Busy volunteers show the Dales way

WITH their tireless volunteer work and years of devotion to one of Yorkshire's greatest treasures, the members of the Ragged Robin Conservation Group are worthy winners of this year's Countryside Award.

For the past 10 years, this collection of volunteers have dedicated one day a week helping to preserve the natural beauty of the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

The 12 members – who have a combined age of 745 – meet every Thursday to carry out much-needed conservation work in the Swaledale and Wensleydale areas of the national park.

Over the years they have carried out a wide range of tasks, accompanied by park rangers, including dry stone-walling, bridge and path repairs, and habitat improvements for the national park's array of natural wildlife.

Group member Brian Rawling said: "In an average year, the Ragged Robin Conservation Group contributes somewhere between 300 and 350 man-days to the Yorkshire Dales National Park, carrying out work which wouldn't get done if it was reliant on paid staff."

Among the group's proudest achievements are rebuilding the old packhorse bridge at Usha Gap, near Muker, and flood-damaged bridges at Blakethwaite smelt mill and Cogden Hall.

The work involved manhandling several tonnes of stone into place to preserve traditional crossings on well-used footpaths.

The Ragged Robin members have also spent a huge amount of time repairing and maintaining the large network of public rights of way within the north-east area of the park, erecting stiles, gates, marker posts and footbridges, rebuilding stiles in dry stone walls, and clearing undergrowth which threatens to overwhelm footpaths every summer.

The building and installing of nesting and feeding boxes in Freeholders Wood, at Aysgarth, has encouraged birds, owls and red squirrels to breed there, while rare dormice have also now been attracted to the park.

The group has also re-introduced the traditional art of coppicing into an overgrown area of ancient woodland in the same wood.

So what do the Ragged Robin members themselves get out of their devoted work?

"Enjoyment, really," Mr Rawling said. "Most of us are retired, we enjoy the Dales and feel we are now able to give back for the enjoyment we've had from the park previously in our lives.

"We get the satisfaction of carrying out practical tasks – seeing what at the start of the day is a dilapidated footbridge or finger-post become something that's going to last for 20 or 30 years or more."