Thursday 29 December 2022

water

 Living in  an area like this you are never far from water  - we are on the Eastern edge of The Pennines and hills and dales suggest water (another area which suggests water is that of the lowland - areas like Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk - areas where our distant ancestors drained what they could to keep it at bay).

I sat thinking about it this morning over my hot chocolate;  the sky had been clear blue - a cold blue and windy with it which suggested "changeable" and sure enough as I sat down the heavens opened and it poured.

Where I live I am mostly above the flood area - I can see the lie of the land from my window and a steep 'dip' suggests maybe a river - and sure enough in that dip lies the Ure - the river that drains Wensleydale, carrying the water out into the North sea at the Humber Estuary.  

But when I had my back garden redesigned a couple of years ago the man doing the work behind the retaining wall shewed me just how far down the water was.    He dug down about eighteen inches to plant a shrub and the hole filled with water (no need to water the shrub in!) and once during the five years I have lived here we had a horrendous thunder storm which lasted all afternoon and which washed away bridges and several cottages further up the Dale.   Here the water ran out  of the field behind my bungalow (and those around it) - through my garden into M's garden next door, along the road a little way and then down another garden and out of sight, flooding one or two houses on the way - randomly -  for water chooses where it wants to go.

Many of the farms around here are not privately owned but are part of large estates belonging to families who have lived here for generations.   In many cases the same family has rented the same farm for generations too.   One such farm housed folk who were friendly with my farmer's family and now and again the farmer and I would pop up to see them - only a couple of miles away.  E and M, brother and sister - both long dead now - had been born in the  old farmhouse which was built into the side of the hill. When it rained heavily E and M stoked up their log fire, donned their wellies and opened the kitchen door;  the water flowed through and M kept the brush handy to brush it across the brick floor and out of  door - not even bothering to look at it or remark on its presence.

Since their deaths the old house stands empty, slowly  sinking into the ground and unlikely ever to be lived in again-  the land tagged on to the adjoining farm and the house no longer needed - or tolerated in these days of central heating and all 'mod cons' - the items which E and M had never even considered necessary.

Incidentally a friend of Ms (both strict methodists) took M to the Holy Land on holiday not long before she died.  I never saw her to ask what she thought to the whole episode which must have been mind blowing.

18 comments:

Rachel Phillips said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rachel Phillips said...

Large estates in the hands of families as you describe are also in private ownership by definition, just larger than the small estates, unless they are in the hands of pension funds and the like and then not in family ownership. Ah but I see you mean many small farms are rented farms from the larger estates. A situation we do not have here in general, large estates farm large farms

JayCee said...

I worry when heavy rain causes water to seep through our ancient window frames but to have it running through the house!!!

Tom Stephenson said...

Your water table is only 18 inches down? That is amazing to me. I have a friend who has an old house on the Somerset Levels with front and back doors aligned. Sometimes they would open them both to let the ditch drain through the house.

Heather said...

A fascinating post. Your friends E and M certainly knew how to live with nature, rather than trying to control it, and came to no harm in the process.

Sue in Suffolk said...

Houses around here never stay empty for long - it would soon be sold off by the farm owners bought and done up.

Melinda from Ontario said...

E and M's house completely fascinates me. I wouldn't enjoy living in a cottage in which I had to sweep running water through my back door during a rain storm but I sure would like to visit an ancient cottage such as that and take it all in.

Librarian said...

I like my creature comforts and am really grateful for central heating, hot showers, my fridge, dishwasher and washing machine. And here's me who used to think that builders of old always chose the spot where to build a house wisely, and only much later greedy investors had every little square inch built up so that all the rain that previously caused no harm would have no way to get back into the ground, causing all the flooding instead.
My mother-in-law lives close to the river Ure in Ripon. Just round the corner from her house is a ford through the river where people drive their cars through a few inches of water; in dry summers one can walk through without getting one's feet wet.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Quite right Rachel - exactly as you see.

Susan said...

18 inches and finding water shows a high water table. I wonder if this is an underground stream? Land ownership and renting land under 100 year leases seems common in Britain. It is nearly unheard of in the US. Farming land not owned by the farmer is also unusual. Water can cause lots of damage to homes. Today, home construction requires a permit and building near water is usually disallowed. Construction setbacks from water are always stipulated. I have a stream on my property and was required not to build within 100 feet of the stream. My home sits on top of a hill 100+ feet away from the stream. I love seeing the stream, hearing it bubble along and watching the wildlife enjoying the water.

Barbara Anne said...

What an interesting post, Pat! Thank you.
Yes, water goes where it wants to and always downhill. We've been grateful to live near the top of a hill, so water goes past the house and down, down through the woods to the creek at the back of the property.

Hugs!

Anonymous said...

Too much water here in Australia at the moment. It's either famine or feast, and all in the summer season. Flood waters continue to make their way from interstate, and the residents of river towns are finding that their levies are not adequate with many having to leave their homes. A stressful Christmas day recently for many, and biggest flooding for towns( along the Murray River ) for forty years.-Pam, Sth Aust.

Anonymous said...

...in our paper this morning "At least 1,100 properties have been flooded so far - a number that is expected to rise to 4,000 over coming weeks.". -Pam.

vic said...

How interesting. A couple of days ago you and others were talking about books by Ronald Blythe. And just now I was looking in my bookcase for something to read (I'm out of library books since day before yesterday) and I happened to see a book there that I have read probably 3 times and guess who the author is? Ronald Blythe. It's called Word from Wormingford: A Parish Year. A lot of it goes right over my head since it seems that he is a reader (I think that's the position that he mentions) in the Anglican Church (I'm guessing) and know absolutely nothing about that denomination. So I do find myself quite at sea with some of what he writes about But I love the book and his turns of phrase and his descriptions of the countryside so I just keep reading it again every few years.

I had looked him up on Amazon to see what he had written and this one wasn't mentioned (I don't know why) and I would have recognized the name of the book of course. I'll have to go back and see if any of the titles mentioned sound interesting and maybe invest in another one by him.

Debby said...

What an interesting post. I find myself pondering E and M and the rainy day. Many people (myself included, I'm afraid) would have been bothered by the flood in the kitchen. The idea of simply openig the door and sweeping it right back out without a second thought is quite amazing to my mind. I imagine though, that they responded to it as their parents did before them.

Cro Magnon said...

Always buy a house on high land. Flooding is heart-breaking.

thelma said...

Always look at the churches in villages and you will see they are built on the highest ground, a wisdom learnt centuries ago.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Thanks everyone for your differing viws on the subject