TO READ THE CHARLES WATERTON STORY IN ORDER (RECOMMENDED) CLICK THE APPROPRIATE LINK: PART TWO, PART THREE, PART FOUR.
A Wakefield first...
Recently, I visited what is widely believed to be the world's first nature reserve. I did not, however, have to travel as far as Yellowstone or the Serengeti. I in fact strayed no further than Walton, Wakefield.
Waterton Park was founded in the early nineteenth century by Charles Waterton of Walton Hall. Its foundation did not mean that he erected a sign outside and started charging visitors an entry fee. Rather, he enclosed land he owned with the simple intention of protecting birds and other wildlife that resided there, while at the same time encouraging fresh animal life to flourish.
Charles Waterton is not only a notable figure in Wakefield's history; he is known in far-off parts of the world for his innovative work as a naturalist, conservationist, explorer, writer and taxidermist. If that wasn't sufficient, he also played an important role in an episode from the history of medicine.
As a man, he was known as being kind-hearted, quarrelsome, philanthropic, bad tempered and a true eccentric. For a short time, he was also (somewhat by default) a slave owner who, it seems, thought the slave trade was an abomination.
In other words, he was full of contradictions and had a unique outlook, one that gave rise to a fascinating life story.
Waterton helped inspire Darwin in his travels and studies of nature (Darwin, at one time, visited Waterton Park), while he is also a hero of Sir David Attenborough and Gerald Durrell.
View across the lake to Walton Hall
Waterton's estate was open land for the first twenty years of his residency at Walton Hall. From April to October, the public were invited to fish there and to have various parties, such as weddings, within the grounds. However, poachers started to exploit this relaxed approach, while foxes and rats also preyed on his beloved wildlife. He felt something drastic needed to be done.
Thus, between 1821 and 1826, he built a wall around his two hundred and fifty acres. Eight or nine feet high in most places and around three miles long it was a massive - and expensive - undertaking.
It cost £9,000 at the time, which depending on which source you believe, would be anything from a quarter of a million to three million pounds in modern-day money. Waterton - a teetotaller all his adult life - said he paid for it with all the wine he didn't drink, which hints at his often wry sense of humour.
The wall still exists today. It has suffered significant erosion, but still provides a substantial barrier to much of the land. 
With the wall, he created his park for the conservation of the wildlife within, but this was just the start of the project. At a time when all animals were generally viewed as fair game, to be shot at or trapped, Waterton was introducing a number of measures to encourage wildlife to exist and for him to observe it.
He may well have invented the bird nesting box - mature and decayed tree stumps within the estate were hollowed out to provide a natural home.
He built a home for sand martins - a section of wall with a sandbank behind it had around 50 recesses created in it to encourage the nesting of the bird (it's a technique that's still used today).
He had a tall tower constructed in the garden of the hall for starlings to roost in - he would watch them through a telescope from his library window.
He is often credited too with the invention of the bird hide - it is thought there were five of these watchtowers in the park, from which Waterton could make his observations without disturbing the wildlife.
One of these hides survives at Waterton Park today, having been restored by the Rotary Club of Wakefield. Situated at the south-eastern corner of the estate, access is via a gate in the wall within Haw Park.
The roof of the restored hide remains separate from the tower due to safety reasons.
Waterton was behind other schemes to protect the wildlife within the park too. For example, wooden birds were placed in trees across the estate in order to fool poachers. If a gun was ever fired at one of these wooden birds, Waterton or his gamekeepers would be alerted and come running to make sure that nothing more than a dummy bird got shot - or a foolish poacher.
I get the impression that the only thing he hated as much as poachers was rats - brown rats, to be precise. Like many, he saw them as a foreign invader that had come over here to take the jobs of the native black rats. It is said that by the late 1830s he had removed all the brown rats from the park, though this seems a rather bold claim to make.
His attempts at protecting and nurturing wildlife within the park, though, were certainly successful. Over thirty years, he recorded well over a hundred species of birds in Walton Hall Park.His favourite was the heron, of which there were as many as forty mating pairs at any one time, hence the name of the lake in the park - the Heronry. Birds rare at the time were also identified, such as cormorants, peregrines and merlins, and according to Waterton's notes, there were at one time twenty-four kestrel nests.
Waterton on heron: 'I always hoped that when I got my park wall well finished, I should be able to afford these interesting birds an asylum at Walton Hall. My hopes have been realised.'
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Sir David Attenborough on Waterton: '[He was] one of the first people anywhere to recognise not only that the natural world was of great importance, but that it needed protection as humanity made more and more demands on it.'
