This article is available in audio format, please click on the play icon below to listen

I had my attention drawn to a note found in the Day Book of Thomas Parker who lived in the Heugh, Eastby when members of the Bolton Abbey Estate ‘rode the boundaries’. This was a regular activity from before maps exactly defined parish and township boundaries and served for older residents of the village to pass on to the younger parishioners, exactly where the boundaries stood.

“1828 May 22^nd Being Thursday, Halton People rode or pretended to ride their Boundaries for the Moor – – They rode the principal part of Embsay and Eastby Moor and also part of Barden. They broke and Defaced several of the Boundary Stones Mr John Broughton told me. He helped to break one (he told me on Saturday the 31^st January 1828). Present Mr Fox, Steward, John Broughton, Mr Alcock, &c and I don’t know who besides —“

It seems that there was a dispute between land-owners over the limits of their lands and Mr Fox probably felt he was entitled to destroy or move boundary markers which were not where his employer, the Duke of Devonshire, thought they should be.

It is impossible to say how many times the boundaries were disputed, but a final agreed location was recorded in the 1851 Ordnance Survey. The boundary markers between Burnsall and Barden are the most consistent set of markers on the moor (See Picture A and B). The fact that they generally lie in a straight line shows that their location was agreed at the time when boundaries were drawn on maps rather than following landscape features. The tall stone columns stand out in the landscape and are probably dateable from the inscription; ‘DD’ clearly represents the Duke of Devonshire, ‘CRT’ are the initials of Charles Robert Tempest,  of the family that have occupied Broughton Hall near Skipton for many centuries, and who held Burnsall from 1824 to 1865.

The easiest way to see one of these stones is to take the steep walk from Burnsall up the road towards Barden. When in the (recently felled) woodland follow the footpath onto the moor, and walk the deeply eroded trackway, keeping the moor-wall to your left. The return walk is the same way, but with the benefit of a café or pub in Burnsall.

The Burnsall boundary also has one of the named boundary stones of Barden Moor, a name which shows for how long it has marked the boundary. ‘Grey Mare’  (Picture C) is a large bounder sat on the northern Yethersgill stream which now leads into the Upper reservoir. Many named boundary stones include Grey in their name due to the colour of the lichens which grow on the rock. The name Mare has nothing to do with horses, but is derived from the Old English word ‘Maere’ which meant boundary. This name implies that it has marked the boundary from the time when Old English words were in common use, potentially more than 1000 years ago. The top of the large boulder is carved to show that it marks a boundary between Burnsall, Rylstone, Cracoe and Barden; a rare 4-way boundary marker.

WalI do not recommend that you visit the Grey Mare. It is set in very rough ground, in very boggy terrain.

Cracoe shares all of its boundary stones with its neighbours. The boundary with Burnsall is marked with DD-CRT stones (Although I am not sure the Tempests held Cracoe) The boundary with Rylstone is marked by some column stones, one spectacular stone outcrop and the remains of a wire fence. It seems that the current Cracoe-Rylstone boundary  was not finally established even by 1896. But eventually column stones were erected with C and R on opposite faces. These column stones were not as well designed as the DD-CRT stones as many of them are now leaning at an angle (Picture D and E). But this boundary does include a very impressive natural stone outcrop, called Water Crag on the 1851 OS map. The top of the rock is carved with C, R and a boundary line.  (Picture F) The Cracoe-Rylstone boundary finishes at the moor wall at what is clearly a gate-post, which would have given access through the wire fence.

The date at which the wire fence was erected is somewhat of a mystery, and is probably related to in the history of the ownership of the greater Barden Moor. The fact that the wire posts are erected into manufactured stone bases (rather than concrete) on the Rylstone-Embsay boundary, makes it likely that they were erected in the middle of the 19^th century. The fence posts on that border are black-smith made rather than commercially manufactured

The last element on the Rylstone-Embsay Border is a pair of gateposts, through which the Bolton Abbey to Rylstone trackway ran at some time (Picture G).

The walk to see some of these boundary markers on the Cracoe and Rylstone side is an, at minimum, 6 miles long linear walk. Starting at Thorpe, take the trackway steeply up-hill, through the old sled-runs from the coal pits. Take the estate track westwards and you will see a DD-CRT marker on the left. At that point, if you cross the open moorland to a point called on the modern OS map Rolling Gate Nook, you will see a DD-CRT stone, lying on its side and never erected. Continue on the track, which will turn into a footpath following the Cracoe and then Rylstone Moor wall. Continue past the Cracoe war memorial. The Cracoe-Rylstone gatepost will be beside the footpath. The Water Crag outcrop is to the left. Continue on the path until it meets the Bolton Abbey to Rylstone trackway, and descend to Rylstone. An extra couple of miles will take you to Cracoe for coffee and/or pub.

Chris Lunnon, EwE Historical Research Group