Sedbergh – Local planning authorities can no longer question the need for a telecommunications system as that right has been removed under the government’s new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). Nor can a local authority  determine if there are sufficient health safeguards for residents if an applicant can show that the  proposal meets International Commission guidelines for public exposure to radiation levels. This was reported by the planning officer dealing with the application by Electricity North West to construct a 20m high telecommunications pole with antenna at its primary substation off Busk Lane in Sedbergh.

The application according to the NPPF could only be determined on planning issues. But neither the members of the planning committee nor over 200 Sedbergh residents were convinced that they could not question the need for the mast. Andrew Fleck, the head teacher of Sedbergh School, spoke on behalf of 211 residents when he queried the technology and the height of the mast.

N Yorks County Coun Roger Harrison-Topham said that the mast would be a particularly bad blot on the landscape. He accepted that if the committee refused the application the company would apply again and then he wanted the technological need to  be appraised by an independent advisor.

The company had explained the mast was essential to manage the supply of electricity and remotely manage the high voltage equipment at the substation by having a clear line of sight for radio signals to be transmitted to it from the rest of the Electricity North West  network. The committee was told that the BT network would not work and the only safe and secure method was via radio transmissions.

The planning officers had negotiated with company to have a mono-pod design which was half the width of the lattice tower originally proposed, so as to try and minimise the impact upon the landscape and the neighbourhood. To retain line of sight it was necessary, however, for the top of the mast to be above the trees.

The majority of the committee members agreed that the mast would have a detrimental impact not only on the landscape but also on those living near it, particularly some of those in Queen’s Drive, and that there were health and safety issues. They also wanted the technology to be reassessed to find out if such a high mast was really necessary. As they did not accept the planning officer’s recommendation to approve the application this decision will have to be ratified at the June meeting.

Hetton -  How does one define “open countryside” committee member, Chris Armitage, asked when the application by F Reeday and Sons to erect an agricultural worker’s dwelling beside Fell View Farm at Hetton was discussed.  “This (application) meets all our criteria except one – this is a grey area,” commented Mr Armitage.

The committee heard that there was huge local support for the application which was seen as a way of sustaining the future of the farm and encouraging a young family to stay in the Dales. Craven Dt Coun John Roberts commented: “If the children go there is a domino effect with schools closing etc.”

The farm is now mainly worked by Matthew Reeday who lives in a very  small cottage in Hetton with his wife and two young children. That cottage is owned by three of the Reeday family but is not part of the farm partnership. A legal agreement on the original farmhouse means that it will be inherited by those not involved in the farm business. It was pointed out that the cost of houses in Hetton  is too high for farm workers like Mr Reeday.

The planning officer argued that the house would be in open countryside as the site was outside the village boundary. The only basis then for approving such an application was if it could be shown that accommodation could not be provided by using other houses within the control of the applicant. Richard Graham, head of development management, said that the committee could approve the application on the basis that there were legal and financial circumstances which made it impossible for the Reedays to do that.

As the committee voted unanimously in favour of approving the application Craven Dt Coun Robert Heseltine asked if this decision needed to be referred back to the June meeting. Mr Graham said the planning officer would need time to work on preparing the legal agreement to tie the dwelling to the farm business.

Ribblehead – It was unanimously agreed the application for full planning permission for extensions and alterations to the Station Inn and its  bunkhouse should be approved. The conditions include the removal of the caravan beside the pub.  Cumbria County Coun Roger Bingham said that although the pub was one of the most visited in the Yorkshire Dales the site was a mess at present. “I do hope it will be tidied up.” The extensions to the pub include an improved kitchen at the rear and enlarging the dining room and the toilets.  The facilities in bunkhouse will be improved and further accommodation will be provided for staff. There will be a new vehicular access.

Marske  – Sue Ridley, the vice chairman of Marske and New Forest parish meeting, begged the committee to work with Roger Tempest of the Rural Concepts Group, to preserve The Stables near Marske in Swaledale. “It is a beautiful building and some of the stonework is stunning.” But it is on the English Heritage At Risk list and the roof is leaking badly. “If you turn down this application what is the alternative?” she asked.

Mrs Ridley explained that the Rural Concepts Group had been the only buyer interested in purchasing The Stables from the parish meeting two years ago. Committee members visited the 18th century building on April 20 to consider if there were sufficient conservation benefits if it was converted into nine holiday lets, and if the plans put forward would mean that too many of the 19th century features would be lost.

Following further consultation with the Rural Concepts Group a number of amendments to the original plans were agreed. These included retaining some Victorian sash windows, iron mangers and some feeding troughs, and 18th century graffiti. The developers will make a photographic record of the building prior to work starting.

Although the amended plans were not available at the May meeting it was agreed unanimously that the application could be delegated to officers to complete the planning process. The members accepted that there was an urgent need now to preserve the building and that Mr Tempest had an excellent record for restoring listed buildings throughout the country.

The committee chairman, Graham Dalton, was concerned that it would be possible for the community have long term use of a room, on a rental basis, at The Stables. Mrs Ridley said that the WI and the parish meeting would make use of that room. She like Harold  Brown (Grinton parish council)  remembered the days when the villagers held dances, celebrations and many other community events at The Stables.

Swaleview Caravan Park- At the December meeting the committee had requested that the owners of Swaleview Caravan Park, Andrew and Eileen Carter, should enter into some legal agreements. The Carters, however, had replied that they felt that the conditions on a new planning permission allowing seasonal use on all 30 touring caravan pitches would be sufficient.

The conditions included defining touring caravans as those which can be towed by cars ;  that an up-to-date  register will need to be kept to show that all those using the 30 seasonal pitches between March 1 and October 31 had  permanent homes elsewhere; and that from November 1 to February 28 no caravans could be on those pitches for more than 28 consecutive nights.

Hudswell parish council was  very concerned that lodges might replace caravans on those pitches and so be used as either second or even first homes. It also did not want to see a further loss of short stay touring pitches. Richmondshire Dt Coun Malcolm Gardner asked if it was possible to enforce the conditions which stopped the site becoming a permanent village. Mr Graham said the conditions were enforceable and officers did check to make sure no-one was living permanently on such a site even though that was very time consuming.

The majority of the committee accepted the planning officer’s recommendation to approve the application subject to 12 conditions.

Above: The founders of Leyburn’s Dales Festival of Food & Drink with Richard Whiteley in May 2004. From the left (the late) Keith Knight, (the late) Richard Whiteley, Ann Hodgson, Margaret Knight and Gerald Hodgson. Below is a feature I wrote in April 2003 about how the festival began, followed by photographs  from 2002, 2003 and 2004. (For details of this year’s festival  from May 5-7 see http://www.dalesfestivaloffood.org/)

Good friendships and the hands-on approach were major factors in the success of the first Festival of Food and Drink in Leyburn, Wensleydale, in 2002. And at the heart of the team were four people with a vision: Ann and Gerald Hodgson and Margaret and Keith Knight. It all started with Ann being irritated by the way urban politicians and planners viewed the countryside.

“I got terribly upset listening to instructions to farmers that they had to change their lives and that the countryside should be a large pleasure ground for the tourists. And all these farmers were going to have to change their way of life by applying for grants. That upset me again. Most of the farmers were born around here. They love and understand the land and how to use it, and have great animal husbandry skills. All this knowledge is so important and not to be just packaged up and changed. We have this wonderful countryside – let’s use it.

“Let’s tell everyone we are good farmers, that we provide excellent food and everyone can come to Leyburn and buy it. We should have a food festival I said. I was thinking more about the flower and wine festivals in Europe. I used Gerald as a sounding board.”

This was just after Margaret Knight started her two year stint as chairman of the Leyburn and Mid Wensleydale Business Association. So Gerald told her about Ann’s idea. They also shared it with Richard and Jacqueline Wells who told them there was an annual food festival at Ludlow. At their own expense, the Hodgsons and Knights headed for Ludlow just a few weeks later.

“We had a lovely time and were very impressed,” commented Mrs Knight. “I walked around with a pad of paper and if I saw a good idea I would make a note of it. Those notes were the foundation of our planning.”

“But we never thought we could do as well,” added her husband, Keith.

“That festival had been running for eight years and had worked up to 12,000 visitors,” said Mr Hodgson. “It had clearly had a considerable impact upon the town of Ludlow which has become a nationally renowned centre for good food. We noted good ideas and added our own. It was held in the centre of the town and that seemed very important because that created a great atmosphere. They had made only a small effort to involve the farming community but we wanted to involve the farmers in a more meaningful way.”

They also wanted to make sure that all local businesses benefited. But they never thought they would do as well as Ludlow in their first year. “We expected a total of 8,000 people and we got 15,000,” said Mr Hodgson.

Mrs Knight, as chairman of the business association, got the ball rolling by organising an open meeting. Among those invited were representatives of the local churches. “We thought we had done a fair amount of work but St Matthew’s scored four tries,” said Mrs Knight. “They suggested the band concert, flowers in the church, refreshments and that lovely cookery book. The Methodists also organised food and a pudding tasting competition.”

“The business association was a great help because they said they would bank roll it. Without that we would not have been able to go ahead,” said Mr Knight. They decided to look for funding because with that they could plan with more confidence, including ordering the marquees. In the end they received £20,000 from various agencies as they emphasised the need to counteract the devastating effects of the foot and mouth epidemic in 2001.  Even so, as Mrs Hodgson said, it was an ambitious decision to go for a three-day event. “People could not envisage what we were trying to do. They could not believe it. That was the worse moment for me. I thought it was going to fail.”

“In January and February 2002 we debated if we should pull the plug on the whole thing,” said Mr Knight. “We had no idea how many people would come. It was a leap of faith.But all were used to facing tough times.

Mr Knight had been a train control system consultant and they had lived quite a transient life before moving back to England after five years in the States. They looked at properties in the Lake District and the dales and found something suitable in Leyburn.At first they had a bread and breakfast business but this almost came to a standstill during the miners’ strike. They were facing bankruptcy when the local vicar pointed out there was a need for good quality residential care for the elderly.

“It was a complete gamble,” commented Mr Knight. But it worked well right through to their retirement in 2002. The Hodgson’s retired in 2001when they sold Copley Decor in Leyburn to their long term business colleague, Bruce Storr.

“We first came to Leyburn 25 years ago and started that business in an outbuilding beside our house,” said Mr Hodgson. When that was moved to a premises on Leyburn business estate Mrs Hodgson was busy developing a special idea of her own in those same outbuildings. She came from a textile background in Bradford but as a young woman was thoroughly frustrated that the whole wool trade only employed women as secretaries or tea makers.

In the dales she was fascinated by the Wensleydale Longwool sheep. “They have a magnificent fleece. Its probably the world’s finest  lustre wool,” she said.  At that time the breed was in decline. She said that the main way to promote it was to use the wool. And so she started the Wensleydale Longwool Sheep Shop, which is now run by Ann Bolam and Ruth Tombleson at Garriston near Leyburn. Under Ann’s guidance the shop twice won an International Quality award from the British Wool Marketing Board.

The Hodgsons and the Knights were also encouraged to keep going in 2002 by the rest of the steering committee set up to organise the festival. “David Berry, Alistair Davy and Elizabeth Hird were just great,” commented Mr Hodgson. “Another major contributor was Mavis Parry who joined the team as the representative of Leyburn Town Council.” In the end about 35 people were involved besides the small army of volunteers who helped throughout the festival.

“Ann worked immensely hard to persuade people to come,” said Mr Hodgson. “It was a very big commitment for small businesses as they had to spend three days at the festival.”

His wife added: “They had to make all the preparations beforehand and there was a lo t of clearing up afterwards. We were trying to give confidence to everyone to go ahead.  But we had to proceed with it. It was really worthwhile not just for us but for the whole area.” And all their hard work did pay off for not only was that first festival a big success but everyone who had a stand in the food hall last year returned in 2003. And more booked to join them.

“I would love to see the festival being automatically included on everyone’s calendar just as the Yorkshire Show is,” said Mrs Hodgson.  To which Mrs Knight added: “We also want the local people to have a good time.” Their ultimate aim was summed up by the Hodgsons: “We want Leyburn to become nationally recognised as a centre of good food based on the wholesome production of the surrounding countryside.”

The festivals in 2002 and 2003 were held in the centre of Leyburn. Margaret Knight spent most of the first festival wearing an apron as she was so busy making sure that the theatre marquee was clean and tidy for each demonstration. She was still cleaning up the day after the festival – and was spotted “shut in” the market shelter. Her husband and the Hodgsons all helped with tidying up afterwards – and for the Hodgsons that included moving a rather sorry looking “sheep”.

Among the special guests  in 2002 were Clarissa Dickson Wright and Johnny Scott who signed copies of their books. Derek Kettlewell of Raydale Preserves has been among those who have regularly had stalls in the main marquee. And Andrew Thwaite had his Wensleydale family there to help at his chocolate stall including his grandmother, Isabel Robinson, and his mother (right) Gillian Thwaite.

Richard Whiteley joined Andrew Thwaite in the theatre marquee during the 2003 festival for lessons in how to make chocolate much to the delight of a packed audience. “It was great fun. I’ve never made chocolates before and I thoroughly enjoyed myself,” Mr Whiteley said.

Below: Rick Stein was one of the guests at the 2003 festival where he enjoyed sampling the roast pork at the Mainsgill Farmshop stand and trying his hand at Craske’s traditional shooting gallery. Gerald Hodgson took good care of him during his visit to Leyburn.  Also pictured: Local estate agent Brian Carlisle with all those balloons, and the young four-legged star of the farming marquee.

After the 2003 festival it was decided to move to a field on the outskirts of Leyburn for the festival had already outgrown the town’s market square. This new site has proved to be a big success as it provides plenty of space of the large marquees as well as room (on warm, dry days) for families to sit on the grass and relax.

Also photographed in 2004: Richard Whiteley after a cookery lesson with Peter Ball of Darlington College; Gervaise Phinn book signing; Ffion Hague tasting honey watched by her husband, William Hague MP; and sheep shearing.

Daniel Corrie, then Archdeacon at Kolkata*, wrote in August 1822 to the Church Missionary Society (CMS)  Corresponding Committee in Madras that Miss Cooke “having embarked in a cause for which she is eminently qualified, & having published her purpose & solicited & obtained considerable public support, were she to leave Bengal, it would probably prove injurious to the Missionary cause generally, & certainly to the cause of Female education.” He added she was already supervising 12 schools attended by about 290 girls.

The CMS Corresponding Committee in Kolkata  therefore suggested to the committee in Madras that Mr Wilson should swap places with another missionary. The only problem was that Mr Wilson had already completed a year of language study whereas the other missionary (Rev William Sawyer) had not yet arrived in India.

Miss Cooke had met Mr Wilson and his wife, Elizabeth, when they were in Madras in mid 1821. The Wilson’s were  newly weds having married that April before leaving for India in May. Elizabeth, however, died in Tranquebar in December 1821. Mr Wilson explained later that he and his wife had formed a friendship with Miss Cooke and had corresponded with her. A letter of condolence from Miss Cooke led to more letters and then a proposal of marriage. He, of course, expected her to join him.

But Miss Cooke, a former governess who was about 39-years-old , was determined to stay where she was. Even she had not expected to be so successful at starting girls’ schools. When the Calcutta School Society was founded  it was estimated that only 4,180 out of a population of 750,000 in that city were receiving any education and scarcely one was a girl. Its request for help led to the British and Foreign Schools Society sending Miss Cooke to Kolkata about three years later. That assignment did not last long, however, for some of the Indian men on the committee did not agree with educating  girls.

So, in January 1822, Miss Cooke joined the CMS and went on a tour of the mission’s boys’ schools. At one of them she saw a girl trying to listen to the lessons. Following an invitation from Miss Cooke the girl brought several friends and their mothers the next day. Miss Cooke was accompanied by Hannah  Ellerton, the widowed mother-in-law of Daniel Corrie, who could translate for her. When some of the mothers asked about Miss Cooke’s motives Mrs Ellerton explained: “Miss Cooke had heard in England that the women of this country were kept in total ignorance – that they were not taught even to read or write, and the men only allowed to attain to any degree of knowledge. It was also generally understood that the chief objection arose from your having no female who could undertake to teach. She therefore felt much sorrow and compassion for your state, and determined to leave her country, her parents, friends, and every other advantage to come here for the sole purpose of educating your female children.  They cried ‘Oh! What a pearl of a woman is this!’”

Mrs Ellerton returned the next day with her grand daughter, Anna Corrie, and the Indian women were fascinated by the little girl’s hands for they were so soft and white. When asked why they wanted their own girls to be educated they told Mrs Ellerton that it would enable them to be more useful in their families and increase their knowledge. One mother said: “Our husbands look upon us little better than brutes.”

One of Miss  Cooke’s Bengali language teachers, a high Brahmin, told her that Bengali women were “like beasts – quite stupid” and did all he could to dissuade her from opening girls’ schools. Not surprisingly she did not employ him for long.

Mr Wilson was finally able to join her in April 1823 and they were married nine days later. In December that year, when she had 300 girls in 24 schools,  he wrote: “It is surprising how Mrs Wilson bears her labor (sic). She sallies forth about 7 o’clock and I see no more of her till about 12. In the evening she frequently visits a few schools and notwithstanding all this fatigue she enjoys the very best of health.” Even during the oppressive hot season when other missionaries fell ill and even died she could “bear to go out twice and visit her most distant schools.”

The schools took a lot of supervising because she  had to employ Brahmins who could read and write Bengali but, of course, had not been trained in any British educational system. It was also possible for a new teacher to start work at a school only to find that some of the girls could already read better than he could.

In December 1823 160 girls attended a public examination where a crowd of “persons of the highest respectability”, including Lady Amherst and the Lord Bishop, watched them  read from Watts catechism and produce specimens of their writing. Such examinations became major fund raising events for the schools with the main sponsors being the expatriate women. By March 1824 the CMS gave control of  Mrs Wilson’s schools to the newly founded Ladies Society for Native Female Education in Calcutta and its Vicinity. One of the objectives of the society was to make the work more exclusively female. Young expatriate women were employed to supervise the schools.

It took  four years for the society to achieve its main objective which was to have a Central School built with a house attached. One of the major sponsors was Rajah Boidonath Roy Bahadur and a substantial amount of the running costs were covered by selling fancy work sent out by women in England.

In the next few years Mr Wilson became disillusioned with the mission’s emphasis upon schools. On top of his busy schedule of visiting and examining boys’ schools he was often out preaching in the streets. He felt the schools were ineffective because the children left before they had learned much. The girls were only 12 to 14 years old when they got  married the boys went as soon as they felt they had enough education to find better employment. Mr Wilson also believed  they should be employing Christian teachers especially as the Christian superintendents were not able to spend long at each school. The hot season of 1828 was, however, his last for he fell ill and died in September 1828.

His wife had made steady progress in training  teachers. At the public examination held  that year there were 25 young Indian women who were described as teachers and monitors. Many of them were either widows or had been deserted by their husbands – but not Mary Ann. In 1825, when she was 11-years-old, she was one of the best readers in the small school that she attended. Her father and mother did all they could to stop her becoming a Christian but in the end agreed to live with her on the mission compound at Mirzapore. By 1828 all three  had been baptised and Mary Ann was the head monitor/teacher at the Central School. Mary Ann moved to Mrs Wilson’s  Orphan Refuge on the banks of the Hooghly when that was opened in 1836. She married a Baptist catechist and had a family of her own.

Mrs Wilson seems to have withdrawn from supervising many schools and focused on raising and training the orphans at the Refuge. In that she yet again led the way towards being closer to her pupils – a trend that would be picked up later by another Mary Ann (Aldersey). Mrs Wilson’s most important legacy in India was probably the women she taught to become teachers. But hardly anything is said about them in her letters or reports. Does anyone know what happened to any of those Indian women who helped to pioneer female education in their own country?

* Daniel Corrie became the first Bishop of Madras.

Sources: Letters of Mrs M A Wilson and the Rev Isaac Wilson in the CMS Archives in the Special Collection at Birmingham University.

J Richter History of Missions in India Revell 1908,p334-5-1819 education statistics for Kolkata and about Mrs Cooke Wilson. http://www.archive.org/details/ahistorymission00richgoog)

Priscilla Chapman Hindoo Female Education L & G Seeley 1839 – and on books.google.co.uk : Preface and pages 75-77,85,92. Available on books.google.co.uk

Above: Bridget and Adrian Thornton-Berry enjoying a tea break after the official opening of Berry’s Farm Shop and Cafe by William Hague MP on Saturday, April 14.

Woodland and meadow walks and the chance to see llamas, kune kune pigs and the fluffiest chickens you can imagine (Buff Orpingtons)  are all on the “menu” at Berry’s Farm Shop and Cafe at Swinithwaite in Wensleydale. Bridget Thornton-Berry and her family have created an environmentally friendly place to gather and enjoy a meal behind Swinithwaite Hall. The walks include a newly opened one through unimproved pasture full of native wild flowers to Redmire waterfalls.

And Karen Chapman from West Burton is in charge of the kitchen! In Wensleydale she is renowned for her cuisine and will again have a selection of gluten and dairy free foods available. Hopefully there will be plenty of warm, dry weather this summer so that the lovely courtyard beside the café can be enjoyed as well. Light snacks will be served from  9.30am to 5.30pm Monday to Saturday. For Sunday lunches it will be open from 10am to 4pm. To contact the shop and cafe phone 01969 663377.

The chairs and much of the new buildings have been made from timber from the Swinithwaite Estate and a wood burning boiler provides the heating and hot water.  All the water comes from the roofs of the buildings. This same sustainable approach applies to the café and the shop with the vegetables, cheeses, oils, chocolates and preserves  being procured from local producers by Nick and Sue White’s  WKD Rural Business Consultancy. The on-site butcher selects beef, lamb and game from the Swinithwaite Estate and quality meat from a 30 mile radius.

Mrs Thornton-Berry said: “By having a farm shop and café we realise a dream of sharing the views and the land with more people and in so doing help people to understand that food comes from this landscape. We see ourselves as care takers for a beautiful part of the dales, and we feel very privileged to live here.”

Other old farm buildings at the hall have been developed to retain their traditional features and to provide modern facilities for such businesses as a laundry and a bakery.

Below: Karen Chapman tidying up after the official opening.

Carperby  – Since the March meeting the owner of Alpine Cottage in Carperby had submitted amended plans showing a reduction in the size of the single storey extension and the removal of a store. N Yorks County Coun Roger Harrison-Topham said that the latter especially changed the situation considerably as he had felt that the store beside a patio looked like it could become an extension to the living space. Chris Armitage and  Cumbria County Coun Roger Bingham agreed with him that the alterations were sufficient to change the opinion of the committee. N Yorks County Coun John Blackie reminded them that the majority of the villagers and the parish council were still against giving approval for the extension to the cottage. A resident, Colin Gavin, told the committee he passionately objected not only because it was such an iconic old miner’s cottage but also because adding the extension would mean that the dwelling would no longer be affordable for local residents. Last month the committee responded to the request of the villagers and the parish council to refuse permission for the proposed alterations but that decision had to be ratified at the April meeting. This time the majority of the committee voted to accept the planning officer’s recommendation to approve the altered plans.

