Cliff Rigg Wood: An Old Tramway, a Broken Gate and Echoes of Cook

I thought it worth recording this path while it remains as it is—the bottom one through Cliff Rigg Wood. For posterity, as they say. It is due for “improvement” in the next few weeks, though I am not quite sure what the result will look like.

The National Trust, in their grand design to upgrade several routes across their Roseberry property, plan to resurface this one with aggregate and add drainage channels, turning it into something more “accessible.” Noble intentions, no doubt, though beauty and convenience are uneasy companions.

Drainage has always been the path’s undoing. Built on the old tramway that once served the whinstone quarry at Slacks Wood, it sits on firm hardcore¹OS 25 inch England and Wales, 1841-1952. Yorkshire XXIX.1. Surveyed: 1892, Published: 1894. https://maps.nls.uk/view/125624824#zoom=5.9&lat=2565&lon=14237&layers=BT. Unfortunately, the hillside has other ideas—each year it sheds soil and the wood add leaves that choke the rudimentary ditch and turn the track into a winter swamp. Volunteers, myself included, are sent forth with spades to scrape it clear again. One wonders what ingenious scheme will finally conquer gravity and autumn.

According to the earliest Ordnance Survey map, this path existed long before the tramway arrived²OS Six-inch England and Wales, 1842-1952. Yorkshire Sheet 29. Surveyed: 1853, Published: 1856. https://maps.nls.uk/view/102344245#zoom=7.0&lat=8021&lon=3193&layers=BT. I often wonder whether there was ever a clash between the quarrymen and the public, or whether people simply walked where they pleased and no one bothered to stop them.

Here the lower path crosses the one young James Cook would have taken from Aireyholme Farm to the school in Great Ayton. It is strange to imagine him trudging by this way, unaware of his future significance.

The old kissing gate, probably dating from tramway days, was likely installed as a nod to safety rather than sentiment. It has long outlived its purpose. About twenty years ago it was removed for refurbishment, only to be swiftly reduced to its current state by Ayton’s youth. Those same lads will now be middle-aged, no doubt bemoaning the youth of today.

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  OS 25 inch England and Wales, 1841-1952. Yorkshire XXIX.1. Surveyed: 1892, Published: 1894. https://maps.nls.uk/view/125624824#zoom=5.9&lat=2565&lon=14237&layers=BT
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  OS Six-inch England and Wales, 1842-1952. Yorkshire Sheet 29. Surveyed: 1853, Published: 1856. https://maps.nls.uk/view/102344245#zoom=7.0&lat=8021&lon=3193&layers=BT