Running from June 2012 until May 2014 The Forest of Bradford have been awarded £49,800 from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The focus of the project is a semi-natural ‘ancient’ woodland tucked under the hillside above Silsden village named Swartha Wood. Silsden has a rich history from the prehistoric to Industrial Revolution. There is a possibility that it has been an important metalworking site throughout all of its occupation. Wood has always been an essential resource for people from the very first settlers, every village would have access to a managed area of woodland just like they had common grazing land. The evidence for this continuous settlement can be seen from the archaeological finds in the area e.g. bronze axes and the Silsden Hoard. Silsden also has a history of nail and clog making, perhaps the wood for the clogs came from Swartha? We know that Swartha is probably an ancient woodland site from the botanical indicators and some archival research, also that its name is old Germanic, but we don’t know what’s in the wood in terms of archaeology. The project, which is taking place over two years, will try and establish how long Swartha Wood has been there and what it meant to the industry and lives of residents. We want to involve the Silsden community in investigating the above and we are planning on carrying out various activities in the wood e.g. archaeology, traditional woodland management techniques, walks and talks; also archival research and gathering photos and oral histories relating to Silsden and its industries. The ultimate goal is to conserve the wood for future generations as there are very few of these woods left. If you are interested in becoming involved in the project in any way, please contact Jen on 01274 487270 or admin@beat.org.uk

WHAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED SO FAR: Archive Research is ongoing, please see the page under the Swartha Wood tab

Hothfield Junior School Silsden 25/10/12 introduction to the Swartha Wood project for two year 4 classes. The children looked at maps of the area, locating where they lived, where the wood is and how to use map symbols. They learned about the woodland habitat.

19/11/12 oral history session for Mr Bolland’s year 3 class. Oral historian and professional interviewer, Tracy Craggs, taught the children interviewing techniques which they then used on 7 volunteers from the Silsden History Society. A great session!

Talks 6/9/12 Jen did an introduction to Swartha Wood for the Silsden Civic Society in the town’s Methodist Church Hall, 51 people attended.

29/10/12 Ian and Jen went along to the Silsden History Society’s monthly meeting to talk about the project and enlist volunteers!

Events 8/9/12 Keighley Heritage Day. Caroline Brown organised an event in Keighley Library as part of the Heritage Day. The Swartha Wood stand was very well attended and it was an enjoyable day.

In the Woods 21/8/12 A group of ten 16/17 year olds came to Swartha Wood as part of their summer project NCS360, Linking With Young People. They produced sticks for charcoal making and cleared some undergrowth.

26/9/12 The Forest of Bradford’s Wednesday Volunteer group made steps into a banking and cleared some invasive plant species.

7/12/12 Staff from Santander and Rod Fall from Silsden Civic Society came to Swartha Wood on a freezing day and learned drystone walling and coppicing. With help from the professionals they removed the wobbly stile and made an attractive and accessible entrance to the woods. More work has recently been done to improve the paths, particularly drainage.

Oral History 15/3/13 Working with the Silsden History Group, the Swartha Wood project brought in oral historian/professional interviewer Tracy Craggs to record some of the town’s oldest residents. They reminisced about their childhoods and careers, with memories going back to the 1920′s and 30′s. Many remember playing in Swartha Wood and also that much timber was removed during the war. A 19 year old Linguistics student from Leeds University, with an interest in dialect, helped out at the event at Silsden Methodist Church. More work will be done over the next few months on this fascinating oral history project.

Dawn Chorus at Swartha 6/5/13 Five of us managed to get up early to record the birdlife in and around the woods. It was well worth the effort, warm sunshine, peaceful location and plenty of birds (and noisy sheep and lambs)! See list below:

Wren Pheasant Woodpigeon Blue Tit Blackbird Treecreeper

Chaffinch Rook Jay Robin Great Tit Song Thrush

Blackcap Chiffchaff Willow Warbler Starling Curlew (in the field)

Swallow (in the farm) Goldfinch (in a tree near the farm)

We also found a Tawny Owl feather just over the wall by the entrance to the woods. We will be back to record the birds in the evening soon, to prove the owls are there!

Some more proof …..Contents of an owl pellet found in Swartha Wood, includes Wood Mouse jaw, some sort of Vole and bits of bird beak

It was also suggested that we record the dawn chorus again - even earlier next time…………….

Buzzards! On Monday 20th May around midday while walking on the outside of the wood, we noticed a Buzzard which was being ‘chased’ by a Rook. A few seconds later, probably responding to the bird’s call, another Buzzard took off from the trees in the wood and joined in. Our attempts to photograph this were hopeless!

Please let us know if you can add to the Swartha list.

SWARTHA PHOTOS

KEY : D=Dominant LD=Locally Dominant A=Abundant LA=Locally Abundant F=Frequent LF=Locally Frequent L=Local S=Scattered O=Occasional R=Rare

The survey shows that Swartha Wood has at least 15 ancient woodland indicator species from a list of around 20. The Buzzards were circling above the trees for most of the afternoon.