Marske – It was decided that there should be a site visit to the Stable Block at Marske as the scheme to transform this Grade II listed building into nine holiday units was complex. Marske Stable Block  is in the open countryside and is on English Heritage’s “At Risk” register. Although the YDNPA would like to see it in use in order to conserve it, its senior listed buildings officer stated that the plans to remove the Victorian features from this Georgian building, including windows and stable boxes, would be harmful to the historic and architectural significance of the stables. The application includes alterations to the Coach House.

Threshfield  – It is now possible for the owners of Wood Nook Caravan Park to vary the number of touring caravans and tents on that site at any one time as a condition imposed in 1977 has been lifted by the planning committee. That condition stipulated that there could be 30 caravans and 20 tents in that park. Although this may mean less tents on occasions it was pointed out that there was also a camp site with pitches for 31 tents at  Wood Nook.  The planning officer explained that after months of discussion with the owners it was agreed that 12 pitches would be removed from the caravan park and there would be extensive planting along the southern side  and the western corner to match the adjacent woodland. This will partially shield the site from a footpath. Two new pitches will be added on the eastern side of the site. Eleven pitches will be retained for the existing statics so the maximum number of touring caravans at any time would be 39. As compared with 30 tourers it was felt that this would have a marginal impact upon highway safety. Three members of the committee queried the possible loss of camping pitches.  Coun Blackie was the only one who voted against granting permission as he felt it was important to maintain and even increase the number of camping pitches available in the Yorkshire Dales.

Before the Sunday service all were encouraged to make the floral cross:

And during the service the children crowded into the Lady chapel to paint hard boiled eggs, colour stones and decorate biscuits. Some of the biscuits got eaten before they were decorated! Below – preparing to decorate biscuits.

After the service there was great excitement as the children sent the eggs rolling down the path to the new cemetery.

Bottom: Some of the ladies produced some wonderful flower arrangements for the Easter weekend. These included a special Good Friday cross, and the pedestal by the East Window for Sunday. Many of the lilies were donated in memory of loved ones.

To many in Wensleydale Irene Morton, who died aged 59-years on March 4, 2012, will be remembered for the way she supported so many local groups during the 30 years that she lived in that dale. But her family and friends will especially remember her bravery and great sense of humour during the time that she had motor neurone disease.

Irene was born in Clifton, York, in August 1952 and attended Queen Anne’s Grammar School before going to Farnborough College to do business studies. She then worked for three years at the office of Dunlop Tyres UK at Newcastle. In 1975 she was able to move back to York when she successfully applied to the Gofton’s accountancy firm. It was there that she met John Morton and they set up home together in April 1979.

In 1980 Gofton’s took over an accountancy firm which had offices in Leyburn and Thirsk and the Morton’s moved to Wensleydale. The links with the York office were severed a few years later and a new partnership was formed. Irene retired from the Barker Partnership in November 2010 due to the onset of motor neurone disease.

During her 30 years in Wensleydale she had not only been extremely supportive of her husband in all that he did including as a member of the local Round Table and Rotary clubs but also of all the activities that their son, Toby, was involved in such as the Beavers, the Scouts and Leyburn primary school. She served the Wensleydale Ladies Circle as secretary, treasurer and chairman at various times, and then as president for a while after she became a member of the Wensleydale Tangent Club. She was passionate about gardening and the new house they moved into at Wensley 1985 gave her ample opportunity to enjoy  creating a beautiful garden and home.

The Morton’s moved in 2010 to Leyburn into a bungalow altered to provide her with many facilities and much enjoyment and it was there that she died very peacefully on March 4. The Mortons were a couple who worked and played together. They enjoyed skiing and sailing holidays and for many years had part shares in boats, firstly on Lake Windermere and then at Menorca and finally in Greece. They also loved visiting Madeira. They were members of the National Trust which provided her with an opportunity not only to see great houses but also to explore beautiful gardens. She never lost her love of watching nature programmes on TV, nor of those about house buying and renovation.

At the funeral service at Holy Trinity church, Wensley, on March 15, the Rev Sue Whitehouse thanked, on John’s behalf, the friends and carers who had helped his wife during the past two years. Half of the collection at the service was given to the Motor Neurone Disease Association. The close family at the funeral were: John Morton (husband); Toby Morton (son); Linda and Michael Rheinberg (sister and brother-in-law); Rita Walls (sister), her daughter Lisa Walls, and grandson Denzil; and Jackie and Malcolm Coggan (sister-in-law and her husband).

John has provided some more photographs: Irene at her 55th birthday party; with her sister Linda during a sailing holiday around the Greek islands; at Catherine Ford’s wedding, l-r Ruth Biker, Joyce Sunter, David Ford (with Joan Ford behind him), Irene and John; at one of her favourite places – St Katarina’s Gardens in Madeira overlooking the port; and with friends George and Helen Bennett and Linda and David Milner. I took the photo of her in late 2011 with Jacky Warden and Jacky’s granddaughter, Keira.

Arkengarthdale - The majority of the YDNPA planning committee members did not accept that a barn in the middle of a field at Langthwaite in Arkengarthdale should be converted into a two-bedroomed dwelling for a rural worker. Clark Stone, who is 78-years-old, told the committee that the house would be for a man who would be fully employed with snow clearing, contracting and agricultural work on his family’s farm. He explained that  when conditions were very bad in winter it was impossible for the district council’s gritting wagon to reach Arkengarthdale until either he or his son had spread grit on the roads. It took two men to fill the spreader with grit.He now wanted to retire and they needed someone else to assist with that job. Arkengarthdale parish council had told the committee that it fully supported his application and looked forward to the services he provided to continue with the help of a worker living locally. Coun Blackie asked the committee to approve the application. “They provide an absolutely essential service clearing snow right up to Tan Hill. If the Stones are not there I don’t know what will happen to this community.” He emphasised the need for more social housing in Arkengarthdale and that it should not be restricted to just two small villages. He was supported by Richmondshire District Couns Bob Gale (Reeth and Arkengarthdale) and Malcolm Gardner (Swaledale) who described why it was so important for the residents of Arkengarthdale to retain a locally based gritting service in winter. “If we let these people down we should be ashamed of ourselves,” said Coun Gardner.  During the debate the legal adviser, Clare Bevan, told the committee that according to local and national policies there had to be a fundamental requirement for a rural worker in a location to justify converting such a barn into a dwelling. She said that this application failed that functional test as the work was more seasonal than permanent.

Coun Blackie later wrote to Richard Graham, head of development management, about Ms Bevan’s intervention mid-way through the debate . If the committee had decided to approve the application against officer recommendation it would have been referred back to the April meeting for further debate. Coun Blackie stated: “Clare’s intervention could be regarded, in its content and delivery, as coming from a Member who was strongly opposed to granting an approval. Certainly in my opinion, and the opinion of other Members present, Clare’s intervention had that effect on Members who might have been swayed by the arguments to be in favour of the application. I think in the timing of her intervention (that) it did unbalance the debate and introduce an element of unfairness against the applicant.

Carperby – Carperby cum Thoresby parish council strongly objected to a proposed extension to Alpine Cottage arguing that it would cause harm to an iconic building in the village. The clerk to the parish council explained that Carperby was a conservation area and Alpine Cottage had been specifically mentioned in the Designation Statement.  It was probably built in the 18th century and was the only one of its kind which remained in the village. “It is seen by residents as a valued part of the built heritage of the village,” she stated. The parish council did not accept the planning officer’s evaluation that the extension would not dominate the rest of the cottage but rather would be subservient and harmonious to it. David Chapman told the committee that he and his wife had sought the advice of the YDNPA planning officer, and had followed that advice when they applied for the single-storey extension (for a lounge) and a store. Ten members accepted the parish council’s objections and voted against the officer’s recommendation to approve the application. This will need to be ratified at the April meeting.

Starbotton – Craven Dt Coun John Roberts told the planning committee that it would be inconsistent to approve the construction of a house on an area designated by the YDNPA as Special Open Space after it had issued enforcement notices to protect open spaces in Kettlewell which was in the same parish. “This is one of the most protected sites that we have in this area. It is an important open space in a conservation area in the national park. This was our designation. This application goes against eight of the Park’s saved policies,” Coun Roberts said. He added: “I understand the need for housing in the parish … but we are here to protect and enhance the environment.” County Coun John Blackie had argued that more “local need” houses were required in the area to safeguard the future of the pubs and the school. As there would be a S106 agreement on the house it could only be sold to those who fulfilled the criteria for “local need” and so would sell for up to 15 per cent less than the open  market value. Kettlewell-with-Starbotton parish council had pointed out that this was the second application for a local occupancy dwelling in Starbotton from the same applicant and the first property was still vacant. The YDNPA’s head of development management, Richard Graham, told the committee that the need for another such house had not been demonstrated. He stated  there was no material benefit to outweigh the policy not to allow construction on such an open space. At the February meeting the majority of the committee had voted to approve the erection of a two-bedroomed house within the Special Open Space by the beck but as that was against officer recommendation the decision had to be referred back to the next meeting. The majority at the March meeting voted against approving the application.

Horton in Ribblesdale – It was agreed to give  permission for three years for a field  off  Station Road in Horton in Ribblesdale to be used for temporary parking for a total of 57 days a year, with no parking there between October and March. This, it was felt, would provide sufficient time for a traffic management plan to be developed to enable the village to cope with the thousands who take part in sponsored Three Peaks walks. Horton in Ribblesdale parish council had asked the planning committee to refuse permission to allow the field to be used for parking for more than the 28 days allowed under permitted development until that plan had been produced. Some parish councillors felt that there was a need for better organisation of available parking space rather than providing more capacity in general. At the planning committee the majority agreed that the conditions (secured with a S106 agreement)  should include restricting cars from being parked too close to the houses at one end of the field; that parking (with no overnight accommodation) would be limited to Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays according to a schedule of events provided by the landowner; and that parking or camping on another field owned by the applicant should be restricted.  The landowner will be asked to provide information to those preparing the traffic management plan.

Long Ashes – Allowing the Long Ashes Caravan Park near Threshfield to increase in size was compared to urban sprawl by planning committee member, William Weston. “We already have a site which is bigger than many Dales’ communities. The idea of increasing urban sprawl in this location is really extraordinary given how big the site is already,” he said. Lakeland Leisure Estates Ltd had applied for full planning permission to redevelop and extend the park by adding 51 static caravans, 64 touring caravans and 22 camping pods plus the erection of some buildings, including a toilet block. “The chutzpah of putting this forward is breathtaking,” commented N Yorks County Coun Roger Harrison-Topham.  Coun Roberts stated that if at Easter all the bed spaces at Long Ashes were filled its population would be equal to that of Threshfield and Grassington combined. The good agricultural fields that the park owners proposed to extend  into would then become brown field sites, Coun Roberts  said. He was also concerned about the sewerage system at the park, and the safety of cars exiting onto the B6160. Threshfield parish council had unanimously opposed the application. The agent for Lakeland Leisure Estates explained that more information could be provided about the drainage and sewerage, and that there would be a landscape scheme which would include tree planting. The extension of the park would create 13 more jobs and a considerable financial input  into the local economy, she said.

Grassington – It was agreed that the owner of Wisp Hill stables should be given nine months to comply with an enforcement notice. In December 2005 planning permission was given for the construction of new stables, workshop and storage units and the demolition of an old barn. The old barn has, however, been retained and three local small businesses are based there. The enforcement officer reported that the owner had now submitted a plan for reducing the size of the old barn. It was hoped that a compromise could be found within nine months so that local jobs could be protected. The enforcement notice also includes the removal of the concrete wall enclosure created to form a horse turn out area.

Hawes – Residents in Hawes thoroughly approved of The Caravan Club’s Brown Moor site, Coun Blackie told the committee. It was agreed that the site was well screened by trees and shrubs and there should be no problem with removing 12 static pitches and replacing them with ten for touring caravans. Approval was given for the removal of the static pitches and construction of new all weather serviced ones, the relocation of the existing bin compound and some new planting. After these changes there will be no caravans on the site from January 3 to March 16 each year.

Sedbergh – The committee agreed with the planning officer that a wall built to enclose part of the grassy area in front of Abbot Holme at Millthrop,Sedbergh, would detract considerably from the beauty of the open space which had been in existence since the mid 19th century. It would also have an adverse impact upon Abbot Holme which is a listed building. The application for a 1.2m high stone boundary wall was therefore rejected.

In India at that time  it was generally believed that women should not be educated and a missionary commented that to attempt female education there was as hopeless as to try to scale a wall 500 yards high (LC). An SPFEE agent, Elizabeth Carter, on arrival in India in 1836, wrote: “I hear of nothing on all sides, but difficulties in the work of female education: not that this disheartens me, for I am fully persuaded that it is not by might, nor by power of ours, but that God can, and will, bless the feeblest instrumentality.”

The call for Western women to help their Indian sisters who were living in what was described as darkness and ignorance had come initially from the Baptist missionaries based at Serampore near Kolkata. Within a year of arriving there in 1799 Hannah, the wife of Joshua Marshman,  had set up the first Christian boarding and day schools for girls in India and in 1819 she founded the Serampore Native Female Education Society. A  “Letter  to the Ladies of Liverpool and of the UK” from the Serampore missionary, William Ward, published in January 1821 inspired Miss Cooke as she was then, and won the support of the British and Foreign School Society ( BFSS ).  See Mary Anne Cooke Wilson and her Kolkata schools for how her work developed.

On arrival in Kolkata Miss Wakefield found she had to learn Bengali and prepare to take over superintending the Central School as Mrs Wilson was keen to move to an orphanage she had founded nine miles away. Parents knew that the Central School, which was opened in 1828,  provided a Christian education and Miss Wakefield told the SPFEE: “The time we have with (the girls) is so short, that it is of importance to secure it all for making them acquainted with the Scriptures: the first three classes read the Testament; the next four the Bible History; the next six Watts’s Catechism; and the rest compose the spelling and ABC classes. The average number of children is 300, divided into 26 classes. February and March are the great marrying months, when probably all the first classes, and some of the next divisions, will be taken away; and then there is nothing to be done but to endeavour to bring the next best children forward, and to fill up the lower classes with the new children, which the teachers will bring in the place of their old ones. This takes place every year, so that probably 100 children are thus exchanged, or rather 100 are married away, and 100 new ones are brought in their place; for it is the interest of the teachers to get children, as they are paid a pica for ever one they bring. This constant removal of the children is one of the greatest outward discouragements.” It was usual then for a girl in India to be married by the time she was 12-years-old.

Miss Wakefield  studied Bengali for three and a half hours each morning and by March 1836 she could write: “I am thankful to say that for the last month I have been able to attend to the school with some degree of pleasure; that is, I can understand what is going forward, hear the children read, blunder out a few questions, and more or less direct the teachers in their work. My interest in the children increases with my acquaintance with them, and now that I understand their answers. I hope I shall be able to get amongst some of our women teachers at their own homes, and, when I know the language better, talk to the women, who will soon assemble in numbers at the sight of an English lady. At present all attempts to get admittance to (those) among the higher class appear utterly useless.”  She also told the SPFEE that she not only felt no desire to take over the “reins of government” of the Central School but even felt unfit to do so. She added: “Still I have nothing to do but to go on, in daily and hourly dependence that ‘as our day is, so shall our strength be’.”

Then, in October 1836 she married Henry Chapman and the SPFEE sent someone to replace her. Eliza Postans married in March 1837 and Jane Jones became Mrs Charles Benjamin Leupolt in 1838. All repaid the SPFEE the percentage of what they owed the society. Prior to Mrs Leupolt’s  marriage the Rev Weitbrecht had noted about the orphanage at Burdwan: “In addition to Mrs W’s maternal care the children have the advantage of very efficient superintendence from a lady who left England expressly devoted to the work.”

His wife would have probably applied to the SPFEE if it had existed in 1831 for she was so keen work as a missionary  in India. She was 22-years-old when she met Caroline Eliza Garling, the wife of the British Resident in Melaka.  Mrs Garling invited Martha to join her family group when they left for Melaka less than a week later. So Martha packed her bags and went. In Melaka she met a British missionary, Thomas Kilpin Higgs, whom she married but he died on the sea journey to Bengal – she arrived in India as a widow after just seven weeks of marriage. In 1834 she married the Rev John James Weitbrecht and went to live and work with him at the CMS mission in Burdwan where they founded a small orphanage and a day school using the monies given to them as wedding gifts. Mrs Weitbrecht initially planned to train the girls to become domestic servants but wrote in 1875 that those who had been converted in such orphanages in India had “formed a goodly band of teachers and matrons for the ever increasing openings in schools and private residences.” She added: “In this and other respects, both orphanages and boarding schools must be regarded as having proved of essential service in the progress of female education and enlightenment.”

Besides taking care of her own children Mrs Leupolt was involved with the orphanages for girls and boys at Varanasi (Benares). Both that and the boys’ orphanage were run by the Leupolt’s on “by faith” principles in that they had to depend upon prayer only to see the costs covered. She taught some lessons at the boys’ orphanage and was involved in finding trades for the boys such as Persian carpet making, tailoring, gardening, and in domestic service. Of the girls’ orphanage her husband wrote: “Its aim is to make these girls good Christians and useful members of society. For this purpose they are instructed in reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, knitting, plain and fancy needlework…. (and) knitting.”  The fancy needlework was sold to raise funds for the institution. The girls did their school work early in the morning, had an hour’s break, and then helped with such jobs as grinding corn, sweeping the sleeping and school rooms, and cooking food.

Mrs Leupolt noted that some of the girls had later been able to make a living through their sewing and so had been able to support their otherwise destitute families. One, whom she called Mary, was married to a Muslim fakir when she was 12-years-old. He had then disappeared for two years and when he returned she did not want to leave the orphanage. He, therefore, asked for the Rs 5 he had paid for her to be returned. When a missionary offered him Rs 8 if he signed a divorce document he agreed. Mary later converted to Christianity and became a teacher.

At the orphanages Mrs Leupolt began working with some blind children and when she and her husband were in Europe from 1857 to 1860 they visited William Moon in Brighton. She told Moon that a blind Indian Christian woman could already read embossed text in her own language and had begun teaching others. Moon promised to pay the wages of any blind teachers working with the Leupolt’s.  Back in India Mrs Leupolt devised a system to print Hindi using Moon’s characters and the readers she had published using it won a special prize at the Agra Exhibition in 1867. They obtained funding from the government to teach 20 blind boys and girls at the mission schools and orphanages, and when Mrs Leupolt’s embossed books were introduced into the Raja Kali Shank Ghosal’s Asylum she sent an Indian teacher as well.  When that teacher died she took along a young Indian man called Titus whom she had trained. In his second book of recollections Leupolt wrote: “In the morning he taught the blind, and in the afternoon he taught the lame and decrepit who were not blind. He was directed not only to teach the blind to read, but to tell them tales and anecdotes, and to instruct them well in mental arithmetic.” It would seem that Titus was the first specially trained Indian teacher of the blind whose name is still known (M M).

The Leupolt’s retired from India in 1872 and the work among the blind was carried on by a Mrs Erhardt at the Secundra orphanage.  One of the blind girls, Julia, stayed at the orphanage because, due to her disability she had nowhere else to go. Mrs Erhardt described her as a faithful teacher. These are just fleeting glimpses of the Indian teachers who helped to open up the world of education for girls. Most of the mission records are about European men and the stories about missionary wives often remain hidden histories. So it is even harder to find out what happened to the local women who took part in this great revolution.

Sources:

Minutes of the Society for Promoting Female Education in the East, held in the Special Collection at Birmingham University.

Mary Anne Cooke Wilson: Priscilla Wakefield Chapman at the Central School in Kolkata and Miss Carter on female education : History of The Society for promoting Female Education in the East, London, Edward Suter. pp52-59

LC – Louise Creighton Missions Their Rise and Development USA H Holt & Co 1912, p115 (http://www.archive.org/stream/missionstheirris003069mbp#page/n0/mode/2up)

M Weitbrecht Memoir of the Rev John James Weitbrecht J Nisbet 1854 (pp 51 & 56), and The Women of India and Christian Work in the Zenana London, J Nisbet, 1875 (p65).

*Mrs Weitbrecht is usually referred to as Mary Weitbrecht on the internet sites which list her as an author.

In the Church Missionary Intelligencer for 1888 there was an obituary for Mrs Weitbrecht (pp315-320) in which it was stated her name at birth was Martha Edwardes.

See also http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=austfoulds&id=I1439

And  http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~foulds/london/savoychurch.htm

Charles Benjamin and Jane Jones Leupolt:  C B Leupolt Recollections of an Indian Missionary London, SPCK, 1865 pp  ; C B Leupolt Further Recollections of an Indian Missionary, London, Nisbet 1884  – and with thanks to (MM)  M Miles Blind and Sighted Pioneer Teachers in 19th Century China and India (revised edition) April 2011 – http://www.independentliving.org/docs7/miles201104.html – this provides more information about Jane Jones Leupolt.

And a bit more …..

Mary Ann Cooke Wilson 1784 – 1868

Rev John James Weitbrecht, born in Schorndorf, South Germany, April 29 1802. Sent by CMS to India first arriving in 1830 and assigned to Burdwan. Married in 1834. Died March 1852 in Bengal. (Five of their nine children also buried in Bengal)

Martha Weitbrecht, nee Edwardes, born in Great Marlow, Bucks, UK, 24 July 1808.  Died in North Kensington  February 1888. For more about how the Garlings encouraged those involved with girls’ education in Melaka see Single women not wanted.

Henry Chapman born August 15, 1797, married Priscilla Wakefield at Old Mission Church, Kolkata, November 28 1836, died in England March1854. In the 1851 census Mr Chapman described himself as an East India Company agent and merchant. (With thanks to Ancestry.com)

Priscilla Wakefield Chapman, born January 1810 and died at Wimbledon, England, in January 1887 ( from  www.  thekingscandlesticks.com)

Charles (Carl)  Benjamin Leupolt, born in Saxony (Germany) October 1805. Sent by CMS to India in 1832, first to Gorakhpur and then to Varanasi (Benares). Died December 1884.

Jane Chambers Leupolt 1812 – 1894

Eliza Postans married John Mc Cullum at Gorakhpur in March 1837. (India Office) I can’t find any more information about her.

