First I'd like to thank everyone for the photos of the carvings - you've actually discovered a few that I didn't know were there.
I promised you the story. Well, it is quite brief and has a few gaps, but essentially the farmer who owned the site prior to Barnsley Council did the carvings and they were peppered around all of his buildings. When the buildings were being converted, some had to be either demolished or extensively remodelled. The builders found the carvings and decided it would be wrong for them to disappear among the rubble so carefully relocated them within the new buildings. Some they left in situ such as the ones Derek found along the workshop walls but most found a new home like the ear and the bats.
What we don't know is if it was just the last farmer who carved or if he was carrying on a long tradition. This may always remain a mystery.
In the meantime here are just a couple of pics to show the extent of the work that was carried out during the building of what is now our Visitor Centre.
Interesting and great photos...It's hard to remember what it was like before the reserve was there. Thanks Liane for researching. :-)