Countryside News in the Advertiser
2011

The Twelve Days of Christmas – 29 December

The Twelve Days of Christmas traditionally begin on Boxing Day and end on the 6 January. This period used to be a time for celebration and feasting, but now it is better known for the well known song. This song according to one theory was written in the 16 century when Roman Catholics were not allowed to practice their faith openly and each element in the song was a code for their faith. Seven of the days have a wildlife connection, though at first sight, only six are obvious.

On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me ‘A Partridge in a Pear Tree.’ Partridges would have been a delicacy at this time of the year and a mother partridge feigns injury to decoy predators from her helpless nestlings. Some folklore suggests that this line was ‘part of a juniper tree’ a plant believed to have been blessed by the Virgin Mary after it protected Baby Jesus from Herod.

On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me ‘Two Turtle Doves’. The turtle dove is smaller and darker than the collared dove. It was once a common farmland bird, but numbers have decreased over the last twenty years. They are only usually in Britain from April to July and then return to Africa.

On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me ‘Three French Hens’. There are three old varieties of French hens which would have been around in the 16th century, Marans, Faverolles and Houdans or the rhyme may just mean rare or foreign fowl.

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me ‘Four Calling Birds’. The calling birds are blackbirds, which were sometimes called ‘coaly birds’ because of their colour.

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love sent to me ‘Five Gold Rings’. This may be a corruption of ‘goldspinks’ which is Scottish dialect for goldfinches. This bird was often caged for its distinctive plumage and pleasant song.

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love sent to me ‘Six Geese A-Laying’. Roast goose was the traditional Christmas dinner, but now it is the turkey which is the preferred dish..

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me Sevens Swans A-Swimming. In England it is only the Mute Swan which is resident all year round. The Whooper and Bewick’s visit us between October and April.

Kissing under the Mistletoe – 15 December

The word mistletoe comes from the Anglo-Saxon words mistel (meaning dung) and tan (meaning stick). Mistle thrushes and other birds eat the berries then 'deposit' the seeds on tree branches. The berries are filled with a sticky, white fluid, and after gorging themselves, the birds sometimes wipe their beaks clean on the branches. The sticky fluid hardens and attaches the seed firmly to its future host.

Mistletoe is a semi parasite, living partly off a host tree into which it sinks its specialised roots and partly off food produced with its own chlorophyll. You can find mistletoe growing on the branches of hawthorns, apple, poplars and limes. It is poisonous for humans, but doesn't kill the trees that it grows on and doesn't harm them if it's managed properly.

Mistletoes, being a very unusual and distinctive plant made it one of the most revered plants of the early herbalists with a very long association with human and animal medicine. In the middle ages it was believed capable of breaking the death like trances of epileptics, of dispelling tumours, diving treasure and keeping witches at bay and protecting the crop of the trees on which it grew. Women who wished to conceive would tie a sprig round their waists.

It’s not hard to imagine that it was credited with extraordinary powers. But to the medieval mind it was entirely magical. A plant without roots or obvious sources of food, growing way above the earth and staying green leaved when other plants were bare. It seemed the supreme example of continuing life.

We may get our kissing tradition from Norse Mythology. Baldur's mother was the goddess, Frigga. When Baldur was born, Frigga made every plant, animal and inanimate object promise not to harm him. But Frigga overlooked the mistletoe plant and the mischievous god Loki tricked one of the other gods into killing Baldur with a spear fashioned from mistletoe. The demise of Baldur brought winter into the world, although the gods did eventually restore Baldur to life. Frigga then pronounced the mistletoe sacred, ordering that from now on it should bring love rather than death into the world. Happily complying with Frigga's wishes, any two people passing under the plant from now on would celebrate Baldur's resurrection by kissing under the mistletoe.

Seeing the deadwood for the trees – 8 December

Trees are some of the longest living things on our planet, but they will eventually die and through the process of decay become part of the soil from which new trees will grow. Many other living things are part of this process and rely on it for their existence, like many fungi, invertebrates, and bacteria. Others feed on these organisms, some use the softer wood to make holes which then become homes for themselves and other species.

Some trees don’t reach maturity but are affected by disease, storms etc, or are just out competed for light and nutrients by other trees and become part of this process much earlier in their lives.

Thousands of species have therefore become reliant on trees dying and decaying and it is as much a part of what woodland is, as living trees, bluebells or the wonderful colours of autumn.

But many of Britain’s woods lack the amount and continuity of supply of dead wood or dying trees needed to sustain these thousands of species, for a variety of reasons, like being managed intensively for timber and excessive tidiness and safety management.

The need to address this as part of sustainable woodland management is now well recognised, and having sufficient dead wood in a woodland is one of the criteria for UK Woodland Assurance accreditation. Tameside Council now has 19 sites with this accreditation and as part of its management is increasing and maintaining the amount of dead wood and dying trees in its woods.

Over the last few years though there has been an increasing number of incidents when logs left as dead wood have been taken from sites, which has involved the police on some occasions, as to do so is theft as well as damaging to wildlife.

To help inform people of the importance of dead and decaying wood and that people should not take logs from sites without permission, a leaflet and site information board has been produced with funding from the Forestry Commission, entitled ‘Dead but alive’. These will be in circulation soon and a copy of the leaflet will be on the Countryside Service web page.

Whilst dead wood is important and we are trying to increase the amount, dumping of branches etc on our sites is not something we welcome as it may damage or shade valuable plants like bluebell. Worse still it may have other garden waste with it and lead to invasive alien plants taking over areas of the wood. This again is not only damaging the wildlife but is illegal tipping and can lead to substantial fines.
But you can make your own dead wood piles in a shady area of your garden, and see what wildlife it attracts.

Railway walk – 24 November 2011

The third in a series of ‘station walks’ connects Greenfield and Mossley on an easy two and a half mile walk. The walk starts at Mossley Railway Station, Manchester Road, Mossley OL5 0AB.

Take the train to Greenfield. Leave the station and go right down the hill, cross the road and continue left down Chew Valley Road, go down and round bend to the right and after crossing the river bridge turn right along the footpath with the River Tame on your right until you reach a footbridge.

The River Tame is 21 miles in length and begins its course on the moors above Denshaw, Oldham. It flows through Delph, Uppermill, Greenfield, Mossley, Stalybridge, Ashton under Lyne, Dukinfield, Denton, Reddish Vale and finally into Stockport where it meets the River Goyt and becomes the Mersey.

Cross the footbridge and go up wide path and at the path junction go right onto the Friezland bridle track once the Stalybridge to Diggle railway line. The former station house is on the left. Continue along the track, passing the Friezland Horse Arena on the left, until you reach Manchester Road (A635). Cross the road and go diagonally right across lay-by and up the footpath then cross over Huddersfield Road above the Royal George Hotel. Join the continuation of the bridle track, now the Roaches stretch.

The track goes downhill and after 500 yards, take the second path on the right which goes uphill and then down to Roaches Lock. Cross the Huddersfield Narrow Canal by the footbridge and turn left down the towpath. At Woodend Mill, the towpath moves onto the left bank of the canal.

At the end of a factory wall go left at the way marking post, right along Audley Street then right at Waggon Road over bridges and right up Mill Street and at the top you will see Mossley Railway Station.

When the London and North-western railway came to Mossley in 1849 the local Mayall family already ran a prosperous cotton spinning business. The railway gave them a direct link to Liverpool, where raw cotton was imported from America and India, as well as providing an outlet for their spun cotton. John Mayall built a railway from the station to his Britannia Mills via a turntable and a tunnel under the main road. The tunnel entrance can still be seen in the station car park.

The Downton Abbey of Park Bridge – 17 November 2011

Now the series has ended, read about the real world of masters and servants that existed in Park Bridge.

The last chairmen of the ironworks, Maurice Lees and his son Lowther, lived at Westerhill, a magnificent house at Fairbottom, away from the noise and smoke of the ironworks. Maurice Lees gave generously to the community contributing thousands of pounds to Ashton Infirmary and subscribing to the fund to restore the ancient stained glass windows in Ashton Parish Church. He was Mayor of Ashton from 1910 – 1934.