According to the minutes of the SPFEE of March 1839  Elizabeth Carter married Charles Madden and died shortly afterwards. From the Family History Research section of the India Office: she married Charles Madden, a civil assistant surgeon, in June 1837 and died in November 1838.

Two other women sent out by the SPFEE died very soon after they reached their destinations. In its first ten years the society sent out more than 55 women of which eight got married before completing five years. So the SPFEE did avoid becoming a “lonely hearts” club for the single men searching for suitable wives in far off places.

Last spring those two lambs had jumped  over onto the footpath which at that point runs between a hedge and that drystone wall. At the next stile on the way to the church it is possible to see both Bear Park and Carperby to the north (below). Bear Park was originally owned by Marrick Priory in Swaledale and the present house was built in the 17th century.

As you approach the church you can see a large building to the right which was once known as the Palmer Flatt hotel because it was built on the site of a medieval hospice for pilgrims or “palmers”. This is being completely refurbished by the new owners and should be open by early summer if not before and will be known as the Aysgarth Falls Hotel. The car park at The Falls is also visible, as well as (to the right) the large building which now houses a book store. This was the original home of Aysgarth preparatory school  and in 1881  there were 81 scholars. By 1891, however, the school had moved to its present site at Newton le Willows. In the 1920s and 1930s the building was part of a TB sanatorium and later served the area as a YHA hostel.

As you enter the field directly below the hotel it is possible, from the fence on the left, to look down on the River Ure (below).

Or you can go up the path towards the hotel to get a better view of Bolton Castle across the river to the north east.

The footpath across that field takes you to Church Bank road and on the other side is what may be the largest churchyard in the country. You can take time to visit Aysgarth Church (St Andrew’s) which is open every day or turn left just inside the main gates onto a path which takes you to the northern exit from the churchyard. Descend the steps to reach Yore Mill.

This began life in the late 18th century as a cotton mill  and over the next two centuries was used to produce worsted, to grind corn and then flour (see Yore Mill). There was a school in a room in the mill complex in the early 19th century run by John Drummond, a noted mathematician. In the census for 1891 there were nine households listed at the mill complex, ranging from a clerk in holy orders living in one of the small cottages to the corn miller with his wife and six children. Today the mill is used to generate some electricity for the National Grid and the once derelict cottages behind the gift shop are being renovated.

The old middens (toilets) for the cottages by the mill race are by the river just before the bridge. There is an excellent gift shop on the right. For refreshments there is a choice for there is the restaurant at The Falls (by the car park opposite Aysgarth Falls Hotel) ,the tea room at the Yorkshire Dales National Park car park on the northern approach, or the tea shop by the bridge

The bridge was built in the 16th century  for pack horses and was only nine feet wide. It was rebuilt in the 18th century when the turnpike roads were made. Do be careful crossing the bridge as there is no footpath and is just wide enough for two cars! At the other side turn left through the gate to the Upper Falls. In this parkland meetings and galas were held which, in the mid 20th century, included the Aysgarth annual show with sports, fancy dress and tea tents. Across the river are the remains of lead mining and a bit higher up the river is Aysgarth Mill where electricity was generated for the village in the mid 20th century.

Back at the road take the footpath on the left through the woods to the National Park car park where there are toilets and the information centre in which there is an exhibition about how the falls came into being and the wildlife of the area. Outside the information centre there is a mosaic made by local children. For more photos (all copyright Pip Land) see Aysgarth Falls.

In its first year the Society for Promoting Female Education in the East (SPFEE) sent four single women to work overseas – a remarkable feat at a time when it was generally believed that a woman’s place was in the home. But then the SPFEE had gained the support of some very aristocratic ladies as well as  those related to Elizabeth Fry, the Quaker prison reformer. Women in the USA would also receive an appeal from the Rev David Abeel to set up a similar female organisation but were discouraged by Rufus Anderson, the powerful secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). Mary Webb in Boston, USA,  may have led the world in setting up the first women’s missionary society but that was okay so long as it raised funds to send male missionaries overseas.

The first meeting of the SPFEE was chaired by a leading Evangelical, the Rev B W Noel but soon after that it became an all-female affair with the Duchess Dowager of Beaufort as the president, and the Duchess of Gordon  among the vice-presidents. The committee had close links with the Baptist Missionary Society, the London Missionary Society and the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). They brought to the work evangelistic fervour mixed with  very practical skills and experience. One of the essential skills was how to set up a well-functioning women’s committee – a skill which the Quakers had two centuries of experience and had been used to great effect by Elizabeth Fry in her campaign.

She formed the all-female committee of the Association for the Improvement of the Female Prisoners in Newgate in 1817 and went on to motivate women throughout Britain and Europe to set up ladies’ committees. One was even formed by the ladies of the Russian court. In 1818 she was the first woman called to give evidence to a committee of the British Government’s  House of Commons.

Women’s committees became an essential part of the Quaker experience because its founder, George Fox, having immersed himself in reading the Bible, recognised that before God men and women were equal. He wrote in his journal: “I saw that Christ died for all men, and was a propitiation for all; and enlightened all men and women with his divine and saving light.” Under his leadership there were committees for women and men  to assist with the affairs of the Society of Friends.

Both he  and Margaret Fell (who became his wife) used Biblical texts to prove that women were treated as equal by God, a key verse being “And it shall come to pass afterwards, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.” (Joel 2:28). Quaker women, therefore, shared in prophesying, preaching, teaching, mission work overseas, and education as well as suffering imprisonment and persecution. Anna Stoddart wrote in 1899 that to the Quakers women owed “the inception of reverence, of education, of recognition in administrative and executive work, and of co-operation in ministerial and pastoral work.”

With the assumption of spiritual equality the Friends were among the first to start schools for girls as well as boys and by the 18th century in England the literacy rate among Quaker women was far higher than among the general population. The Quakers also recognised the need to provide education for the poor well before universal education was encouraged in Britain. It wasn’t until Evangelicalism became a powerful force in the early and mid 19th century that educating the poor became a political issue – and yet again women’s committees had played their part.

At the beginning of the 19th century  two church-based groups, the British and Foreign Schools Society (BFSS)  and the National Schools Society, began opening day schools. Both used the monitorial system as there were so few trained teachers. Under this system a small group of children were taught simple lessons by the teacher until they were able to instruct others. Throughout each school older children taught the younger ones in small classes in a very regimented system. As a major objective of the National Schools Society was to promote the disciplines and doctrines of the Church of England the BFSS, founded by the Quaker, Joseph Lancaster, in 1808, was mainly patronised by the nonconformists such as the Baptists, Congregationalists and Methodists.

The general practice was for the girls’ schools to be separate from those for the boys and to be run by women’s committees. For instance the Maidenhead National School for Girls in Berkshire was founded in 1820 and run by a ladies’ committee which oversaw the curriculum, appointed the teachers, and the administration. The fees paid by the children were minimal with most of the money being raised through public subscription. Lessons included reading, writing, arithmetic, knitting, making up and mending clothes and household work as well as religious studies.

An essential element of Protestantism which began in Europe in the 15th century was that each individual could commune directly with God and that was facilitated by reading the Bible. The revival of the Christian churches in the late 18th century led to an increased emphasis upon literacy and to even more women being called by God into spheres of work not usually open to them. And so the leaders of the Evangelical movement which included John Wesley were , like Fox,  confronted by the revolutionary action of the Holy Spirit which treated women as equal with men. Wesley did finally accept that some women  had been called by God to preach but unlike Fox he did not embed this into the doctrines of the Wesleyan  Methodist church. This meant that after his death the Wesleyan Conference in 1802 decided it was “contrary to both scripture and to prudence that women should preach or exhort in public.” Yet again the freedoms  gained by women during a time of revival were being curtailed.

So when the SPFEE was formed it had to be careful not to be seen to be usurping the “headship” of men. The women on that committee did, however, believe in the liberating ethos of the Bible and had little doubt that if they shared that with girls in the East they could transform lives. In his appeal which led to the founding of the SPFEE Abeel (an ABCFM missionary who was on his way home to the USA after four years in the Far East) spoke of the degradation of women in China and India due to lack of education and being locked away in their homes. He asked how Christian women could not respond and assist a Society whose aim was “to rescue the weak from oppression, and to comfort the miserable in their sorrow – to give to the infant population of India and of China the blessing of maternal wisdom and piety”

The  SPFEE was careful to publicise its work in Christian periodicals as what could be defined as “Women’s Work for Women” and so as an acceptable occupation for pious women. This enabled it to send single women overseas as a natural evolution of organising and superintending  girls’ schools in England. It also needed good role models and for those it looked to women like Mary Ann Cooke Wilson and Martha  (Mary) Weitbrecht who were superintending girls’ schools in India.  And it was to them that two of the first SPFEE agents were sent in 1835.

Footnote: Joyce Goodwin in “Disposed to Take the Charge” records that a Quaker, Hannah Kilham from Sheffield, went to the Gambia (1822-23) and then to Sierra Leone (1827-28 and 1830-32) to organise schools for girls who had been liberated from slave ships. In this article Ms Goodman provides more information about women’s committees running schools in England in the early 19th century.

Copyright P Land 2012

Sources:-

The Female Advocate magazine in England in 1844 told women that their job was to make the home an oasis, and that girls should be educated so that the could achieve ‘elevated standards of morals’ and fulfil their duties to society and to their own children.

Rufus Anderson and women’s committees: Ruth A Tucker’s essay “Women in Missions: Reaching Sisters in ‘Heathen Darkness’, in Earthen Vessels – American Evangelists and Foreign Missions, Eds J A Carpenter and W R Shenk,   W B Eerdmans Pub Co 1990 pp251-252.

Founding of the SPFEE and the Rev Abeel’s appeal: The History of the Society for Promoting Female Education in the East published by Edward Suter in London, 1847.

Religious Society of Friends :

Journal of George Fox, Friends Tract Association, 1891, pp35-36, 202,386.

E B Emmott, The Story of Quakerism, Headley Brothers, London, 1908.

W A Campbell Stewart, Quakers and Education, The Epworth Press 1953.

Adrian Davies, The Quakers in English Society 1655 to 1725 Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2000  p 119-22

A M Stoddart, Elizabeth Pease Nichol, J M Dent and Co, 1899.

Elizabeth Fry : see http://www.quaker.org.uk/fry

Education in England:

Berkshire Records Office, Minutes of Maidenhead National School for Girls, 1838.

C P Hill , British Economic and Social History 1700-1964, Edward Arnold, London, 1970

Andrena Stiles, Religion, Society, Reform 1800-1914, Hodder & Stoughton 1995.

J Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain Routledge, London 1995

J Goodman “Disposed to Take the Charge” 1999  journals.sfu.ca/hse/index.php/edu_hse-rhe/article/…/1589/1678

Left: Visitors enjoying a meal at the George and Dragon.

The George and Dragon in Aysgarth is a great local pub – and a great place to stay and enjoy Wensleydale. All that is thanks to Collette and John Wormwell who have transformed it into a cosy, homely inn.

In 2008 John and Collette  upgraded the seven en-suite bedrooms so that these match the high standards set in the restaurant. This means that their guests can stay in centuries old rooms but enjoy the best of modern amenities.

The inn also became one of the select few restaurants in Wensleydale to be awarded a rosette by the AA for its food. “We are delighted,” said Collette. “After three years of hard work of serving wonderful food it is great to see our chefs appreciated by being awarded this rosette. We have always brought in excellent chefs so as to maintain the standard and consistency of the food.”

They certainly have done that – and we are grateful it is within walking distance of The Warren. For more about the George and Dragon see their website.

What particularly concerned the YDNPA members was that part of Wensleydale would be left without affordable housing sites.It was likely that four houses could be constructed on the site behind the village institute at Aysgarth and two more at the east end of Thornton Rust. Only one site had been proposed at Muker (for up to two houses). It was also expected that two houses could have been built on the Low Row site rejected by the inspector. The YDNPA had put forward a second site (for about two houses) at Low Row.

The objective of the Dales Housing Development Plan is to provide affordable housing for local people. The planning inspector also asked the Authority to clarify what it would do if an allocated site would not be viable to be developed with 50% affordable housing. It has been proposed that, in order to encourage landowners to submit sites 50% would be affordable housing and the rest would be restricted by legal agreement to “local housing” so that the house could not become second or holiday homes and the price would be reduced thus making them more accessible to households within the Park. The onus will be on the developer to prove why an allocated site could not be developed at 50% affordability. It was agreed on Tuesday that: “If viability at 50% affordable housing is not possible then the Authority may negotiate an increase in the proportion of local market housing compared to affordable housing.” The consultation period on all the changes being proposed by the YDNPA should run from the week of February 20 until April 10.

The Three Peaks Challenge and parking in Horton-in-Ribblesdale: A decision on the application to extend the amount of time that a field by the New Inn Bridge could be used for visitor parking was deferred by the planning committee until its  March meeting. This may allow time for the preparation of a traffic management plan for the village but the committee  agreed that the decision should not be delayed any longer. The owners have applied to use the field for parking for 70 days between April and October each year. The planning officer recommended that it could be used for parking for only 57 days from April to September, and that it could not be used for overnight accommodation by those with tents or caravans.

Horton in Ribblesdale parish council asked the committee to refuse the application. It stated: “It is essential that the wider issue of the impact on the village and the surrounding area of the increasing number of sponsored walks be addressed before there can be a sensible consideration of what provision should be made to accommodate visitors and their vehicles.”

The North Yorkshire branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England ( CPRE) wrote to the YDNPA to express its concern about mass walks. It stated: “It is necessary now to protect the countryside against the damage done by too many feet in one place. The CPRE considers damage can be caused not only to the ecostructure but also to villages in or adjacent to the Parks which become swamped by excessive numbers of visitors. We consider that every effort must be made to spread visitor numbers to places throughout the Parks.” And added: “Perhaps alternate routes could be worked out to give the Three Peaks a rest.”

The YDNPA’s recreation and tourism manager, however, felt that the Three Peaks walks were of such national significance that it would be difficult to persuade people to go elsewhere. The only alternative is to manage the numbers visiting the area.  Some charity events attract between 400 to 1000 participants. (See Pen-y-ghent cafe )

Grassington – The owner of some old council garages in Grassington asked for and received a Valentines Day present from the YDNPA planning committee on Tuesday, February 14, when her plans for a one-bedroom bungalow on that site were approved. Mrs Mary Wilkinson told the committee that she wanted to have a retirement home within walking distance of the town centre. She had agreed to set the building back by a metre but a neighbour told the committee that the front porch would still impede access to her garage. Another neighbour said that the bungalow would affect their privacy and greatly reduce the amount of parking space in the area.

Grassington parish council was not prepared to support the application as it felt the neighbours concerns had not been properly addressed. The committee, however, accepted the recommendation of the planning officer that although the bungalow would be close to these two adjoining properties it would not have a negative impact upon the amenity of the neighbours or cause access problems. The YDNPA legal officer advised that it was a civil matter if any scaffolding during the construction of the bungalow caused access problems.

Hawkswick – The committee approved the planning officer’s recommendation for the construction of a replacement dwelling at The Bungalow in Hawkswick even though one member described it as a “half-breed house” and another commented “It looks like a pavilion to me.” Hawkswick parish meeting had stated: “We feel the design needs to be more sympathetic to its surroundings in Littondale with more use being made of stone than wood panelling and glazing.” The head of development management, Richard Graham, said: “It’s an unfussy design and it’s robust. The timber can be stained a dark colour or left to weather naturally.”

Starbotton – Many  members agreed with the chairman of the planning committee that the need for housing for local people outweighed the arguments against approving the construction of a two-bedroomed house on land designated by the YDNPA as important open space within a village. The majority therefore voted against the planning officer’s recommendation that the application should be refused. This decision will, therefore, have to be ratified at the March meeting.

Craven Dt Coun John Roberts pointed out that the application didn’t meet eight of the YDNPA’s policies. The officer explained that it would be harmful to the village because: it would introduce domestic clutter to an otherwise wild and unspoilt area; it would increase the visual prominence of a presently unobtrusive vehicular access; it would reduce the visual quality of the green space along the beck; and it would introduce a dwelling that paid little regard to its setting in terms of detailing, siting and orientation.

Kettlewell-with-Starbotton parish council said it supported the need for local occupancy housing but questioned if the YDNPA should allow a house to be built on land designated as special open space.

Linton – Linton Parish Council was very concerned that a precedent would be set for the future development of the village if permission was given for a house to be built outside of the development boundary. After a lengthy debate the committee agreed with the planning officer that permission could not be granted for a house to be built in the field next to Tarn Laithe. The owner explained that it was for members of his own family and so constituted local need. The officer stated that as the site was outside the village housing boundary it would not fulfill the criteria for local needs housing under the present Local Plan nor the new Dales Housing Development Plan when it comes into force. Committee member Peter  Charlesworth believed the application would fulfill a local need for housing and pointed out that prior to a wall being built the development boundary would have extended through the proposed site to the edge of the conservation area.

Reeth – Committee members voted overwhelmingly in favour of allowing a new house to be built at Mill Hill. This, however, was against the planning officer’s recommendation who said it should be refused as the amended plans did not go far enough to solve the problems of over-dominating and affecting the privacy of the house below it. The Swaledale members of the committee felt there would be minimal loss of privacy and amenity and that the proposed building was in keeping with the terraced nature of many houses in Reeth. Another committee member asked if the house could be set back by a metre from the footpath. It was agreed that the planning officer could ratify this decision if the applicant could make that adjustment to the plans.

Keld – Approval was given for the number of tents at Park House campsite, Keld, to be increased from six to 12 and for the opening period to be extended. No caravans or tents will be allowed on the site between October 31 and March 1 each year, and none can be there for more than 28 days during the camping season. The application originally proposed increasing the number of caravans from three to six but the planning officers were concerned about the impact upon such a remote and exposed landscape.

Ribblehead – An enforcement notice will be issued for the removal of the residential caravan beside the Station Inn at Ribblehead, but the compliance period will be set at six months instead of two. N Yorks County Coun John Blackie explained that the owner was preparing to apply for an extension to the Inn so as to provide alternative staff accommodation.

It was sad to hear of the death earlier this month of Joyce Bayes.  Peter and Joyce Bayes not only ran the Pen-y-ghent cafe in Horton in Ribblesdale for many years before  handing over to their children but also founded the Three Peaks of Yorkshire Club. At this time of mourning the cafe is only open at weekends but will resume full service before Easter. I first posted the following article in 2009:

Left: Peter Bayes (centre) watches as Iain Main enjoys one of the cafe’s trademark pint mugs of tea, while a walker clocks in after completing the Three Peaks challenge. About his walk along the Three Peaks route  in the  summer of 2009  Iain commented: “I have been coming for many years. I come to be quiet, for solitude and to commune with nature. But at stiles and gates it was like queuing to get into the Marks and Spencers January sales. Sometimes there were 50 people waiting to get through. I don’t begrudge the charities but over a thousand people in a space of 12 to 14 hours is going to take a toll on the undeveloped parts of the path. It’s a great service to the charities but there needs to be a debate with the National Park  Authority about the wear and tear on the landscape and the amount of litter.”

On Saturdays throughout the summer Horton in Ribblesdale is overflowing with walkers taking part in the Three Peaks challenge to raise funds for charities. It has been Heart Research UK’s biggest annual fund raising event for 15 years and, like many other charities, it provides its own support and safety systems.

But for many undertaking the Three Peaks challenge there is still nothing like clocking out and in at the world-famous Pen-y-ghent cafe and enjoying its trademark pint mugs of tea and home-made cakes. Since 1965, when Peter and Joyce Bayes moved to the village, they and their children have turned the cafe into an institution among the walking fraternity. And many are proud to wear the shirts or badges that go with completing the trek over Ingleborough, Whernside and Pen-y-ghent within 12 hours. This entitled them to join the Three Peaks of Yorkshire club instituted and run by the Bayes.

The ping of them clocking back in is a constant background noise throughout summer afternoons except when the cafe is closed on Tuesdays. The family bought an old clocking-in clock from a Lancashire mill many years ago to keep up with the number of walkers who wanted to use their free safety service. For after a long day the Bayes don’t close at 5.30pm and put their feet up. Instead they remain on duty waiting for the last tired walkers to sign back in.

The Bayes are concerned about the impact of big charity events upon residents, landowners, other walkers and local businesses. In a letter to the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority in 2008 the Bayes stated: “Our business adheres to a guiding set of principles and ethics which are informed by a sense of responsibility for the impact that our customers have on both the immediate locality and the wider landscape.” They have helped large groups to find alternative routes by collaborating with the department of physical education at Leeds University.

“I approached with a beating heart. ‘Let me find grace before her eyes’ was my prayer, as the next minute was now to show me her whose name I had long pronounced with respect, whose example had inflamed my heart with a holy emulation, and who was now to be so much to me. If sometimes a distant fame awakens expectation which a closer knowledge of the person is not able to realise, it was not my case with Miss Thornton. I expected much and found more.”

Mme Combe was the second woman sent by the SPFEE to help Miss Thornton, the first being a  Miss Hulk from Holland. Miss Thornton had arrived in what was then called Batavia , the capital of the Dutch East Indies, in August 1835 after being selected by the SPFEE and attending a teacher training course. She had superintended some schools in Corfu while working as a governess with the family of an Anglican minister there before applying to the SPFEE. Of her the SPFEE wrote:

“The testimony to her character and ability were deemed so satisfactory, and her personal communications with the committee inspired so much confidence in her piety and judgement, that she was unanimously received as its representative to carry forward the work it had at heart. It was not without serious consideration of the responsibility they incurred, that the ladies came to this decision.”

The committee would pay £150 for her sea passage and her outfit, and would make sure that she was properly chaperoned during the long journey. But with £533 in the kitty in March 1835 and with the possibility of sending three women to Calcutta the SPFEE made it very clear to Miss Thornton that she would not receive a salary and would have to support herself from school fees. It was expected that she would do that by taking Mary Wanstall Gutzlaff’s place at the Melaka Free School. It was also hoped that she would be able to superintend the local schools founded by Mary Christie Wallace and Maria Dyer.

Batavia was then the capital of the Dutch East Indies and was on the crossroads between the Roaring Forties sea route from the Cape of Good Hope and the trade routes from India to China. The prevailing winds at the time of Miss Thornton’s arrival meant that she could not travel on to Melaka for two months and  Eliza Medhurst, the Indian Eurasian wife LMS missionary Walter Medhurst, encouraged her to remain in Batavia. Mrs Medhurst had opened a boarding school for the girls and young boys of the wealthier families as a way of raising extra funds, and was soon due to go to England with her husband. Miss Thornton informed the SPFEE that the Medhursts had also started an orphanage after finding three half-caste children running around the streets “in utter wretchedness”.

