(AGENPARL) – Tue 10 June 2025 Please find our latest news release below.
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Andrew Fagg
Media Officer
Working hours: Mon | Tue | Fri
http://www.yorkshiredales.org.uk
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Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority
Yoredale | Bainbridge | Leyburn | DL8 3EL
News Release
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Wash dub restored in Craven village
Bainbridge, 10 June 2025
A party was held in Hetton to celebrate the restoration of the village wash dub, following the completion of a project supported by the Swinden Quarry Natural Environment Fund.
People listened as village elder Cynthia Rymer gave a short talk on the history of sheep washing in Skirsegill beck, a tributary of the River Aire.
New gates, scrub clearance, wildflower planting, drainage and surface works, as well as a new bench and interpretation board, has transformed the “Hetton Waste and Wash Dub” into an attractive heritage site, nature reserve and amenity area.
A grant of £2,400 from the Swinden Quarry Natural Environment Fund covered about a quarter of the total cost of the project. The fund, financed by the firm, Tarmac, is administered by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority. It is used to support community projects in the parishes closest to Swinden Quarry.
At the party on Saturday 31 May, attended by residents from the parishes of Hetton-cum-Bordley, Rylstone and Cracoe, retired teacher Cynthia Rymer gave a speech.
She said: “I’m one of the few people who remember the wash dub in use. I first came to Cracoe school in 1951. In October time the sheep belonging to the local farmers in Hetton were salved, rubbed with a mixture of Stockholm tar, butter and whale oil, to prevent parasites. Then about a week or ten days before clipping [in the following summer] they were brought to the wash dub. They were really dumped in the water, back end first. The man in the dub was rubbing hard to get all this salve out. He was up to his arm pits in the wash. Sometimes he stood in a barrel with stones in the bottom to keep him steady.”
Project leader for the wash dub restoration, Shiela Stoney, from Hetton Parish Meeting, said she too could remember the wash dub days; the dub was in use from the 1880s to1958.
She said: “It was a big community event. We all used to watch. They used to put the boards in to dam up the beck. And the young men of the village – and it was the young men – used to come down to swim in it. Then the main event, the dipping of hundreds of sheep, brought by all the farmers of Hetton parish, four or five farms back then, would take place.”
She said the waste and wash dub area, which marks the entrance to the village from the north, had fallen into dereliction.
“It was a dead resource, inaccessible and a mess. We were talking about it for 20 years, but actually our chair David Mander got us going. Restoring it to something like it was in decades past has happened over the past two or three years. Now it’s a really good village resource again.”
Member Champion for the Natural Environment at the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, Mark Corner, said: “The Hetton wash dub is one of the best preserved in the National Park, with very attractive drystone wall sheep folds. The community has done a great job of bringing it back to life and sharing it with the wider public.
“The project is a good example of what can be supported through the Swinden Quarry Natural Environment Fund. We would welcome more such applications for grant support from parishes around Swinden quarry.”
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Note to Newsdesk
Images:
“1 Cynthia Rymer, centre right in the picture, speaking at the Hetton waste and wash dub party on 31 May”
“2 Project leader Sheila Stoney beside the wash dub, a dammed up section of Skirsegill beck, in Hetton”
1. The Yorkshire Dales National Park is one of 15 National Parks in the UK. It is administered by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, which has two main purposes: “to conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage” and “to promote opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of the National Park”. In carrying out these purposes, the Authority has a duty “to seek to foster the economic and social well being of local communities”. The National Park Authority comprises 25 members, made up of unitary, county and city councillors and members appointed by the Secretary of State for the Environment to represent parishes or in recognition of their specialist skills or knowledge.
1. All of our work is guided by the vision for the future of the National Park set out in the Yorkshire Dales National Park Management Plan: “Through their passion for this special place, local people and businesses will keep the Yorkshire Dales National Park a thriving area. Its unique cultural landscape will be treasured for its stunning scenery, exceptional heritage and wonderful wildlife, and every year millions of people will be inspired to be a part of it.”