Last interglacial coast trail. Stage 3: Beverley to Scorborough

I get an early bus to Flemingate, Beverley and walk to the Minster. It is a sunny, mild and still day, a Small Tortoiseshell and a Bee fly feeding on Lesser Celandines opposite the Minster. The last interglacial coastal cliff conveniently follows the centre of Beverley in an approximate north to south direction at about the 10 m over sea level. The reason for my choice of animal of the Ipswichian for today is due to the fact that Beverley is named after beavers (Anglo Saxon 'beofer lac'or ley', beaver lake or pasture). I decide to make a compilation of Beaver beaver iconography along the route. First, I walk around the Minster trying unsuccessfully to find a gargoyle depicting a beaver playing bagpipes. I ask inside and the volunteers are a bit baffled, but they helpfully point me to a small carved beaver in a book case. 

Always birds on gargoyles. This one a Stock Dove.

Jackdaw on statue.

Carved Beaver inside the Minster, on a book case.

Old Beverley Coat of arms on Beverley Market cross. It really doesn't look like a beaver!

The new rendition of the coat of arms on litter bins looks more like it.

The Beaver Pub sign.

The Beaver pub at North Bar Within.

I had never noticed this Victorian public water pump from 1860, it was beautifully reconstructed by the Beverley Civic Society.

North Bar gateway.

I thought it was a beaver on North Bar, but it looks like a squirrel.

I leave the old town through North Bar towards Molescroft following the Minster Way until the pedestrian bridge over the A1035 to join the Hudson Way.

The Minster Way is some times very narrow across Molescroft.

I'm afraid this route zig-zags quite a bit, as the most straight route by the interglacial coast is on the Driffield road, but this is a very busy road and I will avoid it, so I take the sedated Hudson Way, an abandoned railway track from Beverley to Market Weighton that is now a public footpath. Butterflies, Chiffchaffs, Yellowhammers, and Skylarks on the way. Carpets of Dog's Mercury on the banks.

Bee Fly.

Small Tortoiseshell and Comma on Blackthorn blossom.

Yellowhammer.

I leave the Hudson Way at Miles Lane, near the grounds of the abandoned Mediaeval village of Ravensthorpe, but this turns to be pretty busy too with traffic. I try an alternative route, but it turns out that it is a road to a clay-shooting ground by Bygot Wood, with scary warning signs on the trees all along not to proceed, despite it leading to a public right of way, so I have to retrace my steps. I’m glad I’m able to tick some early Wood Anemones and Ramsons at the start of the track.

A female Bullfinch was intrigued when I whistle its call.

The view north from the Hudson Way.

Miles Lane bridge over the Hudson Way.

Wood Anemones by Bygot Wood.

Ipswichian Woodland

The Anemones and Dog's Mercury are ancient woodland indicator flowers that tells us that woodland was much more extensive a few centuries ago than it is now in East Yorkshire. They remind me that you might interpret the abundance of megafauna in the last interglacial as if the British Ipswichian ecosystem was like today’s Serengeti. This is not so, the megafauna was very different in many ways (no antelopes, many deer) the flora, surprisingly, would be pretty much like the European vegetation today. We would have walked across the landscape not having much trouble recognising the trees and flowers, most species are present today. At peak interglacial conditions, the woodland was a mixed oak forest, with Pine, Birch, Elm, Oak, Maple, Hornbeam and Hazel. In the wetter areas, Alder carr would have develop. Hornbeam became more dominant in the late stages. An exotic element to the flora of the time is the presence of the Montpellier Maple, native to the Mediterranean and not found in the UK today. A strong contrast with the extremely reduced woodland cover of East Yorkshire today, just over 2%.

I skirt Leconfield following the old Driffield road and then take a footpath towards Bealey’s Beck. It's great to be back off the road. A Skylark rises and a Curlew calls, but I can't find it on the stubble of the fields. A Red Kite flies over moving up the valley, loosely chaperoned by the resident pair of Buzzards across their territory.

A spring, crystal clear water burbling from the chalky bottom. Its waters end up at Bealey's Beck.

