Muker Show

Muker Show is one of the hightlights of the year in Upper Swaledale.  

The show is steeped in history and tradition.  People come from far and wide to soak up the  atmosphere and experience the community values that sets our dales show apart from many others.

  This year Chris was asked to be President of the show, a post he will hold for two years.

Chris' first duty as President was to lead the procession of judges, stewards and officials onto the show field.  As the band struck up behind us I was proud to walk by his side. 

 

The produce and handicraft tents are bursting with entries.  There are classes of every description; baking, photography, art, handwriting, flowers, fruit and vegetables.  Children only, men only, ladies only, open classes and local classes. Hay, walking sticks, butter and cheese.  

All areas are fiercely fought over and everyone hopes their entry is the judges favourite.

 Muker is in Upper Swaledale, it is hill farming country and the home of the Swaledale.   

With the autumn sheep sales almost upon us Muker Show is a major shop window for the breed.  A rosette in the sheep ring at Muker is highly prized.

  

This year has been a special year for our chairman,  Ernest Whitehead.  The 2019 Muker Show is  Ernest's 40th year as chairman.  What an achievement.  At the official luncheon Earl Peel, Patron of the Muker Show, presented Ernest with a painting, cake and well deserved special rosette.  

   

 Here are some of the activities and exhibits we enjoyed.

 

 The show site is in the heart of Muker village; sheltered and picturesque with  Kisdon Hill as its backdrop.

Towards the end of the afternoon the fell racers tackle the punishing, almost vertical, incline to the summit of Kisdon Hill (1.4 miles with an ascent of 550ft).

It is a great spectator sport and participants are 

guaranteed encouragement and applause from start to finish.

 Before the show opens Muker Silver Band plays outside the Farmer Arms and its is here, as the show draws to a close, that the band plays once again.  Drinks are purchased, song sheets distributed, friends gather and the community sings.

Photo 1: Guy Carpenter  http://www.gullwingphotography.co.uk/

Photo 8: Ian Short https://www.ianshortphotography.co.uk/

Made in Yorkshire

'Provenance' seems to be the buzz word these days.  

At Upper Swaledale Holidays we pride ourselves on shopping local. We use local producers and suppliers and aim to put as much 'made in Yorkshire' products as possible on the breakfast table, in the Shepherd's Hut and in Hillcrest Cottage.

 Some of our suppliers include Raydale Preserves, Yockenthwaite Farm cereals and the Wensleydale Creamery

This year we have started to use The Home Farmer milk.  This new and innovative venture by a farming family from Aysgarth in Wensleydale is pure genius.  A converted horse trailer containing a milk vending machine stands in a different village each day.  Glass bottles can be purchased and filled and refilled with gently pasteurised, fresh-from-the-farm milk http://www.thehomefarmer.co.uk/p/homepage.html

On the farmhouse kitchen table at breakfast time our sausages come from Buckles Farm, eggs from Dixons of Hartley and bacon from McFarlands of Middleton-in-Teesdale.

And sometimes, when conditions are right and as if by magic, the mushrooms come from the field next to the house!

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. 

Showing You the Way ..... Muker to Thwaite Circular

Showing You the Way ...... 

is a series of 3 illustrated walk leaflets for children.  

Pick up a leaflet in the Keld Countryside & Heritage Centre.

Today we explored the Cowus (cow house) trail, a circular walk from Muker to Thwaite and back.

  

This walk is 2.8 miles with a 600ft ascent. 

The first section is quite an uphill pull but once you get to Kisdon Houses it is level or downhill all the way .........

........ with magnificent views in all directions.

Looking east above and looking west below

 Once out onto the heather moor the path becomes rocky & uneven.  Although part of the Pennine Way, it is no more than a sheep trod and care is required.

Challenging and fun, this walk will bring out the adventurer in you! 

Back in the valley bottom follow the meadow paths, through narrow squeeze stiles to Muker.

But not before a well deserved picnic by the stream.

Further Adventures of Heidi and Hetty

Heidi and Hetty are doing a grand job of bringing up their lambs.

All three of them are fine examples of Herdwick sheep.

Look how Jacqui and Doris have grown!  Hetty is as cautious and camera shy as ever, she keeps her lambs close.

Heidi, on the other hand, is much more outgoing and will come quite near especially if she thinks I have some treats for her.

Marco is getting quite brave too!

He's becoming very handsome in a comical sort of way.  Don't you agree?

Summer on the farm

Summer on the farm is all about making fodder and clipping sheep.

We have made over 2000 small bales of hay and hundreds of round bale silage.

 

 We have been lucky.  We cut at the right time, the weather was on our side and the end result is a winter's worth of first class hay and silage for our sheep and cattle.  A lovely feeling.

So now all the hay and silage is made Chris, his brother and his nephew can concentrate on the sheep.

The weather is warming up so its time to clip.  The first to be sheared are the hoggs (the young sheep, born last year, who haven't been sheared before), then the ewes with singles and finally those running with twins.

 Heidi the Herdwick has a thick, dense fleece.  She will look very different without her coat which will be coming off soon.

Earlier this year there was a big fuss on social media that clipping sheep was cruel.  Ridiculous claims made by people who don't understand stock and farming.  The sheep are not ill treated during the process, they are held securely but carefully so that the fleece comes off quickly and in one piece. It is in the interest of the sheep's welfare to shear, maintaining healthy skin and a clean fleece for the coming winter. Not to clip would be like making us wear our heaviest winter coats all summer long and never changing our underwear!

  Almost all finished.  Note the lambs are not clipped.  They are too young and their wool is still fine.

Our Green Footprint

What is Upper Swaledale Holidays doing to reduce their carbon footprint, 

to reduce single use plastic and create less waste?

 

Upper Swaledale is without doubt a #green and pleasant land 

but what are we doing to keep it that way?

 Going #green

In the guest bathrooms at both Pry House Farm B&B and Hillcrest Cottage we have replaced single use plastic bottles of hand wash with refillable Cole & Lewis products. 

"Tourists are responsible for large quantities of single-use plastic that pollute beaches and threaten wildlife" says Molly Blackall in a recent on-line Guardian article.

At Pry House Farm B&B we decant marmalade & jam into attractive pots for the breakfast table and butter is served in a butter dish.  This eliminates hundreds of individual plastic jam servings and foil butter wrappers going into landfill.  

 

You will find wool pillows and duvets on most beds at the B&B, in the Shepherd's Hut and at Hillcrest Cottage. Nobody wants to sleep on a stained pillow - yuk!  Wool pillows are zipped so that the wool filling can be removed and the cover washed stopping pillows going into landfill.  Our wool duvets also wash beautifully.  Yes, its an expensive initial outlay but the environmental benefits outweigh the cost and in the long run it SAVES money. 

 We now support Home Farm Milk http://www.thehomefarmer.co.uk/p/homepage.html

where milk comes in a glass bottle - attractive, reusable and environmentally friendly.

On top of this we recycle all plastic, glass, tin, paper & card in the normal way.

Upper Swaledale Holidays is a very small fish in a very large pond but we try to do our bit. Small steps #greenfootprint #goinggreen #green