Mosses of Ingleton Churchyard - 1

Ingleton church tower looks down on many mosses: - the tower can't get bored!

Here are  some of the mosses it sees .. and a few shots of the well-attended Beginners Workshop on 23 Feb

There will be a repeat workshop during the Ingleton OvergroundUnderground Festival on 29 May when it WILL be much warmer

(I made a moss booklet for the workshop. One day I will put a copy in the church. It had descriptions of 16 of the 32 bryophytes that I had found when I visited three weeks ago. .. At the workshop and in the exploration afterwards I discovered another 6)

(Click here for other posts on this blog about Mosses and Liverworts)

This is the view as you climb the steps to approach the church.
Bottom left, marked by the blue pen is some Syntrichia - I think - ruralis (Great Hairy Screw Moss)  but I still have to check that it is not Syntrichia intermedia (Intermediate Screw Moss)
I hope it is the former as I like that name best.

The Syntrichia above  after spraying it with water.
The leaves are about 4mm long, are tongue shaped and have hair points.

On the wall on the right of the gateway is a patch of The Smaller Lattice-moss
 Cinclidotus fontinaloides - the shoots trail down
This should be growing beside the river.
What is it doing up here? (Rhetorical question - I don't know the answer - except to say the other places we found it on the walls, apart from this one,  were in north facing low-down shady places on the walls, so would be very moist). Below is a diagram.

There is a border round the edge of the Cinclidotus leaves because the margin is several cells thick. The top diagram shows a section through the edge of a leaf.

The picture below is the view towards the church from ground level at the top of the steps.

 H

This is ground level as you enter the churchyard at the metal gates
- and looks like absolute grot.
It is one of the last mosses I looked at, as it is so tiny.
Compared to this,the other mosses in the churchyard are big and bold and beautiful.

Yet this moss always does look this dark olive green colour - and many of the
leaf tips ARE ALWAYS broken off: - it is a method if dispersal.
It is called Didymodon sinuosus - Wavy Beard-moss.
The Didymodons are all small cushion mosses,
with leaves mostly about 1-2 mm long.

Below is a picture of  Didymodon sinuosus that I took whilst attending the BBS Acrocarps course at Preston Montford three weeks ago.

Didymodon sinuosus  Wavy beard-moss.  (tarmac track Preston Montford) the leaves are about 2 mm long. see the tips of the leaves are often missing.

As you walk 10metres up the path toward the church there is a flower bed on the left immediately next to the path. This has clumps of another little cusion moss- this time a  bright pale green moss. It is not shiny. - this moss can often occur in flower beds.. It was in the Giggleswick church flower bed, and in John Bearpark's garden at Settle.. 

It is Barbula unguiculata   the leaves are suddenly blunt at the tip but then have a point sticking out. the leaves have a mat surface. Under a microscope you would see that the cells have time little lumps called papillae on them that reflect the light in different directions - this is why it is mat no shiny)

Just below the Barbual in the picture above is another tinier moss that has smaller wider leaves - I am  going to check out what that is.

Barbula unguiculata  a  (Bird's-claw beard-moss)   an even closer view
- My camera won't get any closer. These leaves are about 3mm long.

Here is a group of us on the lawn in front of the tower.
Do you see the flat grave on the right and behind the group. Well the picture below shows the same (or maybe a grave nearby..)

In the front is Green Mountain Fringe-moss Racomitrium fasciculare

This is Racomitrium fasciculare (Fascicle means a little branch) It is a yellow green moss when wet though can look dark green when dry.  It is half way between being a carpet moss (Pleurocarp) and an cushion moss (Acrocarp). This Racomitrium does not have a hair point. Racomitriums grow on exposed acid rocks. This is a slate gravestone. 

Next we went round the back of the church and found some more Racomitrium on another gravestone

Here we are at the back of the churchyard. The base of this gravestone (sandstone) again has a piece of Racomitirium fasciculare

Actually here we are looking at the algae on the same gravestone - Lots of Clebsormidium crenulatum (This filamentous green alga that is growing well due to nitrogen oxide pollution - even in westerly rural villages such as Ingleton, with supposedly relatively pure air). and lower down on the gravestone some Trentepohlia (orange)

Here we are at the beginning of the workshop - in the warmth of the church room at the back of the church. Mike is holding a thallose liverwort he brought in to show us, as so far, we haven't found any thallose liverwort in the churchyard.

