Category: Hasty Bank
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Local Governance Quagmires: Who Pays for Road Repairs?
One might think that our modern roads just magically appeared, but let’s cast our gaze upon the B1257, the stretch that runs between Stokesley and Helmsley, for a tale of twists and turns. First, let’s scale Cushat Hill to Clay Bank, which, back in the day, used to be known as Hagg’s Gate. Then, it…
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A chilly view across Garfit Gap to Hasty Bank
Right of centre is Whingroves, a farm which appears to have evolved into industrial pheasant rearing. However, in 1896 it was a typical mixed farm run by Isaac Garbutt, a surname that has been on the Bilsdale parish register since the 16th century. That year, Isaac’s wife Mary gave birth to a boy who was…
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The Four Sisters
I am not sure who coined the term the ‘Four Sisters’ for the Cleveland hills of Hasty Bank, Cold Moor, Cringle Moor and Carlton Moor. Maybe it was Martyn Hudson who used that term in his book ‘on blackamoor‘. They form a familiar view from the vale of Cleveland. From urban Teesside, the flattened aspect…
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‘Uitwaaien’ on Hasty Bank
I was reminded of a Dutch idiom this morning: ‘uitwaaien‘, which means to go walking in windy weather to clear your head or lift your heart. . For the first half hour or so, I took a favourite path of mine, along the southern flank of the long flat-topped Hasty Bank, the easternmost of ‘the…
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Mount Vittoria, Garfitt Gap and Hasty Bank
Today is the 200th anniversary of the death of Napoléon Bonaparte, aged 51, whilst in exile on the island of St Helena in the middle of the Atlantic. The autopsy concluded he died of stomach cancer, but some believe he was killed by arsenic poisoning. This may not have been as sinister as it sounds,…
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Do you want the good news or the bad news?
I’ll start with the good. Yesterday the Government announced that “Legislation will be brought forward to prevent the burning of heather and other vegetation on protected blanket bog habitats“. This is great news. A recognition at long last that the burning of heather moorlands is detrimental to their peat structure and their natural habitats. Burning…
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Hasty Bank
It’s been at least 9 weeks since I last ran along the narrow path that contours around the back of White Hill, the south-facing bank at the head of Bilsdale. Clay Bank car park was fairly busy, I’ve seen it more so. But I hardly saw a soul on the hill. It’s good to be…
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White Hill from Carr Ridge
A view that will be familiar to walkers heading west along the Cleveland Way and Coast to Coast trails which both descend down to Haggs Gate or Clay Bank Top before climbing up Hasty Bank onto White Hill. The modern paved route is directed just off to the right but this cleft in the scarp…
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If the sun smiles on St. Eulalie’s day, …
My reprint of an 1869 book, “Weather Lore” by R. Inwards says that today, 12th February is St. Eulalie’s day. But who was St. Eulalie? St. Eulalie is included in lots of French commune names and the saying quoted is from the French. Now saints are not my thing so I have only made a…
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White Hill and Haggs Gate
Or perhaps better known nowadays as Hasty Bank and Clay Bank Top. Clay Bank Top is one of several low points along the Cleveland escarpment formed water overflowed from small meltwater lakes trapped between the scarp and the glacier covering the Cleveland plain and the Vale of Mowbray. Water flowed down Bilsdale and Ryedale into…