Edith Pickup was a house parlour maid and then a cook at Westerhill House in the 1930s.

‘I lived in the servants’ quarters over the coach house. There were six rooms. They had six servants during old Mrs. Lees’ (Maurice’s wife’s) time, cook, kitchen maid, parlour maid, house parlour maids. A parlour maid just does parlour work, cleaning silver and waiting at the table and seeing to all the china and the linen and things like that. A house parlour maid does a bit of everything, wait on at table and do housework as well. Before I became cook, I was house parlour maid’.

‘Every Friday the silver had to be cleaned. I used to start it at 9 o’clock and I used to have to be changed into a different uniform at half past twelve to wait on the table at lunch. I wore a calf length alpaca dress with long sleeves and white collar and cuffs and a fancy little frilly apron. I had a little white organdie hat on, but no ribbons down the back. Mrs. Lees thought that was too much like waitresses. She wanted it to be modern. During the morning I had a pink dress on with a big white apron with a bib up and straps that passed round and tied in a bow at the back, like nurses wore. I washed up, only the silver and the glasses, not the dinner things, the cook washed them. I had a separate pantry called the housemaids pantry, off the dining room.

When the visitors rang the bell I went to the door with a silver salver and the visitor would put their card on. Then I had to announce them.’

‘The dining room was absolutely fantastic. It was all oak panelled with beautiful oil paintings of Bleasdale, where they had a shoot, and paintings of grouse and pheasants in massive gilt frames and it had a shelf round it (at picture rail height) with big plates in willow pattern or with hunting scenes. The billiard room was oak panelled as well. There was a lovely silver inkstand in the billiard room that Mr. Maurice Lees was presented with when he was given the freedom of Ashton. It was really hard to clean. The drawing room was painted white and hung with green tapestry and had curtains to match at the massive bay windows.’

Fungi – 3 November 2011

Although fungi used to be thought of as plants, they have now been placed in a kingdom of their own. The fungi are very varied in both their appearance and their habits. Mycologists think that there could be as many as one and a half million fungi on the planet, many of which have yet to be discovered.

Mushrooms and toadstools exist to produce and release spore and they are sometimes called fruit bodies. Spores are like very small plant seeds but without the food reserve that help a seedling to get started.

 Unlike plants, fungi cannot gain their energy directly from the sun by photosynthesis, they have had to develop other ways to get it. A few of the fungi do this by feeding off living trees or plants, sometimes killing them. These fungi are parasites but they have a vital role in the natural woodland as they remove old or weak trees and create a deadwood habitat that insects and other animals can use.

The majority of the fungi are saprotrophic (decomposer) fungi or symbiotic fungi. Decomposer fungi are busy helping to break down dead wood and other plant and animal material. The fungi absorb some of the nutrients but most goes back into the woodland ecosystem so that it can be recycled.

Symbiotic fungi establish a physical link with another organism such as a plant or tree, so that both can benefit from the arrangement. Over 80% of higher plants and trees gain additional mineral salts in this way, In return the tree or plant sends some of its surplus energy (carbohydrates) down into the fungus.
Fungus consists of different parts, a cap, ring, volva, stem or stipe and mycelium. Depending on the type of fungi, the cap supports and protects the gills, pores or teeth where the spores are produced.

The ring is a partial veil which grows between the edge of the cap and the stem. The skirt-like ring is what is left on the stem as the cap expands and breaks the veil. The veil provides extra protection for the spores when the mushroom or toadstool is young. If the fungus has a veil which covers the entire toadstool when it is very small, the volva is what is left at the bottom of the stem when the veil is broken, It’s broken as the toadstool grows and sometimes leaves spots on the cap. The stem or stipe holds up the cap so that when the spores drop down they are high enough off the ground to drift away. The mycelium is the hidden body of the fungus, a dense network of minute tubes that grow through or around whatever the fungus is feeding on and from which the mushrooms and toadstools originate.

Hand Made at Park Bridge – 27 October 2011

Sam Hibbert came home from the army in 1946 and worked on the rolling mills at Park Bridge until 1957 just before the Bottom Forge closed.

 ‘There were two mills in the Bottom Forge, a big mill and a guide mill. The guide mill made all the small sections and we did all the heavy stuff on the big mill. Sometimes we used to re-roll axles from railway wagons. Trains used to bring ingots from Rotherham to be re-rolled in the Bottom Forge. They brought steel billets that were cut into pieces and reheated in the furnaces. We rolled the white-hot billets from the furnace to the measurements that were wanted. The billet started at one end of the rolling mill and it was moved from groove to groove till it got to the size wanted. We could roll all sorts of sections, flat steel, hexagon steel and bulb iron for making hinges. They were the truest bars, not like from these modern places. It was all done by hand.

I was what you call a number one catcher on the big mill. In the forge we were paid by how much tonnage we made in a week. We had to average over 100 ton a week to have a decent wage. We didn't have a dinner hour, we didn't have the time. We got a meal between heats. A heat was the number of ingots in the furnace. There might be forty ingots in a heat. You roll them, then get your grub in between heats. We warmed our dinners and cans of tea on top of the furnaces. We worked three shifts when the forge was working full belt. In later years it was reduced to one shift. We closed at weekends after the 2pm-10pm shift on Friday. Maintenance men went in then to repair furnaces and brickies relined them.

When they were short handed or put someone else on the rolls to learn, they took me off the rolls and I did some trailing. Trailing was taking stuff out of the furnaces to the rolls with the big long tongs that were hung on chains from a runway in the roof. They needed a rider-out, a man to lie over the tong handles, to balance heavy ingots. When you were rolling flats the bars used to flick up. One flicked up and wrapped round my arm. I didn't bother going to hospital though, I just went to the doctors and he bandaged it up. It was a long time before the burn marks went.’

Knott Hill Reservoir – 13 October 2011

In 1832, the Knott Hill estate was sold by the Trustees of the Right Honourable George Harry, Earl of Stamford and Warrington to the Ashton Waterworks Company. They built the reservoir in 1845 with a maximum holding capacity of 64 gallons. They had a capital of £15,000 with which pipe tracks and reservoir were constructed. It was then fed by springs in the neighbourhood of Tongue Bottom, together with the waters from the surrounding gathering ground of 428 acres. It is at a height of 600 feet above sea level. The waterman’s house was built. It is now gone, but remnants of the garden and Victorian plantings are still visible.

When Swineshaw Valley reservoirs were completed in 1864, they were put to feed Knott Hill and the area of the gathering ground at Knott Hill was condemned and the water was diverted away from the reservoir. Again on the completion of Yeoman Hey Reservoir in Greenfield in 1880, water was brought from there through a 15” pipe via Mossley and by means of a tunnel under Luzley Hill, 770 yards long to supply Knott Hill.

 In 1855 it was bought by Ashton Corporation and in 1870 joined with neighbouring authorities to form the Water Board. In 1968 it became part of the West Pennine Water Board.

In the 1926 book, ‘Hill Tops in Four Shires’ it states that “at present, it is supplied with filtered water in this way, Knott Hill is thus a service reservoir, the area supplied being the lower portions of Ashton-under-Lyne Audenshaw, Hurst and Limehurst. The waters which originally fed Knott Hill are carried past the reservoir and supplied as a trade water supply to sundry works in the Ashton area. Mr G.H Raddin, Waterworks Engineer, supplied the foregoing particulars relating to Knott Hill.”

Knott Hill Reservoir was decommissioned by North West Water in the late 1970's when the dam was declared unsafe and the reservoir ceased and the area became neglected. An application was made by the Trustees of Lord Deramore - owners of the land to the north of the reservoir to reclaim the reservoir by a landfill operation. A local action committee was formed to save the area for future generations, this was backed by Members of Parliament and Tameside bought the reservoir for a nominal sum in 1989. The water level was lowered and the flora and fauna retained their habitat. Knott Hill is now a Local Nature Reserve, managed by the Tameside Countryside Service.

