Out & About …

… on the North York Moors, or wherever I happen to be.

Category: Hutton Moor

  • Hutton Moor — Biodiversity vs. Profit

    Hutton Moor — Biodiversity vs. Profit

    This is Hutton Moor at the northern end of the Percy Cross Rigg track. I see that the self-seeded birch and spruce that have sprouted on the heather moorland have been unceremoniously cut down. The rationale is clear; if left unchecked, the moorland will eventually transform into a birch woodland. However, this does come at…

  • The Execution of King Charles I and the Chaloner Connection

    The Execution of King Charles I and the Chaloner Connection

    On this day, 30 January, 1649, at Whitehall, Oliver Cromwell oversaw the executioner Richard Brandon chopping off the head of the King of England, Charles I. Thomas and James Chaloner, sons of the courtier Sir Thomas Chaloner (1559-1615) from Guisborough, were among the 135 commissioners at the King’s trial. Thomas, (born 1595) bolder than his…

  • Plough Monday

    Plough Monday

    The Monday after Epiphany used to be a day off for ploughmen up North. You’d enter a village and come across these agricultural labourers, all decked out in ribbons and those pristine white smocks, dragging the Fool-plough through the streets. It was their way of saying, ‘Hey, don’t forget, your bread depends on us pushing these…

  • “The Glorious Twelfth” — A Tradition Under Scrutiny

    “The Glorious Twelfth” — A Tradition Under Scrutiny

    The moors were eerily silent this morning, a stark departure from the cacophony of gunfire that might be expected to reverberate across the heather today. Not a single report echoed in the air, just an eerie silence that draped the landscape like a shroud. Even the normally noisy grouse seem to sense an awareness of…

  • Ernaldsti, never a RUPP

    Ernaldsti, never a RUPP

    Ernaldsti, that medieval track associated with the Percy family crossing Hutton Moor, down Percy Rigg and over to Ralph Cross, via Westerdale. I suspect that the true line of this historical route over the moor lies concealed within the hollow-way, just a stone’s throw to the right of the modern track, and to the left…

  • Highcliffe Farm

    Highcliffe Farm

    I’ve posted about Highcliffe Farm before, located on the wide and shallow col between Highcliff Nab and Great Ayton Moor; unsheltered from the winds from the north and the south. One might question the wisdom of setting up a farm in such an exposed spot. The landscape owes its origins to the ancient forces of…

  • Birch — a pioneer species in the succession of moorland into woodland

    Birch — a pioneer species in the succession of moorland into woodland

    On a dreich morning such as this, I do find the heather moorland to be a rather lacklustre hue of brown, struggling to emerge from its wintry dormancy. But amidst this dullness, here on Hutton Moor, scores of self-seeded birch saplings bursting with fresh green leaves bring colour and vibrancy to the otherwise subdued landscape.…

  • Tussock-Skipping and Bog-Trotting — Adventures in Rivelindale

    Tussock-Skipping and Bog-Trotting — Adventures in Rivelindale

    Today’s misadventure took me to a wide, flat valley flanked by low heather-clad moors. Sounds lovely, right? But Codhill Slack, or Rivelindale to use its Medieval name, has a bottom that is a boggy morass with plenty of standing water, thanks to yesterday’s heavy rain. In the distance are a couple of well-known landmarks. Highcliffe…

  • A boundary stone on Hutton Moor

    A boundary stone on Hutton Moor

    A boundary stone on Hutton Moor inscribed on the north-east face with “RC TC 1856” which stand for Robert and Thomas Chaloner who inherited the manor of Guisborough in turn on the death of their father, also named Robert, in 1842. On this day in 1649, the funeral of King Charles I took place. His…

  • Today is the 380th anniversary of the Battle of Guisborough, fought between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War

    Today is the 380th anniversary of the Battle of Guisborough, fought between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War

    I’ve posted about the battle before: here and here. The conventional thinking was that the battle took place on the east side of the town, in fields off Butt Lane. But recent metal detector finds suggest another site for the battle — on the west side of the town, to the north of Hutton Hall.…