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Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
A Friday afternoon in May 2009 took the Forest of Galtres Society to another world. In that world we heard from an expert about sound textures, harmonics, materials, ageing, repair, mathematics and techniques.
Pipe Organs. Those large musical instruments we see and hear, in church or in concert halls. How do they work? Where exactly is the sound formed? What governs the brightness of the sound? How do you mend an organ when it is a hundred years old? How do you repair all the places where the air escapes when it shouldn’t, thus impairing the quality and the strength of the sound, so that it is only a fraction of its former self?
Principal Pipe Organs is a great place for a thorough overhaul, for new gaskets, refurbishment, remade pipes where metal oxidation has caused material collapse, retuning, and rebuilding. Spotted metal – yes, it is spotty when you look at it closely, makes a good tone and continues to be used. Different woods used to make pipes give a different brightness, each carefully chosen to complement the building where the organ resides. The various shapes comprising the pipe mouth all matter considerably to produce a sound with good harmonics and good tone. Here, we were definitely lacking in understanding of the names for the parts of the pipe mouth, so I will desist from putting my foot into it.
We looked at cedar strips one millimetre thick and several metres in length. So whippy, and yet strong and suitable for taking the action from the manuals. For the pedals Mr Coffin showed us two millimetre thick cedar which he uses – better able to withstand the strength of a human foot. We handled the fabric, natural skins or felts, which are used for the windproofing of the pipes and the air containment. Some materials with which we were not familiar, are very soft and supple. Cowhide is thick and strong. Sheep is good, but it and lamb; more delicate, last only half as long as cowhide. Half as long? Fifty years instead of a hundred years. That makes quite a difference, so governing when work next has to be carried out to keep an organ working properly.
Pipe organs still exist dating from the 1400s, but very rarely in Britain due to Oliver Cromwell’s zealous actions. These organs can still be played and they are quite small in comparison with later organs. The casework makes a beautiful visual appearance and setting for the organ pipes, and enables the sound to be presented into the space for which the organ is designed and tuned. The working parts, the bellows and linkages, all fit into the space behind.
Historically, organ action has been through linkages and pneumatic and physical action. More modern action has magnetically controlled stops (really satisfying to use) and predetermined groups of stops can be controlled by pushing just one stop –with much time and effort saved for the organist in a complicated piece!
Geoffrey Coffin showed us such a lot, and told us about what his company does. We handled the materials and blew on pipes and saw how much skill, learned over decades, goes into bringing an old organ back to pristine musical condition – just as full of wind and full of tone as it had been all those decades ago.
All we did not do was hear organ music, but how interesting it was to find out how such complicated instruments work.
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Monday, April 20th, 2009
A lecture about a mineral? Yes. That is what Forest of Galtres Society enjoyed in April 2009 when Janet Walker, one of our members, told us about the beautiful sculptured pieces made from alabaster.
Chellaston in Derbyshire is the village providing the best source of the mineral, which is now no longer extracted. Alabaster gave fame and importance to Chellaston, and the source was worked from the 14th century until it fell from fashion in the mid 17th century. Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire were centres of craftsmanship for carving the alabaster monuments and altarpieces as well as for other elements of interior decoration. I can only show you a monument from Minster Abbey, which I photographed two weeks ago. But if you, my reader, remember that Minster Abbey is on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, and transport was not easy in the late sixteenth century, then the perceived value of alabaster becomes clearer. It was prized, it is easy to work, it can be undercut to create three dimensional shapes, it can be painted in bright colours, and it can be given applied gold leaf decoration. For the idle man equipped with a pocket knife, it is a stone on which to leave one’s name, as grafitti.
Janet Walker took as her subject, English Alabaster Altarpieces. These can now be found in museums such as the Burrell Collection in Glasgow, for in the churches for which they were commissioned by devout patrons, their fate during the Reformation will have been destruction. Fortunately, some excellent examples were hidden to avoid destruction, and others were sold for export to countries in Europe, and there they remain and they can still be appreciated in museums and churches.
Our lecturer showed us examples of exquisite workmanship, and explained the Christian iconography of the saints depicted on the altar panels. We began to recognise the various
symbols that illiterate Christians identified to ‘read’ the stories of Christ’s Passion. As a preparation for Holy Week, these illustrations told us so much about medieval understanding and about the skills and abilities of medieval craftsmen.