During the 200 years that the Dutch had been in control of Batavia there had always been a dearth of European women. So the European men had married local and Eurasian women. Some of these families were keen to have their children learn English and to study the Bible. The children at Mrs Medhurst’s school were also taught reading, writing, arithmetic, geography and grammar, plus needlework for the girls.

Thirteen days after arriving in Batavia Miss Thornton wrote: “This day I have commenced school with twenty children; the school-room, a bamboo roof without walls, exceedingly cool, close to a coffee-plantation, which will shortly be in bloom, and surrounded with cocoa-nut trees and plantains. If I could transport you here for one hour, you would be delighted; separated from the world, dwelling in this lovely spot close to the chapel, which is in the compound, surrounded with the beauties of nature, and abundantly supplied with an occupation which has interest to fill the heart even to overflowing  – you can suppose me to be one of the happiest of human beings. ”

“By the time this reaches England I trust my tongue will be loosened in the Malay language; and then I shall lose no time in attempting Chinese. When any one asks after my welfare, you may say that I would not return for the sake of every earthly blessing. My work is my pleasure, nay more, my delight. Our God is a God of love; the Gospel is a dispensation of love, and by affectionate sympathy we ought to seek to win men to the truth.”

It took almost  year for Miss Thornton to receive the letter from SPFEE which authorised her to stay in Batavia. The committee had no problem agreeing to her request especially as one of its members, Mary Ann Aldersey, knew what had happened to Maria Newell Gutzlaff and Mary Christie Wallace in Melaka.

Miss Thornton was delighted when she found two teenage girls she could “adopt” and train as monitors and teachers. Emma and Sarah were the offspring of a Frenchman and a Malay woman. Following her father’s death Emma, then about 14-years-old, had been taken by a man who, Miss Thornton said, made it his business to get what girls he could “to bring up for the vilest purposes”. Miss Thornton was very happy to save Emma from such a horrible fate but would in time find the two teenage girls quite expensive to care for.  She taught Emma how to play the piano as the girl had a good ear for music and a beautiful singing voice.

She trained  her servant, Dortchy, to teach Malay girls and proudly set up what she described as the first school for them on the island. It didn’t last long, however. The five schools for Chinese girls, which had been set up by American and British missionaries, survived longer. She felt that three of these were especially under her care as they were supported largely from the sale of fancy goods sent from Britain by the SPFEE. She wrote in July 1836: “This day last year, I was tossing about upon the great deep, anticipating years of toil before I could hope to obtain what I now enjoy – now comfortably settled in a school that supports me, two nice girls under my care training for teachers, and more than all, three Chinese girls’ schools, containing thirty children.”

She found, however, that the schools for Chinese girls faced a special cultural problem as she explained in 1837: “The infant school system is especially necessary, because no girl is permitted, after the age of eleven years, to be seen out of her house, or, indeed, out of her room, without her mother’s special permission, until she is married. The eldest and most promising girl in my school has just been taken away. I went to enquire the reason, and to see the child. The mother said she was too old to come any more to school, she must now be shut up.”

By the time that Miss Hulk arrived in mid 1837 (funded by a committee in Geneva) Miss Thornton had moved to a new house. This was very pleasant, cool and healthy and had large grounds – but was expensive. She hoped to meet the cost through school fees and the sale of fancy goods sent by her friends in Hackney. She worked 12 hours a day, starting at 5am, but wrote in 1838: “This month my own school has increased in numbers, so that my house is quite full, and I am enabled to meet all my expenses. We sit down, twenty to dinner every day, but we are a very happy family – peace reigns amongst us almost without interruption. I sometimes think, though I have my trials, that I am certainly one of the happiest beings in the world; and the delight I experience in the affection of the children amply compensates for my toils and weariness.”

After Miss Combe  arrived in December 1839 Miss Thornton worked exclusively with Eurasian children. By late 1840, however, Miss Hulk had joined the Netherlands Missionary Society in West Java and Miss Combe had married an American missionary (see Those who pioneered the way, and Jemima in Kalimantan). The Medhursts, who had returned to Batavia in 1838, left for China in June 1843. Mr Medhurst reported that by 1842 the Dutch authorities in Batavia were restricting the movements of non-Dutch missionaries and traders. Many of the Chinese had gone and the missionaries couldn’t open schools or distribute tracts.

The following year Miss Thornton wrote that all the missionaries had left and, after 11 years, she wanted to return to England for a rest. By then her oldest pupils had completed their education. There is no record of what happened to Emma and Sarah.

She had provided an excellent role model for the type of women that the SPFEE wanted to recruit. The committee had quickly developed its own methods of assessing and evaluating possible candidates, the emphasis being on creating an effective corps of single women. It wanted to be a distinct agency which fulfilled a specific purpose, focusing its limited funds on its goal of liberating girls through education. Firstly it was keen to have a united philosophy within this corps, and this was done by strictly adhering to the Evangelical creed. Candidates had to show that they regularly attended an Evangelical church and accepted its principles of faith. It was also very important that they were sure that they had a definite call to the work, as well as having a good education and teaching experience. All this had to be backed up by references about their spiritual life and temperament and if they had their own independent source of income.

The SPFEE was, therefore, carefully selecting middle class, pious women who were capable of superintending girls’ schools and training local teachers. The SPFEE wanted children to learn the Christian Scriptures and have the opportunity to come to faith in Jesus Christ besides learning other useful knowledge. Once assured that a candidate could fulfil these requirements the committee invited her to do a month’s probation and training at the British and Foreign School (Lancastrian monitoring system) at Borough Road in London. While there she was evaluated by three members of the committee as well as the school’s superintendent.

The SPFEE was determined not to become a missionary lonely-hearts dating agency. One of the rules carefully explained to candidates was that if they married within five years of being sent out by the SPFEE they would have to repay a proportional percentage of the cost of their travelling expenses and outfit. They also had to give the committee sufficient notice of their intended marriage so that a successor could be found. The committee was criticised for this and for insisting, especially in the early days, that when one of the women married they could no longer serve as an SPFEE agent. But the committee replied that it was setting up a specialist corps called to a specific task. Its agents, it said, should be undistracted by other interests and be free to give their undivided energy to the task of female education in the East. For its part the SPFEE always kept a contingency fund available so that it could quickly repatriate one of its agents should her health fail.

Sources:

Minutes of the Society for Promoting Female Education in the East, in the Special Collection of Birmingham University Library.

History of the Society for Promoting Female Education in the East published by Edward Suter in London 1847, pp 10-32 & 36-43

C R Boxer The Dutch Seaborne Empire 1600-1800 Penguin 1990 pp221;239; 241-3.

Council for World Mission/London Missionary Society archives at the School of Oriental and African Studies Library, London: CWM Ultra Ganges – from Java and Batavia 1841-43.

After being recruited by Mary Ann Aldersey Miss Wallace left Glasgow to study the Lancastrian monitoring system of education at the  Central School of the British and Foreign School Society in London so that she could assist in the girls’ section of the Malacca Free School. Subscriptions were raised in Edinburgh, Hackney and Norwich to promote the Education of Chinese Females in order to pay for her outfit and passage to Melaka and to help support her when she was there.

She arrived in Melaka in August 1829 about seven months before Charles (Karl) Gutzlaff took his wife Maria (nee Newell) to Bangkok.  Miss Aldersey’s plan had been for Miss Wallace to be a companion for Maria – and certainly not to be left as the only single woman among the missionaries there.  She did, however, do so well initially that the LMS directors received a warm recommendation about her. She was described as being remarkably timid, modest and retiring in character when among the English people but bold, diligent and persevering, undaunted and active with the nationals. When Samuel and Maria Dyer visited Melaka  in April 1832 Mrs Dyer and Miss Wallace set up seven small schools for about 120 Chinese girls. Mrs Dyer left funds to help support these schools while Miss Wallace took on the job of superintending them. There was a large Chinese community in Melaka but as the girls couldn’t travel far small schools had to be set up close to their homes.

One of the problems that Miss Wallace faced was that the girls who came to the schools were the offspring of Chinese men and Malaysian women. Their main language was Malay and yet their school books were in Chinese. “The children do not understand the language which they must be taught in. In learning Chinese the children are first made acquainted with the sounds of the characters, then taught to repeat the book off, and when they can do so well they are taught the meaning.” This was a long and slow process and she added: “We frequently  have the mortification to see clever promising girls taken from the school by their parents before they understand anything, because they are considered too big to attend.”

Even though the number of schools had decreased by April 1833 with a total of attendance of about 70 she did feel that the prejudice against educating girls was being broken down.The parents would have preferred that their own books would have been used in the schools but Miss Wallace made sure that only Christian ones, often translated and printed at the Anglo-Chinese College, were available. The high cost of running the schools was barely covered by donations from the Dyers, Samuel Garling (the British East India Company’s representative in Melaka), the LMS and friends in Britain.

She was less successful with the school for Malay girls. In 1831 the attendance had increased and so a larger school room was built. But this roused the fear of the parents and especially an old Muslim priest that the girls at the school would be converted to Christianity. Over half the girls left and it was not possible to use Christian books. “They are at present reading books of a moral kind not touching upon Christianity but we hope in time to be able again to introduce Christian books,” Miss Wallace wrote.

By 1832 she had been joined by Mary Wanstall from England and had handed over the Malay school to a missionary at the College. She reported: “We have found since we devoted ourselves more particularly to the Chinese schools that they have made greater progress, and that superior opportunities are afforded to us for acquiring the Chinese language.”

All seemed to be going very well but then, on August 8 1833, she arrived in Penang and told the Beightons that she was no longer wanted in Melaka. Garling had even suggested that the cost of her return to England should be met by the LMS.  Beighton told the LMS that she was a young, healthy woman who just wanted to do good and he couldn’t understand why the missionaries in Melaka wanted to be rid of her. Miss Wallace moved to Singapore and in Melaka, in 1834, Miss Wanstall became the second wife of Charles Gutzlaff and accompanied him to Macao.

In February 1835 the Rev Ira Tracy of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) wrote to the LMS because he thought Miss Wallace was one of its missionaries. He explained that she had been running a small school for Chinese and other children in Singapore. As he was the only missionary working in Singapore at that time he felt bound to support and encourage her. He had even advanced her money as well as passing on financial gifts from American friends. He said he visited her as often as he could be had to be careful for both their reputations as he was not married. Then on January 1 he was informed that she was dying.

“We found her deranged and saying she was about to depart. She wished to make some communications to us ‘for the good of the church’ and began reading from her journals, which showed plainly that she had been out of her right mind for weeks if not months.” He encouraged her to rest but the next day her servant took him to a Chinese house where he found her barefooted with her hair loose and in “native” dress. He wrote that he and a newly-arrived missionary doctor unsuccessfully tried to reason with her and finally they sent for the magistrate. When that didn’t resolve the problem they moved her to the house of an American where she stayed several days before taking passage to England via Penang. “Miss Wallace is evidently deranged and we endeavoured to treat her as we would a sister laboring under that calamity,” commented Tracy.

The only source of information as to what happened next is in Beighton’s letters from Penang to the LMS. He said that she was ejected from the ship she had sailed on from Singapore after she had left her journal open on the deck. In it she had written that she had seen the ship on the rocks and that she was being murdered. Faced with the dangerous voyage around the Cape the crew didn’t want a Jonah on board.

“I feel sorry for her. She ought never have come out alone,” wrote Beighton. He felt responsible for her as she had received some support from the LMS. For a few months he didn’t even know where she was but then heard that she was staying with Roman Catholics who had been able to put a restraint on her and she was not allowed out. Then in July 1835 a Grand Jury unanimously decided she was insane and sent her to prison. The jailor took pity on her and tried to care for her in his own home but found she was too difficult to have around his young children. Finally, by the order of the Bengal government in India which had jurisdiction over the British Straits Settlements in South East Asia, she was sent to Kolkata. Her friends in Britain then paid for her return to England. Beighton wrote later:

“I am very glad Miss Aldersey acted so promptly in the affair but still had not the Commission of Lunacy been obtained we could not have sent Miss Wallace to England without her consent. I hope this distressing affair has been arranged to the satisfaction of Miss Wallace’s friends. I sincerely hope no case of such a kind will ever occur again.”

It would appear from the minutes of the SPFEE that Miss Aldersey never did report on this sad ending to Miss Wallace’s career overseas. But the experiences of  Maria Newell Gutzlaff and Mary Wallace in Melaka did have an impact upon the career of the first single woman that the SPFEE sent overseas (Eliza Thornton ) and also on how Miss Aldersey would later plan for and carry out her work overseas.

Sources:

Minutes of the Society for the Promotion of Female Education in the East 1834, in the Special Collection at Birmingham University Library.

Council for World Mission/London Missionary Society archives at the School of Oriental and African Studies Library (SOAS) Incoming letters – CWM Ultra Ganges Malacca and Singapore – from Miss Wallace, Thomas Beighton and Ira Tracy.

“An Address to the Ladies of Great Britain on Behalf of the Chinese Female Population”, February 1828, with incoming letters from Ultra Ganges in the  CWM archives at SOAS.

Miss Newell was born in Stepney in August 1794. British Christian missions have always been predominantly the preserve of the middle classes so it was a surprise to see that someone from London’s  “East End” had applied to join what was then the all-male London Missionary Society (LMS). When the LMS was founded in 1795 the call went out only for men who were prepared to be the “heroes of the Church”. It did accept that the men recruited as missionaries could take their wives and, by 1812, that women could play an important role in raising funds to support its missionaries. Most of the major Christian missions would not begin recruiting  large numbers of single women until the 1890s and certainly not from the East End of London.

But in the first decades of the 19th century Stepney had not yet become such a notoriously overcrowded working class area of London and certainly had nothing in common with those now known as the East Enders. Stepney was then described as a “genteel retreat” with attractive brick houses in which lived well-to-do merchants – like Miss Newell’s father who was a tallow chandler. It was in Stepney that she was introduced to the faith of the independent-minded dissenters and non conformists to whom the Bible was their guidebook. She attended the Congregational chapel led by the Rev Andrew Reed, a hymn writer, philanthropist and social reformer. So she probably grew up in an environment where a basic education was viewed as vital for each individual, male and female, if they were to achieve their full God-given potential. She became a school teacher in Blackheath, South London, but it was the Rev Reed who provided  her with a reference when she applied to the London Missionary Society (LMS) in early 1826.

She would never have been considered by the LMS if it hadn’t been for its most famous missionary, Dr Robert Morrison championing the cause of single women and the fundraising by some very determined ladies in England.  One of those was Mary Ann Aldersey who was single and had the financial means but whose father refused to give his permission for her to answer her call to work overseas. Like Jemima Poppy Miss Newell’s parents were dead and so she was free to  make her own choices.

The LMS had originally intended to send two single women to work in association with its Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca (Melaka). But in January 1827 the LMS Examination Committee reported that the health of Miss F Nichols had “considerably failed in consequence of her application to the Chinese language” and it was felt inexpedient to send her overseas.

So Miss Newell travelled with the newly-married Rev Samuel Dyer and his wife, Maria. After months of seasickness and living in a damp cabin Miss Newell was so glad to reach Penang where they met other LMS missionaries, including the Rev Thomas Beighton and his wife, Abigail. It was there that the two Maria’s could see for themselves the successes and failures of trying to run schools for girls among the Chinese and Malay population. Mrs Beighton and another mission wife, Joanna Ince, had started a boarding school for young ladies advertising that it would have a strict regard to morals, as well as a kind attention to the health and progress of the pupils. Their school brought in sufficient money to make the lives of the missionaries a lot more comfortable in Penang – but the LMS directors in London did not approve. The response from Penang was that if the LMS directors did not recognise the women as missionaries their husbands couldn’t see why they should abide by mission rules!

The Dyers decided that they would stay in Penang rather than travelling on to Malacca, and Mrs Beighton insisted on escorting Miss Newell when she continued her journey. As the tall, masted ship dropped anchor about two miles from the shore at Malacca Miss Newell could see the European settlement on the western side of the estuary with its tree-lined streets which had been laid out by the Dutch and the ruined hill-top church of St Paul’s.  To the east were the more closely packed local buildings  and beyond them the Malay villages among the green paddy fields and coconut plantations. And then there was the jungle stretching far into the distance to the rugged Mt Ophir. They disembarked into a smaller boat to reach the beach where Miss Newell’s day of heartbreak began.

A missionary was there to greet and provide accommodation for the Dyers. But no-one had come from the missionary community to welcome her. Mrs Beighton, however, had informed the British Resident, Samuel Garling, about their arrival and he had sent a messenger inviting her and Mrs Beighton to his home. The Dutch had, in a treaty in 1825, handed over Malacca to the English East India Company and Mr Garling was the company’s senior representative. Of her arrival at his home Miss Newell wrote:

“I was received by him with all hospitality, politeness and dignity of an elegant English gentleman.” She hadn’t been there long when she received what she described as a cold, rough and unfeeling note from David Collie, the principal of the Anglo-Chinese College, stating she could not stay at his home as he and his wife were already providing accommodation for Dr Morrison’s son and daughter. Miss Newell wept which upset Mrs Beighton.  In his letter Mr Collie had informed her that she could stay with Samuel Kidd and his family at the college but when they visited that home they found that the wife was ill and there was just one small room to spare. “It was evidently inconvenient,” commented Miss Newell. Kidd told the LMS directors later that only a woman of fastidious delicacy would have taken offence at being offered a room in his house.  And how could they match what Garling had offered? The two women went on to see Mr Collie who said little but did inform Miss Newell that all her study of the Chinese language was useless as most of the local people spoke Malay. “My heart was ready to break,” she wrote.

The missionary community  in Malacca was obviously not ready for an independent, single woman. Most mission agencies for years to come would only accept single women who were either the siblings or daughters of male missionaries, or widows who remained on the mission field after their husbands died. What appeared to be a lack of communications between the London directors and the college did not help Miss Newell either. Collie informed her that if she did not follow instructions from the college she would not receive any financial support. The missionaries were even more upset when she took Garling’s advice and accompanied his wife on a trip to Singapore for which he paid all the expenses. It was in Singapore that other missionaries told her to keep her distance from the Anglo-Chinese College. Of those at the college in Malacca she wrote:

“I have been as friendly as I can, but I cannot crouch to them or anyone. It is better to hurt in the Lord than put confidence in man. Debt to me in any circumstances is a wretched thing but in this case necessary. I am now without money but not without faith. Think of me as happy. God will not suffer me to want. He has already done wonders in providing such friends as the Garlings, so high in station yet so pious and ready to help in every good work.” The Malacca missionaries were far from impressed. Kidd wrote to the LMS directors: “She engaged herself on a tour of pleasure in Singapore, on which she was absent from her station for two months, all without asking a word of advice from us.”

Miss Newell accepted Garling’s offer to work in the girls’ section of the Malacca Free School and began teaching English to those of Portugese and Dutch parentage. An agreement was reached with Collie that she should receive the £200 a year allotted to a single missionary but would give any profits from her school work to the LMS. By staying with the Garlings all her board and lodging costs were covered. She wrote to Miss Aldersey: “It is here a day of small things so far as female education is concerned.”

Miss Newell had seen herself as going out as a missionary and not as a teacher. Instead she found herself teaching in a school where the Lancastrian monitoring system was used – and for which she had no training. Miss Aldersey set herself the task of finding another single woman who would be a companion to Miss Newell and help in the school work. A visit to Edinburgh  led to her recruiting Mary Christie Wallace. Miss Wallace reached Malacca in May 1829 but had little time to work with Miss Newell for in November the latter married Charles (Karl) Gutzlaff .

Her husband was a short, squat man from Prussian Pomerania (now in Germany). He was born in 1803  into a tailor’s family in Pyritz and used his considerable talents to gain a place at a school for missionaries in Berlin. He later studied at Rotterdam and was initially sent by the Netherlands Missionary Society to Thailand (then known as Siam). He worked there from 1828 to 1829 with an LMS missionary where the only other foreigners were two Roman Catholic bishops and a Portugese merchant. In February 1830 he took his wife to the small house (below) he had managed to rent by the river in Bangkok. There he had set up a small dispensary as well as distributing Christian booklets.

She wrote to the Garlings:”I have sometimes felt as if buried alive, yet we are very busy. Charles has again fully revised the whole of the Siamese New Testament and is now revising those books of the old which are translated. The whole of the New Testament is translated into Siamese… The sick still throng our doors, the books meet with almost universally delighted reception, our stock is coming down fast, large as it was. Our poor hovel is a great change after the comforts to which I have been accustomed, but God is all sufficient. I am his (her husband’s) humble servant for it is in the assistance I can yield him I hope to be most useful. I have been hither and thither among the miserable and the dirty – to the wretched palaces of the two Cambodian princes, and into their more miserable harems. I have been almost suffocated by crowds of citizens whose curiosity far exceeded their politeness. Everywhere I go a tolerably sized and sometimes very large congregation assembles, and if into a temple, the rush is greater still.”

She commented that the local rulers feared them because of their ability to speak so many languages. It was in Bangkok that Gutzlaff learnt the Chinese Fukhien dialect from the many Chinese living and working there. Later that year the Gutzlaff’s  little house was almost engulfed in flames. The noise of the fire woke them up at midnight and it looked as if the whole city was on fire. When the wind blew strongly towards them they prepared to flee and lose everything. “The wind continued unabated; and it appears to me like a miracle, that although the sparks from the immense masses of burning houses were flying around us in every direction, not one fell upon our hut.”

Just a few months later, in February 1831, she died after giving birth to twins of whom one died immediately and the other four months later. Gutzlaff wrote: “The Chinese mission has lost a most industrious and ingenuous labourer, who would have lent effective assistance to the great cause.”  He spoke highly of her translation work and what she had done on preparing a Chinese English dictionary. He was very ill himself after her death but was persuaded by the master of a Chinese junk to set sail for China leaving his daughter in the care of a foreign family.

Later he would marry Mary Wanstall who had been running some girls’ schools in Malacca and they set up home in Macao, then a Portugese enclave and, until 1842, the only place where foreigners could live in China. Miss Wallace returned to England in 1835. And the LMS did not recruit another single woman to send overseas until 1864.

Sources:

Richard Lovett, The History of the London Missionary Society 1795-1895, Henry Frownde, London 1899

John Cameron Our Tropical Possessions in Malayan India, Smith, Elder & Co, 1865.

Council for World Mission/London Missionary Society archives at the School of Oriental and African Studies Library, London, including Incoming letters – CWM Ultra Ganges Malacca (from Newell, S Kidd and J Ince) and in CWM S.China Box 3 (from Gutzlaff following his wife’s death).