Canal Furniture – 6 October 2011

Bridges

The original bridges on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal were wooden swing or ‘swivel’ bridges. This was the cheapest solution to accommodate the route which proposed by Benjamin Outram based on Nicholas Brown’s survey as it would cut across many highways. However, the economy proved a short term saving and a resolution was made to replace them with stone bridges. Today, there is little evidence of the original wooden bridges, but the remains of a bearing plate may be seen from the Grove Road Bridge, Millbrook. The original swing bridge here was constructed in the autumn of 1796.

Tunnels

Canal engineer Robert Whitworth was engaged by the proprietors of the canal company to view the line of the canal in august 1797. He reported “beginning at the Ashton end of the line, one of the objections happens to be at the first setting out which is making a tunnel (Whitelands) through Sand Hill, instead of carrying it round the point of the hill”.
As the name Sand Hill suggests, the geology of the area made the tunnel unstable and in 1856 when the London and North Western Railway Company acquired the canal they opened it out making it a cutting. Today Whitelands still has the feel of a tunnel when walking the towpath.
When the canal reached Scout near Mossley, a 615 foot tunnel had to be cut through sturdy gritstone and shales. It has been described as a mini Standedge and the centre section is unlined, exposing the natural rock for anyone brave enough to walk through.

Milestones

The major source of income for canals was the tonnage carried by the narrowboats. The original act determined the rates of tonnage per mile for various articles passing on the canal and specifies “in order to better ascertain such distances, the said Huddersfield Canal Company shall cause the said Huddersfield Canal to be measured and stones or posts with proper inscriptions, to be erected and forever after maintained on the sides of the said Canal and the distance of One Mile from each other.” However it wasn’t until 1837, some 26 years after the canal was fully opened that the Committee resolved that the Canal be measured and stones set up according to the directions of the Act of Parliament. The distance shown on the stones is calculated from the start of the Narrow Canal at Lock 1 Huddersfield. Some milestones are missing but a few are still visible.

What the Devil – 22 September 2011

Devil's-bit scabious, Succisa pratensis, is an attractive perennial herb which produces beautiful flowers from August to October. The tall-stalked, rounded flower heads are blue-purple and pincushion-like. The plant produces low-growing rosettes of narrow leaves covered with minute hairs. The flowers have both male and female organs and are pollinated by bees, moths and butterflies and provide an important nectar source for late flying butterflies, bees and hoverflies. It is the main food plant of the Marsh Fritillary. The butterfly lays its eggs in large batches and the caterpillars live as a group inside a conspicuous silken web.

Devil’s-bit Scabious is a member of the teasel family. It has a preference for damp or moist sites and inhabits marshes, wet meadows and moist woodland rides. It exploits sites where other species are restricted by low soil fertility or grazing.

The word scabies comes from the Latin word for scratch (scabere). Species of scabious were used to treat scabies, and many other afflictions of the skin. Nicholas Culpepper, the 17th century herbalist, prescribed a concoction made from the boiled root for snake bites, swollen throats, wounds and the sores caused by the bubonic plague. The herb makes a useful tea for the treatment of coughs, fevers and internal inflammations and is also a popular application externally to eczema.

The Devil was so furious at the success of this plant in curing so many ailments that he bit away part of the black root, hoping to put an end to its good works, leaving it with the abruptly shortened root it has today, but he failed to destroy its curative properties. Another legend says that the Devil used to act through the root of this plant so the Virgin Mary stopped him. In his anger the devil bit off the root.

Harridge Round Walk – 15 September 2011

A five mile strenuous walk around Harridge Pike, crossing open moorland on a good track. A walk for a fine day with superb views throughout. It starts at Castle Clough car park, Buckton Vale Road, Carrbrook, Stalybridge. SK15 3PJ

Walk up Long Row, opposite the car park. At the top of the terrace, turn right passing Duck Island. Cross the road and follow it left behind the new houses. After 100 yards turn right up the hill on a rough road, following the Pennine Bridleway signs

As you gain height along the bridleway, good views open out over much of Stalybridge, Mossley, Ashton and Greater Manchester. The track levels out passing some old stone houses and farms dating from around the 18th century when weaving and subsistence farming was carried out here. When the road turns steeply downhill to the right, take the bridleway ahead, again following the Pennine Bridleway sign.

The path circles the contours of the hillside with excellent views over Walkerwood Reservoir and the Lower Brushes Valley, before dropping down to join the tarmac reservoir service road. Go left through the gate. As you continue up the road, mature oak woods, fields and birch wood provide a wealth of habitats for bird and insect life. As height is gained and the views open out, there are the remains of an old concrete searchlight post. Planes stacking up to use Manchester airport are clearly seen from here because of the height (nearly 1000) ft.

When you reach the top reservoir, Higher Swineshaw, turn left and continue through a stile, following the track up onto open moorland. Look back to enjoy the spectacular views over Derbyshire and the Pennines moorland.

There are a number of old shooting butts here and grouse are regularly seen with their low whirring flight and cries sounded like ‘go back go back’ when they are disturbed. The peak of Harridge Pike can be seen to the left and can be reached through rough grass to the stone cairn or stone circle on the summit at 1295 feet. Harridge is a shortening of hare ridge and mountain hares, which turn white in winter have been seen in this area.

Views over Buckton Castle hill, with its ancient ring fort on top, the quarry next to it and Carrbrook Heritage village open out below. Spectacular views across Manchester and Cheshire open out as the track rounds the hillside and rejoins the Pennine Bridleway and rough track. Turn right to follow it back down towards Carrbrook and the car park.

Threats to Bats – 1 September 2011

There has been a decline in the bat population over the last 100 years. They are still under threat from factors such as building and development work affecting roosts, lighting, wind turbines and the loss of feeding habitats and flight lines.

All bats and their roosts are protected by law. Many bat species roost in buildings and so are extremely vulnerable to the activities of humans. If bats are disturbed at a particularly sensitive time of year such as during hibernation in winter or when young bats are being raised in the summer it can have hugely detrimental impacts on local bat populations.

Bats are nocturnal animals and are adapted to low-light conditions. Most bat species can find artificial lighting to be very disturbing. Artificial lights shining on bat roosts, their access points and the flight paths away from the roost should be avoided. Celebratory lighting of buildings should be limited to special occasions.
The discovery of dead bats underneath wind turbines in mainland Europe has led to concerns that research into the siting of these structures is not sufficiently rigorous. Some have been erected on migration routes of bats.

The ever-changing countryside has been detrimental to bat numbers. Natural habitats such as hedgerows, woodlands and ponds have been declining and fragmenting. It is important to create new suitable habitats and manage and enhance existing habitats to aid in the recovery of bat populations to our countryside.

In our urban areas, we can encourage bats by putting up bat boxes, growing specific plants to attract insects and making ponds.

The loss of habitat, use of pesticides and intensive farming practices have lead to a reduction in the abundance of insects which the bats rely on as their only food source. Even the change from hay making to silage, has meant that many insects do not reach adulthood so there are less flying adults available. Changes in climate may also influence insect life cycles and so this may affect when bats can feed.

Many people enjoy spending summer evenings sitting in their gardens, watching as daylight turns to dusk and bats begin to fill the night sky. As their natural habitats become more scarce, our gardens are playing a more important role in securing a future for bats.

Going Batty – 25 August 2011

On the bat walks last year which were organized by the Tameside Countryside Service, many people were thrilled to see Pipistrelles, Brown long-eared and Daubenton's bats. There are 13 more resident species in Britain, but not all of them can be found in Tameside. It is hoped that Noctule, Whiskered and Natterer's may be added to the list of bats seen this year.

The Noctule bat is one of the largest British species, weighing between 18g and 40g and having a wingspan of 14 inches. It is usually the first bat to appear in the evening and sometimes even before sunset. They have narrow pointed wings and fly in the open, often well above tree level and can reach 30mph. During spring, Noctules will feed mainly on small insects such as midges, but later in the year they change their diet to include beetles and moths. You may see suburban Noctules around street lamps where there is a ready supply of moths. They are mainly tree dwellers and will hibernate in trees or rock fissures, but some have been found in bat boxes. During the summer, male Noctules are solitary and will establish a mating roost in a tree hole, defending it against other mature males. He attracts a harem of four or five females by emitting a series of shrill mating calls from the roost entrance and producing a strong odour.

