Most of the people walking their dogs in Embsay woods will have seen the remains of the historic quarrying activities, but the earlier history of this little corner of Embsay is less well known. When Skipton Castle was built, the Norman overlords imposed their mark on the landscape. Norman Lords were used to hunting game so large swathes of the landscape were confiscated to create hunting parks. Barden Moor and Barden Fell were made into massive parks on either side of the River Wharfe. The landscape north of the castle, probably up to the Rylstone boundary, was em-parked, the area later being called ‘Old Park’, a name still used in places today. To the east of Skipton, the land that is now Haw Bank Quarry, (a.k.a. Skipton Rock Quarry), was also once a hunting park, known as Haugh or Haw Park.
From the 12th century, Embsay and Eastby were bordered by hunting parks to the north and south. The road from Embsay to Skipton existed from that date or earlier, running through a farmed corridor, the fields either side of the road still showing evidence of medieval field systems.
The earliest surviving document referring to Haw Park (using the spelling ‘Hawe’) dates from 1609, when a land survey is carried out for Skipton Castle, the surveyors copying the style of an earlier survey from the 1310s, when Edward II gave the castle to Robert Clifford. The residents of 14th century Skibeden were recorded as having carried out work and provided services to the castle to the value of £10 14s (£10 70p in today’s money) which included 2s (10p) ’for nutts at Hawe’. A a few years later in 1327 the same residents were recorded as paying 2d (1p) per year ‘for being quitt from gathering Nutts…’. Early in the 16th century Haw Park was still used as a deer park, when the keeper was paid 15s (75p).
The earliest detailed maps showing Skipton were drawn by John Ogilby in 1675. His strip maps were designed to assist travellers along well-travelled roads between key cities and towns. The route between York and Lancaster passed through Skipton. A couple of miles before arriving in Skipton, the travellers rode, or were driven past ‘Haugh Park’, which Ogilby recorded as being owned by the Countess of Pembroke, Lady Anne Clifford of Skipton Castle. (Picture 1 shows a slightly later copy of the map by John Senex). The spelling ‘Haugh’ was normally used to describe a riverside meadow but probably sounded the same.
Records from Lady Anne’s time show that a John Moorhouse paid a large annual rent of £56 ‘for the Hawe Parke and Hawe Bank’. This is one of the highest rent payments to her at the time which poses the question of why this small place was so valuable. It is possible that John Moorhouse was a businessman, quarrying the limestone and burning it to make lime, which was used to improve the many new fields which were being enclosed in the Skipton area. Lime Kilns were still operating in Haw Park in 1834, as recorded on the Skipton tithe map.
Today the remains of Haw Park are dominated by Haw Bank Quarry (a.k.a. Skipton Rock Limestone Quarry). Geologically the quarry has some stunning rock formations. The quality of limestone from the quarry was so good that in the late 18th century the then Earl of Thanet (a descendent of Lady Anne) built the Springs Branch of the canal solely to carry the limestone. He added a tramway to carry the stone directly from the quarry to the canal. Close to where the road from Embsay joins The Bailey, the tramway ran under the road to Embsay. Skipton town maps of the period label this Embsay Bridge.
As you enter the Embsay Woods following the footpath eastwards, climbing the modern steps on the opposite side of the quarry road beside the gates, you eventually get to a landscape that probably remains essentially the same as when it was a deer park. The open pasture has avery few large trees, mainly Ash trees, which are looking decidedly sickly. However, there are many ancient Hawthorn trees, probably the origin for the name of the park. It is impossible now to define all the ancient boundaries of Haw Park as the quarry and the Skipton by-pass have dramatically changed to landscape, but it is possible to find some indicators.
The Ogilby map implies that ‘Haugh Park’ was one mile long, lying on the north side of the road and starting about one mile from the centre of Skipton. This would mean that it would run from the modern-day junction of The Bailey and the A59 eastward to High Skibeden Farm. In the hedges and trees on the north side of the A59, approaching the A65 roundabout, there is still evidence of medieval boundary banks and some stone walls which probably defined part of the southern boundaries of the park. The park would not have incorporated any Embsay territory, so its northern boundary was probably Haw Beck, the ancient Embsay boundary. Any eastern boundary has been destroyed by the quarry, but it is likely that a western boundary remains, at least in part.
Taking the path westwards as you enter Embsay Woods, you reach a wall that has been filled to the brim with quarry waste. The construction style of this wall is consistent from where it starts next to Haw Beck to where it butts into a second wall. LiDAR shows that beyond this second wall the fields contain medieval ridge and furrow (part of the earlier mentioned farmed corridor), and so cannot be part of a former hunting park. The first wall is, in places, 2.5m (8 feet) tall which is an indicator both of age and the effort expended to keep animals outside the park. Visible alongside this first wall is a ditch. Easily visible on the ground and on the LiDAR image (Picture 2) a ditch still runs along the length of this wall to Haw Beck. Much eroded and filled in, this ditch was probably dug to further discourage animals from jumping into the park from the outside. It was probably originally created as a defence against wild animals such as wolves. Although it is often claimed that the last wolf in the area was killed in about 1390, the fear of wolves lasted much longer.
The woods that we all walk through today are relatively modern. Neither the Skipton tithe map of 1834 nor the Ordnance Survey map of 1850 show any trees here at all. It is probable that the beech trees (generally thought to have been first introduced to Yorkshire in the 17th century) and the conifer trees were planted in the second half of the 19th century to stabilise the spoil heaps which had been created by the quarrying activities.
Chris Lunnon. Embsay with Eastby Historical Research Group.
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