Karl F A (Charles) Gutzlaff Journal of Three Voyages along the coast of China (http://www.lib.nus.edu.sg/digital/3voyage.html)

Ricci Roundtable: http://ricci.rt.usfca.edu/biography/view.aspx?biographyID=1562

She began by opening a girls’ school in Cairo in 1837 which was attended by a motley group of Spaniards, Italians, Greeks, Syrians, Coptic Christians and Arabs. The SPFEE sent her money so that she could take in orphans, and funds from the Ironmongers’ Company in London enabled her to ransom some children out of slavery. Those in her little orphanage were dressed like Westerners especially on Sundays for she commented: “In every respect we wish to see them English.” English was the medium of instruction in the orphanage while those in her day school studied Arabic. She informed the SPFEE:

“Female schools for reading seem never to have been thought of in this country. Their prejudices against such instructions are very strong. Among the higher classes, however, since the power of Mahomet (sic) Ali has been established on a firmer basis, these prejudices are fast breaking, and in several instances the more intelligent have been brought to see, in some degree, the advantages of female education. None of the higher classes have ever yet been collected into schools, but many are taught privately in their own houses. The mission school is therefore the very first, and indeed the only one, throughout Egypt.”

By 1838 she had 114 girls in her school and, on March 7, was officially asked if she would take on the education of 100 royal women, including the daughters, nieces and nearest relatives of Muhammad Ali Pasha. He was the viceroy of Egypt which was then part of the Ottoman empire. An officer of the state, Hekekyan Effendi,  told her: “This is only the beginning of female education in Egypt, for the Pasha has much larger views but he wishes first to try the experiment on his own family. Much depends upon the approbation of his eldest daughter, whether instruction shall spread through the country; only gain her favour and regards, and you will carry every point to your utmost wishes.”  He assured her that they paid great respect to their ladies who were allowed absolute rule within their homes.

He also explained: “In introducing an enlightened female education in Egypt, we shall be striking at the root of the evils which afflict us. In seconding my illustrious Prince and benefactor in his work of civilising Egypt, I have been led to reflection by the nature of my duties, and have as yet been able to trace our debasement to no other cause than that of the want of an efficient moral and useful education in our females. I believe that in elevating the soul by initiating it in the mysteries and beauties of nature, through the means of geography, astronomy, botany, geology, natural history & c, in proportion as we better comprehend the power, wisdom, and goodness of the Great First Cause, so are we enabled of ourselves to detect our own errors.”

On March 27 Miss Holliday wrote: “This day is among the most remarkable of my life. About 10am Mrs Kruse, Mrs Hekekyan and myself, mounted on donkeys, and set out for the harem. With many fears we arrived at the gate of a long avenue, which is the first strong door of the harem; we next came to another gate, where the janisaries and donkeymen were ordered to remain, while we were waited on by several eunuchs, who took us through another strong gate, and soon after ushered us into a long and stately saloon, where there were numerous ladies busily at work. We were then shown into an anteroom, and served with coffee, out of some of the most splendid cups, set with diamonds, I have ever beheld. Our attendants were young and beautiful slaves, evidently Greek, Georgian and Circassian. One brought us coffee, another sherbet, and a third handed sugar, each waiter having numerous slaves to attend upon her below the dais. Two little girls were then brought in to us; they came up to me and lounged upon me with greatest confidence, as if accustomed to such endearments; they were evidently some part of the royal family, from their likeness to the Pasha.

“In about a quarter of an hour an old lady, evidently high in office, came to conduct us to Her Highness. We followed her into another side apartment where we were introduced to the princess. We found Nazly Hanum sitting on a high divan in the corner of the room. Mrs Kruse and myself made our European salutation, but Mrs Hekekyan had to prostrate herself at her feet, and kiss the hem of her garments. She condescendingly moved her hand in salutation, and then smilingly told us to be seated on the divan nearest her. Nazly Hanum is a little woman, rather fat, apparently about forty years of age. Her countenance is striking in the extreme, particularly her eyes – indeed I never saw a more piercing eye in my life; she is said to be exceedingly like her father.

“Her dress was very simple, consisting of a black silk handkerchief around the head, secured at the side by a diamond pin, a shirt of white English net, which quite concealed the bosom, a robe of blue cloth, evidently English; and around her body was wrapped a splendid Cashmere shawl, from which hung suspended a magnificent watch and chain. She almost immediately inquired which was the teacher, and on my being pointed out to her, asked me several questions in Turkish, which Mrs Hekekyan translated. By this time all my nervous fears had vanished. Her questions were pertinent, and showed that she had the improvement of her household at heart; she wished me much to come and live in the house, saying that every liberty should be allowed me; I of course declined this offer, but thanked her for the honour intended. The princess evidently pleased with me, for she seldom took her eyes of me for a second. She was smoking the whole time, while a crowd of ladies stood below the dais, watching her every movement.”

It was agreed that Miss Holliday would take classes there in the mornings. As no Arabic was spoken in the harems and her Turkish was not so good she felt she could only do “ornamental teaching”.  When she returned six days later to start teaching she found the princess and her ladies superintending the thorough cleaning of the grand salon. “She was standing on a small Turkish carpet, giving directions to all the servants, who were busily employed in obeying her,” wrote Miss Holliday. Nazly Hanum then took her into her private apartment where the boxes of picture books and sewing materials were carefully inspected by about a dozen ladies. From then until lunchtime they worked with muslin and made some lace. Miss Holliday reported:

“At a little after 11 o’clock Her Highness’s dinner was brought in by about thirty slaves; a silver basin and jug, with  richly embroidered napkin, was given to me, while a young Circassian slave poured the water on my hands, a still more beautiful girl doing the same office for the princess. A small table, inlaid with pearl and silver, was placed before  her, over which was thrown a cloth of velvet and gold; then came forward three slaves bearing a large silver tray, about four feet in diameter, which was placed on the table. I was then called to take my seat near her, when a slave covered my lap with an embroidered napkin, and another gave me a French cambric handkerchief for my mouth.

“The table was completely filled with silver plates, salts, peppers, and within the pickle dishes of gold were glasses of deep cut glass; my spoon, knife and folk were of the same massive silver as the table and dishes, differing only from those of Her Highness in not having, like hers, the handles set with precious stones. My plate was changed with every dish; more than fifty dishes succeeded each other on the table, indeed in such quick succession that there was barely time to taste many of them. I was, however, so pressed by looks and signs, and nods and winks, first to have this, then to have that, that I really felt at last afraid of seeing them.

“Although a knife and fork was by the princess, yet she preferred pulling the meat and fowls to pieces with her fingers (the usual way of eating in this country); but there was nothing uncleanly in the way she did it, and it was performed with the greatest dexterity. As a mark of particular honour, she broke two or three hard-boiled eggs, and laid them on my plate, frequently placing on it also the choicest part of the dish before us. When she partook a second time of any dish, a little bell was rung. Towards the ante-room there were no fewer than three great silver trays, each filled with nine or ten dishes, and as one tray was emptied another took its place. Each tray was supported by three black slaves, richly dressed, who stood like three statues; at the foot of the divan, on each side of the room (the divans range all round the room, except the side where the entrance is), stood young and beautiful girls, also splendidly dressed, with their eyes constantly fixed on their mistress, one holding a fly-chaser, another a censer, a third a cup with water, a fourth a basin and ewer, a fifth a towel worked with gold, and the sixth the little bell before mentioned. Dinner being finished, to my great relief, our hands were washed, her Highness retired to sleep, and I returned to my children.”

Trying to keep her orphanage and schools going, eating such large dinners and travelling through the desert in summer to and from the harem each day for five months wore her out and she fell ill. The Royal family did all they could to make sure she was well cared for. On her return to the harem she again found it difficult to teach the ladies to read for they preferred needlework, fancy work and drawing – just the type of teaching she most disliked. Then a box of fancy work made by the ladies of Tiverton arrived.

The Royal family and their guests inspected all the items with keen interest for these included dolls, books and scientific plates as well as a model of the Thames tunnel for the little princesses. A picture of the British queen fascinated Nazly Hanum who was surprised that Queen Victoria was as yet unmarried and that her power was equal to that of a king. Miss Holliday then had to show the Pasha the contents of that box.

“I was introduced into the apartment, which is splendidly furnished after the French fashion; and here I saw what perhaps no other European female ever beheld, the Pasha Mohammed Ali, standing like one of the patriarchs of old in the midst of his own family. On my entrance he smiled, and asked me how I was, with great condescension. The box was then opened ….. and Nazly Hanum stood in front, presenting the things she thought the most beautiful, the wives at the same time showing him the baby linen. He appeared to look with fond affection on them all. It is well known in Egypt that he is one of the most indulgent of fathers, but I did not expect to see so fond a parent. He is a rather short man, very aged, with a dark sun-burnt, and of course wrinkled visage, a milk-white beard, and eyes black, deep and piercing. He was dressed in the plainest manner, not having the slightest ornament of any description upon his person.”

Late in 1838 Miss Holliday married the Rev Rudolph Theophilus Leider, who had been sent to Egypt by the Church Missionary Society. Although no longer counted as an agent of the SPFEE she continued to send reports to that society and received assistance from it for some of her work. In December she informed the SPFEE that the Pasha had been “extremely affected at the piety and philanthropy of the English ladies composing the Society for the Promotion of Female Education in the East, and recommended H H Nazly Hanum and the princesses of his family to follow their example in his dominion.” She and the SPFEE were the conduit whereby gifts were exchanged between his family and Queen Victoria.

Soon afterwards she was invited into the harem of a very high-ranking Turkish official as his two teenage daughters were so keen to learn how to read and write. She fascinated local teachers with the scientific instruments sent out by the SPFEE and was invited to help set up a school for 150 children. The Pasha was encouraging  boys’ and girls’ schools to be founded – the boys usually had European teachers while the girls were taught needlework and some reading by Turkish women. By 1846 Mrs Lieder could comment: “What a change has been wrought within the last ten years. When I first came to Egypt there was not a woman that could read, and now I have the pleasing gratification of knowing that some hundreds possess this power, and that they have the best of books to read.”

She looked forward, however, to the disappearance of the harem system, as she felt that it was one of the greatest impediments to female education.  She was forced by ill health to stop teaching in the Royal harem in 1841. By then English was not so popular in the Royal court because the Pasha was building an alliance with the French. She was always warmly received by Nazly Hanum but decided to continue quietly with her own work. Her husband died in 1865 and she died in 1868.

Source:   History of The Society for promoting Female Education in the East, published by Edward Suter, London, 1847, pp62-69 and  pp  97-124

I have been fascinated by the stories of  how these women fought against all odds in the nineteenth century to provide girls with a chance to have an education. That’s not surprising because one of my earliest memories is of the wife of the headmaster at my primary school ridiculing my mother for encouraging me to work hard so that I could go to the grammar school like my brothers. “She’ll only get married and have children – it’s a waste to send her,” my mother was told. The reason why I was not suitable material for a grammar school was because I came from a working class family.

The obstacles facing girls in the nineteenth century were much bigger. Florence Nightingale wrote in Cassandra in 1852 : “Why have women passion, intellect, moral activity – these three – and a place in society where no one of the three can be exercised?”

Mary Wollstonecraft in her Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792 wrote that women were raised to be blindly obedient to their menfolk or just to be playthings. For most of the nineteenth century British women were seen as homemakers and as legal minors with no rights regarding their own children. It was not until 1875 that an Act of Parliament was passed allowing women to be admitted to any university.

When the author of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte (born in 1816) was a child she was asked by her father what was the best mode of education for a woman. She answered: “That which would make her rule her house well.” Like many middle class girls her education had started in the home and had been dependent upon her father and his library, as well as either her mother or her aunt teaching her household duties. When she and her sisters were sent to a school for the daughters of Anglican clergy the curriculum included: history, geography, the use of the globes, grammar, writing and arithmetic, plus all kinds of needlework and the nicer kinds of household work.

In Jane Eyre she described a school where girls, after receiving a basic education themselves, moved up to being teachers themselves. She and her sisters became famous writers but initially had to hide their identities under male pseudonyms.

One writer in The English Woman’s Journal in 1858 commented: “Whatever is done women must do it for themselves. If they claim independence of action they must take it with its resultant good or evil.”

The women whose stories I will tell did just that. Whatever education they had managed to obtain in Britain, in Europe or in the USA, they were determined to share with girls in India, Africa and China. The stories of the girls they inspired are equally as fascinating.

One of the first women who dared to try and set up schools for girls in India was Mary Ann Cooke Wilson. She was sent by the British and Foreign School Society in the early 1820s. In India and China many girls were confined to their homes once they reached puberty.

In Hong Kong, once it was under British control, the Chinese feared that educating girls would upset the whole fabric of their society. Life has certainly changed for many women since then – and the women of the Female Education Society played a significant part in bringing about that change.

Those women were, by our standards, a very non-pc (politically correct) lot. They were usually evangelical missionaries who truly believed that their Western culture was the best in the world. It is not surprising that they were often equated with Western imperialism. And as they carried the banner for girls’ education throughout the world they played a significant part in the globalisation of English and of Western culture.

It does now have a beautifully maintained Edwardian rock garden at the west end. When I first came to the village it was almost impossible to move around in the rock garden as it was so full of brambles and nettles. Thankfully Peter and Angela Jauneika found sufficient funding to be able to restore it and it was opened to the public in April 2003. Below: The exterior of the rock garden in early 2002 and how it looked after restoration.  And inside the garden before and after.

From the gateway to the rock garden it is possible to look out across Wensleydale and down what is known locally as Jammy Hill. I have always been fascinated by the painting of James Thompson which hangs in the institute. It shows him at work as a cobbler and clog maker. His home overlooked the hill that now is remembered by his name. In 1891 there were two shoemakers in Aysgarth as well as a butcher, two grocery shops and a postmaster.

The village could still boast a general store with post office and a cheese and wine shop at the end of the 1990s. But then we had what I called the “cheese and wine war” when the owner of the general store decided to go into competition with the shop next door.  Not surprisingly that didn’t help either shop and within a few years both had closed. One has been replaced with an excellent teashop. Below – our cheese and wine wars in the summer of 1998.

James Thompson lived next door to Frank Graham, the illegitimate son of a housekeeper, who had finally come into his inheritance from the Aysgarth landowner who had fathered him. It was Frank Sayer Graham who had the rock garden built as well as his Arts and Crafts inspired house opposite (Heather House). From Jammy Hill one drumlin (a hill created when the glaziers receded at the end of the Ice Age) stands out. The old Douglas Firs on top of it gave Lady Hill at very distinctive shape for many years. It will take time for the young Douglas Firs to be so misshapen. When Frank Graham owned Lady Hill it was an enclosed warren where he bred silver-grey rabbits. In the early 20th century he was still exporting the black furs from the young rabbits to Russia.

He became a major benefactor of St Andrew’s church at Aysgarth in the first decades of the 20th century.  The Anglican church had remained a central feature of village life even though the Dale had witnessed the great spiritual revivals of the 17th Century when the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) opened its first meeting houses and the 18th Century when many responded to John Wesley’s preaching and became Methodists.  There are still two Quaker houses west of the rock garden and the Society of Friend’s burial yard behind them. As there are only a few gravestones at the south end the Wensleydale and Swaledale Monthly Meeting Trusts gave permission for the children of the village to play football in the burial yard.

Opposite the village green and what remains of the village stocks is Hamilton’s Tea Room which offers homemade food each day except on Tuesdays. Or you can walk a bit further east to the George and Dragon.  (All photographs are copyright Pip Land)

The full meeting of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA) on Thursday, January 12, proved to be quite an anti-climax. The big question was – would they decide that the member champion for planning should not sit on the planning committee?

Gary Smith, the YDNPA director of conservation and community, maintained in his Review of the Member Champion Initiative, that there was a clear perception of a conflict of interest especially if the member champion for planning had been directly involved in working with officers and applicants to resolve  planning applications. Mr Smith added: “While it is entirely proper that the member champion for planning should not be constrained to always support the officer recommendations, any time that they do not do so can undermine the perception of their role as Champion of that area.”  Among the key roles of the member champions he listed “To champion the service within the Authority, and to represent and champion the service externally.”  One wonders if the officers want the member champion for planning to rubber stamp whatever they decide. If so that will not help in building good relationships between the Authority and those who live and work in the Yorkshire Dales. The member champion needs to be someone who does fully believe in the objectives of the National Park but at the same time can be a mediator between officers and applicants.  He or she should be prepared to disagree with planning officers so long as the alternative recommendation  is in line with YDNPA ‘s core objectives but also fosters the economic and social well-being of residents.

On Thursday, however, the full authority meeting got nowhere near discussing this interesting subject because the members did not accept the first recommendation in Mr Smith’s report: that to fit in with the new streamlined Authority the number of member champions should be reduced from eight to five. It was proposed that there should be one member champion for sustainable development which would amalgamate those for planning, forward planning and climate change and one for conservation (natural environment, cultural heritage and climate change).

N Yorks County Coun Roger Harrison-Topham commented that the Authority needed Renaissance Men to fill such complicated and diverse roles. Andrew Colley, and others argued that at a time when members needed to be more pro-active in the community  it wasn’t time to cut back on the number of member champions. It was pointed out that these member champions put in a their lot of time on a voluntary basis to fulfil such roles.

South Lakeland Dt Coun Ian McPherson stated: “What I hear is the enthusiasm and commitment of the member champions and it would seem as if we are throwing away a tremendous resource which doesn’t cost us. It enables members to be creative and to think outside the box and bring in fresh ideas.”

But with the debate moving towards accepting the status quo the Chief Executive, David Butterworth, reminded members that as yet they had done little to match the cuts made by the officers since it was announced that the grants to the Authority would be substantially reduced. He felt that the member champion initiative should be brought in line with the new structure of the Authority which now had three directorates rather than six departments.  He challenged the members to recognise and respond to the new financial and economic climate that the Authority was working in.

The Authority chairman, Craven Dt Coun Carl Lis, reproached Mr Colley for asking after Mr Butterworth’s comments: “Are members a mild irritation to officers rather than helping them?  We are here to promote the Park – we are here to support it.”

A very small majority of the members voted against the recommendation to amalgamate some of the member champion roles. There was also a close vote on the recommendation that the new member champion for corporate planning should not be able to sit on the Audit and Review Committee.  Coun Harrison-Topham said it wasn’t necessary to exclude the member champion and so lose so much expertise and knowledge. It would be sufficient, he felt, for the member champion to declare an interest and even leave the room if it was felt there was a conflict of interest. Coun Lis’s vote swung the vote in favour of the officer’s recommendation.

After that it was decided to send all the other recommendations back to the review panel. These included: “The job descriptions for member champions should be clarified and include guidance on how they are expected to carry out their role.”  Several at the meeting hoped that the review panel of four would discuss any recommendations more fully with other members, and especially the member champions, before they were brought back to the full authority for ratification.

Coming of Age?

“We are in our late teens or early 20′s,” Mr Butterworth said when explaining how the YDNPA had “come of age” and now had the expertise and experience to bring the role of Chief Finance Officer “in house”. This role had been fulfilled by a senior officer at North Yorkshire County Council since the YDNPA became independent of the county council in 1997. Members accepted the recommendation to let the YDNPA’s own head of finance take over this role from April this year – a move they were told will save the Authority £9,500 a year.

House for sale in Aysgarth !

It’s been a wonderful home for over 20 years – and when the daffodils are in bloom i Spring and the evening sun highlights the rich features of Wensleydale it is hard to think of selling The Warren in Aysgarth.

Each morning we breakfast in the conservatory surrounded by the panoramic view and cushioned from the sound of traffic on the A684. But the time has come, for family reasons, to think of moving. And so The Warren is up for sale – in the Price Region of £340,000.

So what does it offer for that price – besides the fantastic location in a quiet cul de sac in a quiet village in the heart of Wensleydale? Downstairs I have a sitting room, dining room, a WC, integral garage – and that conservatory. Upstairs there are three double bedrooms and a single bedroom with a magnificent view. I have turned one of the double bedrooms (also with that view) into my office. Once upon a time it was my son’s bedroom and it still has a built in bunk bed and a glass-fronted cabinet which used to be a vivarium. There is a family bathroom and more storage space up in the attic.

Over the years I have had added UPVC double glazed windows and porch door which have helped considerably in conserving heat during the winter. There is also a pond beside the sun trap outside the sitting room window – a great place to eat at lunchtime! There are more details about the house on RightMove and at www.stephensons4property.co.uk – but please note there is no mains gas supply in this part of Wensleydale. Below: The Warren.

When the River Ure is in full spate I can hear the roar of the water over Aysgarth Falls from my home. But it is not easy to get a good photograph of the water storming over the Upper Falls for often it is still raining hard or there is not enough daylight. I struck lucky during the first week in January even if I almost got blown away as I took photographs from the bridge. The rain held off and the sun broke through for a few minutes and I snapped away until my fingers were too cold. I then headed for home only to find, at the top of Church Bank, that there had been a hailstorm and the A684 had a treacherous icy mantle.

I certainly would not have dared to try and take any photographs from under that bridge – as I had done in the summer of 1995. There were even flowers growing among the rocks in the river bed during the drought that year.

There was just a sad trickle of water flowing over the Lower Falls that year – as compared with four years later. I particularly love visiting the Lower Falls when there is a gentle cascade of water rippling over the limestone shelving as in May 2011.

LOCAL REPRESENTATION – A good balance of local representation on the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority must be maintained, members agreed when they discussed the Defra review of governance.

The majority, therefore, voted against restricting membership to eight years because that would undermine local representation. County Coun John Blackie pointed out that both he and County Council Roger Harrison-Topham had already been members for eight years. “That would remove in a stroke any county councillors from North Yorkshire whose constituents are in the Dales. So you would have people coming from (places like) Scarborough. One of the purposes of the government’s review is to engage more with local communities,” he said. Craven Dt Coun Carl Lis, chairman of the Authority, added that the YDNPA would lose members who had an enormous amount of knowledge.

Members agreed with the proposal to abolish the requirement that district and county councils should, if appointing three or more members to a National Park Authority , ensure that there is a political balance. This has led in the past to members being appointed from Scarborough, Selby and York.  But when County Coun Blackie asked if such councils could be directed to assign to the Authority  councillors who had been elected by residents in the National Park Mr Butterworth said that the government would not consider that.

It was agreed that any resident of the National Park, as long as they were not a county or district councillor, should be eligible to be parish members. At present this is restricted to serving parish councillors and chairmen of parish meetings in the National Park. Richard Daly, the solicitor and monitoring officer, reported that there was a strong view emerging that the National Parks should appoint the parish members rather than the Secretary of State.

NEW PLANNING LAWS – The government’s  new National Planning Policy Framework could invalidate all or part of the YDNPA’s existing local plans the members were warned. Officers noted: “A loss of planning policy would reduce the Authority’s influence in making development decisions and using the Planning system to deliver National Park purposes. For applicants and residents losing the local plans risks inconsistency, delay and additional cost.”

