Читать книгу Walking in the Yorkshire Dales: South and West. Wharfedale, Littondale, Malhamdale, Dentdale and Ribblesdale онлайн

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Field laithe (barn) below Birks Wood (Walk 10)

But nothing remains static, not even in a farming landscape, and change is inevitable to meet ever evolving demands. Arable farming disappeared with the arrival of the railways in the later part of the 19th century, when fresh food could easily be ‘imported’ from the more productive market garden areas of the country. Dairy farming, beef cattle and sheep rearing are now the main activities, cattle predominant on the lower farms with sheep ubiquitous elsewhere. Indeed, so much do they reflect the character of life in the Dales that the Swaledale sheep has been adopted as the emblem of the park. It is only such hardy breeds with thick dense fleeces that are able to survive the harsh conditions and poor grazing of the upper fells, and they are generally only brought down for lambing and shearing, or when deep winter snow blankets the sparse vegetation upon which they otherwise manage to survive.

Although wool was once an important element of the local economy, that of the hill sheep is now used only for carpet manufacture, and low prices often mean that its value is less than the cost of shearing. The lambs are generally sold on to lowland farms for fattening, with the strong ewes being valued as breeding stock. On the moors, the sheep are ‘heafed’ or ‘hefted’ to the land, an instinct that keeps them within their own territory. The ewes somehow pass this instinct on to their lambs, which makes the job of the farmer immeasurably easier when it comes to rounding up the flock. The number of sheep is determined by what the grazing can sustain. Too small and the land will become overrun with scrub, but too much will kill off the heather and denude the grass slopes. Maintaining that delicate balance over the centuries has created the open aspect of the countryside that we so value today.