton Abbey on the edge of industrial West Yorkshire.
Introducing the Yorkshire name to a landscape so far within its neighbour’s territory could be a problem, acknowledges Steve, who is the national park’s area manager, and is being done with great sensitivity. Thus, on this back road outside the village of Maulds Meaburn the sign resurrects the name of Westmorland, a still fondly remembered county abolished with Cumberland 40 years ago to create Cumbria. It has turned out to be a PR masterstroke.
“Any misgivings people had seem to have been addressed,” Steve says. “I think the idea of this area being associated with the Yorkshire Dales has now been received positively by local people.”
When first mooted, the introduction of the Yorkshire Dales brand to a large chunk of Cumbria was viewed as a shotgun marriage by some. It took a public inquiry in 2013 for consent to finally be given, and up to £1.2m a year will be spent turning the area into an extension of the national park.
The change took effect last August 1, and on that day the Dales’s brag list of scenic gems was lengthened to include the lovely Orton Fells, which the Lake District National Park had forcefully tried – and failed – to annex.
Into the Dales fold, too, came the dramatic glacial valley of Mallerstang with its spectacular eastern face of Wild Boar Fell, as well as the northern side of the Howgill Fells, inexplicably left out of the national park when it was created back in 1954. And in came a whole host of villages no less picturesque than well-known staples of Dales calendars like Grassington, Malham, West Burton and Reeth.
But last year’s Yorkshire Day acquisition was never meant to usher in all the bells and whistles of a national park overnight, such as footpaths bristling with signs and new information centres sprouting up in the larger villages. Instead, the first priority was to establish a base for operations, eventually found at a former gallery in the village of Orton, and a workshop for all the fingerposts, gates, stiles and other paraphernalia of public rights of way.
Steve, who previously ran the successful Three Peaks project to deal with huge visitor pressures on and around the summits of Pen-yghent, Whernside and Ingleborough, didn’t take up the job of area manager until October, and was later followed by three members of staff and the recruitment of 24 Dales volunteer rangers.
“Moving across here has been a big discovery for me,” he says. “It is no less an impressive landscape than the national park everyone knows, but also has its own unique charms. A large part of its history was shaped by the landscape being one of transit. People moved through here to get from one part of the north of England to another, like the old drovers. You can see their legacy in so many of the roads, which are now single-track ribbons of asphalt with unusually wide verges.”
From early medieval times, huge numbers of cattle were driven from Scotland to be fattened in the gentler, greener pastures of the Yorkshire Dales and had to pass through the Orton Fells on the way. The roads – known as “drove ways”, “drove roads”, “ox roads” and “drift ways” – are a special feature of the area that Yorkshire Dales National Park status will promote. One of the roads is considered so rich in wildflowers along its verges it will be turned into a linear nature reserve.
Then there are smaller curiosities like the so-called Dame School, built in 1780 by three yeoman farmers to educate children in the remote area, and the world-famous Fox’s Pulpit, where George Fox preached to 1,000 people for three hours in 1652 and founded the Quaker movement. Above the village of Crosby Ravensworth stands the Black Dub monument marking the spot where Charles II rested his army in 1651 while marching from Scotland to retake the English throne. There is even a magnificent railway viaduct at Smardale Gill, near Kirkby Stephen, shorter but almost two decades older than the iconic structure at Ribblehead.
With so many attractions the early focus has been on preparing for the eventual influx of visitors. The work by Steve and his colleagues has concentrated on surveying the rights of way network to find out its condition. Only 66 per cent of footpaths and bridleways have been found to be up to standard, so there will be a major overhaul of the network over the next few years. So far, local parish councils and pub landlords report there are more visitors around than last year, but at the moment there is no way to record just how many.
“We don’t know what it was like before but we are hearing comments about more people being in pubs and more cars around,” Steve says. “So that’s probably a good thing. However, tourism in Cumbria has been up everywhere this year so I’d be surprised it if was purely down to national park designation.”
One of the main fears expressed at the public inquiry was that it would be harder to get planning permission for building work when the area became a national park. To help the process, planning surgeries are held once a fortnight in Orton, with others are planned for Kirkby Lonsdale.
Nothing contentious has yet arisen, according to Steve’s boss, the national park’s chief executive David Butterworth. And he points out that landscape in the new area is now better protected than before from certain types of developments. If someone came forward with a wind farm proposal, for example, it might have been accepted before last August. Now, though, it would stand no chance.
As far as books and leaflets about the area go, one year on there is virtually nothing to guide visitors. It will take time for the publishing industry to produce anything like the library of books that already exists for the rest of the Yorkshire Dales. Even Ordnance Survey maps have yet to catch up with the new national park boundaries.
“The key thing for me,” says David, “was to recognise that there’s a learning curve for everyone in the area. I was very keen not to be seen going in wearing a pair of size 15 boots, taking a bullish stormtrooper approach. We’ll listen to those who live and work there and then develop our approach whether in terms of producing leaflets, organising guided walks or the rest. It’s a subtle approach, but I think it’s the right one.”
A year ago the Yorkshire Dales National Park was extended to include largely unknown land on its western fringes. Roger Ratcliffe found out what happened next. It is no less an impressive landscape than the national park everyone knows, but also has its own unique charms. A large part of its history was shaped by the landscape being one of transit. Steve Hastie, national park area manager.