Monday 14 October 2024
Fungi Festival at Hardcastle Crags
26 October - 17 November
National Trust celebrates some of the world's rarest species with upcoming Fungi Festival at Hardcastle Crags
- Calderdale is home to some of the most vulnerable species of ancient grassland fungi
- Fungi festival this autumn invites visitors learn all about these weird and wonderful mushrooms – including more than 30 endangered species
- Free exhibition Ancient Underlands opens on 26 October, featuring more than 40 visual artists and writers
- Foraging walks and opportunities for family craft in Gibson Mill running until Christmas, from mushroom prints to cards to sculptures
Photos: National Trust
Did you know Calderdale is home to some of the most threatened fungi in the world? Around 120 species of ancient grassland fungi can be found in pastures around West Yorkshire – many of them are vulnerable due to habitat loss.
The National Trust set up the Ancient Grassland Project in 2021 to help protect these fungi's remaining habitats – and this month there is set to be a celebration of this work with a 'Fungi Festival'. A mixture of art, crafts and mushroom foraging walks at Hardcastle Crags in Calderdale, it will provide family-friendly fun for this half-term and beyond.
Head down to the beautiful 19th century Gibson Mill this October and November, and you'll find Ancient Underlands, a free exhibition of works from over 40 local artists.
It's been curated by local ceramicist Katie Bates, who was inspired by the work of the Ancient Grassland Project. "When I saw the mushrooms, I just knew this was something I had to do," she says. "The visual material is amazing: these fungi are beautiful. Plus, there are the weird shapes, textures, smells and fantastic names (powdercap strangler, deceptive earthtongue)."
The exhibition has a serious message behind it, raising awareness of the fungi's dwindling habitat. Yorkshire is now one of the last homes of these mushrooms, which are increasingly rare. Over the past 70 years, 90% of their habitats have been destroyed.
Over the past three years, Calderdale mycologist Steve Hindle, who heads up the Ancient Grassland Fungi project, has surveyed 385 hectares of pasture and found 119 fungi species – three of them new to science. Around a third of these species are listed as vulnerable, and 2 as endangered on the IUCN red list – as rare as snow leopards.
"If snow leopards could be found in a field outside Hebden Bridge, you would have people clamouring to see them," says Steve. "But grassland fungi are still poorly understood, compared to other species, and there is very little statutory protection for them."
"Calderdale is our fungi equivalent of the Amazon rainforest. We want to shine a light on how amazing these fungi are – if they go extinct we might never know what we've lost."
Katie Bates first found out about these fungi a couple of years ago when she met Steve by chance through a home-growing project. After going on some fungi-spotting walks with him, which inspired some of her own work, she vowed to help raise awareness of their plight.
"They're not as well known, even locally, as they should be," she says, "and that matters because how can we protect the habitats and the species that depend on them, if we don't know what we have?
"A group exhibition is a great way to raise awareness: art can be used to educate and inspire, and we're working with fantastic material. Seeing the fungi up close creates fellowship. Hopefully we can make a difference."
The National Trust's Fungi Festival 2024 will be held at Hardcastle Crags from 26 October. ee See Events at Hardcastle Crags.
More information on the Ancient Fungi Project can be found here: Grassland Fungi Project at Hardcastle Crags