Many flowering Primroses along the way.

I gasp when I come across the beautiful Bealey's Beck (top shot). I check the Ordnance Survey map and trace its meandering course upstream up to South Dalton, I can see the church tower spire in the horizon. The beck changes name as it progresses along its little valley from Beck's Drain, Moor Beck, Bealey's Beck and Scorborough Beck. Much of what it looks like a natural valley is open wood pasture with small plantations. The last interglacial cliff is westwards in this area, with abundant springs and streams, but it is likely a shorter stream existed back then with the higher sea level.

The simple bridge crossing of Bealey's Beck.

A Bridleway marker in the middle of a field.

Scorborough Beck by the Driffield Road. I can imagine beavers living here.

I get to the bus stop on Driffield roat at Scorborough. Sadly, a roadkilled Hedghehog is the only wild mammal I've seen today.

Beavers

Eurasian Beaver, Castor fiber, were widely distributed during the Ipswichian across England. Beavers are semi-aquatic, and live near water, not straying too far to feed. They graze aquatic plants and fell broadleaf trees to feed on the bark and leaves and to store these for the winter months. Felled trees, usually willow or aspen and birch, sprout from the stump, and this beaver coppicing means beavers have easy access to low browse forming ‘beaver pastures’. If the water is not deep, they use tree trunks and branches to build dams along rivers. Unlike other rodents, beavers form monogamous pairs that share a territory. Their young of the year (kits, often two) stay in the parental territory until they are two, so the groups is really a family of beavers. Beavers build lodges in the lake with an underwater entrance where they are safe from predators. They store vegetation inside the lodge to eat through winter and they also have their young in the safety of the lodge.They eat tree bark, twigs and leaves and also grass and aquatic vegetation. When the lake that forms behind the dam gets silted up, they form meadows, which are used by other herbivores. The beavers then move upstream and build a new dam, which forms a lake. Together with other herbivores, beavers contribute to create clearings in woodland and alongside rivers, they favour willow, which they effectively pollard so new growth is generated near the base. Beavers are regarded as ecosystem engineers and keystone species for their multiple effects on their environment and positive effects on biodiversity. Their lakes are ideal for some species of fish like pike, eel and carp, favouring slow water and the beaver meadows attract other megafauna. They slow the flow of water in the river basin. 

Beaver.

Where can I see them?
Beavers disappeared from Britain at the end of the last interglacial, when the last ice age started, but they promptly recolonised in postglacial times as trees returned to the landscape. There are many fossils in Yorkshire, including across Holderness. They appear to coexist with fisher-hunter-gatherer humans in the Mesolithic, when humans clearly benefited from the clearings created by beavers for hunting, and took advantage of their lakes for their plentiful fish. Humans are also likely to have used beaver dams as bridges and trees felled by beavers for their own purposes. Mesolithic humans even used beaver teeth and jaws as wood-working tools. It is likely beavers become extinct in East Yorkshire in the first part of the first millennium. Although there is a reintroduction program in North Yorkshire, with a family in an enclosure in Cropton Forest, it appears unlikely they will be introduced in East Yorkshire any time soon, but the little beck I visited today appears to be a suitable place.

Walk details. Distance: 15 km. Terrain: mostly flat, steep steps to negotiate bridge and two footbridges. Some sections of public rights of way muddy and a PROW section across a planted field. Maximum height 27 m. minimum 9m. Start at Beverley Minster, finish at Scorborough Driffield rd. by Scorborough Beck. The start across Beverley town, then it becomes rural with arable fields and small copses with springs and a beck.

More information

Phillips, L. Vegetational History of the Ipswichian/Eemian Interglacial in Britain and Continental Europe. New Phytol. 73, 589–604 (1974).
Coles, B.J. 2006 “Beavers in Britain’s Past” WARP Occasional Paper 19. Oxford: Oxbow. x+242 pages, 158 illustrations; ISBN 978-1-84217-2261, paperback.

Yalden, D. 2010. The History of British Mammals. Bloomsbury, 311 pp.