For this reason the Authority is very keen to prepare a new Management Plan and Core Strategy. The Core Strategy should include a 30 year vision for the National Park and could be used for day to day planning application work. The Authority would like to adopt the new strategy by the end of 2014 and the first public consultation period should be between March and May 2012.

N Yorks County Coun Shelagh Marshall asked if the Federation of Small Businesses could also be invited to be represented on the steering group which will oversee the production of the National Park Management Plan. Nine members voted against this proposal with eight being for it.

The Localism Act of 2011 has led to a two tier approach to the examination of development plans. So the YDNPA members had to decide which approach they wanted to submit the new YDNPA Housing Development Plan to. They opted for that in which, if the inspector  found deficiencies in the Plan he could recommend changes. The other option – for the inspector to determine only whether the plan was sound or not – could lead to it being sent right back to the consultation stage.

BOUNDARY EXTENSION  – Members questioned the statistics provided by Natural England to support its claim that the consultation responses showed a large majority in favour of including Orton Fells in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. It was pointed out that the 57 objectors included two county councils and three district councils, all of which represented hundreds of residents. As these councils had objected there would have to be an  public enquiry. David Butterworth, CEO, said that the Authority would object on the basis of the cost of the National Park boundary extensions. He said he would ask for detailed costs.

According to the financial formula applied to National Parks the YDNPA would receive an additional £750,000 a year if the boundary of the park was extended. In the government’s governance review  it had been decided not to cut the number of members of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority as the boundary extension was on the agenda.

FINANCIAL PRIORITIES -  The large cut in the government grant means that the Authority has to accept that instead of looking to improve services it has to decide where to cut back, Gary Smith, the deputy chief executive told the members. This meant that some programmes would suffer through lack of funds. At a members’ forum in November it was agreed that the top priority programmes would be: farm conservation, building conservation, biodiversity, recreational activities, rights of way, sustainable tourism, and climate change which would include restoring degraded peatland, the creation of more woodland, and to support the implementation of at least three hydro-electric schemes by the end of 2012. Those programmes for which the YDNPA will seek to maintain a good level of service will include the Dales Countryside Museum (DCM), green lanes, volunteers, archaeology, countryside skills and training, national park centres, outreach, toilets and web-based services. Car parks, open access, the Pennine Bridleway and retail will be on the lowest tier of priorities. In the debate about the DCM Mr Butterworth said that the Authority could not now go ahead with the major re-development scheme which had been planned for the museum. Instead there would be just small scale improvements using existing resources.

William Weston warned that the museum project was teetering on the edge. He argued that there was a need for a vision and strategy even if there were limited funds.

For more information see http://www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/index/nationalparkauthority/authoritycommittees/authority/authority-dec2011.htm

Austwick – A decision about the proposed conversion of Townhead Barn into a 24-bed bunk barn was referred back to the December meeting because in November  the majority of members had voted against the officer’s recommendation that the application should be refused. Peter Charlesworth said that the parish council (which had continued to strongly object to the application) should be supported . He added that he did not feel the applicant had  produced  a sufficient management scheme as it did not provide for a resident manager. N Yorks County Coun Richard Welch, however, argued that as the building was on the Pennine Bridleway it was ideal for a bunk barn. This time seven members voted to refuse the application, with six wanting to see it go ahead.

Bolton Abbey – Courting rituals and a touch of a “Passage to India” brought some light relief to a long day  when members discussed the proposed changes to the Cavendish Pavilion at Bolton Abbey and the temporary use of the gatehouse as a café while those alterations were being made. Craven Dt Coun John Roberts described the pavilion as an iconic building to which he had regularly walked his future wife when they were courting. There was laughter when N Yorks County Coun Roger Harrison-Topham said that the pavilion had powerful echoes of the British Raj. Such a building, he inferred, should be dark inside and have fans to cool customers down. There is little natural light inside the  Pavilion at present and the application includes the replacement of half of the windows along the front with glazed panels. After an objection from the parish council the plans were amended to retain the black timber uprights. As the building had been substantially changed since it was built in 1898 the members accepted the officer’s recommendation to approve what were described as relatively modest alterations to the Pavilion.

Linton – The agent for the Fountaine Inn at Linton told members that it was understandable that they had turned down an application to convert the barn behind the inn into hotel rooms. The Planning Inspectorate had, however, only dismissed the appeal because there wasn’t a S106 agreement to tie the barn to the inn. The planning committee had agreed with the parish council and residents that the development would cause car parking and access problems in Linton. This, however, could no longer be the basis for refusal following the decision of the planning inspector. The new application was approved subject to a S106 agreement to tie the barn to the inn, to restrict the accommodation to just bedrooms with en suites and to control signage.

Threshfield – The committee very quickly approved the application for a new fire station and drill tower at the former council yard in Threshfield.  Richmondshire Dt Coun Malcolm Gardner commented about the old fire station that he was surprised that the retained firefighters had been willing to use such a shambles of a shack for so long. This did not meet health and safety requirements nor did it provide the necessary facilities. Threshfield parish council had asked if the height of the new building could be reduced. The planning officer reported that following negotiations the roof height had been reduced but this had to be dictated by the need to house and maintain a fire appliance.

Kettlewell – Members agreed with officers that an enforcement notice should be issued to ensure that no scrap metal items were left for collection on the land opposite the water works at Kettlewell. The members also want the hard standing removed and the verge re-instated. Yorkshire Water could apply to use the verge on a temporary basis whenever necessary.

Malham – Approval was given for formal enforcement action to be taken to stop the use of Prior Hall at Malham being used as two separate dwellings.

Caravan site in Swaledale – I must have heard that wrong. Did the planning officer say that the touring caravans would be located in the “red light area”? Almost certainly not as he then pointed to the red line outlining the area.  David Thompson, on his debut performance at the planning committee was explaining that the owners of Swaleview Caravan Park wanted two conditions removed from a planning permission so as to allow seasonal use of all 30 touring caravan pitches. Like Hudswell parish council and the CPRE in Swaledale,  N Yorks County Coun John Blackie and other members  were particularly concerned that if there were not sufficient safeguards the short-stay touring pitches could be lost. It was therefore agreed that some of the conditions should be supported with S106 agreements to ensure that caravans on the touring pitches would not become residential accommodation.

Reeth – It was agreed that there should be a site meeting at Mill Hill in Reeth at 11am on Friday, January 20. The planning application is for one house with integral garage and one separate double garage to be built on garden land.

There was clapping and cheering at the meeting on Tuesday, December 13 when members  of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority ( YDNPA ) approved the sale of 72a Main Street and adjoining open space at Sedbergh to the White Knights Consortium. This should ensure the future of Sedbergh Community Office and Sedbergh History Society.

The White Knights is a local  consortium which had bid £80,000 on a “not for profit” basis. It will hold the property and open space in trust for the town for up to four years so that the Sedbergh and District Community Development Heritage Trust has more time to raise the money.  If the community cannot not raise £80,000 the ownership would then be transferred to Sedbergh Parish Councill to be sold on the own market so that the White Knights can be repaid.

One of the conditions agreed by the Authority was that if there was any profit from selling on the open market 50 per cent would be given to the YDNPA. The rest would be donated to the community of Sedbergh. Some Authority members asked how the YDNPA could sell for £30,000 to £50,000 less than it might have got on the open market.

The YDNPA had budgeted for £130,000 at a time when it  needed the money to cover staff salaries and other costs.  “I don’t know where that money can be found – it is looking rather bleak,” said Authority member Ann  Brooks. She added: “I urge the people of Sedbergh to repay (the White Knights) as quickly as possible.”

Richmondshire Dt Coun Stuart Parsons, who proposed the acceptance of the White Knights offer, pointed out that the expected open market price of the building had dropped in the last few years  from £192,500 to £110,000 by October. “There is no guarantee we would get £110,000 now,” he said. He added that the relationship between the Authority and the community of Sedbergh could be further damaged if the sale didn’t go ahead and that could take years to repair. “That is too high a price to pay,” he commented.

David Butterworth, the chief executive, recommended that the Authority should accept the White Knights offer.  In his report he noted that the Authority had no further use for the building and had decided to sell it. But even when the price was reduced there were no offers for it except that from the White Knights for £60,000 which had been subsequently increased to £80,000.

He told members: “I have been hugely impressed and somewhat humbled by the responses I have received not just from Sedbergh but from other parts of Britain and the world. The majority have been thoughtful and considerate.” He described Mark Westwood of the White Knights Consortium as a man of honour and integrity who had worked well with Richard Burnett of the YDNPA. And he hoped that the sale of the building to the White Knights would lead to a positive relationship between the YDNPA and the community of Sedbergh.

As the Authority had been assured that the building and open space would continue to contribute towards the promotion and improvement of the economic, social and environmental being of  part of the National Park it could, under a general consent from the Secretary of State, sell these at less than £110,000. By selling to the White Knights the future of the Community Office and the History Society could be safeguarded. The Community Office provides an information service in that part of the National Park and the open space is seen as an important aspect of the Sedbergh townscape initiative.

The YDNPA has discussed what to do with 72a Main Street many times in the last 10 years.  Coun Hilary Hodge, chairman of Sedbergh Parish Council, commented:  “It’s often been said that Sedbergh never gets its act together. We now have very wide community support for what we are doing.” She added that the YDNPA officers had been superb and had played a key part in creating  a route map for the future of the building and the open space.

The councillors listed several issues which the Authority had not responded to quickly enough and  Coun Jane Huntington told him: “We do protest, we do bring things up at an early stage in the planning process but it still doesn’t happen.”  One of these was the way two new houses had been constructed in Thornton Rust and for which an enforcement notice has now been issued. It was pointed out that nothing had yet been done to comply with that notice and Coun Lis commented: “We will keep pushing – it is now very high profile.”

Coun Robert Walker wondered if sometimes problems occurred due to insufficient training. This, he believed, had led to a house in Thoralby being constructed which was totally out of place in a Dales village, especially as it was within the curtilage of a listed building.

Coun Huntington asked why the Authority did not follow up properly when it gave planning permissions to ensure that all conditions were met. “The houses should be inspected and signed off on,” added Coun Brian McGregor.

The issue of inconsistencies in planning permission especially with regard to the colour of window frames and the use of uPVc was raised by Coun Walker. He felt that uPVc double glazing should be allowed in new buildings. Coun Lis said he was aware that on occasions there were inconsistencies but the Authority was trying to overcome this by ensuring that the teams of planning officers covering the northern and southern sections of the Park regularly met to discuss issues.

He then raised his own concerns about the plight of those living in listed buildings. He wondered how they could encourage manufacturers to produce double glazed units that would be accepted in such buildings. “You are condemning those in listed buildings to be cold,” he said.  Coun McGregor replied that manufacturers would make such windows if they knew they would be used. Coun Lis commented that now (after the November meeting of the YDNPA planning committee) it was no longer a matter of the thickness of the double glazing but the reflections from the windows. He added that this was, however, a matter for the Secretary of State.

The parish councillors were also concerned about any changes in the interpretation of the YDNPA’s housing policy.  Coun Huntington said that any proposed changes should be put out for public consultation first.

Coun Lis assured the councillors that the YDNPA did take the views of parish councils seriously. Although the majority of planning decisions were now being made by officers under delegated powers an application would be referred to the planning committee if a parish council disagreed with an officer’s recommendation. The other way that applications can be called in was at the request of a planning committee member. Coun Lis added that in Wensleydale the local communities had an extremely powerful voice in County Coun John Blackie.

Coun Lis told the councillors that the Authority wanted to improve communications with parish councils. But with the cuts in staff following the reduction in the Authority’s grants members like himself had agreed that they would visit parish councils.

He assured Aysgarth and District parish council that he would follow up on the planning issues that had been raised and report back.

He was asked if the YDNPA will receive more funds from the government if its boundaries are extended. He replied that they expected to get an additional £750,000 a year of which about 70 per cent would be used to employ more staff. He commented that it was interesting that the total grants to all the National Parks in England was about £48 million compared to the £40 million given to the National Theatre.

ARC News service – In the past few months the YDNPA planning committee has discussed the issue of introducing solar panels and how to conserve heat in listed buildings that have 18th and 19th century windows :

Preston under Scar (above) overlooks Wensleydale but is just outside the Yorkshire Dales National Park and that has enabled several households to invest in solar energy. Even though the YDNPA planning committee has now approved the installation of 40 solar panels on the roof of the Authority’s office in Bainbridge it looks as if it will still be difficult for many households in the National Park to follow this “example of good practice”. (See September  2011 decisions)

The YDNPA will argue that solar panels can’t be installed where they are very visible and so might affect the enjoyment of those visiting the National Park. The first article I ever had published concerning life in the National Park (in February 1991) was about solar panels after the YDNPA refused permission for some to be installed on the roof of a farmhouse. The Authority argued it would set a precedent which would have a harmful effect on the character of the area.

When I look at Preston under Scar I am encouraged that so many are able to enjoy green, sustainable power and certainly don’t feel that the panels distract from the beauty of the area. And as N Yorks County Coun John Blackie said when the YDNPA planning committee approved its own panels – what’s good for the goose is good for the gander!

I noticed that YDNPA planning officers, using designated powers, had in the past two months approved three applications for solar panels in the National Park. One of those applications was from Askrigg primary school but no details  are available on the YDNPA website.

At the YDNPA November planning committee meeting members accepted the officers’ recommendation that 18th and 19th century windows at Spen House at Askrigg could not be replaced with double glazed units even though that house is losing so much of its heat.  (At the October meeting the majority of the members voted in favour of installing double glazing.)  Carl Lis, the chairman of the YDNPA, said: “I can’t believe that in this day and age we can’t produce double glazing windows that would satisfy all requirements.” And Coun John Blackie reported that the John Wood almshouses at St John’s Hospital in Bath had become the first Grade I listed buildings in England to be allowed to install 11mm double glazed windows as energy conservation and warmth had become a priority.

At the annual general meeting of ARC in November the association’s chairman, Alastair Dinsdale, pointed out that Spen House overlooks the YDNPA’s office at Bainbridge. He said that this building was criticised by many residents as not being in keeping with the built landscape around it. Visitors and residents were far more aware of the glare from the windscreens of the cars in the large YDNPA car park than of the difference in glare from old and new panes of glass at Spen House, he added.  Coun John Roberts’ comment about the need for consistency in planning as regards the windows in listed buildings was noted.

A sad ending for a very special lady! On Sunday, July 17, David and I were on our way to the classic car rally at Newby Hall and looking forward to meeting our Mercedes-Benz club friends when we were hit by another car. Thankfully David, who is an observer/trainer with the Northallerton branch of the Institute of Advanced Motorists, had spotted the danger and taken evasive action otherwise we, and the other driver, would have been very badly hurt. Even so we were very badly battered and bruised and both cars have been written off.

The Mercedes 280SL had been David’s pride and joy for many years and been a very enjoyable car to drive, especially in summer with the top down. We are very grateful to those who helped us that Sunday – including the doctor who came with the Great North Air Ambulance who even gave Raq, David’s elderly blind dog, a check up before handing him over to the capable hands of our friend Margaret. Our thanks also to the staff of  Lowes Breakdown and Recovery Ltd at Brompton on Swale who were so helpful whenever we visited their storage yard to collect items from the SL afterwards.  Below: That lovely lady before July 17.

Comments after the “crash”:  “What a pity for the old lady but she was clearly made of stern stuff  and saved you from far worse!” and “Gosh – what a good advert for the strength of Mercedes cars!”  Below: The crash created an interesting piece of wheel sculpture!

Before the crash David had two Mercedes – the 280SL and 300SE. Afterwards he went to Gasoline Alley at Bingley – a place we had spotted when on our canal holiday in October 2010 – and traded in the 300SE for a Mercedes 124 320E Cabriolet. He does love convertibles but didn’t feel he could ever replace the 280SL he had lost. So we went to the RAF Leeming Families Day on July 30 in the Cabriolet. For two battered and bruised people it was a very comfortable car. And it was great to meet up with many of the friends we had missed seeing on July 17. Below – I did manage to take some photographs at RAF Leeming. In the final photo are: Trevor Henman with (from right) Ciaran Carrighan and his nephews Richard and Patrick Henman.

Kettlewell campsite: The planning officer left the members of the YDNPA planning committee in no doubt about how they should vote when they reconsidered the planning application to create a new camping site at Kettlewell. At the October meeting they had voted by a narrow margin to approve the site but this had to be ratified.

In her report the planning officer  reminded them of the two purposes of a National Park: to conserve and enhance the landscape and to promote opportunities for people to come and understand and enjoy its special qualities. If there was a conflict between these two then the Authority should apply the Sandford Principle: to attach greater weight to the purpose of conserving and enhancing the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the National Park.

She stated that the development of the proposed camping site “would interrupt the ancient field pattern to the south of Kettlewell to the extent that the landscape quality for a wide area is severely compromised.”  And she added: “..the duty towards the economic well-being of Kettlewell cannot be used to justify development at the expense of conserving and enhancing the natural beauty of the landscape.” She concluded that the proposal would amount to a significant and permanent landscape detractor. And if that wasn’t enough she added that if the members granted permission the matter would be referred to the Secretary of State as a departure from the Authority’s adopted policy. That has very  rarely been stated in an officer’s report.

The chairman of the committee, Graham Dalton, explained that this planning application had split the community of Kettlewell and he gave a summary of the arguments for and against.

For: There was a need in the vicinity of Kettlewell to provide a camp site for Duke of Edinburgh participants, Dales Way walkers, cyclists, young people and families. Camping was the cheapest way to come and enjoy the Dales – and the Authority had a duty to promote the enjoyment of the National Park for everyone. The applicants had provided a management plan and offered a tree planting scheme. And he added about the sustainability of Kettlewell “The money which the campers bring in goes into the shops and the pubs and the income supports the working population and in turn the working population provides the children for the school and so you have the virtuous circle of sustainability”.

Against: The proposed site was very open and set within a landscape that was famous both nationally and internationally. The application did not meet many of the conditions that the YDNPA had formulated for campsites – that the impact upon the landscape should be minimal; there should be appropriate  screening of the site at the time of the application; and that it should be close to residential buildings. As this campsite was not  close to the village it could not be monitored all the time. He again reminded members of the Sandford Principle.

As compared to last month the majority of the members voted to accept the officer’s recommendation and refuse the application. County Coun John Blackie, however, said he had not changed his view that the site should be approved.  He felt that the sustainability of Kettlewell was an important material consideration and that the impact upon the landscape would not be so significant especially as campers did not leave  irreparable marks upon a field.

Spen House, Askrigg: The officers were just as forceful about the application to make alterations at Spen House. This is a listed building. And Coun Roberts repeated that the YDNPA needed to be consistent with its decisions. Officers explained that to replace 18th and 19th Century windows with double glazed units would be contrary to government policy regarding the preservation of listed buildings.

Mr Richard Middleton, the applicant, had offered to donate the windows with cylinder glass to the YDNPA. But during the debate an officer said that it would not be acceptable to replace them with even the slimmest double glazed units available as that would still make a significant change to the windows.

Carl Lis, who is the chairman of the Authority, commented: “I can’t believe that in this day and age we can’t produce double glazing windows that would satisfy all requirements.” Several committee members obviously felt that the emphasis should be on energy conservation these days.

When asked why the owners of some listed buildings had been allowed to install double glazed units an officer explained that the windows that had been replaced were not (as at Spen House) the originals but dated from the 20th century. The majority of the members accepted the officers’ recommendation and voted against giving planning permission.

Austwick – Officers recommended that an application to convert a disused barn at Austwick into a bunkbarn which would accommodate up to 24 people should be refused because it would not be supervised 24/7. This was supported by the parish council which was concerned that any large groups staying there could be involved in anti-social behaviour.

The applicant, Mr Taylor, told the committee that the bunk barn would mainly be used by horse riders and supervised groups of scouts and school children. Coun Richard Welch commented: “This makes good use of a disused barn and I think (this application) deserves a chance.”  Other members agreed that Mr Taylor should be given an opportunity to resolve the issue of supervision. There was therefore a majority vote in favour of approving the application but this will have to be ratified at the December meeting.

The Shetty, Gayle - The “local needs criteria” applied to this building in 1991 included clauses to ensure that only someone living within 10 miles of the house could move into it. The owner argued that this had made it difficult to sell and had asked for the S106 agreement to be removed . Such clauses are not included in “local needs” agreements now.  The majority of the members and accepted that the restriction  should be removed.

Arcow Quarry near Horton in Ribblesdale . – Tarmac Ltd was given permission to continue extracting stone from Arcow Quarry for another three and a half years. And it was understood that Tarmac may apply for an additional 10 years. This will mean that instead of work finishing at the quarry by the end of this year and the restoration of the site being completed by December 2012, Tarmac will continue extracting Silurian gritsone (greywacke) until 2025.

About 45 people and organisations had objected to there being any extension, including the Campaign for National Parks, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, the Yorkshire Dales Society, the Ramblers Association and the vice-president of the European Parliament, Edward McMillan-Scott, MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber. In his letter to the YDNPA Mr McMillan-Scott stated that Tarmac had made it clear it had long term intentions to continue operating and that by approving the application for a three and a half year extension it would be difficult to resist that.

Natural England, however, did not object as the extraction of stone during the next three and a half years would not generate new impacts upon the environment. It was accepted that the continued use of heavy goods vehicles would have an impact. One of the conditions of the new agreement is that the road haulage level will be reduced next year (to 250,000 tonnes in any 12 months). The YDNPA would like to see a railway siding created which would mean a further reduction in road haulage.

At the meeting N Yorks County Coun Richard Welch made an impassioned plea for the continued use of the quarry. He compared the employment situation in the area to a three-legged stool which depended upon farming, tourism and quarrying. “If one leg is removed it will fall down,” he said.

Committee member Chris Armitage, like many of the objectors, reminded the committee that this quarry, like others near Horton in Ribblesdale, were in a National Park. “I get the feeling we are being taken for a bit of a ride as the applicants are already thinking of applying for another 10 year extension.”

Several objectors said that to approve the application would be contrary to both government and the YDNPA’s policies and that the continued extraction of stone would cause further harm to the landscape and the areas around the quarry. Settle Town Coun  Steve Amphlett had pointed out that there were 400 lorry movements a day from the local quarries  through the centre of the town. He described this as a blight on the town and wrote “400 lorries a day do not make for an attractive, safe and friendly town!”

The basis of Tarmac’s application was that it had not been able to extract as much as permitted in the past eight years due to the economic recession and geological stability problems. By the end of this year about 875,000 tonnes of permitted reserves would remain unworked.Arcow is one of the three quarries in the Yorkshire Dales supplying high performance aggregate for use in road surfacing.