Whiskered bats are a small species with shaggy fur which is dark grey or brown with golden tips on the back, they weigh between 4g and 8g. They emerge within half an hour of sunset and can remain active throughout the night and will frequently fly along a regular route, over or alongside a hedgerow. Whiskered bats are often found in buildings, preferring older ones with stone walls and slate roofs. Their diet is moths, small insects and spiders.

Natterer’s bat is a medium sized species weighing between 7g and 12g. They have a slow to medium flight, sometimes over water, but more often amongst trees. Their broad wings and tail membrane give them great manoeuvrability at slow speed and they take most of their prey from foliage. The pinkish limbs give rise to its old name of 'red-armed bat'. The Natterer’s are rarely found in houses, they prefer old stone buildings with large timber beams. They appear from their roost about one hour after sunset and feed mainly on midges, small moths, caddis flies, lacewings, beetles, small wasps and spiders.

Stables fit for a King – 11 August 2011

The Victorian Gothic style stables at Park Bridge were completed in 1870 to house the working horses of the ironworks. Musgrave’s of Belfast who added high quality of fixtures and fittings, also fitted the stables at Royal Sandringham, Both stables have the same royal coat of arms with the inscription ‘Musgrave’s Patent Belfast’ on the iron pillars separating the stalls.

The Stables provided spacious accommodation for over 18 horses, including the Lees family riding horses, in five ground floor stables and two loose boxes. The upper storey of the Stables was a hayloft.

Horses played an essential part in transporting goods to and from the ironworks until the early 1900s when road and railway transport took over completely. Captain, a big grey horse, was the last to work at the Park Bridge ironworks. He pulled a gunner loaded with iron bars along rails from the bottom forge to the bright shop until he was retired in the 1950s. He was often tempted to ‘go off the rails’ for a toffee!

Sam Hibbert moved to Dingle Terrace with his parents in 1938.

‘My father, Edward Hibbert, better known as Ned, worked at the ironworks. He was paid about £2.10s.0d a week and had to bring a family up on that. He was a carter and took iron bars out on 'lorries' as far as Bury and brought a load of scrap back. The horse and carts were called ‘lorries’. Heavy carts loaded up with iron sometimes had two horses to pull them. They used to have a chain horse at the bottom of Bardsley Brow to help the 'lorries' up the hill. Dad started work at the stables at 7 or 8-o'clock in the morning. The stables were built into a hill below Dingle Terrace. When you went up the hill, at that end of the stables you were level with the upstairs and there was a door that went straight into the hayloft.

The carters had to get their own horses ready. They had to be groomed and harnessed and their nosebags filled. (The nosebags were always shoved on when the carters went to the pub!) The horses were then taken down the hill to the loading bay in the Bottom Forge to be hitched to the lorries. There was also a loading bay at the end of the Bright Shop. The iron bars would be loaded up on the lorries ready, the carters didn't do any loading. At weekend the carters took it in turns to look after the horses. The horses were always well groomed but on special days their manes were plaited, their hooves polished and the brasses were cleaned. Dad used to go all over getting horses ready for shows. A horse was always taken down to Ashton on May Day for the Black Knight Pageant. At weekends in summer the horses were put out in the fields near the station. On Monday mornings they used to catch them. Sometimes I'd get up early and help Dad round them up.’

Damsel or Dragon? – 4 August 2011

As you walk by the side of Tameside’s rivers, canals and ponds, you will often be rewarded by the sight of a dragonfly patrolling the water, looking for prey, but could it be a damselfly? Damselflies are among the most colourful of British insects and their larvae are fearsome aquatic predators.

Dragonflies and damselflies both belong to the order Odonata. All odonates share certain characteristics, including membranous wings, large eyes, slender bodies, and small antennae. However, there are some differences between dragonflies and damselflies,

Damselflies are the daintier cousin, they have relatively slender bodies and a slower, more fluttering flight and are usually smaller. The largest British damselfly have bodies up to 2 inches with a 3½ inch wingspan, whereas hawker dragonflies can reach 3½ inches long with a 4¾ inch wingspan. Most dragonflies have eyes that touch, or nearly touch, at the top of the head, but damselflies eyes are clearly separated, usually appearing to each side of the head. Dragonflies bodies are usually stocky while damselflies are usually long and slender. The dragonfly has dissimilar wing pairs, with hind wings broader at the base, whilst damselflies wings are all similar in shape.

Perhaps the easiest difference to spot is the position of the wings at rest, the dragonfly holds its wings open, horizontally or downwards and the damsel wings are held closed, usually over the abdomen.

There are 15 species of damselfly which breed in Britain. Damselflies fly around while mating and egg laying. Once mated, females dip their abdomens below the water surface and insert eggs into incisions made in the stems and foliage of pond plants. Eggs hatch into nymphs that have slender bodies and long legs. They are voracious predators of tadpoles, insect larvae and small fish and can take several years to complete their development. The fully grown nymph climbs out of the water up the stems of plants. Its outer skin splits allowing the adult to emerge. It can take several hours for the wings to expand and harden enough for the insect to fly. The newly-emerged adults are pale and often take a few days to develop their full colour. The adult damselflies feed on the insects they catch in flight.

Train walk – 21 July 2011

The second in a series of ‘station walks’ connects Godley and Flowery Field on an easy four mile walk.

Take the train from Flowery Field Railway Station, Bennett Street, Hyde, SK14 4TQ to Godley. Go down the slope from the platform and at the bottom cross Mottram Road go under the rail bridge and follow the track to the left of the terraced houses. Continue up Station Road, passing Almond Way and go up the slope on the left of the bridge, at the top go right along the old railway track. This is a stretch of the Trans Pennine Trail.

Follow this track for about 1¾ miles and at the end go round to the right through a stile and down Apethorn Lane. When the lane bends to the right, keep to the left of a small parking area and follow the path over the canal footbridge, at the bottom of the steps go left along the towpath of the Peak Forest Canal towards Hyde.

In the 1790’s the Peak Forest Canal Company was formed to construct a canal from the Ashton Canal's short branch crossing the Dukinfield aqueduct, to Chapel Milton, north of Chapel-en-le-Frith. The hilly nature of the landscape called for several tunnels and aqueducts, including one almost 100 feet high across the River Goyt Eventually the funding was found to construct the flight of 16 locks to link the upper and lower pounds, which opened in 1804.

Continue along the towpath for about 1½ miles. The towpath crosses to the other bank at Captain Clarkes Bridge, this was to stop people trespassing on Thomas Ashton’s land and the ‘roving bridge’ was designed to allow a horse towing a boat to cross the canal without being unhitched. At bridge number 4 leave the canal and go up Dunkirk Lane, passing Newton Hall on the right.

During the Roman era, a track connecting the Roman garrison town of Mamucium (Manchester) and the fort of Ardotalia (long known as Melandra at Gamesley near Glossop) crossed the River Tame hereabouts and passed close by the site of the future Newton Hall. This track was in use until medieval times as a packhorse road.
Cross Dukinfield Road and continue up Lower Bennett Street. Go over the railway bridge and pass St Stephen’s church on your right, at mini roundabout cross over Old Road and continue up Bennett Street and back to Flowery Field station.

Carrbrook – 14 July 2011

Most of the towns and villages in Tameside exist because of the abundant supply of water. Carrbrook is no exception. Carr Brook and other streams rise in the moorland to the east and northeast of the valley and converge at the head of Cowbury Dale above the village between Buckton moor and Slatepit moor. The streams provided both power for mills and water for processing. By 1840 there were six mills and a print works relying on the Carr Brook and water supplies were at a premium. Buckton Vale Mill began in 1777 as a woollen mill. It converted to cotton spinning in 1800. Most of the early cotton mills were in converted woollen mills, probably because the best locations had already been taken.

