Scarth Nick: Where Crowds Once Gathered

Scarth Nick sits in the Cleveland Hills like an open door open, and folk have been trudging through it since before anyone thought to write things down. Ancient wanderers used it. The Romans probably used it. By the Middle Ages it had become a drove road, with cattle plodding through where prehistoric feet once did. From here the route south runs down to Sheepwash, past the old Chequers Inn, now just a farm minding its own business, and on across the Hambleton Hills to Sutton Bank. Not bad for a gap in a hill.

Below the summit there is a natural hollow, the sort of place that seems built for a gathering, and in the nineteenth century that is exactly what it became. Malcontents met there. So did the temperance lot. Nobody in Yorkshire ever needed much excuse for a good meeting.

On 30 July 1820, two thousand Primitive Methodists turned up to listen to preachers, which is a fair crowd for a hillside with no car park. Primitive Methodism spoke directly to the poor and to labourers who had drifted off to the factories, and for people with precious little going for them down here, the promise of something better up there was not a hard sell.¹North. 2017. ‘A to Z: A Preponderance of Ps’, The Official Blog for the North York Moors National Park (The official blog for the North York Moors National Park). https://northyorkmoorsnationalpark.wordpress.com/2017/09/11/a-to-z-a-preponderance-of-ps/#:~:text=a%20mountain%20called-,Scarth%20Nick,-[near%20to%20Osmotherley [accessed 27 May 2023]

One preacher had such a gift for it, and felt the presence of God so strongly, that he nearly fainted on the spot. His words landed just as hard on the crowd, who dropped to the ground crying out for mercy, which is quite a review for a sermon. At a later gathering, one young man got so carried away that he took to jumping and somersaulting, apparently unable to think of a calmer way to express religious joy. ²Northern Primitive Methodism. Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. Wednesday, 2 June 1909

Later in the century the hollow changed tenants. From 1859 it hosted the Swainby Temperance Society’s annual festival, and it kept going for at least twenty years, drawing abstainers from across the North Riding, Stockton included³TEMPERANCE FESTIVAL. | Richmond & Ripon Chronicle | Saturday 28 June 1879 | British Newspaper Archive.. One account gives a flavour of the day: “The well-trained brass band from Swainby made the attraction all the greater. The tea provided was most appetising and welcome, but the speeches, both afternoon and evening, were the most important feature of the celebration.“⁴‘‌A YORKSHIRE TEMPERANCE FETE | Darlington & Richmond Herald | Saturday 26 June 1880

Quite a journey for one gap in a hill — from Roman boots to cattle hooves to fainting preachers to a brass band and a pot of tea.

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  North. 2017. ‘A to Z: A Preponderance of Ps’, The Official Blog for the North York Moors National Park (The official blog for the North York Moors National Park). https://northyorkmoorsnationalpark.wordpress.com/2017/09/11/a-to-z-a-preponderance-of-ps/#:~:text=a%20mountain%20called-,Scarth%20Nick,-[near%20to%20Osmotherley [accessed 27 May 2023] ↩︎
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  Northern Primitive Methodism. Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. Wednesday, 2 June 1909 ↩︎
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  TEMPERANCE FESTIVAL. | Richmond & Ripon Chronicle | Saturday 28 June 1879 | British Newspaper Archive. ↩︎
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  ‘‌A YORKSHIRE TEMPERANCE FETE | Darlington & Richmond Herald | Saturday 26 June 1880 ↩︎