Charles Waterton was born on 3rd June 1782 at Walton Hall. His ancestry is too long and full of significant characters from history to be covered in detail here. Suffice to say that if he had been on Who Do You Think You Are, the episode would comfortably have trumped that of Danny Dyer.
Forebears can be traced back to the Norman conquest and include saints, European royal families and a participant at the Battle of Agincourt. Waterton could also claim descent from Sir Thomas More - a clock that had belonged to More once resided at Walton Hall.
The link to More is a significant one. Both More and the Watertons were devout Catholics. More got his head chopped off for his troubles, while the Watertons' decision to stay Catholic after the Reformation meant that the family was somewhat side-tracked from high society.
They seem to have held on to at least some of their land and wealth, though, and Charles was a staunch Catholic all his life. He had strong links with the Vatican, as did his son Edmund, and even had his own priest and holy quarters at Walton Hall, so he could take Mass at home.
His schooldays appear to have been happy on the whole, but he was not one to knuckle down to academic studies. He was always chasing after and catching animals - he was once found scaling one of the school's towers - and by his own account was elected chief 'ratter' at the school.
Fortunately, at Stonyhurst college in Lancashire, his Jesuit teachers appear to have been quite progressive and encouraged his love of the natural world. In return, it seems Charles respected his teachers because when one of the tutors suggested he should abstain from alcohol in order to live a better life, Charles agreed never to touch a drop.
Pretty much as soon as he left school, Waterton began travelling, firstly to Europe. He idled about in Spain for a while, till he had to flee an outbreak of yellow fever (which also went under the more colourful name of the black vomit).
Having avoided the black vomit, he caught pneumonia shortly after. Some sources say it was to recover from this bout of illness that he was sent to the warmer climes of South America. Other sources say he simply offered to take charge of his uncle's estate near Georgetown, in British Guyana. For a young man with a taste for travel who needed to convalesce, it was probably a bit of both.
The plantation in British Guyana was called... Walton Hall. I found the fact that there is an estate in South America with the same name as the estate in Wakefield an enthralling aspect of this tale. However, there is a darker side to the story, as Walton Hall in Guyana was a sugar plantation employing numerous slaves.
Charles arrived in 1804 and by 1805 his father had died. Thus, the son inherited both Walton Halls, along with the Guyanan workforce
of forced labour.
There are two ways of looking at this: it seems that the Watertons made a portion of their wealth from a connection with the slave trade, but on the other hand, Charles' involvement did not last long and it is well documented that he was opposed to the slave trade, calling it 'the Devil's invention'.
The Watertons were certainly not alone in making money using slave labour. In the 17th and 18th century, much of the country's fortune was built on it and we can still see the legacy of this heinous trade in the shape of many of the grand houses scattered around the country, such as Harewood House.
Charles Waterton argued against it in print and said it could never be defended. With so many people making so much cash out of it, though, it must have felt like a hopeless battle. Waterton chose to oppose the practice by showing kindness and respect to the slaves on the plantations. Others dedicated their whole lives to its abolition.
Charles sold the plantation in 1812. His main motivation may well have been a lack of interest in it, together with his distaste for slavery, but it may have been partly economic too. Trading in slaves had been abolished in 1807 and the sugar trade was taking a hit due to Britain's wars with France.
He was much more interested in exploring the country and between 1812 (from when he was no longer shackled to the plantation) till 1824, he took four epic journeys into the Guyanan hinterland. Often he walked barefoot, even in the rainy season, and reached as far as Brazil.
His diet during these expeditions was equally extraordinary. He returned with tales of eating monkey, anteater and wasp grubs. Mercifully, the invention of television was still over a hundred years away, otherwise someone may have had the idea of dropping people in the jungle and making them eat disgusting food earlier.
People had to be content with the very popular book he wrote about his travels - 'Waterton's Wanderings in South America'. This travelogue was a best seller and helped to inspire both Alfred Russel Wallace and Charlies Darwin to travel and further their interest in the natural world.
The book described an event in 1820 that became one of the most famous episodes from Waterton's life. He captured a caiman (a creature similar to an alligator) by riding on its back while seven other men helped to pull it ashore via a rope.
This event was depicted in numerous paintings.
He also supposedly caught a boa constrictor by punching it on the nose, though a modern observer might respond with NPNT (no picture, no talk) for that one.
With rather more evidence, Waterton is believed to be the first European to write an accurate description of the sloth and its habits (around 1812).
I wonder what animal Europeans used before this to describe a lazy person?
Charles Waterton's reach across the world is illustrated by the fact that Waterton Lakes in Alberta, Canada - now a national park - was named after him by Thomas Blakiston in 1858. Waterton only ever spent a few days in Canada, but Blakiston evidently thought his contribution to naturalism and exploration were worthy of the honour.