In 1825 a new block printing works was built on the site of the former Buckton Vale Mill. The site was selected because of the rights to pure water from the moors. By the 1890s, the print works as part of their expansion plans embarked on a huge water management project designed to guarantee supplies. The project involved boring a 500 foot well, creating various small reservoirs and holding ponds along the length of Carr Brook. There was intensive culverting and the construction of a dam and reservoir at the confluence of the streams in Cowbury dale. A narrow gauge railway was built to transport materials between the village and he dam construction site, evidence of which can still be seen today.

In 1899 the Buckton Vale Print Works became part of the Calico Printers Association and was renamed the Calprina Works. From the 1970’s the complex on the site began to shrink as sections were closed and demolished. In September 1981, Chemstar, a chemical processing company which was occupying part of the buildings, exploded. This triggered a series of blasts that was felt in the centre of Stalybridge. 200 Firemen battled for over 13 hours to bring the blaze under control. The contaminated soil was removed from the site and in 1993 the area now known as Cowbury Green and was officially opened.

Duck Island, in the middle of the village is another remnant of the print works. This former reservoir now provides a home to a variety of ducks and geese.

The Canal That Never Was – 30 June 2011

The Beat Bank Branch Canal was to leave the Stockport Branch canal in South Reddish. It was to be lock free but with a short tunnel and follow the contour above the right bank of the River Tame. It was to terminate at or near to the coalmining hamlet of Beat Bank in Denton where it could also secure supplies of coal from nearby mines at Haughton Green.

The Act authorising the Ashton Canal received Royal Assent in 1792. The Stockport Branch, the Beat Bank Branch and Hollinwood Branch canals, were authorised by Act of Parliament obtained by the Proprietors of the Ashton canal the following year. It also allowed the Proprietors to raise £30,000 to fund the construction of all three branches. Concerns were soon being expressed within the Company about the adequacy of coal supplies for the canal to carry and thus generate sufficient income. Subsequently, and fatefully as far as the Beat Bank Branch was concerned, the Werneth Colliery Company privately extended the Hollinwood Branch and another branch went up to Park Bridge.

Construction of the Beat Bank branch was difficult, as it was on a clay slope at the edge of the Tame Valley, and once the Ashton Canal Company had secured an adequate coal-carrying business on the Hollinwood Branch Canal and the Fairbottom branch canal, they decided to suspend all work on the unfinished Beat Bank Branch Canal. They informed William Hulton, the owner of the coal mines at Denton, that they could not afford to complete the work. Hulton opposed this Bill and the Company then offered to give him the unfinished branch. He refused this offer and tried to get the abandonment clause defeated. He failed in this attempt and the Act was passed.

This Act of Parliament obtained in 1798 allowed the Canal Company to raise further money and abandon the unfinished canal. Some of the money raised was used to pay compensation to land and property owners along the line of the canal for loss or damage caused by the activities of the Canal Company. Sections of this canal still remain to the right of Ross Lave Lane and past the M60 viaduct.

Streaking across Werneth Low – 23 June 2011

The Werneth Low Country Park Colony of the Green hairstreak is probably the largest within the Greater Manchester area. These butterflies are attracted to the area, especially the banks of Pipers Clough, because of the substantial areas of Bilberry, their main food source, growing in a sunny situation and protected by shelter belts of scrub, bushes and small trees, mainly Oak, Hawthorn and Holly, which also provide essential “perches” for the highly territorial males.

It is unmistakable with its green underside which is always shown when perched, resembling a newly opened leaf. Upper wings are brown giving brown appearance in flight. This butterfly will also regulate its body temperature by tilting its wings appropriately to catch the sun’s rays.

There is one generation a year. The adults usually begin to emerge in late April, though emergence may be two or three weeks earlier in warm springs. The main flight period normally lasts into June with a few individuals possibly surviving into July.

The female butterflies have been noted to be quite fussy over the selection of food plants on which eggs are laid. Usually, only the tenderest young Bilberry in sheltered, sunny situations are selected. The green and yellow larva is fully grown by August. At this stage, it deserts the food plant to search for a pupation site, where it remains as a chrysalis until the following spring unlike all other hairstreaks in Britain, which all hibernate as eggs

The Green hairstreak colony at Werneth Low Country Park is of considerable importance owing to nationwide and regional declines in the distribution of this butterfly. Effective habitat management will ensure the main breeding areas remain suitable for the butterfly and should also be beneficial in improving the suitability of the Low for a range of other insects and invertebrates which form the base of the food chain and have a consequential beneficial effect to the suitability of Werneth Low Country Park for birds and mammals higher up the chain.

Cast in Iron – 9 June 2011

Between Clarence Street and Staley Wharf, Stalybridge, the Huddersfield Narrow Canal passes over the River Tame on Stakes Aqueduct, also known as Stalybridge Aqueduct. The canal is carried in a cast-iron trough while the towpath crosses an arched stone bridge alongside. Outram's original stone aqueduct had four arches and was constructed in 1795. It was swept away by a flood in August 1799. The replacement aqueduct was built in 1800. It was the second and only surviving prefabricated iron aqueduct designed by engineer Benjamin Outram, and one of the earliest cast iron canal troughs in the country.

Using cast iron was seen as a quick and cost effective way to replace it, but this was still a novel idea. In1799, Outram had already built a similar structure at Holmes on the Derby Canal, which has now gone

.The first cast iron aqueduct in the world dates from 1795 and was built by Thomas Telford at Longdon-on-Tern. It carried the Shrewsbury Canal across the River Tern, on its way from Coalbrookdale to Shrewsbury. This was seen as a prototype for the famous Pontcysyllte Aqueduct near Llangollen. Though the Shrewsbury Canal was closed after the Second World War, the aqueduct survives intact.

The Stalybridge Aqueduct, has a trough 18.75m long overall with a clear span of 16.75m over the river. The trough is 3m wide and 1.8m deep, with separate side and base segments approximately 900mm long connected by bolts and square-headed nuts. Each end of the aqueduct has niches for stop planks.

The trough is self-supporting between the two abutments, although pairs of raking tie bars were added in 1870. In 1875, the trough was supported mid-span from the arch of the adjacent towpath bridge. The towpath is carried on an elliptical masonry arch of 17 m span with a single ring of stones.
Sadly, Benjamin Outram did not live to see its completion, dying in 1805, but it is a fitting tribute to him.

The other aqueduct on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal is the Royal George Aqueduct over the River Tame on the Mossley/Saddleworth border and is largely unaltered since its construction in 1787.

Let the train take the strain – 19 May 2011

The Tameside Countryside Service have devised a few new walking routes between railway stations. The first of these links Broadbottom to Godley and is an easy three miles walk. Take the train from Godley Railway Station, Mottram Road, Godley, Hyde to Broadbottom. This is the Manchester - Glossop Line.

At Broadbottom station, from platform “trains to Glossop side” go over the footbridge and back along platform towards Manchester, through a gate down the slope turn left down the hill through a wood past Summerbottom cottages to Hodge Lane
Summerbottom was built in the 1780’s as weavers’ cottages. The original eight, although separate cottages, had a common top story to house the weaving looms. Access was from ramps at the back.

Turn right onto Hodge Lane, passing the old Dye Vats of Hodge Printworks, on the left. When you reach Hodgefold cottages turn left past the white building of Leylands Farm following the track to Bothams Hall.

Hodge Printworks started out as a woollen mill in 1798. In 1805 it was converted into a dye works. The dyed cloth was of such high quality that some pieces are still on display in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The dye vats were used to wash, bleach and dye the finished cloth. The waste dye was released into the river. The cloth was spread out in the flat field on the right to dry in the sun. In 1986 a team of archaeologists excavated the dye vats that you can see today.

Just past Bothams Hall turn left through gate and follow the path that goes straight on up through Back Wood. At the top of the wood continue up the left hand side of the field, at the top, turn right along the track. Here there are good views of Broadbottom, Coombs Edge and Bleaklow and at a gate bear left up through a stile and right along Apple Street.

