Rosedale
Abbey

This coming Saturday’s coffee morning is in aid of the Save Rosedale Abbey Church Appeal and will held in the Coach House Inn between 10.00 and 12.00 am.

All the usual attractions will be on offer, including a cake sale, the ever popular raffle and great coffee and biscuits to chat over while supporting this very important cause. So please come along, all are welcome and enjoy the morning in good company.

On Saturday 23 June 2018 Rosedale’s Updale Natural History Recorder took 11 keen walkers along a journey through the dale visiting various habitats.  Walking alongside hedgerows full of dog rose and walls lined with foxgloves and ferns was a real pleasure.  The route included the river to Low Thorgill Farm, Thorgill and the hillside above Thorgill and the track north of Thorgill.

The banks of the River Seven hosted numerous birds nests including wren, robin, coal tit and dipper.  Trees and shrubs alongside added nests of great spotted woodpecker, blackcap, nuthatch, redstart and green woodpecker.  Further afield were willow warbler and chaffinch.  All but one nest had already hosted a brood this year and were no longer in use or were last year’s.  They gave a great insight in to bird breeding in the dale.  A pair of green woodpeckers were still feeding young in their nest hole high up in an ash tree alongside the river and the group were very lucky to watch one of the young peering out of the hole.  A spotted flycatcher performed what they do best, flitting out from a branch, taking an insect in mid-air and returning to the same perch.  Over the moor a red kite soared high and curlews gave protecting warning calls to their young.

The group visited habitats which favoured some less common flora.  Wet flushes revealed musk, creeping forgetmenot and round-leaved water crowfoot.  Unimproved acidic pasture hosted our locally rare heath spotted orchid (just the one), bitter vetchling, heath speedwell and heath bedstraw.  Close to the moor there was the delicate looking but robust chickweed wintergreen.  Both trailing and slender St John’s wort was encountered on a dry trackside leading up to the moor.  Three sedges included yellow, oval and remote.

It was good to see ringlet, common blue and small heath butterflies but none in great numbers despite the warm weather.

It was a pleasure to lead such an engaging and interested group Updale Natural History Recorder

The first of the combined Rosedale walking and heritage festival went well, with good weather on both days for the walkers and lots of visitors to the Rosedale History Society and Land of Iron heritage information stands. The combined format was a great success, with a lot of very positive feedback from walkers and visitors, such that the final number for this year’s event are around 121 walkers or 50% more than last year, a great tribute to the tireless efforts of Kate Jones and Ian Thompson in organising and promoting the event, to all those who volunteered their time and expertise as walk leaders and to the Rosedale History Society and the Land Of Iron project for their fascinating stands. Watch out for details of the 2019 festival!

Rosedale gets weekend buses

On Saturdays and Sundays until the end of September Moorsbus connects Rosedale with the rest of the world.

Not only can visitors from the region get to Rosedale Abbey for its walks, tea rooms, accommodation and other attractions, but Rosedale residents can get to Pickering to connect with other services.

Five services on Saturdays make it possible for locals to get to Scarborough for over a four hour visit. And four services on Sundays connect with Pickering as well as giving locals a direct morning service to Ralph Cross and Danby.

Using the bus also gives locals and visitors some great choices of ‘Buswalks’ – linear walks which save both the cost and problems of taking a car to the start of a walk, and then having to get back to the car at the end.

Fares for an all-day, travel-anywhere Moorsbus Rover ticket are £9 or £4.50 for a child. Single fares are also available and Rosedale to the Moors Centre at Danby costs £3, for example. National concessionary passes are accepted on all Moorsbuses. All the details are on www.moorsbus.org or pick up a timetable in shops and libraries.

So this summer, Rosedale is better connected than ever.

A band of volunteers were at work in Rosedale Abbey on Friday 15 June, helping to clear one of the fields near the campsite of thistles in order to improve biodiversity in the area.

If you are interested in joining in this important work, learning new skills and meeting other like minded volunteers, then see: http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/looking-after/volunteering

You may recall here in late March a female nuthatch preparing an old woodpecker nest hole to use as her own. On 26th March she was seen taking mud to the old woodpecker hole and applying it in and around the entrance. She also carried wood chips which she stuck in the mud to help bulk it out. She does this to reduce the size of the entrance to minimise the risk of predation or another bird taking over the nest site. Twice a great tit was seen going in only to be chased out very aggressively by the male nuthatch. The male, distinguished by chestnut red flanks, keeps guard during the whole breeding process and will fend off any intruders. During the early stages he sang from just above the nest hole and from the top of the trees. The female continued to ‘mud up’ around the entrance and to watch her size the hole to fit her body exactly was intriguing. She would go in and then squeeze her body out slowly, presumably allowing the wet mud to adjust to her exact body shape.

