It’s hard to believe that the top end of Newmillerdam Country Park was ever as open as this. Richard Brook photographed the upper end of the lake from the end of the Causeway on Sunday, 9 September, 1973. He describes this as the ‘fish hatchery and cleared area’. I remember the slope on the right being birch woodland before it was clear-felled and, like Richard, I took photographs here, in my case before the felling started, so I must set about archiving those too.
But for the time being, I’m taking a break as I’ve now finished the first two boxes of Richard’s slides; there are three still to go. I’m looking forward to more glimpses of familiar habitats as they once were.
As with the Stanley Ferry Flash photograph, Richard returned to the scene, in this case seven years later, on Monday, 26 May, 1980, but this time he’s looking down the lake across what he calls the willow swamp with the Causeway in the background (to me it looks like the lake-shore path in the distance, rather than the Causeway).
Again there’s a bare slope which I believe was as a result of felling conifers which had been planted in the 1960s after the original deciduous woodland had been felled.
Very different from the dense woodland of today.
So pleased to see that Richard’s vast catalogue of slides of the local area are being brought to life by Richard Bell and have not gone to waste. There was so much information in his detailed records and we are grateful to Richard Bell for ensuring this was retained by the Yorkshire Archives for future reference.
Thankyou Richard for taking care of these slides and going to the trouble of archiving them for the local naturalists. Richard would be delighted! (Too many Richards!) From the Brook family.
There can’t ever be too many Richards!
Thank you, I’m enjoying going through the slides and look forward to seeing what turns up. And thank you to you and to your family for going through the material with such care. I’m so glad we’ve been able to find an appropriate home for the archive.