Nature Features

Close to the watershed at Wessenden Head

But what exactly is a watershed? Andrew is not surprised we have to ask the question. He explains these are places where waters which flow into different rivers and seas separate. He adds that there are many different watersheds but here in West Yorkshire we have the line that divides the waters that flow east into the North Sea from those that flow west into the Irish Sea.

Although part of his journey was close to home in Hebden Bridge, it took Andrew 16 different day trips to follow the watershed up the Pennines from Kinder Scout in the Peak District to Hadrian's Wall in the north. For Andrew following the watershed was a new way of understanding an area that perhaps we are too ready to take for granted. He says: "It's a device for focusing on the Pennine landscape which is a landscape that we formally feel we know quite well but perhaps we only have a superficial sense of."

Andrew looking down at Hebden Bridge

Andrew has brought together his experiences of life along the watershed in a new book, The Backbone of England: "What I was trying in the book was to get below the surface of the landscape and try and understand for myself and communicate to other people why it looked as it did, what sort of activities went on there, who worked up there, who earned their living from the landscape up there."

In the past Andrew has published quite a few walking books but in The Backbone of England he sets out to explore different themes: "The state of upland farming, the changes in the needs of the shooting industry because in a sense the way the uplands are managed is a form of agriculture - farming the grouse that are there to be shot every August, a little bit of the social history, a little bit of the natural history and issues about the environment."

Andrew says it was very much a learning process: "I learned all sorts of new words such as hydrology and hydromorphology which, coming from an arts background, I hadn't really tussled with before. I was very grateful to the professionals and academics who took time off to share what they've been doing on the moorlands with me."

Watershed pylons [photo: John Morrison]

You mightn't think much happens up there but Andrew bumped into all sorts of people along the way, all with interesting stories to tell. Just off the A58 (the main road between Halifax and Littleborough) Andrew came across a group of pylon workers who had been working high above this very high ground: "I'd noticed them up there...It's a fascinating job, a dangerous job and all credit to them, they keep the pylons working. Whatever you think of pylons in terms of the effect on the landscape, they do have a use."

And it's up here on nearby Blackstone Edge that one of the most dramatic incidents in the history of the watershed took place. Today we expect big political rallies to be held in the centre of cities if not in London but on Sunday August 2nd 1846 a big crowd assembled up there in support of the People's Charter whose demands included the vote for all men over 21 years of age. Andrew says: "In a sense this was the first popular movement [for an idea] which we now take for granted, the idea of one person, one vote. Chartism was particularly strong in our part of West Yorkshire, in towns like Halifax and Keighley and across the other side in Rochdale." He points out that high up on Blackstone Edge the Chartists were far away from the eyes of the millowners.

But perhaps there is something about the watershed which makes it a place for aspirations. Further north, above Todmorden, volunteers at The Astronomy Centre point the way to the stars with the help of powerful telescope .

The way to the stars in Tod [Photo: John Morrison]

Many of the people Andrew met along the watershed were working to protect the moorland itself. Andrew tells us he hadn't understood how important this was until then and that essentially it means keeping the moors damp "to get away from the dried-up, crumbling peat that you can get, particularly in our own area. The moors are important as a source of carbon, a topical issue, but there's a phrase which I discovered had been said by one academic and then repeated which is 'there's more carbon locked up in the peat of Britain than there is in the forests of England, Scotland and France' put together. If we are talking about keeping carbon where it should be and not letting it get back into the atmosphere then peat is really important and we need to look after it."

Sphagnum moss is a good sign of a healthy bog: "It's a particular sort of light green and sphagnum is really good because it actually acts like a sponge and keeps the peat nice and damp. It had disappeared entirely from the Peak District and was quite hard to find in our patch but it's beginning to make a comeback. It disappeared partly because of over-grazing and the ground drying out and atmospheric pollution. Although it doesn't sound like anything much, sphagnum is definitely good news. And, of course, if you have a healthy peat bog, or blanket bog to give it it's technical term, you have all the lovely low shrubs. You get the bilberry, the crow berry, the bear berry and the cow berry. If you are really lucky you may find a cloud berry which is associated with the northern areas of Scandinavia. It's that lovely yellow berry and we do get cloud berries in the Pennines. It's a real treat to see them."

Birds of prey are also important: "The peregrine falcon and hen harriers which were badly persecuted in the past are just beginning to re-establish themselves." However, Andrew has discovered that being up there with the birds is not as peaceful as you might think: "I have slightly mixed feelings about hen harriers. I was on a right of way and was very conscious all of a sudden that this mother bird had taken a great dislike to me and was dive bombing me from behind, not very pleasantly. I was holding a map above my head so the bird hit the map and not me."

But the West Yorkshire Pennines also provide a special home for one particular bird: "We are apparently the key area in the country for twites and we have a twite population which is important globally as well as in terms of British birdlife...Twites are important even if they are not the most spectacular of birds. It's one of those little brown jobs but it's our own. It's sometimes called the Pennine Finch."

Walking near Top Withens [photo: John Morrison]

We ask Andrew to name his best bits along West Yorkshire's watershed. For a good viewpoint he recommends the White House on the A58 just as the watershed reaches West Yorkshire. Not that far away, the "rather fine" footpath bridge across the M62 is a place to stand and watch the traffic and then quickly get away from it all. Up above Stanbury Moor, close to the ruins of Top Withens and almost on the watershed, are the Alcomen Stones which he says are well worth going to see.

A particular favourite, though, is Boulsworth Hill to the west of Haworth and the highest ground between the Dales and the Peak District: "Lots of people don't know it. It's a great viewpoint with a lovely view of Pendle, and on a good day you get a view of the Dales, and on a very good day - and I speak from experience - you can see Blackpool Tower, a tiny pin in the distance. It's best doing it late in the evening when the sun's going down because you can then see the sun low in the sky."

Boulsworth Hill has only been accessible from the West Yorkshire side since the Countryside and Rights of Way Act (the so-called "right to roam") came into effect in 2004 and it's this legislation which has made it possible for Andrew to plan his route along the watershed. He says: "It's an opportunity to really enjoy the high country."

Although The Backbone of England is by no means a walking book, the route Andrew took is indicated by the maps included in the book. Anyone hoping to follow in his footsteps will definitely need to take more than a long hard look at the relevant large-scale maps before they set off and every care should be taken when walking on the moors. Even that most famous of fellwalkers Alfred Wainwright had nothing good to say about Black Hill, south west of Holmfirth, where it seems he once nearly got trapped in the peat. Andrew says: "On a bad day it's not a good place to be. People have lost their lives in bad weather up there." Black Hill may be easier to negotiate today than it was in Wainwright's time but Andrew too has sometimes found the going difficult: "I did have one or two close encounters with bogs towards the end. I found myself up to the waist at one stage."

But you don't have to follow in Andrew's footsteps to take a look at life along the watershed. Photographer John Morrison, a former Hebden Bridge resident, has done the job for us. Andrew believes the photos are an important part of the book. He says: "John has a very good eye for Pennine landscapes. He was complaining that I made him go to all these really remote and isolated places." Initially John wasn't that thrilled by the prospect of photographing "stretches of moorland" but, as Andrew says, he's come up with "some very evocative pictures".

When Andrew set out on his journey he hoped it would add to his understanding of the landscape and he says it's done just that: "I learned a lot more than I thought I was going to learn. The more I discovered, the more I talked to people, the more I found there was to say about the moors."

[Photos: John Morrison's photos are taken from The Backbone of England by Andrew Bibby, published by Frances Lincoln and used here with the publisher's permision]