Rugged and resilient: Silsden Moor where farming has been a way of life for centuries

Fresh bedding for fat lambs raised at Cowburn Beck Farm, one of the long-established family enterprises on Silsden Moor where making a living from the land is known to go back 300 years. There was even a unique moorland dialect spoken here for centuries, which was recorded by a Leeds University professor in 1912 - but sadly both the dialect and the recording canisters have long since disappeared.

The Breares run Cowburn Beck Farm (above), where the family has farmed for more than 150 years. They are among an elite group of local families - Throups, Forts and Breares - who have been farming on Silsden Moor for generations. Flax grown along the beck's marshy banks was used in Silsden's noted linen trade of the 17th and 18th centuries.

High Bracken Hill Farm, in Green Lane, is owned by a branch of the famed Fort family. The house, initialled and dated WMW 1691, has double-chamfered mullioned windows. Like several of its Silsden Moor neighbours, High Bracken Hill Farm is Grade 2 listed. The 1841 Census recorded 39 Throups, 26 Forts and 18 Breares. (There were also 63 Jacksons, whose descendants farm at Woodside in Silsden. Jacksons and Throups have been in Silsden since the 1600s.)

The picture above shows on the skyline the highest of the Silsden Moor farms, Snow Hill. It is run by members of the Throup farming dynasty. In the left foreground is Haygill Farm.

Farms and their barns that are no longer working have become desirable residences,  set amidst stunning moorland scenery. One such is Middlebrough House, named after one of the earliest occupants of this remote settlement.

Schoolmaster Place Farm takes its name from John Wade, whose family farmed on Silsden Moor for generations. For over half of the 19th century John Wade was schoolmaster to Silsden's children. Starting at the end of the 1700s, he gave lessons at home to children from neighbouring farms until 1820 when he was appointed by the parish church as headmaster at the newly opened National School in the village.

This photograph, taken in 2008, shows High Edge and Low Edge, which like all the Silsden farms were owned by the Skipton Castle Estate until being sold in the early 1950s. High Edge Farm included a room for the use of game-shooting parties. The sale particulars reserved a right for the landlord to lunch in the house on shooting days.

Woofa Bank, in Cringles Lane, is run by another branch of the Throup family and is among local farms investing heavily in the future of the business. 

A recent development at Woofa Bank is this building in Jowett's Lane to house the dairy herd. Jowett's Lane is named after the family that farmed at Woofa Bank in the 1800s. John Jowett was a local preacher and the farmhouse was used for weekly Primitive Methodist services around 1840, before Silsden Moor Methodist Chapel was built.

   Distinctively-designed moorland shed.

A happy pig with the sun on its back.

The former Horne House Farm has long been an attractive residence. 

Another farm where development and expansion have taken place recently is the Heights.

Far Cringles Farm is undergoing extensive development with new accommodation and outbuildings.

After standing empty and derelict for many years, Walton Hole has been transformed into a working farm again. The date stone is 1719.

Wet welcome for new arrivals

These are the first lambs I have seen this year and as far as I can recall January arrivals are not common locally. Atrocious conditions and greater unpredictability in recent years have made it more difficult for farmers to settle on optimum lambing times. These lambs are pictured at a farm near Throup's Bridge.   

Barratt about a quarter of the way through  Belton Road development of 230 homes

Developer Barratt Homes appears to have opted for an odd mix of street names for its Saxon Dene development off Belton Road. Perhaps opportunity could have been taken to honour local people who have played a notable part in the community over the years. Lampkin Chase stands out.

The builder is about a quarter of the way through its development of 230 homes on what was previously farmland. Buyers so far are mainly first-timers or down-sizers and largely come from Silsden and nearby villages.

The development comprises two-, three- and four-bedroom properties with prices between £189,995 and £324,995. Still to be developed over the next two or three years are fields to the east and south of the present estate.