On two days in April, 14th and 18th they were seen mating on a branch very close to the nest hole. It is not known if she had already started laying eggs by this time. Some birds mate up to 30 days before egg-laying, others just before and some during the egg-laying stage. Nuthatches usually lay 6-8 eggs and the female incubates them after having laid the last egg. Incubation lasts 15-16 days. During this time the male keeps guard and also occasionally feeds her at the nest hole. The female was certainly occupying the nest hole i.e. sitting on eggs, on 27th April when the male was seen to feed her at the nest hole three times at 20 minute intervals. She actually came out to see off a blue tit and went straight back in. Over the incubation period more often he was seen to ‘call for his lady’, peering in the hole and flying off closely followed by her and they would feed away for about 10 minutes before she returned to her duties.

On 12th May the female arrived at the nest hole a number of times with food for her newly hatched nestlings. Each time she was seen to dip down in to the hole and out and away. During these early stages of feeding the young the male wasn’t seen to help but was close by in the trees, occasionally being heard with a contact call or short song. The female occasionally went in the hole completely and brought out a fecal sac for disposal away from the nest, cleaning up after her young. As days passed, the male was also seen to feed the young. Feeding young nuthatches at the nest lasts for 23-25 days.

On 2nd June both adults were feeding at the nest hole and periodically a nestling would appear at the entrance awaiting delivery. Obviously the young were getting big enough to think about leaving. The next day fledging was in progress, with the young being coaxed out by the adults, both having food in their bills. An adult would call at the hole and hold on to the food working back on to a branch with a fledgling following to then receive the morsel. At least four of possibly 6-8 young nuthatches were seen coming out of the nest hole and up the tree trunk flitting about in the branches. The final act was the male entering the hole and exiting alone not to return. All gone. 26th March-3rd June: the privilege was all mine. Nature is wonderful, especially when she lets you in Updale Natural History Recorder

The world renowned artist, Andy Goldsworthy, gave a talk last evening to an audience of over 50 locals and visitors in the Reading Room on his art installations in Northdale.

Andy started with a fascinating resume of some of his works around the world and in Britain, before going into detail on the current installations in Northdale. Two have been completed, the Red Wall near West Northdale Farm and the Fireplace north of Northdale Farm, with two more under way at Job’s Well and in Hangingstone House. He hopes to gain permission to undertake a few more such works with all of them to be connected by a pathway. The whole projected is being funded by the David Ross Foundation, whose Artistic Director, Sophie Clark was present at the talk.

Thanks to the Barraclough family for the use of their field for parking and the the Rosedale History Society for sponsoring the event and providing refreshments

There have been lots of rumours flying around about the Blacksmiths at Hartoft. The situation is that Paul and Scott McNicoll-Cheong have taken out a lease on the property and have started the refurbishment process,  concentrating of sorting out the rooms and recruiting staff, with the intention of starting trading again in mid to late July this year. They intend to run it as a country inn with high quality, locally sourced food and comfortable high grade rooms.

Paul has 20 years experience over a broad spectrum of the hospitality industry and Scott currently runs a hair salon in Glasgow. Initially, Paul will remain on site overseeing the sorting-out of the inn while Scott stays in Glasgow with their two children, aged three and seven, until the end of the school term. Then he will move to Hartoft and the two youngsters will be enrolled in the Rosedale Community School. More detail will be published here as it comes in.

It is good to see the Blacksmiths back on the road to recovery and we wish Paul and Scott the very best in their endeavours.

David Ross and trustees of his foundation visited Rosedale on Tuesday 5 June 2018 to observe progress on the Land of Iron project, to which the Foundation has contributed £300,000. They were briefed in the Reading Room by Tom Mutton, the project manager, before heading out to East Mines on bicycles to see the work that has been done already and to meet volunteers on task on the line.

Just a reminder that the famous artist, Andy Goldsworthy, will be giving a talk on the art works he has been creating in Northdale, in the Updale Reading Room on Wednesday 13 June starting at 7.00pm