Simon English
England Revisited

On a gate south of the junction between the moors road and the Bolton Abbey to Threshfield Road at Barden Scale.

On a gate in the same gateway as 1971. The original wooden gate has been replaced with a galvanised metal one over the last 40 years. The millstone grit drystone wall is still in the same good repair and the stone gateposts still stand.

Through the gateway the view south towards Bolton Abbey seems almost unchanged. The grazing in the field has probably improved with more grass and less rushes. Beyond this over the valley a small broadleaf wood has been established.

The farmer here was farming here when I first visited. He had taken over from his father who, in the 1930s, had taken over the tenancy from the last daughter of the last of the DeMaine family who had farmed Barden Scale for, I gather, the previous 500 years. All these generations had been, and still are, tenants of successive Dukes of Devonshire.

Timeless though this may seem market forces from the new supermarkets far away demand a particular lamb chop. To this end the sheep grazing the fields here may be part of the production of North Country Mules. These are produced by putting a Bluefaced Leicester ram to Swaledale ewes. The lambs from this first cross are the ‘mules’ that are then sold on to be crossed with a Texel ram. These second generation lambs, the lambs from the ‘mules’, are those bred for their meat. In this day and age where artificial fibres have depressed the value of wool to the point that sheep had become more trouble they were worth a demand for their meat could be a farmsaver.
Points 23 & 21