HOTHFIELD JUNIOR SCHOOL ARCHAEOLOGY CLUB June-July 2013

For the final 6 weeks of the summer term 22 children attended an archaeology club run by Jen and supported by Mrs Carter and Julie O’Connell. The weather was fantastic so we were able to dig up the school sports field (not in the middle!). The children were given training in excavation and a background to archaeology. The best finds were produced from 2 metal detecting sessions run by Oliver Farnell and included several coins, one dating back to the Georgian period. We had to take umbrellas to shelter from the heat!

SWARTHA SURVEYS

We are very lucky to have the help of Dr Jill Thompson and 2 of her students from the University of Bradford in surveying Swartha Wood during Autumn/Winter while ground cover is at its lowest. The boundary has been surveyed to see if it has changed throughout history, comparing it to old maps and records. Some possible archaeological features have been identified which are worthy of further investigation. They are also helping with archive research and will do further surveys to record coppiced trees and other features of interest. Their work will contribute hugely to our knowledge and understanding of Swartha Wood which we hope to share with you in our exhibition in June.

SOIL ANALYSIS

On the 20^th November, Dr Pete Ryan from Manchester University came to Swartha and took soil core samples to analyse for pollen and metals. This was a really interesting (and cold) day and we are hoping that he will manage to get some information for us.

DRYSTONE WALLING (Jan 22nd)

David and the gang are repairing the wood boundary to prevent livestock getting in and eating the bluebells etc. This will continue every fortnight until May, with 2 training sessions to be arranged. If anyone is interested in volunteering or training, please get in touch.

WOODLAND ARCHAEOLOGY COURSE 26TH FEB 2014 SWARTHA WOOD

We were delighted that John Morris of the Chiltern Woodlands Project www.chilternsaonb.org came to Swartha in February. He led a one day course in woodland archaeology using Swartha Wood as the backdrop. He shared his knowledge and experience of identifying and protecting features in woodland settings which was not only useful to landowners but very informative for anyone interested in archaeology and woodlands. The course was fully booked, the weather stayed mostly fine, a really enjoyable day. The course was organised by Yorwoods. For more information about upcoming events and courses, see their website below.

http://www.ruraldevelopment.org.uk/yorwoods

MARCH 2014

More scientific analysis and surveying has been undertaken so far this month. Wood core samples were taken from 5 Oaks and 2 Sycamores. We are hoping to find out the age of the trees and possibly information about the growth patterns/climate.

MAY 2014

It was great to return to give an update on the project to Silsden Civic Society on the 15th of this month, particularly as we are now able to confirm Swartha’s semi-natural ancient status through documentary evidence (see archive research). It is good to know that the Civic Society are going to keep an eye on the wood!

AND FINALLY….

Sadly we have now come to the end of our 2 year project. As we are still waiting for results from scientific analysis, this page will be updated as the information comes in. During a visit to the labs at the University of Manchester we were able to look at Swartha Wood pollen that had been extracted from the soil cores taken a few months ago. The painstaking process of identifying the pollen species at different levels through the core is being undertaken by Dr Pete Ryan. He is about half way through and has been able to show us that tree and plant species have altered in their distribution through time. There are also matches to the species identified in the botanical surveys. Samples of larger plant material have been sent for radiocarbon dating.

We were also shown the prepared wood cores taken at Swartha. Masters student Kelsey is carefully analysing and counting the rings - many of the trees are showing periods of stress in the early part of the 20th century. We don’t know what this relates to as yet, but it could be particular to the environment of Swartha at the time.

Jana Wedell of the University of Bradford was awarded a First Class mark for her dissertation on Swartha Wood. Congratulations Jana!

The boundary wall has been repaired in 19 different places thanks to David and the gang. This will help to preserve the plant species by keeping the livestock out. This will be crucial in maintaining this special ecosystem.

Thank you to all who attended our exhibition on the 28th and 29th June at Silsden Town Hall. Particular thanks to Silsden Local History Group for their coffee and cakes on the Saturday.

Our final event on the 12th July was another Woodland Archaeology Day. Some features were investigated in a non-destructive way, i.e. the moss carefully peeled back to reveal what look like spoil heaps of stone. One feature may be a built structure, but is probably a stone store related to the building of the aqueduct. Metal detecting revealed a large padlock but sadly we didn’t find the associated treasure chest. These activities were undertaken with the kind permission of the owner of the wood, Mary Spencer who has been incredibly supportive throughout the project.

Other people we would like to thank are many individuals, too many to mention, but including Rod Bulcock, Hayley McCarthy, Oliver Farnell, Amanda Loomes and the following groups and organisations:

Silsden Local History Group

Silsden Civic Society

Hothfield Junior School

University of Bradford

University of Manchester

Bradford Botany Group

Bradford Libraries and Archives

Yorkshire Archaeological Society and Skipton Castle Estates

Yorkshire Water

KIVCA

And last but not least all the fantastic volunteers!

I hope you have time to watch this short video celebrating the project. ’ A Working Wood’ by Amanda Loomes.

THANK YOU