Kettlewell . – The YDNPA planning committee on Tuesday heard how opinion in Kettlewell was divided about the application to replace a camp site off Conistone Road with a new one in a field nearby. Craven Dt Coun John Roberts said that 14 residents had objected to the application and there had been 21 letters in support of it. He added that the sustainability of villages like Kettlewell depended upon being able to provide many different forms of tourist accommodation and the campsites were an important part of that, particularly for the Duke of Edinburgh Award expeditions. As a resident of Kettlewell he abstained from voting.

Peter Charlesworth commented that the main problem with the proposed new location was that it would be so prominent in what was a “chocolate box view” landscape. “I could not conceive of a more inappropriate site,” he said.

The planning officer had noted that the application did not fit the criteria in the Local Plan for the creation of a tented camp site. She stated: “The introduction of a camp site into this field would seriously interrupt the character of upper Wharfedale and have a significant adverse impact on the setting of Kettlewell.” Not only was the site not screened sufficiently at present but it would not be possible to do so.

Nigel Lambert, the son of the applicants, explained that his parents were retiring at the end of October and the two camping sites they had run for many years would be closed. He wanted to move back to Kettlewell with his family and run the new campsite. The application included the conversion and alteration of an existing agricultural building to provide facilities for campers and an office which he would use to supervise the site. “We want to provide proper facilities including for the disabled,” he said. He added that he wanted to run the site professionally and that it would be open from Easter to October each year.

N Yorks County Coun John Blackie described how the campsite at Hardraw in Wensleydale had grown in popularity in the past few years and this had led to increased trade for the local pub and other businesses. “Campsites bring young people into the Dales  – and they will come back in the future.” Harold Brown agreed with him that the provision of camp sites brought prosperity to Dales’ villages.

Six of the members voted against the officer’s recommendation that the application should be refused. Five voted for her recommendation and there were two abstentions. This means that the decision to approve the application needs to be ratified at the November meeting.

Kettlewell enforcement notices. – The committee agreed that enforcement action could be taken to secure the removal of two unauthorised hard standings which had been created beside Kettlewell Beck as these had an unacceptable impact upon the character and appearance of the conservation area.  The Authority was concerned that if action was not taken other residents would create hardstandings for their vehicles on what was an important open space consisting of verges and green areas.

Burnsall . – The committee decided to defer a decision on an application for solar panels on a barn which is part of listed group of farm buildings at Oat Croft, Burnsall so that there could be a site visit. The electricity generated would be for the grade II listed farmhouse close to the barn. Burnsall parish meeting had unanimously supported the  proposal to install 21 photovoltaic solar panels especially as these would not be seen from the front of the barn.

The planning officer, however, recommended refusal because she felt that the introduction of so many solar panels on a traditional stone slate roof would seriously detract from the character and appearance of such a traditional group of buildings and the area around them. She had suggested that either the solar panels could be on ground mounted panels or installed on the roof of a nearby modern agricultural building.

The agent for the applicants, Mrs Jacobs, said that livestock was kept on the land around the farmhouse and the agricultural building was too far away from it. She did suggest that darker, more unobtrusive solar panels could be installed. The YDNPA’s member champion for climate change, William Weston, proposed that the application should be accepted even though he recognised that it would be a definitive decision as it affected a group of historic buildings. He also asked if darker panels could be used.

Some of the other members felt it was very important to protect the appearance of such an attractive group of traditional buildings and wanted to see for themselves if there was an alternative solution.

Reeth. – “After 16 or 17 amendments I think we have got a suitable development which I can support,” commented committee member Malcolm Gardner, when the application for the construction of a three-bedroomed house on land to the rear of Metcalfe’s Farm at Reeth was discussed. Coun Richard Welch said he had been very impressed by the plans when he attended the site meeting. He added that if he had not attended the site meeting  he would have voted against the proposal. The majority of the members voted to grant permission for the new house.

Spen House, Skelgill Lane, Askrigg. – Craven Dt Coun John  Roberts reminded the planning committee that it needed to be consistent in its decisions when the application concerning Spen House, a grade II listed building, was discussed. The owner of the house, farmer Mr Middleton wants to replace 10 sliding sash wooden single glazed windows with sliding sash wooden double glazed ones. Three of the windows of the house, which is on an isolated and exposed site above Askrigg, have already been boarded up because the frames had deteriorated so badly. But replacing windows with double glazed units would mean the loss of several with cylinder and plate glazed panels which, the planning officer argued, were part of the historic fabric of the building.

Coun Roberts pointed out that the YDNPA had refused permission for windows at Scar House at Hubberholme (a National Trust property) and at West Sale Park, Kettlewell, to replace such windows with double glazed units – and those buildings are also in very high, exposed locations. The planning officer had suggested alternatives to wooden double glazed units which included secondary glazing, insulation blinds or internal shutters. Mr Middleton told the committee that it would cost £500 extra per window to install secondary glazing.

Askrigg Parish Council supported his application because of the isolated and exposed nature of the site ensured that the work was necessary and there would be no impact on the surrounding properties. The committee decided to defer a decision until they had seen an example of the type of double glazed window that Mr Middleton wanted to install at Spen House.

West Witton – enforcement notice . – The committee agreed that enforcement action could be taken to stop what has become the “Chantry Country Retreat” making unauthorised use of a field on the far east side of the caravan site.

At the YDNPA planning committee meeting on September 13 the Association of Rural Communities (ARC) was assured by the Authority that the rules for planning applications will be tightened up. At the meeting the Association’s chairman, Alastair Dinsdale, asked the following question: “In these days of computer graphics and in light of the arguments made at the appeal hearing concerning the new houses at Thornton Rust Hall, surely it is time for the YDNPA to insist that all building plans submitted for planning permission should only be accepted if they are “to scale” and are clearly marked with the datum point and the finished height.”

In response the chairman of the planning committee, Graham Dalton, said that at the October meeting members would be asked to approve a report from officers stating that all building plans should show the existing height levels and finished floor levels with levels relating to a fixed datum point off the site. They should also show the proposals in relation to adjoining buildings.

Mr Dinsdale had attended a hearing in August following an appeal against an enforcement notice after the roofs of two houses in Thornton Rust in Wensleydale had not been lowered. He was very concerned about how the appellants’ representatives had argued that the height of the building could not be questioned not only because of the lack of a datum point on the plans but also because these were stamped “Do not Scale”. In his appeal decision, the inspector David Pinner, stated : “The appeal on this ground is based on the lack of notation on the approved plan to indicate the existing ground level or the proposed height of the building.” He did conclude that the development was unacceptable and upheld the YDNPA enforcement notice that the roofs should be removed and lowered, giving the appellants nine months to comply with the order.

County Coun John Blackie said that Hawes and High Abbotside Parish Council had also made representations to the YDNPA planning department once it had realised that the height of a new building at the Wensleydale Creamery would make it very dominant. On the plans for that the height had not been given. He agreed that the YDNPA needed a new protocol and that it should insist that the datum point and height must be shown on building plans. “I applaud what ARC is doing because we do need that information,” he said.

Solar panels at the YDNPA‘s Bainbridge office -

The YDNPA planning committee voted unanimously to allow the Authority to install 40 photovoltaic panels on the south facing roof of its office in Bainbridge – a move which County Coun John Blackie said will open the door for many more households in the Yorkshire Dales to have solar panels.

He pointed out after the meeting that he knew of several instances recently where the Authority’s planning officers had advised that people could not install solar panels on buildings where the permitted development rights had been removed. He asked at the planning committee if the permitted development rights for the YDNPA office had been removed but did not receive an answer. “I will suggest that people put in planning applications and I will call them to the committee and remind it that ‘what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander’,” he said.

On Tuesday he reminded the committee that it was only two to three years ago that the Authority was involved with what he called the “Carperby Affair” when a resident was told to remove one solar panel from the roof of her house.  “I am only just warning planning officers that once we have it on our buildings it will be used as an example for others.”

William Weston, the Authority’s member champion for climate change, congratulated the planning officers who had worked so hard to find dark solar panels which would be less visible.

(In the past few months, under designated powers,  planning officers gave permission for the following: photovoltaic panels on an existing farm building roof at Wharfe House Farm, Hartlington; installation  of 16 ground mounted solar photovoltaic panels at Hurries Farm, Otterburn ; and for solar panels to be installed at Askrigg primary school. )

Grassington and the problem of large milk tankers -

The family dairy business of David Oversby in Grassington has become so successful that the owners have had to find a new route for milk tankers. At present about 30 heavy goods vehicles pass through Grassington’s Main Street and along Chapel Street each day due to Town Head Farm having expanded in the past 15 years to a 25,000L dairy capacity. This has often caused severe congestion in the Main Street it was reported at the YDNPA planning committee meeting.

Chapel Street is so narrow that some residents could open a window and touch the milk tankers. One of the residents, Laura Shuckburgh, said she had a young son and added: “It is a safety issue for me – my door opens straight out onto Chapel Street.” She described how pedestrians had to squeeze into doorways if they met a milk tanker when walking along that street.

Bob Hargreaves also lives in Chapel Street. He had provided the committee with photographs of how close the tankers came to the houses and said: “Can you imagine the noise levels, obstruction, pollution from the exhaust experienced by residents every day.”  His photographs also illustrated the subsidence which had occurred due to the heavy traffic. The houses in Chapel Street do not have foundations and some have suffered damage.  He added that the street was part of the Dalesway and so many walkers make use it.

Other residents asked the planning committee to defer a decision until the parish council had held a site meeting with the county council’s highways department. They want an extension of a 30mph speed limit and a stop sign to be agreed before the route was altered. Those arguing for deferment included planning committee member Andrew Colley  – who then left the meeting after declaring an interest. He and his wife run a bed and breakfast business along the new route.

David Oversby, of Town Head Farm, had applied to demolish a barn at the entrance to the farm so that large vehicles could turn into Bull Ing Lane rather than Chapel Street. He has agreed to create two rather one passenger refuges along Bull Ing Lane following a request from the parish council. He also needed permission from the YDNPA to alter the junction of Bull Ing Lane with Grass Wood Lane so that there was better visibility and large vehicles could turn left.

The committee decided not to defer a decision and voted unanimously in favour of these proposed changes. County Coun John Blackie suggested that residents should raise a petition if they wanted the highways department to alter speed limits.

Malham -

The  YDNPA planning committee voted unanimously in favour of the officer’s recommendation that the section 106 agreement on Hall Close in Peart Lane, Malham should not be altered from a rural workers occupancy restriction to a local occupancy restriction.

The parish council had asked the planning committee to stick to the rules and regulations. The planning officer reported that the applicants had not followed the Authority’s adopted advertising procedure for selling such a house and so had not adequately demonstrated that there was no demand for a rural based worker’s dwelling in the locality.

Dry Rigg Quarry, Helwith Bridge – Even though many objectors attended the meeting Lafarge was given permission to continue extracting “gritstone” (dark grey siltstones) from Dry Rigg Quarry for another ten years – as long as it signs a legal agreement to halve the amount it sends out  by road by the end of 2013 and carries out an extensive restoration scheme.  Extraction work will be carried out by deepening the present quarry site.

In his report to the YDNPA planning committee the planning officer, David Parish, stated that although the quarry supplied a high performance aggregate used for road surfacing this was not considered to constitute a “national need”. Such extraction  work is not allowed in National Parks except in exceptional circumstances and the Campaign to Protect Rural England stated: “Quarrying within this National Park seriously comprises the Authority’s remit to conserve and enhance the natural beauty of the countryside and its wildlife.” At a site meeting in July Lafarge stated that there were only three sites in the Yorkshire Dales and two in Cumbria which supplied rock to such a high specification.

Natural England supports the restoration scheme and those at the site meeting were able to see the pilot project which had produced an alkaline fen with the characteristics of the local SSSI and where 26 different species of breeding birds had been seen. This, Lafarge argued, showed that the whole quarry area could be restored. The company must undertake and fully fund the monitoring work, after-care and management of the land for 20 years after the site has been restored.

The YDNPA received 52 responses when it advertised Lafarge’s application and the majority of these pointed out the adverse impact that the heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) had on Ribblesdale and Settle. It was felt that this and the quarrying did undermine tourism and other industries in the area. Some local residents could now see parts of the quarry as the screening bunds had sunk into the bog. Mr Parrish stated that the scar created by the quarrying of the hillside below Moughton Nab was visible to walkers over a wide area.

Lafarge was keen to use rail haulage but it was proving difficult to put a rail head at the site without affecting an SSSI. It would require the assistance of the YDNPA and Network Rail to get a rail link in place. The YDNPA planning committee insisted on the amount being brought out by HGVs being cut by late 2013 to encourage Lafarge to create a rail link.

Barth Bridge, Gawthrop, Dent – A majority of the YDNPA planning committee members accepted the advice of the enforcement officer that the platform which had been constructed in a field west of Barth Bridge by Dr J Ashton  must be removed. On occasions since September 2010 a yurt (a large, light coloured circular tent) had been positioned on this platform. In June 2011 two tents, portable toilets and other equipment had been seen in the field. The enforcement officer informed the committee that the unauthorised use of the land as a recreational campsite had this year exceeded the 28 days allowed under permitted development rights. The enforcement notice includes the cessation of the use of the land as a recreational campsite, the removal of the tents and toilets, and the restoration of the site to a green field. Dr Ashton’s retrospective application for planning permission for the new field track in that field was approved subject to conditions.

The Old Slaughter House, Horton-in-Ribblesdale – The need for affordable housing in the Dales was one of the main reasons why the planning committee accepted the officer’s recommendation to grant permission for three dwellings to be built at The Old Slaughter House. This will be subject to a S106 agreement restricting the occupancy of the dwellings to persons meeting the YDNPA’s local needs criteria and conditions. Horton-in-Ribblesdale parish council had opposed the application as it was felt that the two three-bedroomed houses and one two-bedroomed house would be an over-development of the constricted site and added: “The development is unsympathetic and detrimental to this sensitive site and the adjoining listed buildings.” The parish councillors were also concerned that there would be inadequate parking provision and had grave concerns about potential flooding and pollution of the beck. There were no objections from the  Environment Agency, Yorkshire Water Services Ltd or United Utilities.

Reeth – It was agreed to hold a site meeting on September 23 on the land at the rear of Metcalfe’s Farm in Reeth. The planning officer has recommended that the application to build one three-bedroomed house there should be refused. The application will be discussed at the October meeting of the planning committee.

Bruntacres Trading Estate, Hawes – As GTEC Training Ltd had refused to change the colour of the reconstituted stone that it planned to clad its training centre on Bruntacres Trading Estate the YDNPA planning committee refused permission for such stone to be used. In the original planning permission it was stated that natural stone should be used but the company had pointed out that this would be very expensive. At the July meeting the committee saw a photograph of the sample panel of the proposed reconstituted stone and agreed with the parish council and residents that this would be too stark and too bright, particularly on a large building which overlooked nearby housing.

The parish council was very concerned that a planning officer had without consultation allowed GTEC Training Ltd to enlarge the building by three feet in width and by one feet and three inches in height from that approved by the planning committee last September. The parish council and some residents had made it very clear that they were concerned about the scale and massing of the building. The YDNPA had advised the parish council that the planning officer had granted this “minor amendment” a matter of days before she had left the employment of the Authority

Planning appeals – It was announced that the planning inspectorate had dismissed the appeal against the YDNPA’s refusal to give full planning permission for the conversion and extension of an existing outbuilding to create a three bedroomed dwelling at Coles House in Askrigg – the former home of the late Marie Hartley.  (See Planning decisions October 2010)

It was agreed that Coun John Blackie would attend the appeal hearing on August 16 as the YDNPA member champion for planning as well as a North Yorkshire County Councillor. The owner of the new houses in the Outgang at Thornton Rust has appealed against the enforcement notice concerning the non-compliance with the approved plans and conditions when the dwellings were built. Coun Blackie said he wanted to support to the planning officers at this hearing. The chairman of the committee, Graham Dalton commented that this appeal was of interest to those who built according to the plans they submitted as well as to those who didn’t. “Those who don’t shouldn’t in the end get away with it,” he added. The hearing on August 16 is at the YDNPA office (Yoredale) in Bainbridge.

Reeth -The request by the planning officer to defer a decision regarding planning permission to erect one three-bedroom house to the rear of Metcalfe’s Farm at Reeth was accepted by the committee. The officer explained that another set of amended plans had been received since he had recommended refusal on the grounds that the new house would have an overbearing impact upon adjoining properties including loss of privacy.  Coun John Blackie had asked for the decision to be made by the planning committee because over the past few months five different sets of plans had been submitted. “I am aware that there have been differences of professional opinion at Planning Officer level,” he told the committee. He emphasised the need for a site meeting before a decision was made. Richmondshire Dt Coun Malcolm Gardner agreed with him and added that the site and the differing levels on it  should be accurately measured. The majority of the committee members felt that the applicant must submit his final set of plans before a site meeting was held.

Hawes – The majority of committee members agreed with the planning officer that reconstituted stone blocks could be used instead of natural stone for the external cladding on the renewable technology centre being constructed for GTEC Training Ltd at the Bruntacres Trading Estate in Hawes – but asked that they should be in a darker colour than that used for  the sample panel of stonework.  The original planning permission included a condition that local natural stone should be used.  GTEC argued that this would not match the existing adjacent buildings on the trading estate. County Coun Roger Harrison-Topham commented that it did not seem right to impose the financial penalty of using expensive natural stone when other buildings on the trading estate had been clad with cheaper reconstituted stone blocks. The majority of members agreed that the original planning condition could be changed as long as the reconstituted stone blocks were closer in colour to the houses  and walls outside of the trading estate so that this dominant building would make less impact upon the surrounding landscape.

Horton in Ribblesdale – Permission was granted for the extension of the campsite at Horton in Ribblesdale and improvements to the existing toilet and shower facilities. The committee agreed to this on the basis that a S106 agreement was signed that required the implementation of the measures set out in a management plan. These included keeping the campsite and the toilet and shower facilities clean; no food to be sold on site to campers;  no playing of loud music; and providing sufficient parking spaces so that campers could be discouraged from leaving cars on the roadside outside. Local residents accepted that the campsite was beneficial to the local economy but wanted it to be better managed.  The committee members asked how these measures could be enforced and the planning officer assured them that the YDNPA could do this once the S106 agreement had been signed.

The committee agreed that a site meeting should be held at the Old Slaughter House in Horton in Ribblesdale following the application to build a terrace of three houses there. The parish council had objected to this application partly because it was felt this would be a significant over development of a constricted site. The planning officer recommended approval subject to a S106 agreement restricting occupancy to those who met the Authority’s local needs criteria. An application to build three houses on the site was refused in January 2011 and one of the reasons given was that there was no evidence for “local need”.

ELITISM AND EMPIRE BUILDING

The National Parks were set up to protect their natural beauty, to promote visitors coming to them, and to have consideration for the social and economic welfare of those living in them. It was the natural beauty and promote the freedom of walking over the open fells, and over those special mountain areas, that they were created for.

Everything went quite well when the National Parks were administered by the county councils, although there was some criticism that the old rural district councils were too parochial. But when the new park authorities were created in 1974, they started to take unto themselves responsibilities, including planning, that the national parks initially had not been set up to administer. They started to want to control so much and they rather lost sight of what they were really supposed to do.

The YDNPA does have a good warden and tree planting service and these are very important.  It has done quite well at promoting tourism in the National Park. But these functions were usurped from the County Council’s countryside service, from the Forestry Commission, and from the old Tourist Boards. On the other hand, the YDNPA has been poor at looking after the landscape and very, very slow to get involved in helping the agricultural businesses that managed the landscape – the hill farms. They are not really involved now. They try and assist in form filling, helping landowners to get special grants that Defra administers. But Defra could fulfil that function itself if it set its mind to it.

When I started in 1975 the National Park didn’t have planning policies. The principle was that unless a planning application was wrong and you could find valid reasons for refusing it, you would have to allow it. But then the YDNPA, particularly the officers, got so elitist that it lost track of social and economic welfare, and it lost sight of promoting enjoyment of the area, rather it wanted to control tourism. It thought it was protecting the countryside by controlling the villages and the towns – and it wasn’t. It was just making itself very unpopular.

In 1984 I became the agricultural officer and was involved in the design of farm buildings in the dales at a time when there were generous grants from MAFF, which preceded DEFRA. It wasn’t a question of saying No to buildings – but rather of saying how we can get nice looking buildings that fulfill their purpose and that fit in. And that really did usually work – except when elitism came in. At that time stock numbers were growing and the farmers needed more accommodation for their animals during the winter. We developed some wonderful buildings that did just that for the farmers. A case that caused me the greatest concern was a farm in Yockenthwaite where the farmer wanted a sheep house. The farm is quite prominent in a special, picturesque place. With the farmer, the ADAS Officer and I designed a wide span sheep house. The farmer was quite happy to put a base stone wall along the side that was visible across the valley and to ensure that it nestled into the hillside, with a dark brown roof and Yorkshire boarding above the base wall so the building would have natural ventilation for the sheep. But elitism within the YDNPA really did rise up. Senior officers and the committee said it was in such as special place that the building ought to be entirely of stone. You cannot build sheep houses in stone because they don’t breath. Put more than three animals in during the winter and stock get pneumonia. So the farmer got a pretty stone building that was useless for sheep.

The elitism at the YDNPA crushed me after a while. Over the 22 years I spent there it became less and less of an Authority listening to the community and working with the community – and more of a controlling body. The elitism and empire building within the YDNPA was especially evident when the Authority proposed making Swaledale a Conservation Area because, it said, this was the only way get national funding to preserve barns and walls. Residents were assured that designation would not include anything else. But the day after the Conservation Area was introduced farmers found it did cover everything else, including felling trees. The YDNPA brought in everything that could be controlled in a Conservation Area under its remit. It had acquired additional controls by stealth. I was appalled.

COMPARING NATIONAL PARKS AND DISTRICT COUNCILS

As a planning authority a National Park is completely devoid of all the other functions that a responsible District Council administers. Any council outside of a National Park has to take into account the matters of  building control, of environmental health, of pollution. of economic development, and most importantly local councils are housing authorities for their areas, which a National Park is not. The YDNPA always seemed to work on the basis that only if there was no conservation harm could an application be permitted. But in an AONB, the District Council has to establish conservation harm before it can be against a scheme. In each case the same question is being considered, but from two completely different standpoints.

The culture of the YDNPA is conservation focused. A significant proportion of the members are appointed on the basis of their conservation expertise – not economic development or social welfare. The appointed members have no responsibility to the local communities. You don’t get that in a District Council. District Councillors are not automatically conservation focused but they do want to protect that which they think is special. They have more leeway.