At Lowend Farm turn left along the track to Mottram Old Road. Cross the road and go left for a short distance. Turn right and go through Greenside Farm down the hedge lined track to a field. Go diagonally left (no defined path) with a wood on your left and at the far left hand corner of the field, go down through the wood to a stream. Cross the stream to the left of a large pipe, over stiles through a marshy field towards Brookfold Farm. Go straight on through the farm and along the lane and down under the bridge, cross Almond Way and straight on down the lane to Mottram Road and back to the station.

Arthur Palmer Aspland Maternity Hospital – 12 May 2011

In the latter part of the nineteenth century Mr. Arthur Palmer Aspland JP, of Werneth Lodge, Gee Cross, was a leading figure in the industrial and social life of Hyde. He was born in 1837, and entered the cotton trade in 1853. In 1860 in partnership with his cousin Edward Hibbert took over Greencroft Mill, Hyde. During this time Mr. Palmer had many business concerns in the surrounding area, including Slack Mills, Hyde.

For twelve years Mr. Aspland was a member of the Hyde Local Board and a justice of the peace for the county of Chester. He married his cousin, Sarah Hibbert, with whom he had five children, a son, Arthur Brook Aspland, and four daughters, Jane, Florence, Mary and Ethel. He died in 1900 and was buried at Hyde Chapel.
In 1868, Mr. Aspland built Werneth Lodge, Gee Cross, Hyde, which on 11 August 1919 his widow and son generously presented to the town of Hyde.

The grounds were formally opened as a public park on 29 July 1922. The house was converted into a Maternity Hospital known as the Arthur Palmer Aspland Maternity Hospital but known locally as Aspland Maternity home; Mrs. Aspland formally opened the hospital on October 1st 1931. For over forty years Aspland’s served the community of Hyde, as a safe and loved place to have their children until its closure in November 1973. The building was demolished in 1987 and the land sold for private housing. Two stone pillars, which once stood on the driveway to Aspland’s were donated to Werneth Low Country Park and were erected on the drive at the entrance to the Park. In November 1988 Mrs. Margaret Snow, the granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. A.P. Aspland, unveiled a plaque on the wall at the side of the pillars.

Dave Cannon, the ranger at Werneth Low, recalls a tale told to him by Eric and Doreen Thompson who lived for many years at 40 Higham Lane, Gee Cross. The house is just below the entrance to the old Aspland Maternity Hospital and on many occasions on snowy, icy nights in the depths of winter, ambulances could not get all the way to the Aspland. The matron and nurses could be seen running out of the main entrance down Higham Lane to the stranded ambulance. Mrs. Thompson said, “the matron and nurses looked as if they were flying, as their uniform capes were trailing behind them, blown about by stormy winds”. Sometimes they were not fast enough and the baby was born in the ambulance or nearly in no 40, which could mean that the birth certificate should read “place of birth Higham Lane”.

Huddersfield Narrow Canal – 28 April 2011

April 2011 celebrates the bi-centenary of the completion of Standedge Tunnel and the official opening of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. With the Industrial Revolution and the growth of population, manufacturing and trade, it became essential that there were navigable routes between Lancashire and Yorkshire. The Pennines became a natural barrier and the first to cross them was the Leeds-Liverpool Canal with its indirect route via Burnley and Skipton, started in 1770. The Ashton Canal Company began to connect Manchester and Ashton under Lyne in 1792 offering another route across the Pennines, by making use of the valleys of the Tame and Colne. The Act of Parliament to authorise the construction of the canal gained assent on 4 April 1794 and the newly formed Huddersfield Canal Company appointed Derbyshire man Benjamin Outram as its engineer.

Construction work started simultaneously on both sides of the Pennines and on the Standedge Tunnel. Although progress on the tunnel was painstakingly slow, by the end of 1798 the canal was opened for business from Huddersfield to Marsden and Ashton to Dobcross. A series of 74 locks along its 19.75 mile length raises the canal to a height of 645 feet making it Britain's highest canal.

Good and ample water supplies were crucial to its operation. Although supplied by ten reservoirs, the Huddersfield Narrow suffered on numerous occasions, periods of drought. One summer, the canal had to close for 39 days. Severe Pennine winters hindered boat movements due to heavy frost and thick ice which forced closure for weeks at a time. Canal-side huts were built to enable ice locked boaters and their families facilities to keep warm and dry.

The canal freight rates in 1844 were so low that it was uneconomical to continue and in 1845 the Canal amalgamated with the Huddersfield and Manchester Railway Co. taken over two years later by the London & North Western Railway Company. As the rail traffic increased, canal business decreased, the last recorded commercial cargo taken through Standedge Tunnel was in November 1921, which eventually led to the canal being closed by Act of Parliament in 1944.

Following restoration work in the 1980s over three quarters of the canal was made navigable. Today, the canal has been fully restored and the six mile stretch in Tameside now offers recreational use either on the water or along the towpath. Many of Tameside’s Countryside sites can be found close to the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, such as Roaches and Scout Green. In a future article read about some of the interesting features you can discover on the canal.

Shakespeare’s Flowers – 21 April 2011

As we approach Shakespeare’s Birthday on Saturday, it is interesting to see his connection with nature and particularly his use of flowers. There are references to flowers in the history plays, tragedies, comedies and romances and out of his 39 plays, garden and wildflowers are found in 19 of them. Growing up in the late 1500s he must have explored the fields and forests surrounding the small town of Stratford –upon Avon, which allowed him to write so convincingly about nature.

Shakespeare knew his poisons, he talks of Aconitum in Henry IV, commonly named 'Monkshood' is one of the most toxic plants known to man. In Europe the poison that was collected from this plant was used to kill wolves and mad dogs hence its other name "Wolfsbane" or "Dogsbane". Othello says to Desdemona ‘Not poppy nor madragora, nor all the drowsy syrups in the world, shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep’ The Opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, is the species of plant from which opium and poppy seeds are extracted. Opium is the source of many opiates, including morphine and codeine. The Latin botanical name means the "sleep-bringing poppy", referring to the sedative properties of some of these opiates. Madragora is commonly known as mandrake, a narcotic much used in the middle ages as a pain killer. The potency of the mandrake, which contains several alkaloids of medicinal value, has made it one of the most frequently mentioned plants in literature. In Macbeth, the three witches add ‘root of hemlock digg’d i’ the dark’ to the boiling cauldron. All parts of the hemlock are poisonous and in Ancient Greece, Socrates drank a cup of hemlock.

Shakespeare was also well versed in the language of flowers. In Hamlet, Ophelia in her state of madness scatters flowers and says ’There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance, and there is pansies, that’s for thoughts. There’s fennel for you and columbines, there’s rue for you and here’s some for me.’ Rosemary has a very old reputation for improving memory and has been used as a symbol for remembrance during weddings, war commemorations and funerals. Mourners would throw it into graves as a symbol of remembrance for the dead. Pansy is the English way of saying the French word “pensee’ which means thought and people used to send these flowers for their loved ones to remember them by. Fennel was thought to mean ‘worthy of praise’ and columbines were perfect for the bouquet of a deserted lover.

Rue is well known for its symbolic meaning of regret and it is sometimes been called "herb-of-grace" in literary works. In the ‘fantastic garlands’ draped on the drowned body of Ophelia are dead men’s fingers, these are early purple orchids, which grow on Werneth Low.

Out of the Wood – 7 April 2011

The planned felling of a large sycamore tree last October marked the beginning of an unusual and creative recycling project run by Tameside Countryside Rangers.
The ‘Out of the Wood’ project aimed to encourage people from all walks of life to appreciate the value of our woodland by taking a piece of the sycamore tree and transforming it into something useful or creative. Sycamore timber which is creamy white, hard and strong is easy to work and does not warp. It was traditionally used for flooring, musical instruments and many household utensils and for the table tops of kitchens and dairies.

The tree, sited at Scout Green, Mossley needed to be felled as it was blocking light from younger, native trees. Pupils from Ravensfield School, Dukinfield came along to watch the Rangers use their chainsaw skills and encouraged by shouts of "Timber!" the tree was brought down exactly as planned. Logs and sawdust were carried back to school as souvenirs, later to be transformed into birdfeeders for the school grounds.

