Middleton Woods #2: Into The Blue
This is the 2nd of a short series of 5 caches hidden in these beautiful ancient indigenous 45.8 hectare broadleaf woodlands just north of Ilkley. They join several existing caches providing additional incentive (if needed!) to visit this special place. The cache, a camo-taped preform tube, is hidden in a gnarled old elm tree.
See Gallery for a map of the woods showing main trails, parking spots, and the approximate locations of this series of caches.
To Reach the Cache:
Park @ or near N 53 55.955 W 1 48.881 adjacent to Ilkley Suspension bridge and make your way into the woods where you will find myriad trails enabling you to make your way around easily. See map for alternative parking spots/starting points.
Enchanting and iconic, (English or British) bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) are a favourite with the fairies and a sure sign spring is in full swing. The violet glow of a bluebell wood such as Middleton Woods is a stunning wildflower spectacle.
The bluebell occurs everywhere in Britain except Orkney and Shetland, and its range extends across western Europe from central Spain to the Netherlands. The UK contains up to 49% of the world’s population of bluebells. Although they are threatened by habitat loss, a number of large-scale planting schemes are helping to combat the decline.
It is one of the ‘indicator species‘ of ancient woodland, meaning woods that have been in existence since at least 1600. It is thought that some bluebells may even mark remnants of the original wildwood that covered Britain after the last Ice Age.
They are unmistakable bell-shaped perennial herbs with scented purple-blue* inflorescences with up to 20 
flowers on each. They spend most of their time underground as bulbs, emerging, often in droves, to flower from April onwards.
* Some flowers can be white or pink.
It has a huge number of other names . . .
Adder’s flower, Auld man’s bell, Bell bottle, Bloody man’s fingers, Blue bonnets/bottle/goggles/granfer* greygles/rocket/trumpets, Calverkeys, Cover keys, Crake-feet, Crawfeet, Crawtaes, Cross flower, Crow bells/foot/picker/legs/toes, cuckoo (flower)/boots/stockings, Culver**keys, Culvers, Dog leek, English jacinth, fairy bells/flower, Goosey-gander, Gowk***’s hose, Grammergreygles, Granfer-gregors/-griggles/-grigglesticks, Greygles, Griggles, Hair bell, Jacinth, Lady's nightcap, Locks and keys, Nodding squill, Pride of the wood, Ring-o’-bells, Rook’s flower, Single gussies, Snake’s flower, Snapgrass, Squill, Wild hyacinth, Witches thimbles, Wood bells, and Wood hyacinth . . . and these are just the english ones! (*grandfather, **dove or pigeon, ***foolish person)
The plant, especially the seeds and fresh bulb, is poisonous to humans and some animals (eg. cattles and horses), and can cause diarrhoea, abdominal pain and a weak slow pulse – from which recovery can be slow. The sap can cause dermatitis.
It is a protected species in the wild in Britain - under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 no wild plants can be sold and the commercial seed or bulb collection is forbidden. In some areas the wild plant has been threatened by the introduced Spanish bluebell (Hyacinthoides hispanica) cultivated in Britain as an ornamental and which escapes and readily hybridises with this British native species.
Non-scripta means ‘without markings (such as those referred to in Hyacinthus, ie. the letters 'AI' - ‘alas’ on leaves or petals. Particularly in old writing and poetry the bluebell has often been confused with the harebell (Campanula rotundifolia) although the two plants come from completely different families. This persists in Scotland where it is still called ‘harebell’ and the harebell ‘bluebell’.
It is the flower of St George, as it usually starts to bloom around St George’s Day on 23rd April.
Its sticky sap was used during the Bronze Age to secure feathers to arrow shafts and later in the Middle 
Ages as glue paste for bookbinding (as it repels insect attack) and. In 16c Elizabethan times the sap (which is not actually a starch) also provided a stiffening for their ornate, fluted ruff collars.
In the past herbalists used bluebells to prevent nightmares and 13c monks used them to treat snakebites and lepers – very much a kill or cure remedy given that bluebells are poisonous! It does not feature (yet) in modern medicine, but scientists are researching how the toxic chemicals in bluebells may help treat cancer.
Bluebells, as a decorative plant, used not to be as popular as today and they seem only to have begun to attract such attention in Britain (apart from mention in literature) from the 19c.
There is substantial scientific evidence that being out in nature is hugely beneficial to our health and wellbeing, but recent studies have shown that just looking at images of nature can also help to reduce stress levels . . . see here for a short stress-relieving video of bluebell woodland.