The Things that the Every Dales Folk Left Behind!

The things that the everyday folk left behind were squirrelled away by the Wombles.

 I wonder what they would make of the 'things that the every dales folk leave behind'!

This is possibly the most surprising.  An old tractor.  Now just a skeleton of its former self.

Abandoned, unloved but well photographed.

A bottomless old bath, a rusty pan in a bread oven, an open grate in a broken fireplace still with its water boiler, now empty and forlorn.

Where are we?  Crackpot Hall of course where whole families once lived, their children running wild and free. Read about Crackpot Hall in Marie Hartley & Ella Pontefract's book 'Swaledale' and hear about Alice who at four years old is described as having 'the madness of the moors about her'. 

Its amazing what can be found in the nooks and crannies of cow houses and walls.  Odd bits of farming equipment, old bottles that once contained sheep drench, a broken horn.  As the song implies things just get left behind.  Maybe the intention was to return and have a tidy up but still here they remain.  If you happen to find a pair of crocheted men's gloves tucked into a wall somewhere they belong to my husband! 

 Above - A broken drag rake used at haytime.

 Left - the remains of  a dynamo and other workings that produced water driven electricity 

for Hoggarths long before mains electricity came to Swaledale.

So while you are walking and exploring the dales keep your eyes peeled for the unusual and the unexpected.  You never know what you might find.