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Title: Help Reveal the Hidden History of the Eastern Vale of Pickering. Author: Yorkshire Wildlife Trust  ID & Publication: 20130111009 ~ The-Villager.co.uk  Area: Yorkshire  Subject: Environment

Do you live in or visit the Eastern Vale of Pickering? Help to reveal its hidden history.

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, in partnership with Scarborough Borough Council and the East Riding & North Yorkshire Waterways Partnership, are putting together a funding bid, which if successful will see a considerable amount of money injected into a very special area here in Yorkshire called The Carrs found in the eastern section of the Vale of Pickering.

To help ensure the bid is successful we need your ideas and thoughts on what it is about this area that interests you along with the sorts of activities you enjoy. The survey can be found on the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s website http://www.ywt.org.uk/CarrsConsultation . If you are unable to access the survey online please feel free to call our Project Officer Harriet Linfoot on 01482 441013.

This consultation project is funded by the LEADER Coast, Wolds, Wetlands & Waterways Local Action Group (LAG) through the East Riding and North Yorkshire Waterways Partnership.

The Carrs has an incredible historical story to tell and can chart the whole of human interaction with wetland landscapes in the UK. Mesolithic man 8,500 years ago moved from a nomadic lifestyle to establish the earliest settlement known in this country, at Star Carr on the edge of the ancient lake Flixton. At that time, man would have been totally dependent on the wetlands for food and water. Slowly, through a long history, the wetlands are tamed by increasingly sophisticated drainage systems, to create the high quality farmland we know from the area today.

Running through the area, the River Hertford flows backwards, away from the sea! Today The Carrs plays a valuable role in food production and flood protection for communities downstream. The peat soils in the area (laid down by the original Lake Flixton) are also hugely valuable at locking carbon
into the land preventing it being released into the environment exacerbating climate change. The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is hoping to encourage threatened wildlife - birds such as lapwings and redshank, dragonflies and fish like the brown trout, to re-colonise the area.

These stories and future plans for the area are to be the basis of the funding bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund which hopefully will enable a whole series of projects to be developed in The Carrs to benefit local people and wildlife. If successful, the projects will provide opportunities for local communities to learn more and get actively involved in developing ideas and working to improve the local landscape, heritage, biodiversity and economy.

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