A few days later, the large tree trunk provided the perfect opportunity for a saw-milling demonstration. Frankland Tree Services were invited to come along with their mobile sawmill and to plank the tree, watched by members of the public, who chose and took home logs and planks with ideas of transforming them into something unique.

Over the following weeks pieces of the tree were fast disappearing as groups and individuals started their projects and what a variety of ideas emerged. Artists have been hard at work, carving and sculpting. Groups have been making birdfeeders and bug houses, whilst others have made shelves, benches and signs. Sawdust has been pulped into paper and modelled, leaves have been painted and pressed and twigs have been whittled and made into wands. One branch even starred in a theatre production!

Skylark – 31 March 2011

“A skylark wounded in the wing, a Cherubim does cease to sing.” so says William Blake in his famous poem Auguries of Innocence. Shelley wrote ‘Ode to a Skylark’ and William Wordsworth wrote ‘To a Skylark’ saying “Up with me, into the clouds! For thy song, lark is strong.” Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote ‘The Lark Ascending’ inspired by the skylark’s melodies, this piece of classical music is regularly voted one of Britain’s favourites. The collective name for a skylark is an ‘exaltation’ which is a perfect description.

It is the male, like in most bird species, who has all the songs. As it performs its conspicuous flight above the open fields, giving voice loudly and constantly, it is a difficult bird to ignore. The male tries to dominate a patch of sky in order to perform better than his competitors and woo females. The birds with the widest repertoire of songs are more likely to attract mates. The skylark rises several hundred feet vertically in hovering flight, sustaining its clear warbling song for several minutes at a time. Then the bird sinks down, singing until it is near the ground.

Apart from its song, the skylark is an unobtrusive bird. It is larger than a sparrow, but smaller than a starling. It has a streaky brown plumage with a small crest, which can be raised when the bird is excited or alarmed. The nest is always placed in a hollow on the ground. It is often partly concealed in a tussock of grass. Three to five eggs are usually laid, off white or very pale green, heavily speckled with brown or olive. The chicks depend on camouflage and thick ground cover for protection for they do not fly well until they are about three weeks old.

It is very much identified with the countryside rather than with towns but it breeds more widely than any other bird in Britain so is seen in all parts of the country that suit it, farm land, grassland, meadows, sand dunes and commons. In Tameside, it has been identified by the Countryside Service as the key species for Mossley and can often be seen above the acid grasslands which surround the town.

Be Involved – 17 March 2011

Volunteers have played a major role within Tameside’s Countryside Service since 1976 and there are still two of the original volunteers who lead some of events on the summer programme. There are currently 16 volunteers who have been active for 30 years and over 30 volunteers gained their 10 year badges. For some volunteers it was a rung on the career ladder and have gone to jobs with the National Trust, National Parks and with other countryside services all over the country.

As more and more people have spare time available the service has encouraged new volunteers to ‘have a go’ by arranging a number of ‘taster days’. These days give the public a chance to take a more active role in helping to conserve their local countryside and play a role in the service provided by the ranger team, but also to learn about habitats, wildlife and methods of conservation. The traditional crafts of hedgelaying, coppicing and dry-stone walling are always a popular activity for volunteers as the visual impact is rewarding and it also gives an opportunity to transfer their skills to their own gardens.

As times are changing so too is the role of the volunteer within the service and a broader range of opportunities are becoming available to those who may not have previously thought that volunteering with the countryside service may not have been for them. We are looking for volunteers with skills to engage and enthuse the public, working out of our visitor centres at Park Bridge, Broadbottom and Werneth Low or as part of our outreach team at farmers markets and community events across the borough. You may see them out and about in the ‘Wild Van.’

So far the taster days have proved to be a good way of getting permanent volunteers. David Hollington has been with us for over three years and when asked what first attracted him he said “I initially wanted to give something back to society and make a contribution to the countryside. I was hoping to learn new skills after retiring from an office bound career and be out in the fresh air. I was hooked after my first day and now enjoy the team work, feeling a lot fitter and working in a variety of sites.”

David Cameron might have penned the phrase ‘Big Society’ but the Tameside Countryside Service have been successfully using volunteers for over 30 years.

Spring Flowers – 10 March 2011

In the words of an Old Chinese Proverb; Spring is sooner recognized by plants than by men. All around us we can now seen the earliest wild flowers poking their heads above ground. The snow and frozen ground is forgotten as we welcome the first delicate flowers.

Hazel – One of the earliest spring flowers is not a flower at all, but a catkin. The hazel brings us a whisper of coming spring, often as early as January. The male catkins leave behind their stiff winter brownness as they grow and fill with pollen. They become like tassels of gold which hang vividly against the bareness of the winter branches. The male catkins, or lamb’s tails as they are familiarly known, shed their pollen in the wind before the appearance of most spring flowers. The small female flowers, tipped with red stigmas, catch the pollen from the male catkins. The pollination is then complete, the male catkins fade, their work being done.

Wood Anemone – Another name for this delicate flower is ‘windflower’ which suits it perfectly, as, according to the Greek writer Pliny, the flowers will not open until the wind blows. If the weather is sunny, the flowers will be wide open, but if it’s cloudy or near evening, they will close and droop gracefully. The scent is less attractive than their appearance, giving them the alternative name of ‘smell foxes’ the juice from the roots is bitter and poisonous. The wood anemone is a good indicator of Ancient woodland and in Tameside you can see them in Great Wood, Broadbottom and Hulmes and Hardy Wood in Denton, before the canopy is too dense for them to flourish.

Primrose – This is one of the most easily recognised wildflowers and like its domestic cousin, polyanthus, is a cheery sight in early spring. The Latin name Primula means first rose, referring to its early flowering. On the 19th April, primrose flowers are placed on Benjamin Disraeli’s statue in London. This former Prime Minister used to receive his favourite flowers from Queen Victoria, sent from Windsor and Osborne House. She sent a wreath of primroses to his funeral. As they bloom when there are few insects about, they are often not pollinated, those that are, produce sticky seeds. Ants are attracted to the food stored in the seeds and carry them off which disperses them. In the middle ages, a concoction made from primroses was used as a remedy for gout and rheumatism and an infusion of the roots was taken for nervous headaches. The flowers were also used in the preparation of love potions.

Head in the Clouds – 24 February 2011

Cumulus are the low, white, puffy clouds that look like pieces of floating cotton, often called "fair-weather clouds". They develop vertically in rising mounds, domes or towers and usually have flat bases. The upper parts often resemble cauliflowers and they appear brilliant white when reflecting high sunlight but can look dark when the sun is behind them.

Cumulonimbus are thunderstorms clouds characterised by their enormous height. High winds can flatten the top of the cloud into an anvil-like shape. Cumulonimbus clouds are associated with heavy rain, snow, hail and lightning. The anvil usually points in the direction the storm is moving.

Stratus are grey layers of cloud, that often cover the entire sky. They are the lowest-forming of all the clouds, sometimes appearing at ground level when they are called fog or mist. Light mist or drizzle sometimes falls out of these clouds.

Stratocumulus are low layers puffy and grey. They usually form in clumps or rolls with blue sky visible in between them. Rain rarely occurs with stratocumulus clouds, however, they can turn into nimbostratus clouds.

Altocumulus are mid level clouds that are made of water droplets and appear as grey puffy masses. They usually form in groups. If you see altocumulus clouds on a warm, sticky morning, be prepared to see thunderstorms late in the afternoon.

Altostratus clouds are grey or blue-grey mid level clouds composed of ice crystals and water droplets. The clouds usually cover the entire sky. In the thinner areas of the clouds, the sun may be dimly visible as a round disk. Altostratus clouds often form ahead of storms with continuous rain or snow.
Nimbostratus are thick, grey, featureless layers of cloud that cause prolonged continuous, often heavy rain, snow or ice, they generally extend over many thousand square miles.

Cirrus are the most common of the high clouds. They are composed of ice and are thin, wispy clouds blown in high winds into long streamers. They usually indicates that a change in the weather will occur within 24 hours and by watching the movement of them you can tell from which direction weather is approaching.