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Thursday, November 20th, 2008
Forest of Galtres Society members had a real treat in store at the November 2008 meeting. We were delighted that we had two archaeologists present – Jon Kenny and Mark Whyman, both from York Archaeological Trust.
Dr Whyman proceeded to tell us about his recent studies of the Vale of York. The glaciation, the morainic deposits, the altered river forms and even more exotic, the changing heights of the valley floor for the river draining into the Vale. Now it all makes much more sense.
The valleys of the eastern Pennine slopes had been cut down to accommodate a low sea level out beyond the Humber. When the glacial tongue came down and blocked the gap near Gilling and deposited tons of debris in long snaking mounds, the sea level rose, and so the valleys flooded upstream of the glacier and the rivers re-adjusted to a more modern, much higher, river bed. It is a little difficult to describe without diagrams and cross-sections of the valleys, but nevertheless we heard how glacial action has dictated the position of river crossings and safe routes and even the evolution of York itself.
What Dr Whyman wove into his story all the time was the archaeological evidence for man which might be found in various places. A fascinating pattern emerges. Stone implements are found scattered about, and the sea level changes affect whether they are buried hundreds of feet under our modern surfaces or just waiting for someone to pick them up.
The littoral emergence of artefacts is where Dr Jon Kenny’s position as a community archaeological officer comes to the fore. He helps communities wishing to research in the field, and at this time of year ‘wrap up very warmly’ is the first piece of advice he gives. Are you interested in field-walking?
It was Dr Whyman who conducted the dig on the line of the Easingwold bypass back in 1992-93. He gave us his up to date knowledge and interpretation of the finds, and particularly, why only certain artefacts and features emerged from the muddy and slippery site. The bypass was an archaeological dig carried out in winter weather of nearly equally cold and wet snowy conditions as our present cold snap. The results should appear in book form before too long. We can then all read about it and remember Mark’s excellent lectures to his several Forest of Galtres Society audiences.
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Monday, October 20th, 2008
Little did we know how much we would be learning about Methodism when Forest of Galtres Society members settled down in October 2008 to hear about Willie Riley, a twentieth century Yorkshire author.
Unusually, there were no slides, but we had lots of books to look at together with photographs, and David Copeland’s infectious enthusiasm gathered the story together and kept us all paying keen attention. The family firm of Riley Brothers Optical Lantern Business made gas-lit machines with which to view celluloid images. This was somewhat dangerous, even if health and safety had not been invented. The slide sets of biblical stories and educational stories were for Sunday School use, especially for the Methodist Church.
In 1911 Willie Riley and his wife were helping two young sisters to adjust to the tragic loss of their parents and another sister. He began to write a story for them and read out a chapter at a time. The girls greatly enjoyed it. Friends said the story was so good he should publish it. Reluctantly, he drew up a list of five or so publishers, from which he drew one of the names at random as the sole publisher to which he would offer his story. Off went the manuscript. A few weeks later back came a letter saying the firm, Herbert Jenkins, would be very pleased to meet Miss Riley and would she be able to come up to London to meet them.
Mr Riley went to the publisher’s offices and gave then quite a surprise! He had written the story from a female viewpoint, which at that time was most unusual for a man. It also became apparent that the publisher was new to the business, and wished Riley’s novel to be their first publication.
Willie Riley had to choose a title before the book was sent off to Jenkins, and what he chose did not seem to be quite what the publisher wanted, but nothing else jumped into mind. So, ‘Windyridge’ it remained. The novel was published in 1912, and was very successful, selling many copies. That title caught the imagination. Appreciative readers of the story gave their houses that name, and in such numbers that, even now, David Copeland has been able to find many of them right across the world. The First World War intervened in the Optical Lantern Company’s success, and it closed. After the success of the first novel, Willie Riley devoted himself to full-time writing, and thirty eight other novels followed. The Second World War saw the destruction in a fire of the printing plates for the books.
By chance, David’s brother bought a house called ‘Windyridge’ in Newcastle upon Tyne. This, unwittingly, enticed David into a long research project, and his MA Thesis was presented to Bradford University just this year. David sought out copies of all the novels. He tracked down out relatives and sought out ‘The Dalesman’ publication staff for their memories of Willie Riley. They provided a list of all the places and views used in Riley’s novels. David found a collection of newspaper cuttings in Bradford Library, a public library with the typed manuscript of ‘Windyridge’, and he found, by sheer good luck and happy coincidence, a nephew with his roof space full of boxes of treasure; the papers left by Riley at his death. Even a recording of an interview of Willie Riley made in May 1961 for ‘Women’s Hour’ has survived. This was made only one month before his death.
