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BOOKS > TV > RADIO > FILM > LETTERS > PUZZLES
NATURE IN RECOVERY
An ecologist’s tale of the battle to boost biodiversity while keeping a farm afloat
BOOK
WILD FELL: FIGHTING FOR NATURE ON A LAKE DISTRICT HILL FARM
BY LEE SCHOFIELD, TRANSWORLD, £20 HB
A vein of mistrust and suspicion runs through Wild Fell like lines in a stick of rock; seeking to navigate the yin and yang of wildlife conservation and sheep farming, Lee Schofield frequently comes unstuck. “If you hate sheep so much, Lee, why are you even bothering with them?” asks one farmer at a meeting in Ambleside he attends.
It’s not a bad question, as Schofield himself tacitly acknowledges. Many conservationists do hate sheep, and yet Schofield runs a hill farm owned by Britain’s biggest wildlife group, the RSPB.
The Lake District is our most famous national park and a World Heritage Site to boot, with some 20 million visitors every year, but on the whole, it is not a place flocked to by people who want to see something feathered or furry. Or even flowery. And that’s because of sheep. In Cumbria, they live at a density that is five times higher than they are in Norway and they eradicate biodiversity with every mouthful.
But sheep farming is part of Cumbria’s cultural heritage, so how do you square lowering sheep densities with providing a viable income for farmers? That, in essence, is what Schofield is trying to do.
In the end, it all comes down to flowers.
Schofield may work for the RSPB, but Wild Fell leaves you in no doubt that if we don’t protect our wild blooms, there won’t be any bugs and there won’t be any birds and, ultimately, any people. James Fair, wildlife journalist
BOOK
OUR WILD FARMING LIFE
BY LYNN CASSELLS AND SANDRA BAER CHELSEA GREEN, £18.99 HB
What a joyous book this is. Tales of people upping sticks to follow their dreams in beautiful places are invariably stirring stu month, Cassells (below right), tells the story of how she and Baer took over a semi-derelict Scottish croft and brought it back to ravishing life, but sharing the writing credits seems only natural given the young couple’s collaborative approach to farming, where livestock and humans alike are all part of “the team”.
“We never meant to be farmers,” Cassells says – the big idea was simply to lead a more sustainable existence on their own modest plot. Once the pair fall in love with the rugged 60-hectare Lynbreck Croft near the Cairngorms and start to care for the land and live to its seasonal rhythms, they become full-time farmers by a process of trial and error.
Producing delicious organic food, we learn, is an art as well as a vocation.
There are cutesy anecdotes involving free-range chickens, rare-breed pigs and adorable Highland cattle, some of which will be familiar to viewers of BBC Two series This Farming Life in which the award-winning, nature-led croft appears. But the couple are not romantic ‘lifestylers’ or rewilders. Money is tight and Cassells is brilliant at relating the daily grind, sleepless nights and never-ending business plans and grant applications that, together with a supportive local community, keep the croft viable.
Ben Hoare, naturalist and author
BOOK
THE BOOK OF THE BARN OWL
BY SALLY COULTHARD, HEAD OF ZEUS, £14.99 HB
The barn owl is a British wildlife icon. Who could fail to be thrilled by the sight of one of these pale, silent hunters as it quarters across a meadow at dusk or is lit briefly in the darkness? It is a special bird and, as this book shows, there is much about it to amaze. For example, one ear opening on the head is higher than the other, so the owl can detect prey in pitch dark in three aural dimensions. Its hearing doesn’t deteriorate with age, either, but the relevant cells are regenerated.
These are among multiple remarkable adaptations that make the barn owl fascinating as well as charismatic.
This nicely produced book, well researched and written, is divided into several chapters – such as ‘Family’, ‘Body’ and ‘Love’ – which fully cover this owl’s natural history. Each begins with a short narrative about a barn owl family that is presumably local to the author. It is all commendably accurate, up to date and, in contrast to many a recent book, concentrates properly on its subject.
There is much to like but, in my opinion, something missing, too. It is somewhere between a reference book and a “good read” type, but for me there isn’t enough sparkle for the latter. There are good turns of phrase and faultless fact-giving, but not quite the magic I would have loved.
Dominic Couzens, bird expert
MUSIC
HEAL AND HARROW RACHEL NEWTON AND LAUREN MCCOLL
A single fiddle opens with a melancholy call. A bewitching harp joins and the vocal begins, mournfully beautiful, “You’ll find me on the shoreline, in the space between, underneath the sandstone”, before rising to a despairing chorus of “and if I am a witch, will the devil help me now?”. This is ‘Lilias’, the first song on Heal & Harrow by Scottish musicians Rachel Newton and Lauren McColl, who have crafted an enchanting album inspired by the witchcraft trials of the 16th and 17th centuries.
