Gunnerside: Hidden Heritage

Last week I enjoyed a fabulous walk in the Swaledale area of the Yorkshire Dales.  The walk almost imperceptibly climbed out of the quant village of Gunnerside up the Gill of the same name.  Back in the 1800s this was lead mining country and boy could they mine back then.  Today we talk, debate and campaign against the raping of the Earth and its natural resources.  I doubt the miners of bygone days cared little about preserving resources.  Guess those were simpler albeit short sited times, but they didn’t have the luxury to be selective or the knowledge of their impact on the environment?
 

Gunnerside Gill: a picture of desolation

As you climb up Gunnerside Gill the scale of the mining operation and the scarring of the land become more apparent and almost unimaginable.  The land is barren and will not sustain vegetation for decades and centuries to come.   Despite the desolation caused by man the scale, location and contrast to its surroundings make Gunnerside a wholly beautiful place.  Faced with such an outlook I like to let my mind wander and spirit myself back to the days when the mining activity was at its height.  Blackened faced men trudging home after 12 hours of toil underground.  The noise of wagons being loaded to the brim and transporting lead down the valley, worn out picks on hard rock, even tortured screams from the many miners injured or killed in what compared to today must have been intolerable working conditions.

All this visual and mental stimulation got me thinking. At what point does an abandoned industrial landscape become a heritage asset?  40, 50 or a 100 years?

 

To my knowledge there are no modern industrial and scarred landscape that have been retained, protected and are cherished.  Old car plants have been demolished and been covered by little boxes we call home.  Quarries are turned into The Eden Project.  Power plants are decommissioned and turned into Forest Parks.  And many other such places are secured behind high barbed wire fencing and a plethora of “keep out” signs.

Above Gunnerside Gill

I have little doubt that if Gunnerside’s mine and spoil ridden landscape been abandoned in the last 20 years we’d be deafened from the cries to reinstate it back to its former glory with a massive programme of heather planting.  Perhaps Gunnerside is a beneficiary of its location?  It’s out of sight to those who live in the valley below, there are no roads up the Gill, and walking for leisure is a relatively recent activity.  As a result I suspect the mining area was forgotten, ignored and the elements moved in to do their work in carving out a ghostly image of days long past.

What I do like about Gunnerside in particular is the fact that it remains almost untouched by the modern approach to heritage and tourism management.  Yes, there’s one or two fading interpretative signs, footpaths criss-cross the area and the odd mineshaft is fenced off for safety reasons, but otherwise it appears untouched since the day those miners left for the last time.   It’s not unique.  There are other examples of an industrial landscape having been left to rot – so to speak.  The Cornish Alps and the Coppermine valleys above Coniston are two that spring to mind.  The latter is scattered with rusting vices, wagons from the mining railway, giant cogs and ruined buildings all with a mountain backdrop and overlooked by holiday cottages.

Starbucks of Gunnerside?

You’ll be thinking, places like the Black Country Living Museum and Beamish are major attractions but we all know these places have been given the Disney makeover.  As great a day-out they are it’s obviously the romantic side of a past industrial age.  Even places like Liverpool Maritime are surrounded by regeneration and modern glass and steel structures, providing an atmosphere lacking any true sense of what once was.  Just go to London Docklands on a wet grey day and the cold cuts to the bone, not just due to temperature but largely because the lack of any soul.

Coppermine Valley: A Future Mine Train Ride?

In a country often accused of being strangled by health and safety regulations I wonder how long it is before Gunnerside and Coppermines are fenced off.  Crumbling buildings pulled down before they fall down, all the “dangerous” contraptions taken away for scrap, mine shafts and levels sealed and gated.  Or worse still the Disney machine comes in and creates a mine train experience and converts peat drying rooms into coffee shops fitted out with plasma interpretation screens.  All of which leave little to the imagination.  Hopefully this never happens and the ghosts of miners who toiled exploiting the earth for future economic growth are left in peace forever disturbed only by walkers who make the effort to climb out of the valleys.

The Beginning

Welcome!  I’ve finally decided to take the plunge and enter the blogosphere…!  I've hesitated as once thought they were an ego-boost for celebs and board Chief Execs trying to “stay-in touch”, but a good friend of mine - http://colpeakbagger.blogspot.co.uk – has convinced me otherwise.  So here goes nothing… I'll try not to be too similiar Mr W...!