Welcome coffee and cake break

Examining specimens. See the book   - front left- the British Bryological Society  Field Guide

Just behind people on the left.. is the west wall of the tower -see below

Look at the zonation of mosses on the ground to the left of the tower.

To the far left, and in the soil below the trees is Oxyrrhynchium hians (Swartz's feather-moss) (I may study that later - it is a more non-descript-than-usual pleurocarp  growing amongst the vegetation under the trees.

The bright green in the middle is  (Still to be checked) Clustered-Feather-moss Rhynchostegium confertum
I met the caretaker who told me he removed moss from this path in summer. Perhaps Rhyncostegium is one that comes back when others have been removed.

The dark green right next to the wall and green door is Lophoclea bidentata - Bifid Crestwort - our only liverwort  (..so far) 

Bifid  Crestwort at ground level.. and below closer:.

Bifid Crestwort close-up. It is a leafy liverwort. See the leaves have no vein and two points. Liverworts do not have veins; and mosses never have two points.

..On the left is a model of Bifid Crestwort (Lophocolea bidentata) I made (100 times as big as the real thing) , and a quick sketch on the right.  From above (top) you can see their are two rows of leaves, inserted obliquely. the leaves are about 1.5mm long. The lower view of the model is from below - you can see it has underleaves.                                                                   





                                                                                 

To get a sense of scale, whilst standing on the liverwort, turn round and look south, and refocus on the distance - .. to see..

the Ingleton viaduct..  and above and beyond the viaduct to...

the Forest of Bowland with a covering of snow..

 Thank you - aren't modern cameras marvellous!

But back to the liverworts at our feet....

And a bit of revision for those who came on the workshop - do you remember the pleurocarp(carpet moss) with branches arranged like hands or fans placed downwards near the base of the trunk of the ash tree?

Yes it is.

Mouse-tail Moss: Isothecium myosuroides

 I hope you'll join me again later this spring when I run another workshop at Ingleton Churchyard this time on:-
"Let's practise using the BBS Field Guide Key" .. .. We'll visit a few of the mosses we met last time and a few new ones. It will be one evening between 5.30pm and 8pm. date yet to be fixed.

BEGINNERS WELCOME!

(Click here for other posts on this blog about Mosses and Liverworts)

Settle Fair Trade Social Evening- 2 March 5pm-8pm

Please click here for a report of the evening - below is just an advert for it

Settle Fair Trade Fortnight

Everyone in Settle (and beyond) welcome 

– all ages

Social Evening: 

Sat 2 March   5pm-8pm

Party Games - Food Tasting – Short video – Cooked Supper and Cake at c. 6.30pm

St Johns’ Church Hall, Settle, BD24 9JH

 We need fair-trade wrappers (for the Mad Hatters Competition :

a game in which each group is challenged to make the best hat out of packaging from Fair Trade goods). Please save clean wrappers paper and card packaging from Fair Trade Products –bring them to the evening or leave beforehand in the box in the Entrance Porch of the Friends Meeting House.

Donations to Rainforest Fund ( £100 can protect an acre of rainforest – can we raise this much?). It is helpful if you can book 01729 822138 – but if not, just come.

Hosted by St John’s Methodist Church. (Plus people from Settle TraidCraft at the Friends Meeting House, plus people form Churches Together, plus people from Settle)

Please click here for a report of the evening - above is just an advert for it

Ingleton Churchyard Mosses - Beginners workshop

Ingleton churchyard

(Click for other Mosses and Liverworts posts, including pictures of the day itself
See pictures of workshop at Giggleswick 2 Feb)

Go to  report and pictures of this Ingleton workshop advertised below on 23 Feb)

Beginners Workshop All  Welcome

  
Sat 23 Feb 2013 - 10am - 1pm
(£20-00 (£5-00 concess - applies to nearly everyone) towards coffee and handouts and church heating) 

"How many bryophytes (mosses and liverworts) are there in the world?   ---20,000

Number of Bryophytes in England?  Just under 1000 in England,

Number of Bryophytes in Britain? Just over 1000

There are 633 in our Vice-county - VC64 - i.e. the fifth of Yorkshire from Ripon to Leeds to Burton in Lonsdale - including 467 mosses and 166 liverworts.

