Category: Kirby Hill
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Kirby Bank — a battleground between a David and a Goliath
In 1854 there was a legal dispute over the boundary between Bilsdale and Kirby which has been decribed as a ‘David and Goliath’ legal battle. The plaintiff (he who brought the case) was the rich and influential Lord Feversham, Lord of the Manor of Bilsdale. The defendant was James Emerson who was described in the…
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Old gate posts, Halliday Slack
A slack is a word frequently found in the names of the very upper tributaries of moorland becks. It’s a northern word for the marshy shallow area between two stretches of rising ground. Yet Halliday Slack is a steep, precipitous gorge in the escarpment of the Cleveland Hills between Kirby and Broughton Banks. Thirty metres…
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“Night of the Mothers”
Ah, Christmas Eve. If you were a pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon pagan you would be celebrating “Mōdraniht” tonight or the “Night of the Mothers“. We know this because the venerable Bede wrote it down in the 8th-century. However, he went no further into the traditions and customs but it is speculated that a sacrifice could have been…
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Cringley End
The modern Ordnance Survey map names the nab at the northern tip of the western end of Kirby Bank as Cringle End but I much prefer the Victorian name Cringley End. I notice too that Kirby Bank is referred to as Kirkby just like the village. I think I favour that too. Just to the…