The Gallows Pole

A walk through the Vale

bruceonthefringe 2023, Cragg Vale Coiners, Holyrood Park, North of England, Walks, Yorkshire Tags: , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Just back from another jaunt down to deepest dampest Yorkshire, boy, was it damp! Even with temperatures into the low twenties on several days, the feeling of damp prevailed. But hey, I finally got to do the Crag Vale Coiner’s Walk, on a bright sunny day too. It was really great, even when I took an accidental detour, well, it was a tricksy bit to figure out from the description and map (somewhere around Lower Lumb, but at least I was always headed in the right direction, not lost just a tad misplaced).

Hoo Hole – ancestral home of owls??
Into Spring Wood

The walk is a circular route beginning and ending in Mytholmroyd. It’s 5¼ miles long and is quite strenuous in places, a tad muddy too – and that was after unseasonably reasonable weather, oh, and there’s farm mud to negotiate through! I employed a fleet foot approach, tread lightly, move quickly, speed yourself over the top!

The woodlands around Cragg Vale are awe-inspiring, oh, some of the trees were magnificent, I could have dawdled for hours admiring them. The moorlands above have panoramic views all around, including across to Bell House, the home “King” David Hartley; that’s it on the right hand side of the picture below.

The boardwalk pathways through the bogs on the moor attest to how dangerous the area would have been back in the Coiners time.

The Lumb Stone on Bell House Moor

It took rather longer than I expected (even without my departure from the mapped route), so I didn’t have time to stop for a drink at the Robin Hood Inn, a shame as it is a fine, old fashioned pub with well-kept ales.

I fully intend to walk it again in reverse, hopefully next summer, allowing much more time! The map (by Christopher Goddard, a local cartographer) with all it’s illustrations, instructions, information and quotes from The Gallows Pole is a delight unobtainable from reading bits off a mobile phone. Yay for paper maps I say!

After yesterday’s long journey back up to Edinburgh, I took myself up Moose Ridge this morning. Interesting goings-on up in the Park…

Those bags are impressively strong!

Good night all!

I’m on my way to an Amarillo

bruceonthefringe 2023, Cragg Vale Coiners, Live bands in Edinburgh, Television series, Uncategorized, Yorkshire Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Crikey, it’s been a week since my last post – I’ve been busy, honest. I’ve been very busy today too, no sitting out in the sun for me, and just when I thought I was done, I discovered a new moth infestation, bastards! So I writing something short and sweet just now as I’m not sure when I’ll get time next. Short because very shortly Duke Duncan & The Hurricanes will be on at Whistlebinkies – my excuse for a drink. I’ve never seen them before but by all accounts they’re rather good, so it’s beyond time that I checked them out.

Why won’t I be posting for a while? Some long time followers may have noticed this is one of those times in a year that I head back to the old country, Yorkshireland. I’ve kind of sorted stuff to go, uke and music, chocolates from CoCo Company, the Fringe programme (two, mark-up and cut-out), sunglasses.

I’ve already watched the last episode of The Gallows Pole and by’eck its good. Loved the bit when Grace tells David he needs to rally the troops, he turns to the gathered room “Ayup!” Perfect! And there was Peaches by The Stranglers in the soundtrack, pure class. I’ll definitely try to fit in a visit to Heptonstall while I’m down. Oh, I did find my copy of the Cragg Vale Coiners Walk but maybe not this trip down, it’s going to be bloody hot! Maybe next time, let’s face it, these temperatures most likely won’t last long.

Anyhoo, must go, make my way to Amarillo, that’s a pint of, very tasty, from Stewart Brewing, of course. Toodle pip!

Down in the Vale with Davie and Grace

bruceonthefringe 2023, Cragg Vale Coiners, North of England, Uncategorized, Yorkshire Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Nearly two years ago, I wrote a blog post A Tale of Cards and Coiners about my trip to Yorkshireland when the first lockdown eased. I’d discovered a piece of local history that I’d had no idea about; that bit of history has now been brought to life on the telly. Well, it’s a three-part drama prequelling a novel based on events that happened around the Calder Valley in the later eighteenth century. Yes, that, oh so happy valley is on the TV again! I had wondered at the time if this was something that Sally Wainwright might take an interest in (well, she’s made Gentleman Jack about a local historical character).

Shane Meadows (known for This Is England) is the chap behind The Gallows Pole, starting it back to when David Hartley (the later leader of the Cragg Vale Coiners) returns home from being away in Birmingham for seven years. Those years had seen the onset of the industrial revolution which caused major upheavals for weavers and land labourers in places like the Calder Valley, many had to leave to find work in the new mills.

The opening scenes are of Hartley staggering across the moors, it’s all quite trippy, who/what are the weird stag men figures? Are they real or hallucinations? Then the opening titles kicked in, oh, they’re good, brilliantly done, they promise so much. Well, I wasn’t disappointed, that was a cracking first episode for me! This being Shane Meadows there’s quite a few first-time actors in there; he has all his cast working together, improvising to get into their characters, for quite some time before filming; and even then Meadows doesn’t have a full script, just outlines for the actors to follow.

