Hackfall

On Wednesday 20^th April 1539 Abbot Marmaduke Bradley is leaving morning prayers when he is filled with dread. He hears the voice of the king’s emissary, arrived early to progress the relinquishment of Bradley’s beloved Fountains Abbey. He thinks to himself, ‘I am not in the mood for this; I’ll slip out of the secret door and head off to Hackfall. Nobody will find me there’. It is a little over seven miles away; he knows the scenic footpath well. He will be there in less than three hours. As he nears the village of Kirkby Malzeard the sun breaks through the watery clouds and his heart lifts. He knows that when his feet brush the wild garlic and he sees carpets of bluebells he will be in his own heaven.

Arriving at Raven Scar he sees the River Ure in all its magnificence and the steep sided banks rising to Limehouse Hill. His depression brought on by King Henry’s abolition of the monasteries will disperse momentarily as he sits awhile, encased by beech, birch, yew and blackthorn. The woodpecker is loud this still morning. Contentment settles on the abbot in this most private piece of land.

Did those events really happen? Possibly. For the church and all who depended on it in 1539, the years that followed were uncertain and unhappy. Many citizens descended into a poorer life as a result. King Henry V111 sold Hackfall.

It is now 20^th April 2016. Liza and I have come for our own taste of this magical landscape. We look to this place to bring us tranquillity, away from the uncertainty of an England beset by a new crisis. Elizabeth II has (maybe) been passive in the big question of 2016 - should the UK leave the European Community? Will quitting the EU have a greater impact on the nation than Henry’s break with Rome?

It seems to me that Henry’s blindness to turning his back on Rome is similar to the blindness of the ‘leavers’ with the EU of today. Lacey Baldwin Smith, in his book “Henry VIII, the Mask of Royalty”, writes of Henry’s view of the monasteries as ‘those petrified old oaks were corrupt and rotten; ergo they should all, without exception, be cut down’. Perhaps the ‘leavers’ also see the EU as decomposed and putrid, that there is nothing good about it, only harm (to the UK) will result in staying so we should go. Will the 1540s mirror the 2020s?

Successive generations of Yorkshire folk still came to this magical wood. Hackfall inspired William Wordsworth and J.M.W. Turner too. However few travellers from overseas have been inspired because they did not know it was there.

To walk amongst the ghosts of Marmaduke and his monks was for me an ethereal and cathartic experience. To tread down those same wild garlic plants brings palpable feelings, physical and emotional. In the past four hundred and seventy seven years how many have trod these paths, seeking comfort from the imponderables of contemporary society?

A walk through Marmaduke Bradley’s landscape will likely aid a visitor from New South Wales, Arizona or British Columbia to understand what is precious about our Sceptred Isle; why the future of the place and the country matter. Hackfall has weathered the physical storms and it has seen off political storms led by kings, prime ministers and churchmen. Let us hope that it will live on, unchanged and preserved but vigorously alive. This place will not in itself provide answers to the imponderable questions of today. But time spent there will help you find them.

The Woodland Trust now owns the site. Hackfall provides moments of delight for everyone. Find this special piece of landscape and you too may be transported to times gone by. Like me you too can surmise how Hackfall has lived through the political and geographical turbulence over five hundred years.

If you would like to share your experiences of any of the landscapes discussed in this blog please record them in the Comments section.

Visit the Woodland Trust here.