The union of harpist and vocalist Newton with fiddler McColl is magical. In English and Gaelic, Newton sings of the women who su ered following the 1563 Witchcraft Act, when nearly 3,000 – herbalists, matriarchs, healers, nonconformists – were executed as witches. Several tracks pay tribute to a slain woman: ‘Lilias’ is a song for 64-year-old Lilias Addie, buried under a sandstone slab on the Fife coast, while the thrilling melody of ‘Behind the Eyes’ captures the story of accused-turned-accuser Margaret Aitken, burnt in 1597. This is an extraordinary album of eerie beauty.
Maria Hodson, production editor
TV
GENTLEMAN JACK, SERIES TWO
BBC ONE AND BBC IPLAYER
Set in Yorkshire in the early 1800s, the second series of Gentleman Jack sees Suranne Jones return as formidable landowner Anne Lister, with Sophie Rundle’s Ann Walker by her side. Together they set up home at Shibden Hall, keen to combine their estates and make a success of it. But Lister’s entrepreneurial spirit and unconventional love life alarms locals, and with Halifax simmering with political upheaval, trouble is brewing.
Based on the real-life diaries of Anne Lister (1791–1840), the series is sure to deliver great drama and dreamy scenes of Yorkshire countryside. As well as Shibden Hall, where Lister lived, other locations include North Yorkshire’s Sutton Park and York’s cobbled streets.
Q&A
DIGGING FOR HISTORY
In a new companion book to the Channel 4 series The Great British Dig: History in Your Garden, archaeologist Chloë Duckworth delves deeper into the sites featured in the show. We ask Chloë for some tips on how to uncover history in your own back garden
What inspired you to become an archaeologist?
I never meant to be an archaeologist. I had an offer to read law at Durham, but something just snapped and I ended up going through the list of degrees in university ‘clearing’. I spoke to a lovely man about spaces on his archaeology course and, once I was in, I was hooked for life. An archaeology degree gives you so much breadth of learning: a bit of science, a smidgeon of philosophy and critical thinking, loads of opportunities to do practical and team-based work.
How did the team identify which back gardens to investigate?
A lot of research goes into what we do before and after we excavate a site. We look at historic environment records, old maps, satellite images, previous archaeological reports and we talk to other archaeologists. On The Great British Dig, we are lucky to work with a company called Solstice Heritage, who put in a huge amount of work to pinpoint likely sites for us. That’s the easy part, though. Convincing people to let you whack a great big hole in the middle of their lawn, while a TV crew films them from behind the petunias is something else! We’ve had quite a few say “no”, but people are usually really polite about it.
What are the most common historical items people tend to find?
It depends on where you live, but a really common find is a clay smoking pipe fragment. Tobacco was first brought to the British Isles in the 16th century, and it was hugely popular by the 18th. When clay pipes broke, people would often just toss them aside. If you imagine that cigarette butts were made of something durable like clay, you can get a sense of just how many of these old bits of pipe are kicking about beneath our feet. You might also find coins and other metal objects, and the remains of air raid shelters are common in gardens.
What’s the first step to take if you think your house may be on a site worthy of excavation?
Go online and check it’s not under any kind of legal protection. If you are keen on having a dig, you will get way more out of it with a bit of forward planning. My book includes a step-by-step guide to opening a one-metre trench in your garden, and how to recognise the different archaeological layers within it.
It also helps you see how changes in soil can provide a lot of information on what happened over time. When you do find objects, all that information makes them far more meaningful.
If you come across something, who should you report the find to?
Check out the UK’s treasure laws, as it’s possible you will need to officially report your find to a local coroner. Go online and find the contact details for your local ‘finds liaison officer’ (everywhere has one); they can help to identify your find and ensure it’s properly recorded in an online database. finds.org.uk/contacts
What was the most exciting thing you unearthed on the recent TV series?
I was thrilled when I discovered a section of the barracks block wall belonging to the Roman fort at Falkirk in Scotland.
The soil was filled with all this burnt building material because the whole thing had been burnt down, either during or after its abandonment. It felt like I’d found this ‘smoking gun’ evidence for the retreat of the Romans.
Will there be a third season of The Great British Dig?
We don’t know for certain yet, but I hope so, because we already have some really exciting sites lined up!