During 13 years at Harrogate I found it a far more healthy, respectful body that was making decisions – and by and large very good decisions. There is more local integrity in Nidderdale AONB than in the  YDNP because the latter has been penetrated by the wealthy who expect the YDNPA to protect the value of their capital assets. There is quite a different culture in a District council’s consideration of its AONB. The elitism displayed by officers and members of the YDNPA doesn’t exist. In an AONB planning issues are decided upon taking a whole gamut of other issues into account. Councils like Craven, Richmondshire and South Lakeland are protecting their areas outside the National Park. They don’t believe they are there to create a perfect world. They are careful to encourage tourism and businesses – and are mindful that it is the businesses that keep the places profitable. It is the businesses that create a local society that is profitable, healthy and developing. The area develops socially and culturally as there are working people living there. In the AONB there are less holiday cottages and empty properties. You will find that rural district councils are very good at managing the countryside as well as the towns and villages. Good examples are the Lune and Eden valleys, and round Richmondshire and Craven, areas which are not even AONBs, so that the farming community can look after its countryside and the villages can grow and develop.

At Harrogate I found that the decisions made were far more balanced. There were no strong rural pressure groups and the decisions were made by consensus of councilors representing both urban and rural wards. The objectives in an AONB  – to protect the specialness of the area – are little different to the objectives of a National Park.  But whereas AONBs are administered by District Councils National Parks are autonomous Unitary Authorities.

BOUNDARY EXTENSIONS

So what of the proposed National Park boundary extensions?  I have never quite understood why the boundary of the Yorkshire Dales National Park is where it is. It is an anomaly that areas like the Howgills are not in the National Park nor been designated an AONB. That said, the original National Parks were the first of areas to be protected, mountain and hill areas, wild and remote. Some time later as the pressure for controls grew, so the AONBs were designated, the second or a lesser grade of natural beauty.

The proposed new areas including the Lune Valley must be a third grade of natural beauty, way down the list of areas to be protected. They are neither a first tier mountain or hill area, nor a second tier AONB. Attractive the proposed extension areas may be, but they are not generally of the quality of natural beauty of a National Park. On the one hand to add the proposed extensions to the National Park would dilute the specialness of the natural beauty of the existing National Park.

The Lune and Eden Valleys will lose their identity if they are incorporated into what is now the YDNPA. They still have very strong local ties with what was Cumberland and Westmorland looking  to Kendal and Appleby – not to an office in Bainbridge in Yorkshire to which they have absolutely no link or tie. If incorporated in to the YDNP, matters of housing provision, building control, environmental health, economic development would still remain the remit of the district councils, but planning decisions would be a National Park matter.  Who would represent the interests of the areas?  The YDNPA would have to expand in staff and in costs to administer areas a long way from its administrative centre and to deal with matters presently more effectively and efficiently carried out by the District Councils.  If it could be proved either that the District Councils have been so incompetent at administering their areas, or that the residents unanimously believed being a part of the National Park would be their magic bullet, I might just consider an extension of the National Park boundary.  One has to question, as Natural England is forced to shrink, is it hopeful it can pass its functions to another like minded conservation centred body?

Mike Warden

UNDEMOCRATIC

Personally, as a resident of Yorkshire Dales all my life and a member of the authority since 1996 and Chairman for the year 2008/9 I have little doubt that inclusion in the National Park has been harmful for the communities of Sedbergh, Garsdale and Dent, all of which I have represented since 1997. Fundamentally this harm stems from the inherently undemocratic nature of the authority. Yorkshire Dales is not worse than the other National Park Authorities – it is much better than several. But, the lack of direct electoral input results in an authority which exercises democratic functions over an area without any legitimacy. There is little surprise therefore that compared with the district and county authorities which serve their areas National Parks perform poorly.

LOSS OF IDENTITY

It is a fundamental weakness of most English National Parks that they sit in marginal land areas between settled communities. This is as true for Exmoor and the Lake District as it is for Yorkshire Dales. Thus whilst to outsiders “The Yorkshire Dales” appears as an entity it is in fact three distinct communities – Swaledale and Wensleydale looking towards Leyburn and Richmond; Wharfedale looking towards Skipton and Leeds; and Sedbergh and Dent looking towards Kendal and Lancaster. These distinct communities clearly interact but have little in common. It would be fair to say that the area which you designate “YD West” looks towards Kendal and Lancaster but the Northern search areas look more to Penrith and Carlisle. Certainly neither look towards Bainbridge or Grassington.Thus there is an immediate incongruity in linking these areas with “The Yorkshire Dales”. How much more is this imbalance exacerbated by the distinction of name. You will have seen the visceral opposition which has been engendered within the existing Yorkshire Dales by the suggestion that a more neutral name, either “The Dales NPA” or “Yorkshire and Westmorland Dales NPA” could be adopted. I shudder to think what the reaction would be to “Westmorland and Yorkshire Dales NPA”.

BIASED QUESTIONNAIRE

In your methodology you have made little serious attempt to engage with the communities concerned. It is unfortunate that the presentations from Natural England have been so completely one-sided and that you have failed to invite platform speakers who could give a cogent dissenting view. This in spite of the fact that many such people can be found. Regrettably you have relied on public meetings and responses to a biased questionnaire. In polling terms these cannot produce an accurate response and for a government body their use is a scandal.

IMPACT ON FARMERS

It has been asserted at public meetings that inclusion within the Yorkshire Dales will be beneficial for the farming industry. It is suggested that somehow the farming industry benefits from particular grants for farming within a National Park. That is self-evidently wrong. As a farmer in the Yorkshire Dales I have never been entitled to any grant which I would not have been entitled to farming the same land outside the park. It is dishonest to suggest otherwise. The only farmers which I know of who are within YDNP schemes are in the Ingleborough area and those schemes are dependent upon the special conservation area status of the land concerned. National Park designation is not relevant. The vast majority of farmers within YDNP receive no extra payments for being within the National Park and will not do in the future either. I understand the relevant officer of YDNP fully accepts that this is the case. I understand also that he objected to the relevant passage within the draft documentation. It is unfortunate that you chose to disregard his correction.

As a subordinate body under DEFRA I believe you have a duty to do a regulatory impact assessment to determine what effect designation would have on an agricultural business. You seem not to have done this. If you have which farms have you selected for the assessment ? My experience suggests that being within a National Park has a detrimental effect on most agricultural businesses. Whilst on the face of it the planning process is not materially different for agricultural buildings the experience of several of my constituents is that planning officers make the process difficult and sometimes there is little way forward without the intervention of members.

BUILDING CONSERVATION

It might be supposed that with specialist conservation staff a National Park would perform well on conservation of historic buildings. Whilst for the main part the archaeological staff and Building Conservation Officers have a sound generalist understanding of their subjects they lack specialist knowledge of the vernacular architecture of either the current National Park or the areas which surround it. This is my area of expertise and I have found the reports of planning officers and building conservation officers shocking in their gratuitous ignorance. There can be little confidence that protection of the built environment will be enhanced by inclusion within a National Park.

WIND FARMS

It is suggested that designation will prevent undesirable applications being approved on the open fells. It is not clear as to what exactly National Park status is intended to protect the area from. National conservation policy has changed markedly since the 1949 Act and national planning guidance effectively outlaws such development for the most part. As there could be little change on the open fells I must assume that the targets for this protection are either wind farms or other activities in the valley floors which are currently taking place lawfully. The proponents, even when directly challenged refuse to make clear what developments they wish to resist. I am sceptical as to whether NPA designation can make any difference to the wind farm issue. Certainly it ought not to as you have already claimed the land in question is of high landscape value by instigating this consultation. However, until a more rational approach is adopted on renewable energy the threat of wind farms will plague all of South Lakeland. All that further designation could do would be to concentrate the same number of wind farms in a narrower corridor between the two National Parks.

FARMING IN THE LUNE VALLEY

Virtually all of the land within the present YDNP is either “Disadvantaged” or “Severely Disadvantaged”. However, below Middleton Head the quality of the valley floor land improves dramatically. Much of the enclosed land within Middleton, Barbon and Casterton is extremely productive. The first cut of silage is generally complete in those areas by the end of May. Sedbergh is about a month later and Dent another month later still. It is indicative of your initial research that the report does not mention this fact. Travelling from Kirkby Lonsdale through the area of search and through the present YDNP no land of similar quality is encountered again until beyond Leyburn – beyond the National Park. Onerous as being within the park has been for farmers in Sedbergh and Dent this would be much more harmful to the highly productive farms of the Lune valley, many of which will not be eligible for the new Upland Stewardship scheme. I know of several farmers within Casterton and Barbon who have erected very large buildings in the last couple of years in order to remain competitive. It is their fear that a National Park would obstruct their future development plans. My experience as an NPA member supports their view.

NATIONAL PARK MEMBERSHIP

Another issue of great concern is membership of the National Park Authority. Historically there were 26 members and that number balanced up the three districts well. I note with concern the suggestion that the new authority could continue to operate with 22 members. In fact 26 are needed to represent the present area and a further four at least would be needed if all the proposed areas were to be included. Selection of Secretary of State Members would also have to be adjusted. At present Natural England appears to favour retirees from urban areas with virtually no understanding of the current Yorkshire Dales let alone the Lune valley. It seems that certain national charities such as the Campaign For National Parks promote candidates for vacancies to the disadvantage of genuine local candidates.

ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO PROTECT SPECIAL LANDSCAPES

It is to be regretted that your report does not consider alternatives to designation as part of a National Park. The whole of the suggested western extension is along with Sedbergh, Garsdale and Dent part of the historic entity of Lonsdale – Kirkby Lonsdale, Middleton in Lonsdale and Sedbergh in Lonsdale. This is a natural collection which dates back beyond the Conquest. In 1086 they comprised the very last entry in the Domesday Book. I would advocate that YD West should become an AONB (Area of Natural Beauty). “The Upper Lonsdale AONB”, “South Westmorland AONB” are all names which are suggested. At many public meetings where your proposals received an extremely hostile reception this suggestion was on the contrary welcomed.

DISRUPTIVE

Designation of a major part of its area as National Park would be extremely disruptive to South Lakeland. Its LDF and employment land policies would all have to be substantially re-written. It is understandable that residents of South Lakeland outside the two National Parks are extremely concerned that development will have to be squeezed within their areas.

Barden Fell: The Trustees of the Chatsworth Settlement had applied for full planning permission to upgrade a moorland track and create a new one running alongside a dry stone wall to link with two existing tracks on Barden Fell between Wharfedale and W Nidderdale. This was to provide vehicular access to manage livestock and to carry out moorland management and gamekeeping activities. The tracks would be used by four-wheeled vehicles and tractors. It was argued that the benefit of the work carried out would outweigh the negative impact upon this SAC (Special Area of Conservation) and SSSI. Natural England, however objected on the basis that 0.3 hectares of dry dwarf shrub heath habitat would be lost, and some more damaged. The trustees had suggested ways to mitigate this. The planning committee decided to defer making a decision.

Chapel le Dale:  The committee also deferred making a decision on the application from the Cam Woodland Trust to upgrade a section of an existing track and create a transhipping area for the storage and loading of timber at the entrance of Far Gearstones Farm, Chapel le Dale. This would be a temporary measure for 12 months to bring out windblown timber from Cam Wood, where the Sitka Spruce planted in 1968 and 1969 is now fully mature. The Trust has the right to use the Cam High Road as it owns land adjacent to it, but the timber would be taken along this ancient road by tractor and trailer.

Hawes: The committee confirmed its decision at the May meeting to give retrospective planning permission for the air source heating unit at Steppe Haugh in Hawes (see the May report).

Ribblehead : The committee agreed that enforcement action should be taken to secure the removal of an unauthorised shelter at the Station Inn, Ribblehead. The owner has denied that it was a “smoking shed” but was for those sheltering from the elements while waiting for busses and trains. Both the planning and enforcement officers reported that the shelter had an unacceptable impact upon a simple, traditional building.

At the funeral service in December the Rev Penny Yeadon told those who did get there that the core of Mrs  Shuttleworth’s life had been her faith in Jesus. This has been evident in her calling to be a nurse in inner city hospitals, in the way she assisted at her husband’s medical practice, the communities she lived in, and as a homemaker.

She was born at Whitley Bay in Tyneside in 1917 but, as her son Keith explained, the family moved to Rothbury in Northumberland while she was still young because her father had to take early retirement from the ship yards due to ill health. She enjoyed the open countryside as well as taking part in sports and the Guiding movement.

During the war, after qualifying as a nurse, she transferred to the Liverpool Royal Hospital where she met Dr Bill Shuttleworth. He was born in Coventry and grew up in Wales.  “The romance soon blossomed completely contrary to hospital regulations which would not countenance such a scandal,” said Mr Shuttleworth. They were married at Rothbury in 1943 and not long after that Dr Shuttleworth joined the RAMC.

While he was away his wife moved back to Rothbury to live near her parents. On his return in 1947 he joined a medical practice at in the large mining village of Witton Park, Bishop Auckland. Mr Shuttleworth told those at the funeral:”With the establishment of the NHS in 1948 the practice grew as did the size of the twice daily surgeries. Mother helped to relieve the pressure by acting as receptionist, dispensing medicines and performing nursing tasks.”

By 1954 she also had four sons to care for but all that did not stop her having her own interests. She joined the Women’s Institute and the St John’s Ambulance as well as helping with Meals on Wheels. But her main interest was the church at which she was a Sunday school teacher and a member of the Mothers’ Union and the choir. She also occasionally played the organ.

Dr Shuttleworth’s annual two weeks leave gave them the opportunity to take caravan holidays in Scotland, Ireland and Scandinavia – and also in Walden near Leyburn. This led to their buying a house in West Burton in the 1960s and to which they retired in 1975. They joined Aysgarth church and became choir members. Mrs Shuttleworth was the choir leader for 16 years and especially encouraged the junior members. She was the church organist for a few years after Madge Blades retired.

Retirement provided them with an opportunity to expand their love of classical music by learning to play the violin and cello and they joined the Wensleydale Philarmonic Orchestra. They sang with Aysgarth Choral Society for many years and were instrumental in the formation of a local recorded music club. Her continuing love of sport led to her becoming a lady member of the Yorkshire County Cricket Club, and to buying a wide-screen plasma TV recently so she could enjoy watching cricket, tennis and snooker matches.

Mr Shuttleworth thanked all the neighbours and friends who had helped his parents in the past few years, and had supported his mother after Dr Shuttleworth died in 2009. He also thanked those who had cleared the driveway to the church on the day of the funeral.

EXCERPTS FROM THE REV SUE WHITEHOUSE’S ADDRESS ON MAY 15:  She began by reading the pilgrim journey of the Church as described in a prayer by George Appleton, one time Bishop of Jerusalem.

“For over 90 years the church’s (pilgrim) journey was also Eileen’s, and for a good part of that time within the fellowship of St Andrew’s church.

“The early Christians devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers. Eileen’s own spirituality was sustained by receiving communion and by her daily prayers and Bible reading. Gathering together for worship was important to her – she was faithful in her attendance at Sunday and weekday services. There was a steely determination about Eileen. It was because of Eileen that the midnight Christmas communion service about 12 years ago actually took place. It was a night of dreadful storms. She and Bill had had to negotiate a fallen tree on their way out of West Burton. They arrived to find no electricity at church. Eileen made her way in the pitch black to the vestry to find some candles. When I arrived from Redmire the church was in candlelight and ready for what was to be a memorable service.

“Hospitality – reflecting God’s welcome to each of us – has always been a hallmark of Christianity. Eileen and Bill’s home was a place of welcome. Meals with friends; larger gatherings to celebrate important birthdays or anniversaries; choir parties – especially enjoyed by the younger members with their good old-fashioned party games; and shared meals for Christmas and Easter. It was generous and sensitive hospitality.

“And there were the glad hearts in the early church – and I think that above all Eileen’s life showed such a gladness and gratitude to God for all his faithfulness and his gifts to her. She rejoiced in her family – Bill, their four sons, their daughters-in-law, grandchildren and great grandchildren. ”

She said that Eileen accepted the gift of life from God and lived it to the full – enjoying the opportunities presented to her and sharing with others her gifts and interests. And continued:

“When someone dies we look back over past years with mixed emotions – gratitude, grief, regret, laughter, nostalgia – thoughts too deep for words. But then (we remember) we are a pilgrim people – a pilgrim church. Eileen, in her earthly life, showed how following the good shepherd led to growth and development in her relationship with God and in her understanding of Him. Jesus’ promise is now fulfilled in her: that He came to live, to die and rise again, that we might have life and have it abundantly. As we as individuals and as His church continue on our earthly journey we pray that we may hear the Good Shepherd call us, by name, and be ready to follow him wherever he leads that we too may grow and develop as people and as His church.”

The memorial service  provided an opportunity to remember both Eileen and Bill Shuttleworth (Left: at their diamond wedding celebration) The following is from my report about the Shuttleworth’s  Golden wedding celebrations in September 2003:

Dr Shuttleworth told all those who attended the celebration at West Burton village hall that so much in his life, including his 25 years as a GP in Barnard Castle, would not have been possible without Eileen. Along with raising their four sons (Keith, Hugh, Philip and Paul) she had been the general practice nurse, receptionist and dispenser at that surgery. She was also the nursing officer with the local St John’s Ambulance Brigade for many years.

It was when she was working as a probationer nurse at a hospital in Liverpool that they met. Their eyes twinkled mischievously as they spoke of their clandestine romance. “The nurses weren’t supposed to fraternise with the doctors. We were very discreet but we did get teased,” she said. They spent their honeymoon in Scotland “feasting on the fat of the land” as Dr Shuttleworth recalled. “We ate grouse, venison and salmon and then had to go back to strict rationing.”

In 1945 he joined the Royal Army Medical Corp for two years seeing his wife only occasionally in her small cottage near Rothbury. “There was no electricity. There were oil lamps and an outside toilet,” she recalled. Her father sent in a snow plough to get her out during the winter of 1947, just two weeks before her second son was born. So she was very pleased when Captain Shuttleworth was demobbed.

It was in 1965 that they bought a holiday home in West Burton and began singing with Aysgarth church choir. By the time they retired and moved to West Burton they had been singing with the church choir in Witton Park for 25 years. They said their love of classical music and working together had kept them close. “It has been a very satisfying and happy marriage,” commented Mrs Shuttleworth.  Her husband added: “We just hit it off together and we helped one another. We needed each other.” Both had a deep Christian faith but in all their years of attending church services they  rarely sat together because of their choir duties. They notched up another 25 years of choir singing with Aysgarth church choir!

Town Head, Hawes – A couple in Hawes found a 21st century solution to heating their 17th century house – only to have their air source heat pump described as an ugly intrusion to the town’s roofscape and be threatened with enforcement if it wasn’t removed. The YDNPA planning committee did not, however, accept the officer’s recommendation.

Margaret Grattan told the YDNPA planning committee on Tuesday, May 10: “We believe in the present climate everyone must do their best for the environment and the community that we live in.” So she and her husband  wanted an alterative to a central heating system which used oil – a non renewable fossil fuel. They were advised by the manufacturers and installers that for their house, which has no loft space, the best location for an air source heat pump was on the small section of flat roof which overlooked the A684 near the garage in Hawes. This section is protected on three sides by other roofs. The unit has provided sufficient heating for the Grattan’s house for over a year.

N Yorks County Coun John Blackie pointed out that all 15 of their neighbours had written in support of their retrospective application, many of whom hadn’t even known where the unit was until the YDNPA planning officer recommended refusal. Coun Blackie did not take part in the debate at the parish council meeting. The parish council subsequently wrote to the YDNPA to support the Grattan’s application and stated:

“Councillors were alarmed to hear that the Chief Executive of the YDNPA had written to the local MP, Mr Hague, enclosing some zoomed photographs which gave an inaccurate impression of the visual appearance of the heat source unit in the overall street scene, along with his comment ‘I think the photographs speak for themselves.’ They felt that as Chief Officer ultimately responsible for the decisions of the Planning Service, he should have remained impartial until the application has been decided, and the bias he has shown against it at this stage was most unfortunate.”

At the April planning committee it was decided to hold a site meeting at the Grattan’s home. At the May meeting several members of the committee said that the unit was just one more piece of “roof top detritus” in a town full of TV aerials, satellite dishes and wires as well as the large garage signs nearby. They did not feel that the unit was that obvious and believed that if it was moved to the southern elevation it would have an unsightly impact upon the 17th century aspect of that row of houses as well as disturbing some of the neighbours due to the noise it made.

Coun Blackie was among those who did not believe it would set a precedent especially as very  few residents would be able to copy exactly what the Grattans had done. Mrs Grattan reminded the committee that small scale energy developments were decided on a case by case basis.

The majority of the members decided not to accept the planning officer’s recommendations that not only should the application be refused but that if the air source heat pump was not relocated to the southern elevation within three months of the committee’s decision then enforcement action would be commenced. The planning officer was asked to discuss with the Grattans if it was possible to paint the unit to make it less obvious. This decision will, therefore, be discussed again at the June meeting.

Raybridge Lane, Gargrave – The majority of the members of the planning committee also decided not to accept the recommendation of a planning officer to refuse an application for the erection of a two storey extension to Raybridge House. A site meeting was held there in April.

Mrs Joyce Varley explained that the extension would provide a bigger kitchen as well as a defence against flooding. The house had been flooded twice since 1992 with water gaining access through a door. The new door would be set higher and would not be facing towards the source of the water when there was flooding.

The planning officer stated that the extension would dominate the existing building and would result in the loss of the traditional style frontage. It was pointed out by some members that it was not clear what was the historical frontage of the house, and the “traditional style” one referred to had been created in the 1930s. The owners did intend to use some of the interesting older stonework in the extension.  This “frontage” is not that visible from the minor road adjoining the property.

Andrew Colley said that the main view of the house was from the Leeds Liverpool Canal and that had been spoilt by the addition of a conservatory for which the YDNPA had granted permission in 1995. It was decided that as the majority of members voted to approve the Varley’s application and there were no conditions to be attached, this decision would not need to be referred back to the May meeting.

Dry Rigg Quarry, Helwith Bridge

David Parrish, the YDNPA minerals officer, reported that the existing planning permission for quarrying at Dry Rigg would expire on May 31 2011. He recommended that the company should be given additional time to negotiate the details of the planning application made in January this year to extend mineral working at the quarry until December 2021.

He reported that consultees and local residents had raised further issues relating to the transport of material from the site including the use of rail haulage; the protection of Swarth Moor SSSI; and landscaping and restoration. A full report should be made to the planning committee no later than the September meeting.

Enforcement notices

Thornton Rust Hall cottages – The committee was informed that the appeal hearing regarding the enforcement notices on the cottages in the Outgang at Thornton Rust had been set for August 16 but the owner had requested that there should be an appeal inquiry.