Such good luck kept David firmly focused as he filled in the gaps in his knowledge from each new find. Willie Riley was an interesting person whose generous spirit and writing ability sustained him, though only just, from age 45 to his death, some nearly forty years later. Now we have heard about ‘Windyridge’, the local library service may well find those Riley novels are once again requested by eager readers, just as they used to be!
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Saturday, September 20th, 2008
To begin the winter season in September 2008, Forest of Galtres Society members were treated to a real story of a tantalising discovery which was made in early 2007. Liz Andrews-Wilson, Finds Liaison Officer at York Museums Trust, came to tell our Society about the Harrogate Hoard.
The find was made by metal detectorists with permission from the landowner, and their find has turned out to be one of significant interest and, as yet, undetermined value. One of the two men out in a field, a father and son, got a strong signal. He interpreted it as metal, and they investigated and found a quantity of lead scraps. Even with these removed the signal continued, so they dug deeper and found an object rather like a cistern ball valve in size and shape. Removing it from the ground with care, they found more metallic bits and pieces close by.
What were they to do next? Well, this is the point at which Liz’s job is so important, for the Treasure process requires the reporting of discoveries to a Finds Liaison Officer and it was her colleague Amy Cooper who saw the object the next day. On the subsequent day the find was on its way to the British Museum, so significant it had been deemed by museum staff.
The object was X-rayed, revealing a dense chunk of metal in a copper alloy bowl of almost spherical shape. The next task was to empty the bowl in a controlled way. Fortunately, the two detectorists had resisted doing that themselves, which is always a great temptation but which destroys important archaeological information. Slowly excavating the field soil from the pot was so exciting. A gold armband, a gold bracelet, silver ingots, a metal chain and 617 coins, mostly pennies, emerged. Incredible that so much material had been packed into the little bowl! The coins gave a date range of 880 – 927, so the deposit was made after 928 AD. Yorkshire was clearly well connected in those times, for Viking coins, Saxon coins and even a dirham were in the bowl. The bowl could then be re-examined using X-rays. Six beautiful decorative beasts emerged from the corroded surface. Liz Andrews-Wilson told us so much about the hoard and its new name of Vale of York Hoard and how its value is now given as over £1,000,000. The hoard has been purchased by York Museums Trust with The British Museum and will be put on display at both museums. The correct actions of the men who found it means that this very early Frankish bowl (very similar to the Halton Moor bowl dated to 1020 AD – this is in the Preston Museum) is safe and not at risk from the plough or from others with greedy motives.
What a story! The Treasure process and the Portable Antiquities Scheme has enabled so many metal and stone and pottery artefacts to be recorded and studied and has truly widened knowledge of early history for the whole of England and Wales.
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Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
In August 2008, the River Derwent at Howsham Bridge was flowing at a good rate as we stood on the stone path on the bridge, looking down at the dark waters below. Chris Fawdington, our guide, told us of the often very rapid changes in river level which they have become used to, as they work to restore Howsham Mill.
The Forest of Galtres Society’s visit was made on a mild Sunday morning, when sixteen members and guests gathered to take the short walk north along the riverbank to reach the watermill, situated on an island at the weir on the river. There was no sign of the extensive mudbanks we had seen the week before when we watched people who were swimming in the river, often with whole families taking part. Our visit was to be strictly dry and aquatic exertions were not expected, only the chance to see the progress of restoration and the site where the Renewable Heritage Trust are intending to generate electric power to sell to the National Grid. Volunteers were busy with barrows and shovels and wire sieves, seeking out every little bit of archaeological evidence they could salvage. The little stone building, designed by John Carr, the York architect, as a working cornmill and an eyecatcher for nearby Howsham Hall, has suffered considerably in the sixty years since it ceased grinding corn. Most of the walls appear somewhat fragile, with window-arch-supporting wooden frames, and dislodged pieces of stone and brick perched atop roofless walls. The potential is great, for this project which was the runner-up in the Restoration tv series. But whilst the situation is idyllic, the vandals are not, and they have made three visits recently, causing wanton and sometimes costly damage.
The ‘volunteer’ dogs, a golden Labrador and a black and white spaniel, trotted about carrying pieces of wood, and bouncing into the flowing river water. The sluice gate was raised to allow water to turn the undershot waterwheel. The dogs swam happily in the fuming tailrace waters and our members watched from the rebuilt wall to see the force generated by the swiftly flowing water. There is certainly great power generating potential here. The red tape is never-ending, and the official bodies numerous, but with their enthusiastic and happy volunteers, the Renewable Heritage Trust should achieve their objective with the great success it so much deserves.
