Another walk for the series, this time barely skirting the Yorkshire Wolds. I take the bus to Scorborough, a sunny day. The remnants of storm Boelo means that there is a strong westerly wind. Today's is a very flat walk, on arable fields and across the shallow valleys of running becks. I walk along the only street in Scorborough towards St Leonard Church and a bit beyond, the road following the wriggly path of Scorborough Beck. I'm surprised to spot a group of 15 Little Egrets roosting and preening by the winding beck behind a building, well sheltered from the wind. Scorborough was the site of the Hotham family, before they moved to South Dalton Hall after the original moated hall in Scorborough was destroyed in a fire in 1705 or 1706. Today's Scorborough Hall was built afterwards, but the area is lush with mature trees, pastures and small copses, the remains of the original parkland. The area has plenty of water with two becks, lakes and numerous springs and the remains of an old duck decoy by the river Hull.
A Grey Heron sits by the beck. Grey Herons have long been associated to Scorborough. In the early 19th century Scorborough held a large heronry, which had long been lost by the middle of the century. The mature trees, several moats and nearby river made it an ideal spot. “A small remnant of decayed trees, bald headed with dry antiquity, hard by where the mansion stood, and close to the road, still affords protection to a company of herons; and an extensive castle moat is still preserved." Although there is no heronry at Scorborough today, there are a couple nearby, one of them at Tophill Low.
My route initially follows the Minster Way across fields with a touch of greening with sprouting winter wheat (top shot), and then crosses Snowclose Plantation. After that I make my way to Bealey's Lane, a wide bridleway lined by hedges. I stop at the ford at Moor Beck to have some lunch. Bealey's Lane takes me to Leconfield, where I get my bus back.
Collection frenzy
What brings me here today in relation to the Great Bustard is the topic of personal collections and the role they played in the eventual extinction of the species. Collecting mounted (taxidermy) specimens of birds and their eggs was a fashionable hobby in the 19th century among naturalists and the gentry. The mounts would be presented in bespoke cases and would take pride of place in the house, in a cabinet of curiosities. Many amateur ornithologists were then always armed with a gun, and regularly shooting rare or prized birds, in the absence of photography or binoculars was the way birders birded. Although the rapid change of land use spearheaded by the enclosures had been a ‘notice to quit’ for the Bustard in the words of Nelson, the ‘coup the grace’ for the species was the frenzy for shooting and collecting, the rarer the bird, the higher the prizes it would attain. Specimens would change hands in auctions and collectors would seek to ‘complete’ their collections with particular missing species, or make some money selling rare ones. James Middleton Hall, Esq., who was born at Scorborough in 1801 and lived at Scorborough Hall, was one such collectors. He was regarded as a ‘model country esquire', owning a stud and holding the Mastership of the Holderness Hunt for 30 years. He must have assembled a sizeable bird collection. He owned two mounted Great Bustards of Yorkshire origin. One, an adult male, was shot at North Dalton, the other was a juvenile female that had been caught alive in the neighbourhood around 1825, and tethered on the lawn on the grounds of the Hall. When the female died, it was mounted and added to the collection. Mr Hall's collection also included several rarities, like a Little Bustard, that had been shot near Beverley, and a Great White Egret, only the 3rd Yorkshire record, which was killed in 1843 in Aike, by the river Hull, by a John Norris, and sold to Mr. Hall. He also had one of the two earliest Little Egrets seen in East Yorkshire. He recounted how it came to be in his possession: "The Little Egret in my possession was killed by a labourer with a stick in Ake [Aike] Carr, near Beverley, about 1840, and was brought to me tied up in a pocket-handkerchief, covered with black wet mud and blood, in which state it was sent to Mr. Reed [Hugh Reid, the reputed taxidermist] of Doncaster, who restored it in a marvellous manner." Other of James Hall’s rarities were an adult and immature Black-winged Stilts obtained at Aike Carr about 1850.Travel. East Yorkshire bus 41 between Hull and Bridlington stops at Scorborough. No facilities at Scorborough or Leconfield.
Route. Circular around Scorborough, ending at Leconfield. 8.3 km. OS Map.
More information
Sheppard, T. (1923). Yorkshire Great Bustards. The Naturalist, 48, 87–89.
Nelson, T. H., Clarke, W. E., & Boyes, F. (1907). The birds of Yorkshire: being a historical account of the avi-fauna of the County. A. Brown.
Browne, H.B. 1912. The Story of the East Riding of Yorkshire.