On a weeks “Learning mosses course at Malham Tarn” 200-250 bryophytes might be found (compared with just over 300 in the same time in Scotland.)
Number of Bryophytes in Ingleton Churchyard?: 32 so far. (and counting…) This booklet describes the 16 “easiest” / most striking of them."

Thus starts the first page my booklet for the Beginners Mosses workshop at Ingleton

Then there are pictures and easy diagrams - I'll give a few here.

We had 20 people at the Giggleswick churchyard workshop two weeks ago (Plus myself and Mike as leaders) . Let's hope for a good turnout this weekend. So far there are 11 booked in - so we still have some space....

..On the left is a model of Bifid Crestwort (Lophocolea bidentata) I made, and a quick sketch on the right.  From above (top) you can see their are two rows of leaves, inserted obliquely. The lower view of the model is from below - you can see it has underleaves.                                                                   And below is a snap of this tiny plant - leaves are about 1.5 mm long...                                                                                             Next job is to get a better photo.

Lophocolea bidentata  (need to take a better picture on Saturday)

This is allegedly Britain's commonest leafy liverwort - so a useful one to learn.

Another fairly common moss that we will look for is Mouse-tail Moss. (Isothecium myosuroides) this grows at the foot of tree trunks:- 

Is this it?

Yes it is.

Mouse-tail Moss: Isothecium myosuroides

.Everyone enjoyed the workshop at Giggleswick a fortnight ago.. I'm sure you'll enjoy it at Ingleton - Do come.

Please book (even if only the evening before) so that I can bring enough handouts and hand lenses.
info@craven-conservation-group.org.uk

Links to other Mosses and Liverworts posts on this blog
.

Clarice Howorth (nee Garnett)

. 

I have just been to Clarice Howorth's funeral

What a funeral.
And What a person. - .- The Craven Herald have a nice obituray here 

I paste my obituary/account/memories of Clarice  lower down

As well as our thanksgiving service here on 13th and an upcoming Memorial Service in Settle in March at the Friends Meeting House there are several services taking place in Ghana (Click here) Ghana and one or two memories as here

We saw some pictures of Clarice as a child,  in her school on Ghana, receiving an award from the President of Ghana, at her wedding to Roland.

But what hit sleepy, snowy Rathmell today (13 Feb)(population 269)  was the effect she had had on so many Ghanaian girls over the 30 years she had worked at Wesley Girls High School, Cape Coast, Accra, 10 years as science teacher and 20 years as Headmistress.

About 80 of them arrived for the funeral.

The service was held in the Anglican Church at Rathmell, as the Methodist Church would have been too small.
I had been told a bus load of 40 Ghanaians were coming.
When I arrived I found myself a place in one of the added plastic seats in the aisle and saw at least 40 Ghanaian ladies in the full congregation.



We were shortly told that the bus had phoned to say it was seven miles away - So another 40 people! - They filled the choir seats at the front.

Barbara Bowman says some words

During the service we sang the school hymn. A fifth verse was added that had been written in the bus on the way up

Leaving the church for the Reading Room

Past the Coach

After the service we walked/tottered across the snowy, now turning to slush,road often in our best funeral shoes / boots to Rathmell Reading Room.

I may paste more pictures here sometime - meanwhile you can see them at http://www.flickr.com/photos/40015937@N05/sets/72157632763949000/

To Rathmell Reading Room

Plenty to eat and plenty to catch up on..

After that I gave a lift to one lady to the station. Shortly others arrived by taxi. Soon there must have been about 20 people.  Settle has a lovely warm ticket office room - but the Station closes at 5pm .. and then there is nowhere to shelter. The people were waiting for the 17.57 train. by 5.15 the station staff had locked up so all of us were outside, on the platform with slush and snow on the ground and sleet falling from the sky, and no-where to shelter.  "It is such a shame" I thought.