My favourite scene from the first episode is when David steps outside from his father’s wake for some air, to discover that the girl he was courting before he went away is also outside and does not want to see or talk to him (so she says). David ends up sitting on steps round the corner from where Grace is sitting, and boy, she starts talking! Both are obviously quite shook up from seeing each other again; it was a lovely moment, tentative, angry, funny, coy, even a bit flirty by the end, testing each other out.

And it took me sooo long to figure out where I knew Grace’s voice from – Downton Abbey, she was Daisy, would never have figured it out from her face but the voice was so familiar (no, I didn’t cheat). I did a few double-takes at one character Tom, he had a real look of Tom Hardy but it was one of the first-time actors (Dave Perkins), I suspect it won’t be his last.

Much of the filming was done in the area, in Heptonstall and Hebden Bridge, just along the valley from Mytholmroyd and Cragg Vale (where David Hartley lived). I know the road through Cragg Vale up on to the moors very well, been along it many many times, with no idea that this was once the birthplace of a counterfeiting enterprise that almost toppled the British economy! Oh, one thing that struck me watching the first episode – the drystone walls. They’re quite dilapidated in areas now, but back in the late 1700’s they would’ve probably been in better condition than they are today (funny, the thoughts that pop into your head!)

No doubt the series will help attract yet more tourists to the area. I did get a copy of The Cragg Vale Coiners Walk but never got round to doing it, if this fine weather keeps up I shall give it a go next time I’m down. I might also pop into the Heptonstall Museum which has recently reopened (the local council had previously closed it as unviable), one of it’s rooms was used as a set in The Gallows Pole. The museum is open from Thursday to Sunday 11am – 4pm. It’s not far from the graveyard where David Hartley was buried after his hanging in York.

If you’re an energetic type you can walk up to Heptonstall from Hebden Bridge! (well, a very energetic type, it is a very steep climb) There are two fine pubs up there, The White Lion and the Cross Inn, both frequented by coiners back in the day. The place is literally steeped in history, sorry, I just had to get that in.

It’s rather late, I must to bed. Goodnight!

A Tale of Cards and Coiners

bruceonthefringe 2020, Coming out of Lockdown, Cragg Vale Coiners, Halifax pubs, North of England, Pubs, Uncategorized, Yorkshire Tags: , , , , , , , 1 Comment

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They seek him here, they seek him there – apparently he’s on the wasteland! If only those Frenchies had had a set of Pepys’ Wild Flower Sevens they’d have known where to look! Oh, how we chortled, gathered around the dining table finally able to do battle once more. I say battle, playing card games with family could be mistaken for warfare at times.

Yes, I’ve been down in the old country as restrictions have been loosened off. They’ve clearly had a rather damp time of it, all the local reservoirs are full to overflowing (in July, wow), luckily it wasn’t too bad for my trip. The warm weather meant I was roped into mowing the meadow that my mother’s lawn had become. I left a few patches of flowers, the selfheal did look very pretty and the bees love it. I was also given the dubious task of pruning the hedge; it’s done, not particularly well, but it’s done. I’ll be sure to time my next visit down for after it’s next trim.

I joined in the long evening walks over the local hilltops, well, I followed on behind, not a clue where we were, just the odd distant memory popping up. Wandering on the tops did occasionally put us in the clouds, like here looking across to the M62…..

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…….but invariably the sun would reappear as we wound our way lower and home again.

I even learnt some local history when one evening a far hillside was pointed out as Coiner’s Country (I’d tried a knowledgeable grunt, but then had to admit to my ignorance). Coiners were folk who clipped bits off gold and silver coins to make more counterfeit coins (that’s the simplified version).

Turns out the Cragg Vale Coiners were notorious as the most organised gang in the 1700’s, so much so their leader was known as “King David” Hartley. He’d learnt his skills while working in Birmingham, then took them back home where the local weavers were in dire straits and welcomed any way to make some money. Enter William Deighton, an excise officer, sent to investigate, exit Deighton murdered by two coiners; well, he had arrested “King David” in the Old Cock Inn in Halifax, which led to the “Duke of York” aka Isaac (David’s brother) calling a meeting in the Dusty Miller (a Mytholmroyd pub), putting a price of £100 on his head. The Crown got serious and despatched one Marquis of Rockingham to deal with the problem however he saw fit (imprisonment, hanging, deportation to the African colonies, apparently).

“King David” lies in Heptonstall graveyard. He was convicted for coining and hanged in York in 1770. There’s a book The Gallows Pole by Benjamin Myers that tells the tale, fictionalised but faithfully drawn from historical accounts and documents; I’ll definitely have to get me a copy. There’s also The Cragg Vale Coiners Walk by Christopher Goddard, a must-buy before I head down again.

The Dusty Miller and The Old Cock are still going to this day, according to a quick check on Facebook. Interestingly, The Old Cock was later frequented by one Branwell Brontë. He also drank in the Union Cross in Halifax, definitely still open as I had a pint in there just last week. Sadly another pub from that time,  the Upper George (a pub I misspent plenty of time in in my younger days) hasn’t reopened yet, no doubt another haunt of Branwell’s.

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I shall leave you with another card, played by my brother announcing he had Scabious on the Moorland, well, I had to say it – “You can get an ointment for that”.

Toodle pip!