Sleddale: The Making of a Moorland Dale

I once thought myself original in calling Sleddale an island in a sea of heather, only to find that Elgee had written the same words long before I was born. Perhaps I had read them somewhere, the phrase lingering at the back of my mind, waiting to be claimed as my own. No matter. The image fits.

Centuries earlier, Robert de Brus granted the Priory of Guisborough vast stretches of moorland. The charter described them in broad strokes, leaving the boundaries vague and open to quarrel with neighbours such as the Percys of Kildale¹“Guisborough Before 1900”. Edited by B.J.D. Harrison and G. Dixon. Page 62. 1982.. Among the places that passed into the Priory’s hands was Sleddale, a quiet tributary of the River Esk, whose pastures were to feed the Priory’s livestock.

When the Dissolution swept away the Priory in 1539, Sleddale Close was named in the accounts, one of only two enclosures to earn such mention²Farra, Margaret, “A STUDY OF THE LAND-USE CHANGES OF THE NORTH YORK MOORS”. ProQuest Number 10097250.  ProQuest LLC(2016).pdf. Pages 106-8. There is no trace of anyone farming or living there before that time. Two years later, Henry VIII granted the lease to Thomas Leigh. This document describes Sleddale Close as two acres, a space no larger than one and a half football pitches. It seems hardly worth the king’s ink, yet from that moment the dale has been lived in without pause³“Guisborough Before 1900”. Edited by B.J.D. Harrison and G. Dixon. 1982.Page 70..

One can only imagine the labour that went into taming the land. Using copious amounts of lime, it was carved into fields, regular in shape, square or rectangular where the ground allowed. They were larger than those nearer Guisborough, and unlike the lowland fields they carried no ridge and furrow. These enclosures were not meant for the heavy plough but for flexibility, to adapt to whatever use the times required⁴Farra, Margaret, “A STUDY OF THE LAND-USE CHANGES OF THE NORTH YORK MOORS”. ProQuest Number 10097250.  ProQuest LLC(2016).pdf. Pages 106-8. By 1856, when the Ordnance Survey laid its map across the land, all the fields were marked except for that farthest one to the west, which, I see, is Open Access.

• 1
  “Guisborough Before 1900”. Edited by B.J.D. Harrison and G. Dixon. Page 62. 1982.
• 2
  Farra, Margaret, “A STUDY OF THE LAND-USE CHANGES OF THE NORTH YORK MOORS”. ProQuest Number 10097250.  ProQuest LLC(2016).pdf. Pages 106-8
• 3
  “Guisborough Before 1900”. Edited by B.J.D. Harrison and G. Dixon. 1982.Page 70.
• 4
  Farra, Margaret, “A STUDY OF THE LAND-USE CHANGES OF THE NORTH YORK MOORS”. ProQuest Number 10097250.  ProQuest LLC(2016).pdf. Pages 106-8