Category: Lonsdale
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Smelly Farm and the 18th Century Enclosures
A rather drab photograph capturing a drab-looking collection of barns, reflecting an exceptionally drab overcast day. The presence of a strong wind and rain in the air adds to the overall drabness. Lounsdale — sometimes spelt Lonsdale — stands before me in all its aromatic glory. The barns, once known to my friendship group with…
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Lonsdale with its confluence with Kildale
We are all familiar with War Memorials in villages and towns throughout the country that record the fallen, yet anything written about the soldiers who served is largely restricted to family histories. Kildale was a sparse community but many families had someone serving abroad. On 18 February 1916, the Whitby Gazette carried a list of…
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A view across Kildale to the side valley of Lonsdale.
In the right distance is ‘New Row’, a terrace of six single story cottages built by the Lonsdale Mining Company in 1865-7, and added to by six 2-story houses for the Whinstone miners. In front of New Row is the Kildale Sports Field, newly decked out for the forthcoming football season. In the late 1970s,…
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Lower Lonsdale with Kildale beyond
Before the Norman Conquest Kildale was held by Orme, a thane of the king, who also seems to have been associated with Ormesby. When the church was rebuilt in 1868, several Scandinavian skeletons were discovered along with old swords, daggers. etc., all dating from the 9th-century. Perhaps one of these was Killi, from whom Kildale…
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Samuel Liddle 1919-1944
A few weeks ago I wrote about 16-year-old Mary Liddle who, in 1930, was awarded the R.S.P.C.A.’s Gold Medal for her bravery in helping to rescue a sheep from a disused stone mine. Adam and Elizabeth Liddle with their family of eight children were living at Lonsdale House Farm (now called Oak Tree Farm). That’s…
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Kildale girl awarded the R.S.P.C.A.’s Gold Medal
On the 10 July 1930, the Nottingham Evening Post published the following story: HEROIC GIRL. PERILOUS DESCENT INTO MINE SHAFT TO RESCUE A SHEEP. GOLD MEDAL AWARD. The story of a Kildale (N. Yorkshire) girl’s bravery in rescuing from a disused stone mine a sheep which had been lost in a snow-storm has just been…
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The Pale
I’m always on the look out for an out of the way viewpoint. I discovered this by a short walk across the heather from a bike ride up to Percy Rigg. It shows the full extent of Lonsdale, from its head at Gribdale gate to its confluence with Kildale and portrays a microcosm of history.…
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The Donkey Pond
I’ve been minded to feature this old whinstone quarry many times before but heavy summer bracken growth has always put paid to that. It’s one of many quarries that sprang up wherever the whinstone outcropped between Eaglescliffe and Sneaton High Moor. Between Cliff Rigg and Kildale there were several smaller and I guess short lived…
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Lonsdale
I had a vague plan to run around the head of Lonsdale to Percy Cross but surveying the dale from Lonsdale quarry I remembered that I used to often follow a route crossing the valley by keeping upside of the moor wall. Those were the days when I rarely stuck to paths. On the descent…
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Forgotten Footpaths
I’ve found a website which is currently fascinating me. It’s called ‘Don’t Lose Your Way’ and it’s run by the Ramblers. It enables a direct comparison between the modern Ordnance Survey map and the 1895 edition. Its purpose is to identify and record lost footpaths that have been omitted as statutory Public Footpaths from the…