Cirrocumulus clouds appear as small, rounded white puffs that appear in long rows. The small ripples in the cirrocumulus clouds sometime resemble the scales of a fish. Cirrocumulus clouds are usually seen in the winter and indicate fair, but cold weather.

Cirrostratus are largely transparent, milky veils of high cloud. They cover a large area of the sky, extending over many thousands of square miles. They sometimes produce the white or coloured rings around the Sun or the Moon, known as the halo phenomena.

Blanket Bog - 17 February 2011

The hills on the eastern side of Tameside above Stalybridge, Mossley and Longdendale, are a small part of the Dark Peak area of the South Pennines. The Dark Peak gets its name from the peat covered moorlands that dominate the hills at the northern end of the Peak District. Although our hills are not in the National Park they are a continuation of that moorland expanse.

Moorland is a mixture of upland habitats, but the word moor comes from old German and means swamp, so it is almost certainly the areas with wet peat that give the moors their name.

On the upland plateau on deeper peats, you find blanket bog, now dominated by hare’s tail cottongrass, but in the past there would have been abundant sphagnum mosses. Mixed in with this in drier patches you can find heather, bilberry, crowberry and cloudberry, or around bog pools common cottongrass and deergrass. It is important for some breeding birds like golden plover and dunlin. Blanket bogs occur where rainfall is greater than evaporation, and falls regularly through the year. This has been the case in the Dark Peak for most of the last 4000 years. The waterlogged conditions mean plant material does not properly rot down and peat is formed. The great peat formers are the sponge like sphagnum mosses, but the pollution, overgrazing and excessive burning over the last couple of hundred years has seen them disappear from our moors. Peat accumulation has therefore slowed, and in the worst affected areas there is little plant cover and the peat is eroding, including on parts of the Tameside moors. However the levels of pollution have declined and work to try and reintroduce sphagnum mosses is now being trialled. But this is not just about caring for habitats, active blanket bog is important in water management and for managing our carbon footprints in order to minimise the forecast climate change. Active blanket bogs with sphagnum mosses are huge stores of carbon, but eroded ones actually release carbon into the atmosphere as the peat rots.

Locally where drainage is impeded you get wet heath, where cross-leaved heath is abundant, with other ‘heathers’, deergrass and some cottongrass. These upland heaths are again of international importance and Britain has the majority of that found in Europe.

Every cloud has a silver lining - 3 February 2011

Cloud cuckoo land, under a cloud, on cloud nine are all phrases we use and it’s rare that a day goes by without a cloud in the sky. There are many different types of clouds, each offering a different type of weather pattern and there are weather sayings such as "Mare's tails and mackerel scales make tall ships take in their sails" which are specifically about clouds. A mackerel sky refers to cirrocumulus clouds, which often precede an approaching warm front, which will eventually bring veering winds and precipitation.

All air contains water, but near the ground it is usually in the form of an invisible gas called water vapour. When warm air rises, it expands and cools. Cool air can't hold as much water vapour as warm air, so some of the vapour condenses onto tiny pieces of dust that are floating in the air and forms a tiny droplet around each dust particle. When billions of these droplets come together they become a visible cloud. As long as the cloud and the air that it’s made of is warmer than the outside air around it, it floats!

Clouds are white because they reflect the light of the sun. Light is made up of colours of the rainbow and when you add them all together you get white. The sun appears a yellow colour because it sends out more yellow light than any other colour. Clouds reflect all the colours the exact same amount so they look white. If the clouds get thick enough or high enough all the light above does not make it through, hence the gray or dark look. Also, if there are lots of other clouds around, their shadow can add to the gray or multicoloured gray appearance.

Clouds move with the wind. High cirrus clouds are pushed along by the jet stream, sometimes travelling at more than 100 miles-per-hour. When clouds are part of a thunderstorm they usually travel at 30 to 40 mph. The characteristics of clouds are dictated by the elements available, including the amount of water vapour, the temperatures at that height, the wind, and the interplay of other air masses. There will be more on the different types of clouds in a future article.

Two weeks ago there was a temperature inversion, which is when there is an increase of air temperature with altitude. This is a reversal of the norm, as temperature usually decreases with altitude. It resulted in a blanket of cloud preventing the upward movement of the air below it. If you were on high ground such as Werneth Low, the sight was spectacular.

A hard life in the Bottom Forge – 27 January 2011

Life was hard in the Bottom Forge at Park Bridge with unwelcome visitors, but some amusing memories.

Harry Holland who started work in the Bottom Forge in1951 remembered all the different jobs on the rolling mills.

‘I started at Park Bridge, when I was fifteen, as a ‘heaver out’. All the jobs at the rolling mills had different names. There was the ‘trailer’, the ‘bolter downer’, the ‘hooker’, the ‘catcher’, the ‘putter inner’, the ‘heaver outer’, the ‘stretcher’ and the ‘underhand’.

The workers had no protection, gloves, hats, anything. Anything you had you had to buy. They wore clogs with irons on them. The clogs were made out of old boots. It was cheaper just to buy the wooden bottoms. The Army & Navy Stores, Mumps Bridge, Oldham, used to sell old boots. You used to fetch them in and big Tommy Harrop and Billy Drover used to make clogs. They used to take the bottoms off the boots, use the uppers to put on the wooden soles and then bang the irons on.

You got a bonus on the amount of steel you put through. If you were running a round bar and then you had to run a square bar, you had to change the rollers and that was half a day gone. Everyone had to muck in to change the rollers. The small rollers we did by hand. The big rollers were lifted out by a pulley system.’

Joe Foster remembered some unwelcome visitors to the Bottom Forge.

‘Tallow was used to grease the necks of the rolls. It had to be done every day as each night the rats came up from the river and ate it. One Sunday night there was a bad thunderstorm and the Bottom Forge was knee deep in water. Me and Tommy Williams, who worked on the attritor, the machine that fed the furnace with pulverised coal, were stood on the office steps and everything we could see above water was covered in rats.’

John Fairhurst recalled this amusing story.

‘My father was Works Manager at Park Bridge Ironworks from 1938 until 1961. This is one of the funny stories I remember him telling me: All the men had been in the canteen complaining that the water was not very good so he said, “Right”, and he got them all in the canteen and said, “So what’s the problem with the water?” There were huge copper boilers and they all came with their billy cans to brew up for their lunch, so they said, “Well, it’s horrible, it’s all greasy.” Walter, who worked in the weighbridge, was a little man with bowlegs. He was a bit deaf as well. Walter came hobbling in and he said, “What are you all doing here?” and he lifted the lid up and took two black puddings out of the boiler. That was the reason the water was greasy. He was cooking the black puddings for his lunch in the water geyser!’

Wildlife Corridors – 13 January 2011

Waterways like rivers and canals, weave through our urban and rural landscapes, but even these are sometimes made largely unnatural as they pass underground in tunnels and culverts.

They were at the heart of the industrial revolution in Manchester, as sources of power, water and transport. Urbanisation has changed them in many ways, but they are now important as part of trying to make a more sustainable future. Over the last 40 years the rivers and canals have formed the ‘skeleton’ around which remnants of other semi-natural habitats, new naturally developed habitats and specially created habitats have started to bring wildlife back.

Having small wildlife friendly pockets scattered sparsely around the landscape, makes it difficult for all but the most robust and mobile species to survive. Some of these ‘islands’, may be Nature Reserves where management is targeted on benefiting wildlife, but not all are. Reducing this isolation or fragmentation has been important to nature conservation for years but with the predictions of a rapidly changing climate it is now even more important if some species are going to have a chance of surviving.

Woods, meadows, ponds, hedges, scrub, parks or even gardens along these waterways, in many places, provide either green corridors or linked stepping stones, not only for wildlife but for people to live and visit. Feeding these waterways is the peat moors of the Pennines, one of our largest remaining areas of semi-natural habitat, and a possible sink for the carbon we are polluting our world with, if they where an active bog rather than the degraded one it is now.

These links need to be improved upon if we are to meet the additional challenges brought by climate change to not only us but the wildlife we share our lives with.