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Friday, June 20th, 2008
Forest of Galtres Society Members took themselves off to the busy metropolitan area bisected by the roaring M62 on 17th June 2008. Red House, Gomersal – An intriguing name, and a charming 17th century red brick house shown in the 1830s. The Taylor family had lived there from 1660 until the 1920s. An important visitor (when looked at from our modern perspective) was Charlotte Bronte. She was a friend of Joshua Taylor’s daughter, Mary, and she used Red House as the setting for the novel ‘Shirley’.
The staff welcomed us, we enjoyed our tour of an attractive family home and the shop provided pretty goodies for the ‘present’ drawer. The displays in the barn and the cart sheds brought the literary connections of Spen Valley into clear focus.
Next to nearby Oakwell Hall. The road signs mysteriously invisible but we arrived nevertheless. Oakwell Hall is a total contrast, for it was built after 1583 and is a gentry Pennine house. The Great Hall is a magnificent space with a huge wall of windows – 30 leaded casements set in stone mullions stacked in three levels. A statement of prosperity and achievement on a grand scale. We were all impressed by the quality of the hall and the wood and plaster decorative detail embellishing the main chambers. John Batt built the house and his grandson John added new scumbled decoration to the panelling to imitate more expensive wood finish. The Batt family direct line died out in 1707 – note that Nathan Batt Jackson was Vicar in Easingwold – what is the likelihood of a connection your correspondent wonders?
Our tour was guided by Eric Brown and he showed his considerable knowledge of this Grade I house. The Park Ranger told us about the garden and grounds of the country park – that day in the deafening noise from traffic on the M62.
These two houses are owned and run by Kirklees Metropolitan Council. They are both a welcome lung of history and Bronte connections – Oakwell Hall was a school, and both are displayed with a real feeling of home and comfort and quality – quite delightful!
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Friday, June 20th, 2008
Summer came early in June 2008 and a pair of wrought iron gates were re-hung on the warmest day we had had so far. They look great! We celebrated that completed project at the Yorkshire and Humber Association of Civic Societies exhibition held at the Easingwold Library. We also told local people about our Society, the Forest of Galtres Society (it is the name of the ancient Royal Hunting Forest once hereabouts) and its history – founded in 1953 before many civic societies came into existence.
Our very special exhibition event was a stone tool surgery. Helped by a stalwart team of archaeologists of academic repute, we invited people to bring in their tool finds for recording. This process was most rewarding, for the Vale of York does not have a huge recorded corpus of tools finds, and the tools we saw were of great interest. Those archaeologists were beaming! 14th century pottery found locally was also brought in, and metal axe heads. The whole week was well-attended with 150 people specifically viewing the exhibition and the library service seeing many people new to their service too.
Forest of Galtres members have contributed information of lasting value to the academic record and have improved the visual appearance of the town too – all in a busy time of visits to country houses. We visited Dumfries House and were bowled off our feet. It is a superb collection in a superb setting. More than half the membership came, and we made a three day trip of it, visiting other magnificent Borders houses and castles too.
Let’s now enjoy the rest of a hot summer!
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Tuesday, May 20th, 2008
The day in May 2008 was bright and sunny. We set off to visit a building constructed about 1290. That makes you think. How long ago exactly is 1290? Who, then, had the money and skill to erect a three storey tall building capable of lasting more than seven hundred years?
Forest of Galtres Society started its summer visits with a visit to Foulbridge Farm last Thursday. Foulbridge Farm is beside the River Derwent, not too far from Scarborough. Your correspondent was late (sorry) blame the traffic in Pickering, but the welcome was as warm as the beautiful sun-blessed day we had picked.
The farm consists of mainly stone built buildings, but nothing prepares you for the internal structure of the farmhouse. Inside we filed. What a huge surprise. A tall hall with oak posts, curved roof beams and braces. Some of those posts have carved decoration at the springing point of the arches. Dendrochronology carried out by the University of Nottingham revealed that the oak trees from which the posts are made were felled in the summer of 1288.
