WHEN Tom Bradley wrote his book The Ure, published in 1891, he said that Jervaulx Abbey marked the place where Yoredale ends and Wensleydale begins. This boundary of Wensleydale was reinforced in an earlier work, the Guide to Wensleydale, its Picturesque Scenery and its Objects of Antiquity, written by "A Native Admirer" and published by a Hawes printer in 1879.

This book said that Wensleydale was generally considered to end a little below Jervaulx, near Kilgram bridge, at a point where the dale gradually opened into a wide tract of countryside.

If Bradley's information is correct, it seems there were two dales, while A Native Admirer seems not to suggest that Wensleydale becomes Yoredale below Kilgram bridge.

The general opinion, however, is that there is, and was, just the one dale which was formerly called Yoredale or Uredale but which in more recent times became known as Wensleydale. In other words, Bradley might have been mistaken although one must remember that, in his lifetime, some people might have stubbornly persisted in referring to the area as Yoredale.

Precisely where Wensleydale ends is open to debate, but there is no doubt that the entire length of the valley was once known as Yoredale. It is referred to under this name in various monastic charters but it seems that the name Wensleydale had been adopted for general use as early as the 12th century.

The noted antiquarian and travel-writer, John Leland (1506-1552), said there was no vale called Uresdale (sic), adding that the dale in which the River Ure flowed was called Wensedale, having apparently taken that name from Wensela (sic) market. At the time, Wensley was an important market town, making it logical to name the valley in its honour. When Leland was writing, it seems that Wensley bridge marked the lower end of Wensleydale, not Kilgram bridge.

It is generally accepted that the dale begins at Hell Gill near the county boundary high in the Pennines but the point at which it ends seems to remain in dispute. For some reason, the landscape around that portion of the Ure which flows from Jervaulx to join the Swale below Boroughbridge and so become the Ouse, is rarely if ever referred to as Wensleydale. One often hears of Ripon being "on the banks of the Ure" but seldom is it described as being in Wensleydale or a part of the Yorkshire Dales.

Perhaps Tom Bradley was right after all?

Persecuted Papists

A curious letter in this paper (July 28) from a Great Ayton reader seems to suggest that persecution of Catholics in this country during the Elizabethan reign and afterwards is nothing more than a folk tale. That is rather like a denial of the Holocaust. It is a matter of historical record that the state sought to impose its own reformed religion upon the people; there was nothing spiritual about it, it was a political decision enforced by the weight of English law.

Elizabeth I was made head of the church, not by any divine ruling or biblical edict, but by the 1559 Act of Supremacy. The Act made her supreme governor of "things and causes both spiritual and ecclesiastical" while the Act of Uniformity compelled all priests to use the Protestants' Book of Common Prayer. If a priest refused, he was sent to prison for six months for the first offence, lost his benefice for a second offence and faced life imprisonment for a third offence. The laity were also penalised if they spoke against the Book of Common Prayer, with life imprisonment and forfeiture of property for a third offence.

Under penalty of severe fines and imprisonment, everyone had to attend Protestant services in their parish church and although some Catholics attended Protestant churches while remaining faithful to their old beliefs (and so became known as church papists), others refused. Priests went overseas to train for the priesthood and then, in 1563, the law against Catholics was strengthened to make all holders of public office, lawyers etc, take the Oath of Supremacy. Catholics were later denied university places, the ownership of land, the post of military officers, the right to be an MP and many other similar rights.

Perhaps the worst was an Act passed in 1581 "to retain the Queen's Majesty's subjects in due obedience" which said that those "reconciled to the Romish religion", and those who used instruments of such reconciliation, were guilty of treason. The dreadful penalty was hanging, drawing and quartering.

A local example was the gentle Egton Bridge martyr, Fr Nicholas Postgate, who at the advanced age of 82, was convicted of treason at York assizes and executed on the Knavesmire at York, on August 7, 1679. His treason? Baptising a baby into the Catholic faith.

In that same year, the Privy Council issued instructions to the country's judges. It referred to "divers Popish priests who have been condemned in several counties" and ordered the judges to go on their circuits "where the said priests do remain and forthwith give direction where they can be executed according to law". I'm not sure how many priests were executed but I believe it was about 400.

The last martyr of the Elizabethan persecution (but not the Penal Times) was Fr William Richardson who was executed on February 17, 1603, five weeks before the Queen's death. Her death was followed by the Penal Times, not another piece of folklore, but a period of further persecutions, barbarism and a tightening of cruel and dreadful laws, not only affecting Catholics, but others who did not submit to the English establishment's vision of the Christian faith.

When persecution ended, discrimination began, and for Catholics, that officially concluded with the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 although even today, the Sovereign must be in communion with the Church of England, and if he or she marries a Catholic, any rights to the throne must be abandoned. That is not so if he or she marries a person from any other faith, or with no faith.

This is not folklore. It is English law. Much of this long and harrowing period, loosely termed the Reformation, is not recorded in some history books, but the information remains available for anyone wishing to distinguish between the truth, history and folklore, or Tudor and state propaganda.

And, according to my Great Ayton correspondent, priest holes, often found in country houses, were for hiding gold!

This was not their purpose. They were cleverly built to conceal priests who defied English law to continue teaching the apostolic faith in the face of sadistic death on a charge of treason. I will deal with those next week.

Clever little flies

On a lighter note, I have received a letter from a reader in Maltby near Middlesbrough who describes an insect called a bee-fly which she noticed in her garden. It hovered above flowers and used a long proboscis to abstract the nectar, but it looked like a bee.

Almost certainly, this is one of several types of hoverfly. These can be seen in late summer, hovering above flowers on wings that whirr so rapidly they become almost invisible. Hoverflies look like other insects, usually imitating wasps and bees, and this mimicry is done as a form of protection. Birds will seldom attack a bee or wasp, and so, in their disguise, these clever little hoverflies maintain a degree of safety as they go about their business.

From our point of view, they are quite harmless; in spite of looking fierce, they do not sting and their chief point of identification is their ability to hover above flowers.

Another letter comes from a Knaresborough reader and, following my note about dotterels on Ingleborough, he reports seeing a single dotterel on the same hill some years ago. It was so tame that he approached to within ten metres of the bird. He tells me they've also been recorded on the summit of Pendle Hill near Clitheroe in Lancashire, probably en route to nesting grounds in the Cairngorms