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STRICKLEY Strickley is a typical family farm in Cumbria, south east of Kendal. It is mainly in the parishes of Old and New Hutton, though some fields extend into Stainton. We have about 225 acres (90 hectares). This is made up of pastures and meadows, a wood and a pond, with some areas kept as wildlife habitats. Fields range in size from about an acre to ten acres, divided by hedges and dry stone walls. Keeping these stock-proof, by repairing/rebuilding the walls and laying the hedges is ongoing.
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Dry stone walls should last for ever, but hedges need laying every 10 - 20 years
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A hedge in need of laying |
A hedge laid this year |
A hedge laid 10 years ago |
Click here to see details and photographs of all the fields
The fields' names reflect something of the characteristics or history of the land. Most have not changed in the 131 years our family has been here. Though some have more prosaic names now. The field now known simply as "Big Field", used to known as the "Horse Coppy", as it was where the horses were walked down to at the end of a days work. These photographs show it in the late sixties when corn was grown in it.
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The field we know as Plucker is supposedly derived from Plucka, and from "Pluck Hay" -as it was too steep to get the hay any other way. Brant is an old word meaning steep, and therefore "Brant Strickley" is a steep field at Strickley. Strickley Hill is also well described. while some fields are only gently sloping, some have steep slopes that make it difficult for modern farm machinery. Even in the 1960's hay had to be raked up by hand from the steep corner of the field known as "Front Bank".
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Some fields have suffered more disruption than others. All might look peaceful on the surface now, but for more than 100 years Strickley has suffered in the name of progress. The main Haweswater to Manchester water pipe was laid in the Nineteenth Century (see the section on Water on the History page). Other services go through Strickley, including a gas pipe, overhead pylons and a fibre-optic cable. The photographs below show some of the work in progress (and the disruption). All the services seem to go through the Crow, and had great difficulty (especially the gaspipe) in avoiding damaging the water mains.
(Apologies for the quality of some of the photographs - like us they've had a hard life)
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Watch this page for similar sections on the wood and pond, coming up in the next few months.
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