My name is Colin Greenwood – well it would rude not to introduce myself.  That was easy, but shock horror, I now need to define myself… or do I?   At this stage I suspect all you need to know is this.  If a day involves walking boots, my camera, a few beers and bumping into interesting people with tales to tell then Lou Reed can start flexing his tonsils on his signature tune… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYEC4TZsy-Y.  The rest will all come clear as the blog develops.

So where to begin musing?  Well for once I guess the beginning is as good a place as any.

June 2008 and I’m seeing the light after a troubled period of my life and lying in bed one Saturday morning with a mild hangover.  Whilst piecing together the night before I recall a conversation over a pint about my desire to visit Cornwall, having not given the county such courtesy at any time in my adult life.  With my renewed outlook on life and as the alcohol induced haze cleared I sprang from my bed and decided to go to Cornwall.  Not right then mind, work commitments meant that couldn't happen.  But 2 hours later trains and beds were booked and 2 weeks later I found myself in Cornwall.

Some context required now… back then my experience of solo travelling was limited to the odd night in a boring hotel on business and maybe a weekend in London.  In terms of walking, well I’d been on a sponsored walk at school, does a stroll to the pub count?  It’s 200 yards so probably not, oh but I did like maps – no doubt we will speak of this topic in future blogs.  And my camera was a Nikon Coolpix that I could barely turn on.

So I find myself in a cliff top car park just outside Padstow lacing up a brand new pair of walking boots - looking around Rick Stein’s empire and paying £8 for fish and chips was not my thing.  I didn’t have the local OS Map, in spite of my love.  But I had heard of The Bedruthan Steps, ok I fess up - I’d read about them in the Rough Guide to Cornwall.   Have I painted a picture of sufficient naivety and unpreparedness yet?  I did had proper walking boots and wasn’t wearing a football shirt, I wasn’t such a greenhorn.

Despite a strong south westerly clearing its throat I decided to head onto the coast path.  My bravado concluded that the likelihood of getting lost on a coast path must be limited, even without a map.   The next half mile was to change my life and open my eyes to the wonder and beauty of this glorious country.  As I strolled over a headland there out stretched before me was this rugged and wild array of undulating sea cliffs and plethora of outcrops of tortured rock being battered by the Atlantic Ocean at full tide.  The noise was feasting on my ear drums and the rain and salty sea spray was enhancing my experience of shear vulnerability, and despite being 15 minutes from the car, a great sense of isolation.

Looking out to sea always gives me that feeling of being so ridiculously small and insignificant against the power and scale of nature – it’s a reassuring feeling and one that imparts a respect for the world and its natural wonders.

I just sat on a rock watching in awe as the Ocean roared to the World, pounded rocks that had been pounded for eons and boiled white as the tide turned.  I finally dragged myself away and continued along the coast path.  Over the next 2 hours the weather calmed as the tide retreated and the sun appeared low in the evening sky.  The absence of a map meant at some point I had to turn around and retrace my steps.

On returning to Bedruthan Steps the contrast could hardly haved be greater.  The raging turmoil witnessed just hours earlier had become a calm oasis.  Could this be the same place?  The Atlantic was slowly and calmly retreating and revealed the deep golden sand: untouched by man.  The rock outcrops that looked most forbidding now rose silently out of the beach with the odd Gull perched prior to supper.  In no time at all the sun was setting in the red sky.

Probably for the first time in my life I truly appreciated the contrasting pictures of the beauty of nature: one of immense power the other of unrivalled serenity, and in the same place.  I was hooked I wanted to know what other delights this natural show could provide.

The day after I splashed out on a map and explored more paths on The Lizard, made footprints in virgin sand at Kynance Cove.  Just 2 weeks later I found myself on the summit of Ingleborough at 7am and was scouring Amazon for good walking books, during which the name Wainwright kept popping up?  He would play a major role in  the coming months and years.  My friends admired my photos from Cornwall and I went shopping for a camera. 

A new journey had begun, where would it lead?  Stay tuned, I promise not to tell of every footstep or photograph since 2008, in fact the next blog will hop to the present day.  Tales from the past will from time to time be weaved in, but as it should be the journey will be constantly looking forward.