Most of us set off to Settle - only 4 minutes walk away on a dry day - but today the roads were slush filled. To cut a long story short, I and three ladies landed up at the Quaker Meeting house drinking tea - and Alison (who is warden there) showed us round. Most of the others ended up in the Lion hotel.

When we got back to the station we discovered that those who had remained were in the waiting room - in the dark  - but in the dry and warmth - They had been let in by a kind "out of hours" rail officer (?Les Barlow. (?))who had access to the keys to this room but not to the lights. so we all crammed in - very jolly. A big Thank you to Les Barlow. (?)

We were all in the dark in the picture below..   It is only the flash of may camera that lit the room
(Note the yellow posters on the wall - For The Fair Trade Social on 2 March that I am organising (and Clarice would have been involved with had she been here), the Ingleton Mosses Day  and Craven Speakers Club)




At 3 min to 6 the train arrived and I waved them off - what a journey they had made to honour Clarice.!





I had been to see her just before Christmas at Anley Hall and enjoyed talking to her about Ghanaian music. She was headmistress of Wesley Girls High School in Accra- a prestigious school in Ghana.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Girls'_High_School for a mention of Clarice (and Barbara Bowman ).

Clarice designed the logo for Craven Conservation Group. (It includes a lapwing.) She wrote an article about Hesley Moss for CCG Newsletter Number 5 - Dec 1984 magazine which I copy and paste here (along with some other souvenirs of Clarice and Hesley Moss)-
www.users.daelnet.co.uk/allinson/hesley.htm


I suspect that some of the birch saplings that we missed pulling out then are big trees now. She did
much work encouraging Rathmell Parish Council to look after Hesley Moss (which is now an SSSI)

You can see her second from left at the back on this fungus foray



For many many years she was the main stay of "One World Week" in Settle, sending off for the material, and organising events. We don't do much for One World Week now, but we would have stopped a lot earlier if it had not been for Clarice.   She contributed when we had a "Justice
Peace and Integrity of Creation" Group in Settle.

1996 -  CCG Trip to Brocklands Burial Ground, Rathmell – recently established - Roland and Clarice (in grey-green jacket) in the centre.

She used to tell me how she had relations who used to farm the land that is now covered by the plantation above Stocks Reservoir.

But she was also right into the 21st Century - she and Roland has solar panels put on their roof on the Mill at Rathmell. And she bought a computer so she could keep in touch with people here and in Ghana and send emails and print photos.

The same day as the Funeral /thanksgiving service in Rathmell on 13th I am told there was a service in Ghana at which maybe 500 people would attend.

There will be a thanksgiving "Meeting" at the Quaker Meeting House in March in Settle.

People in Rathmell and Settle, Calirice's sister-in-law Sheila and nephew Peter,  Quakers and Methodists and her friends in Ghana and many others will miss her and are pleased to have known her.


Here is a nice hymn that roland, her husband worte

Here is a hymn written by Roland, Clarice’s husband in c. 2001

When Joseph and Mary so wearily wended 
Their way from their cottage in Nazareth’s street,
Then slept with the oxen in Bethlehem’s stable,
And laid in a manger their Baby so sweet,
Enduring discomfort and squalor and hardship,
Compelled by a merciless tyrant’s decree,
Few were there on earth who in such tribulation
God’s greatness and goodness and glory could see.


God’s glory we see in the sun, moon and planets,
In river and ocean, in mountain and plain, 
In flowers and butterflies, forests and gardens,
In moors with their heather and fields full of grain.
But angels sang “Glory” when in great privation
Our Lord came in Bethlehem’s manger to lie;
For His greatest glory’s the glory of loving,
That led Him to suffer, that led Him to die.


Lord, give us Your glory, the glory of loving,
A love for all people, the great and the small,
For saints and for sinners, for friends and for strangers,
For black folk and white, like Your love for us all,
A love like Your own that for others is ready
To suffer great hardship if that should ensue;
You said that whenever we love other people
We also, in doing so show love to You.


©Roland Howorth.
Rathmell, North Yorkshire