Adder’s tongue

A bit of an experiment. The plant is the Adder’s tongue fern, or Ophioglossum vulgatum to give it its scientific name. Its leaf is about 50 mm high and quite frankly, in the original photo, became lost in the clutter of the grassy background. So I’ve done a bit of jiggery-pokery. I hope I am excused. The Adder’s tongue was in a small area of calcareous limestone pasture in the National Trust’s Bridestones property near Dalby Forest and is quite a rarity in Yorkshire. The leaf’s similiarity to a snake’s tongue gave to the belief that it was a cure for a snake bite. At the top of stem the spore cases look ripe and have probably dispersed.

The limestone rich pasture is an island on the heather moorland between Dove Dale and Bridestone Griff and is enclosed by an embankment. The 1854 Ordnance Survey map indicates that this enclosure was a quarry with a limekiln, although any workings have been subsequently filled in. Bracken, the scourge of the moors is slowly encroaching on the pasture so a task for the National Trust rangers and volunteers is to periodically break or cut the stems so that overtime the bracken rhizomes will be weakened. This is the second year of the task and already I can see a significant improvement.

Dovedale

A secluded grassy dale in the National Trust property of Bridestones.

Prehistoric boundary, High Bride Stones

Earthworks are very interesting but I find them frustratingly difficult to photograph and this prehistoric earthbank is no exception. It’s a Scheduled Ancient Monument, or S.A.M. and it forms the boundary between the National Trust’s property of Bridestones and the Forestry Commission’s Dalby Forest. Almost a kilometre long with other Bronze Age features notably round funerary cairns. Over the decades since the forestry was planted it has encroached on the monument potentially damaging it. Historic England, the public body protecting ancient monuments, demanded that the trees are removed within a corridor of five metres either side. So work is progressing in clear felling this ten metre strip and erecting new fencing. Bridestones Moor is a rare example of moorland which has not been extensively managed for the sole purpose of producing the highest density of grouse. The result is a very biodiverse habitat.

It is not entirely clear what this boundary was actually for. A tribe or clan marking the boundaries of their land. Containment of stock. Protection from wild animals. To keep people out, or in. There is no evidence what, if any, form of structure was on top of the bank. A physically uncrossable barrier or one similar to the low palisade fencing frequently erected by residents on a modern open plan housing estate. Easy to step over but etiquette prevents us doing so. It could have identified sacred land. Indeed it could have had a multiple of  functions.

A prehistoric linear boundary

I’ve spent the day about half a kilometre north east of High Bride Stones in the parish of Lockton in the southern half of the North York Moors. Bride Stones is a National Trust property of heather moorland lacerated by deep wooded valleys or griffs. Along the north east boundary is a prehistoric earthwork, a ditch and flanking banks, about a kilometre long and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Considerable time and effort went into the building of the dyke which is thought to be a way of demonstrating  a Bronze Age tribe’s territory. A status symbol.

Over the years self sown trees and scrub from the adjacent Forestry Commission plantation have encroached over the earthworks which Historic England has said must be cleared to a distance of five metres either side. So that was the volunteering task for today,  felling trees, cutting up into manageable lengths and stacking to provide wildlife habitats. With a kilometre of the earthworks to clear this is a long term task which has now finished for the winter in order to minimise disturbance for the coming bird nesting season.

Earthworks are not necessarily photogenic so my photo for today includes a piece of ad hoc public art.

High Bride Stones

A misty, gloomy day spent cutting down self seeded spruce on the heather moorland of Bridestones, a National Trust property near Dalby Forest. After a brief respite during lunch the mist returned into a right pea souper.

High Bride Stones

 

Fascinating sandstone columns and rock outcrops eroded over the millennia by wind and rain. Deep wooded valleys or ‘griffs’ cut into the moor, which is a National Trust property a few miles south of Whitby. In the photo is Dovedale Griff.

Unlike many heather moors Bridestones is not managed solely for the grouse so is much richer in wildlife. An island for lichens, flowers, birds, small mammals. In the griffs is ancient woodland and the very highest ridges have a bedrock cap of ooidal limestone creating unique swathes of lime grassland, a rare habitat for lime loving plants and ferns such as the Adder’s-tongue Fern.

But these habitats still need to be managed. I joined a team of National Trust Rangers and Volunteers to cut back the ever encroaching bracken. I have previously cut bracken before. For an orienteering race. But that was in the Autumn when the plant was six foot high and the task was horrendous. Today though slicing the tops of the tiny uncurled fronds was like cutting asparagus. Hopefully this will weaken the rhizomes.

 

The Bridestones

Rock towers of sandstone weathered over the millennia by wind and rain. A National Trust property on the edge of Dalby Forest.

The name is not uncommon. I know of other Bridestones near Grosmont and in Tripsdale on the North York Moors. It could originate from “briddes”, the Old English word for “birds”. I suppose from some angle a particular stone may have resembled a bird.