{"id":3983,"date":"2021-06-17T15:10:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-17T15:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/?p=3983"},"modified":"2021-06-17T15:10:00","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T15:10:00","slug":"a-ramble-with-the-nats-17-june-1871","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/?p=3983","title":{"rendered":"A Ramble with the Nats, 17 June 1871"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
150 years ago today the West Riding Consolidated Naturalists Society had a ramble through Coxley valley. Here’s how it was reported in the local press a week later:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

EXCURSION AND MEETING OF THE WEST RIDING CONSOLIDATED NATURALISTS SOCIETY.<\/h1>\n
Notwithstanding the unfavourable appearance of Saturday last, the day appointed by the above society to visit the district of Coxley valley, a fair representation of most of the societies comprising the union arrived by different trains at Horbury Bridge and, uniting together, started about three o’ clock on the ramble, by way of Water Lane, up the beautiful and retired valley of Coxley. The whole company expressed themselves delighted with the locality, and although occasional showers fell during the afternoon, which rather marred the pleasure of the party, keeping them to a great extent on the beaten track, yet the bursts of sunshine which at intervals lighted up the wooded slopes of the valley, and other peculiar aspects of the day, proved a rich treat to the observant and enthusiastic naturalist.<\/div>\n
The air was fragrant with the odour of the wild rose, the wayfaring tree and other odoriferous plants which are here found in abundance – the woods resounded with the sweet notes of the warblers, and the denizens of the lake-like pools sported on and beneath the surface of the waters, giving an appearance of life and motion to the otherwise quiet and sequestered scene.<\/div>\n
There was plenty of work for the botanists, both in the way of land and water plants; but in consequence of the extra quantity of water in the dams, specimens of several of the rarer plants could not be observed. The meadows a little above presented a very interesting appearance, more particularly with respect to the flora. The Plentago Media, or Hairy Plantain, is here found in abundance, and was in full bloom.<\/div>\n
At this point a second party of naturalists from Clayton West district joined the principal company, and the united body now taking to the right of the valley and up the steep embankments, passed through several fields to Middlestown, then by way of Smithy Brook and Thornhill Edge to the place of meeting – at the house of Mr Garthwaite, the Savile Arms Inn, Thornhill.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Thanks to Nev Ashby of the Horbury and Sitlington History Group Facebook page for spotting this.<\/em><\/div>\n
\n

Wakefield Naturalists, established 1851, were prime movers in getting the West Riding Consolidated Naturalists Society together, it later became the Yorkshire Naturalists\u2019 Union, which in turn gave rise to the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. I don\u2019t recall wayfaring tree in Coxley, or hoary plantain for that matter. The note about where the rarer water plants were is useful because in an account of a similar meeting that I\u2019ve seen they mention sundew gets a mention and I\u2019ve always wondered where that would have been growing. Mill dams would be continually changing level, so it’s not surprising that marsh plants were able to become established.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

150 years ago today the West Riding Consolidated Naturalists Society had a ramble through Coxley valley. Here’s how it was reported in the local press a week later: EXCURSION AND MEETING OF THE WEST RIDING CONSOLIDATED NATURALISTS SOCIETY. Notwithstanding the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[32],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3983"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3983"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3984,"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3983\/revisions\/3984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}