Mrs Nutt led us through the fascinating history of this remarkable building. The Knights Templars were a military religious order founded in the twelfth century to support the crusades. The Order was granted the manor of Foulbridge in 1176. This was an important crossing of the River Derwent on the road from York to Whitby. The Templar establishment at Foulbridge, known as a preceptory or commandery, was one of the larger houses and the grand hall reflects its importance. By the early fourteenth century the Templars had been suppressed and their properties transferred to the Knights Hospitallers. In 1540 the Knights Hospitallers were dissolved by Henry VIII and Foulbridge was taken over by the Crown.
Foulbridge was transferred to the Archbishop of York and leased to a succession of families. As early as 1615, Foulbridge was described as ‘a faire antient building, a commandery of the Templars…’. At some date the hall of the Templars was divided horizontally, and by the early 1700s the house was occupied as two separate parts and the land was also divided. In the nineteenth century the Church Commissioners sold off the estate. In 1976, following a succession of owners, the Nutt family finally came into ownership of both parts of the farm and the house. By then the grand hall had vanished from sight, though some indications of it could still be seen in the roof. This encouraged Mrs Nutt to begin to investigate. By selectively chipping away some of the plaster, she began to reveal parts of the timber structure. The architect John Miller was commissioned to prepare a report, following which the building was listed Grade II*.
In 1984 restoration work began. The inserted floors and ceilings were removed, the windows put back in the south and west walls, the galleries restored and the Tudor chimneypiece reinstated. The floor of the hall has been paved in stone at a level to match that in the attached Georgian farmhouse. We all marvelled that such an impressive building had survived to be appreciated in the twenty first century. We also appreciated the diligent work by Mr and Mrs Nutt that has enabled this to happen. Lunch called, so off to the Coachman Inn at Snainton and a convivial repast of delicious food.
Our next destination was a completely different type of idyll created in the early eighteenth century. Ebberston Hall is a delight to the eye, and we were warmly welcomed by Mrs de Wend Fenton. Situated at the south-facing entrance to an ascending valley vanishing into Kirk Dale and the moors to the north, it has an ideal setting.
This Palladian hall in miniature was designed by the architect Colen Campbell and built in 1718 by William Thompson, MP for Scarborough, and Warden of the Mint. The principal living floor, the piano nobile, is approached by an impressive swept flight of steps leading to a magnificent doorcase decorated with columns carrying blocks of icicle decoration. The rooms follow the rules of proportion for Palladian buildings, and the magnificent cornices in each of the rooms are comparable to those in the best Yorkshire houses of similar date. At the back of the Hall a Doric loggia looks north across a garden that hints at its former glory. There are pools on three levels and cascades fed by springs that issue from the sides of the valley. It is reputed that the water garden was designed by Stephen Switzer and Charles Bridgeman.
Those members intrepid enough to walk up the valley were rewarded by the sight of a collection of magnificent Wellingtonias on each side of the valley, an indication of the former grandeur of the garden. Tea and home called; we had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It was a Golden Day to see these two delightful but utterly different places, and the sun shone on us throughout.
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Thursday, March 20th, 2008
Maurice Taylor’s talk to Forest of Galtres Society on ‘Poverty and Health in Medieval Times’ on Thursday 13th March 2008 was not for the faint-hearted. Being ill then was quite different to now. If you did not recover after blood-letting and amputations without anaesthetics, it was because of obstinacy in you, the sufferer. The cure of souls was the concern of the Church, and the cure of bodies was ancillary to that. Plagues spread across continents and the ravages of the Black Death decimated entire communities. Hospitality was offered to diseased people in large unventilated and filthy halls where beds could have as many as six people in each one, not all of whom might be alive. The care offered in such places was minimal, and Spital, the name sometimes given to these communities where religious people cared for the souls of the sick and so, Maurice told us, that only 20% actually died.
The images from books, from paintings and from sculpture showed some of the, to modern eyes, very strange ways of determining outcome for a sick man. The Caladrius bird was one omen. If the bird looked away from the man on his deathbed, so the Bestiary says, the man would succumb. If the bird looked at the man lying there, the man would survive. At Alne Church in the arch of the South Porch there is a stone carving of the bird standing on the bed of the patient. The carving dates from the mid twelfth century and is shown in the illustration. Even though the stone is eroded, the bird can be seen to be looking at the patient.
Maurice Taylor’s lecture concluded the Society’s Winter Lecture Programme on a subject which drew a good audience and made all those present very pleased not to be living in medieval times.
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Funded by the National Lottery through Awards for All
The diary of William Lockwood of Easingwold 1778 - 1836