Charles Waterton was born on 3rd June 1782 at Walton Hall. His ancestry is too long and full of significant characters from history to be covered in detail here. Suffice to say that if he had been on Who Do You Think You Are, the episode would comfortably have trumped that of Danny Dyer.
Forebears can be traced back to the Norman conquest and include saints, European royal families and a participant at the Battle of Agincourt. Waterton could also claim descent from Sir Thomas More - a clock that had belonged to More once resided at Walton Hall.
The link to More is a significant one. Both More and the Watertons were devout Catholics. More got his head chopped off for his troubles, while the Watertons' decision to stay Catholic after the Reformation meant that the family was somewhat side-tracked from high society.
They seem to have held on to at least some of their land and wealth, though, and Charles was a staunch Catholic all his life. He had strong links with the Vatican, as did his son Edmund, and even had his own priest and holy quarters at Walton Hall, so he could take Mass at home.
His schooldays appear to have been happy on the whole, but he was not one to knuckle down to academic studies. He was always chasing after and catching animals - he was once found scaling one of the school's towers - and by his own account was elected chief 'ratter' at the school.
Fortunately, at Stonyhurst college in Lancashire, his Jesuit teachers appear to have been quite progressive and encouraged his love of the natural world. In return, it seems Charles respected his teachers because when one of the tutors suggested he should abstain from alcohol in order to live a better life, Charles agreed never to touch a drop.
Pretty much as soon as he left school, Waterton began travelling, firstly to Europe. He idled about in Spain for a while, till he had to flee an outbreak of yellow fever (which also went under the more colourful name of the black vomit).
Having avoided the black vomit, he caught pneumonia shortly after. Some sources say it was to recover from this bout of illness that he was sent to the warmer climes of South America. Other sources say he simply offered to take charge of his uncle's estate near Georgetown, in British Guyana. For a young man with a taste for travel who needed to convalesce, it was probably a bit of both.
The plantation in British Guyana was called... Walton Hall. I found the fact that there is an estate in South America with the same name as the estate in Wakefield an enthralling aspect of this tale. However, there is a darker side to the story, as Walton Hall in Guyana was a sugar plantation employing numerous slaves.
There are two ways of looking at this: it seems that the Watertons made a portion of their wealth from a connection with the slave trade, but on the other hand, Charles' involvement did not last long and it is well documented that he was opposed to the slave trade, calling it 'the Devil's invention'.
The Watertons were certainly not alone in making money using slave labour. In the 17th and 18th century, much of the country's fortune was built on it and we can still see the legacy of this heinous trade in the shape of many of the grand houses scattered around the country, such as Harewood House.
Charles Waterton argued against it in print and said it could never be defended. With so many people making so much cash out of it, though, it must have felt like a hopeless battle. Waterton chose to oppose the practice by showing kindness and respect to the slaves on the plantations. Others dedicated their whole lives to its abolition.
Charles sold the plantation in 1812. His main motivation may well have been a lack of interest in it, together with his distaste for slavery, but it may have been partly economic too. Trading in slaves had been abolished in 1807 and the sugar trade was taking a hit due to Britain's wars with France.
He was much more interested in exploring the country and between 1812 (from when he was no longer shackled to the plantation) till 1824, he took four epic journeys into the Guyanan hinterland. Often he walked barefoot, even in the rainy season, and reached as far as Brazil.
His diet during these expeditions was equally extraordinary. He returned with tales of eating monkey, anteater and wasp grubs. Mercifully, the invention of television was still over a hundred years away, otherwise someone may have had the idea of dropping people in the jungle and making them eat disgusting food earlier.
People had to be content with the very popular book he wrote about his travels - 'Waterton's Wanderings in South America'. This travelogue was a best seller and helped to inspire both Alfred Russel Wallace and Charlies Darwin to travel and further their interest in the natural world.
The book described an event in 1820 that became one of the most famous episodes from Waterton's life. He captured a caiman (a creature similar to an alligator) by riding on its back while seven other men helped to pull it ashore via a rope.
This event was depicted in numerous paintings.
He also supposedly caught a boa constrictor by punching it on the nose, though a modern observer might respond with NPNT (no picture, no talk) for that one.
I wonder what animal Europeans used before this to describe a lazy person?
W-HIPS > W-HIPS > W-HIPS > W-HIPS > W-HIPS >
Charles Waterton's reach across the world is illustrated by the fact that Waterton Lakes in Alberta, Canada - now a national park - was named after him by Thomas Blakiston in 1858. Waterton only ever spent a few days in Canada, but Blakiston evidently thought his contribution to naturalism and exploration were worthy of the honour.
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