Welcome
to the Studfold Community Nature Project, an unique investigation
attempting to record all the flora and fauna on a hill
farm in Nidderdale, North Yorkshire and to analyse the
affect of farming and industry on the site since pre-historic
times.
Industrial
activity has also taken place here and includes, coal
and lead mining and iron workings (circa 1320), Whilst
stone from a marble quarry may have been used on the altars
at Fountains Abbey. Lime was burnt here probably for farming
purposes rather than building.
"This
is a hill farm context with a truly exceptional level
of historic/archaeological interest. The existence, across
much of the area, of a system of ‘Celtic’
or presumably prehistoric fields is, on its own, justification
for this claim. The existence within this system, of what
appears to be a contemporary farmstead/hamlet further
underlines the importance of the locality."
Dr Richard
Muir – Leading Landscape
Historian / Archaeologist, Author (over 50 books) and
Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen |
