A FORGOTTEN corner of Skipton is finally on its way to being transformed into a beauty spot and woodland walk.

Known locally as Wilderness Wood, the overgrown area around Waller Hill Beck has become a magnet for fly-tippers, to the point where refuse frequently dams up the flowing water.

But now the owners of the potential beauty spot, which runs parallel to busy Otley Road, have agreed to sell it to Skipton Civic Society, and paperwork to convey the land to the group is currently being drawn up.

A peppercorn payment of just £500 is enough to buy the wood, but far more cash will be needed to refurbish the area and grants will be sought to help out.

A landscape architect was shown around the site by Civic Society secretary Gwynne Walters on Tuesday, when exciting plans for the future of the wood were discussed.

Once the rubbish is cleared and overgrown banks are cut back, the main aim is to open up the Otley Road end, creating a gate and steps down to the wood.

The wood could eventually be a part of Skipton's Millennium Walk, a route of historic and natural sites of interest being created by a taskforce of local businesses and members of the community.

Gwynne explained: "What is clearly needed is to be able to break through to Otley Road, so that people walking through can enter at one end of the wood and come out of the other.

"The banks of the beck are very steep as well so we would need to construct steps down from Otley Road.

"It would also be good to build a bridge across the beck, or at least stepping stones. There was a very robust bridge there some time ago but it was washed away in the big flood in the early eighties."

It is also hoped an historial "grotto" in the wood will be saved from further decay once the Civic Society's plans go ahead.

The semi-circular alcove made of sea shells is said to have been built into the banks of Waller Hill Beck by early Ermysted's Grammar School pupils, and could date back to the 16th century.

Gwynne added: "As far as the grotto is concerned it would be ideal if we could build a path right next to it, but it's too near the beck and if there was a flash storm the expensive work would be washed away. So the best thing to do would be to consolidate the existing path which is at a higher level."

But for now the Society's next step is to come up with sketched designs so that a coherent plan can be produced when asking for funding from providers like Yorventure or even the National Lottery Fund.

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