Moorhouse Farm: 06-10-2026

An unexpected task!!!! 

This week the NCVs were promised a rather unusual day. It was to involve  - wait for it.......

GRAPE PICKING!!!!!!

Yes, that's right. Grape picking.

 And no - they were not being whisked off to a vineyard in France, or even the south of England. Instead they had to make their way to the top end of Nidderdale - an unlikely sounding spot for grape growing. It turns out that Moorhouse Farm is not a bad place at all for growing grapes to make into wine, despite it being, at an elevation of 1100 ft, the highest vineyard in England! 

The vineyard is 1.5 acres in size and grows 5 varieties of both red and green grapes which will be made into sparkling rose. The crop was ready to pick and the grapes were being collected the following morning to be transported to Shropshire for pressing (so no need for the NCVs to take off their boots in order to tread the juicy fruits!) 

So - let's cut the chat and look at the pictures of what went on. How many grapes were picked by close of play?

Estate manager Nick helped Liz

transport everyone high up 

above the valley.

The transport was luxurious.

Amy put on her hood to stop the 

rain coming through the hole in the roof.

The weather was not we had

expected. Provence like it 

certainly was not!

Full waterproofs were the 

order of the day.

On arrival everyone set off

to the work area clutching

buckets and secateurs.

Their destination was 

behind a wire fence.

Over you go Ruth!

On the far side of the fence were

hundreds of bunches of green grapes.

These two NCVs were soon

neck deep in the vines, hunting

out the fruits of their labour.

 Dawn sat down on the job.

Amy poses with a bunch to 

send the pic to her family 

in France.

When buckets were filled they

were carried down to be emptied 

into the barrels for transporting.

Over the day dozens of containers

were filled.

Nick said that the harvest last year 

(the first for this new vineyard) was 

400kg. This year he thinks it will

be triple that!!!!

Everyone was relieved that lunch 

was to be taken in a nice 

dry shooting barn.

Wine was on offer for those that

wanted a tipple!

Cheers folks!

Well done on picking all the 

grapes in our assigned area!

PS - View from the loo!

Wallers' Update: 30-09-2026

 

Wallers' Update

by Graham

As this week's walling news was quite lengthy I have decided to give them a blog entry all to themselves, so - take it away Graham!!!!

We've left Breaks Fold farm for the time being and moved onto a project at Low Waite farm on the Eagle Hall road near Pateley Bridge.  

An existing gate for walkers needs replacing but the new gate, because of "rules" has to be placed 50 metres away. The footpath team have knocked down a bit of wall to install the new gate and we are to build a wall where the original gate was and make good in between. With a road on one side and a slope on the other, we knew this was going to be hard work.

The new gate is going here -

 courtesy of the footpath team

The new gate gap from the road

In addition, Liz suggested steps adjacent to the gate would be very useful and, in terms of stone supplies, there was a pile behind the farmhouse amongst the nettles which would need sorting and moving. And before we started work it began to drizzle and continued until after coffee break!

However the 5 strong team got stuck in.

Dave and Duncan spent much of the morning sorting the stone pile. Unfortunately there are no photos to show off their hard work.  It is hoped to move much of the sorted stone next week using Liz's trailer.

Rod and Andy set about creating some steps. These photos, however, don't do justice to the size of some of the stones which had to be dug and levered out of the ground, nor the quality of the final result and the back braking effort involved. 

Andy looks at the second of the two 

large stones to be levered out.

Rod shows off Andy's 

(and his) hard work.

Midday, and Rod and Andy have

 created a base for the steps.

The site from the road at midday.

Step task completed

After lunch Dave and Duncan joined Graham doing  partial rebuilding where needed, and a little while later Andy came to do the same. Much of the wall is a retaining wall and relatively solid when touched but unstable when disturbed. We like disturbing walls! After Breaks Fold Farm which was a straightforward project this one is less so. 

A bit of a mess!

Same mess, but Duncan and 

Dave are dealing with it.

Andy moves on from steps 

and starts some dismantling.

Requires some expert 

rebuilding next week.

A lovely afternoon emerged, by which time we were all worn out. We look forward to next week, when with a new gate installed, we can get a clearer view on how to proceed. All in all, we were pleased with the day's work

Laver Banks: 29-09-2026

 Where's the best interest rate?

This week the NCVs were visiting the banks.

No - they weren't trying to decide where to get the best interest on their savings. They were once again working at Laver Banks - somewhere there is always plenty of interest for outdoor folk. This week they were working on the opposite side of the river to last week, coppicing or clearing the brash left by a tree surgeon.

You know the score - cut, drag and pile!

On arrival, the view from the 

bridge was not for the faint hearted.

The view from 

down amongst it all

was even worse.

Ok folks, let's get started.

Clear the floor first maybe, 

and put it over here?

Regular calls for Osian to 

make some more brash pile 

stakes kept him well employed.

Not everyone wanted to wait 

to generate yet more brash!

Oh heck! Liz had got her 

chain saw out. Now the brash 

was going to pile up!!!

And pile up it did.

So much so that Dawn...

...and Paul needed to do some 

pile jumping to knock it down to size.

Meanwhile Brenda was 

patiently clearing the 

bridge edges of grasses.

This meant that there was plenty

 of seating choice at break times.

Andrew was very pleased with 

his nicely woven brash pile.

This one ended up quite

an impressive length.

By 1:30 the job was done.

What a difference 4 hours makes

when the NCVs are involved!!!!

Last Thursday (24th Sept.) 2 NCVs put on their 'Rights of Way' heads and headed off to Low Thwaite Farm to help Adam, the North Yorks footpath officer, install a new path gate.

First up, a gate size length of wall needed removing. Amy and Alistair seemed happy

doing that.

Once the wall was down there were two big holes to dig for these two huge gate posts. NOT so easy! This is where they got to by home time. A task o be continued!!!

Wallers' Update-

by Barry

Having cancelled a day’s walling three weeks ago due to a grim weather forecast which then proved inaccurate, we chose to ignore the prospect of a morning of heavy showers and met as usual. Seven of us did need fleeces to fend off the light showers until coffee time, but thereafter sunny intervals lengthened as the day progressed and gave very pleasant conditions as we finally completed the working stints at Breaks Fold Farm, finally topping off by 2.30pm. 

Now - that's what I call a well topped wall!

Well done wallers.

Now you can move on to a new job!

Three surprises brought amusement: as we sat having lunch a stoat made its way along an adjoining wall and disappeared through it; also over lunch seven Harrogate Ramblers came past and paused for a chat and appreciative comments; and then after lunch Graham called by with his wife Ann, returning from a short stay in Cumbria, and proudly showed her the very productive results of three months at Breaks Fold Farm.