Author name: Richard Clarke

Like Sewerby, Wassand Hall has ‘open’ parkland to the south of the house but this is viewed only from the five bar fence, no public footpaths cross it (public in the sense of waymarked when the hall and grounds are open to the public about a dozen or so times a year). The ‘Woodland Walk’ […]

Last Thursday went on the train to Bridlington specifically to re-visit Sewerby Hall gardens and parkland. Being of a certain age I even took the ‘land train’ from the Leisure Centre to the Hall, but did walk back. The peripheral walk around the parkland is under the narrow avenue of trees planted around the edge,

August is not, in my opinion, an august month; being not very impressive. Most wild flowers and trees have finished flowering and are already seeding, thankfully the willow herb is now in full flower and provides an impressive display where there is a thick stand of these perennials – Tudor name ‘codlings and cream’, reminiscent

The above image of harvest comes from a 14th century manuscript identified as Queen Mary Psalter (fol.78v), c.1310; known as Queen Mary Psalter because it was confiscated by the Tudor Queen Mary in the 1550s. It shows three serfs cutting what appears to be wheat using sickles, this prior to stooking. The fourth figure is

This scan is the cover image of the named book and author, initially published in 1991 there were five reprints in the first decade of the 21st century. On page 84 the photo is reproduced again, with the following text ‘break time for no fewer than 15 harvesters in a wheat field in the Thames

The next chapter to compile will be about the impact of the Great War on parks and cemeteries. R.C.