Out & About …

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

Category: Newton Moor

  • Freeport Fearfulness

    Freeport Fearfulness

    Even though this photo of Ryston Bank on Newton Moor was taken right within the North York Moors National Park, every square inch captured, right up to the North Sea in the distance, lies within the Teesport ‘Freeport outer boundary’, an arbitrary demarcation unmistakably drawn by some bureaucrat armed with nothing more than a pair…

  • Following the feetings

    Following the feetings

    A ‘feetin’ is a North Yorkshire word for a footprint, “a mark or impression left by the foot“. In East Anglian a variation, ‘feetings’, is used specifically for the tracks of creatures in the snow. I do like this use of the word. Newton Moor had feetings in abundance this morning. Mostly Grouse, occasionally ending…

  • The bleak moor under a sprinkling of snow

    The bleak moor under a sprinkling of snow

    Overnight rain fell as snow on the high moor transforming the drab winter colours of the heather. The question is did the snow fall after midnight or before — in which case we will have had a white Christmas. The stone is the 19th-century boundary stone atop the round cairn on Newton Moor. It marks…

  • “Lay pretty long in bed, and then rose, leaving my wife desirous to sleep, …

    “Lay pretty long in bed, and then rose, leaving my wife desirous to sleep, …

    “… having sat up till four this morning seeing her mayds make mince-pies.” 356 years ago, the Pepyses may have had a lie-in, but we were up and about on Little Roseberry taking in the fresh air and blue skies. Samuel Pepys went on to complete his diary entry:— “I to church, where our parson…

  • Why?

    Why?

    All acts of vandalism are just mindless and irresponsible but some defy any sort of explanation whatsoever. Look closely to the right of the seat and you can see a patch of wall that has been repaired. I reported this to the National Trust just last week and they have promptly been up and repaired…

  • Black Bank

    Black Bank

    The eastern edge of Newton Moor, still showing signs of the devastation left after felling some twenty years or so ago. I wonder how long will the old tree stumps take to decay. This sandstone outcrop is shown as a quarry on the 1856 O.S. map. But no access track is shown, nor is there…

  • Witches’ Knickers

    Witches’ Knickers

    A dreich day, witness my photo of Roseberry not quite smothered by mist. ‘Witches’ Knickers’ is an Irish epithet for the poly bags that attach themselves to shrubs and trees, and barbed wire as here on Newton Moor, slowing shredding in the wind. I keep meaning to clean it up but put that fiddly job…

  • Thomas Kitchingman Staveley

    Thomas Kitchingman Staveley

    I took this photo of a pair of 19th-century boundary stones that identifies the old parish boundary between Newton under Roseberry and Great Ayton to demonstrate the extent of the National Trust land on Newton Moor. The National Trust property boundary follows the old parish boundary, so the beck just beyond the boundary stones is…

  • Bell heather – the most beautiful of the heathers

    Bell heather – the most beautiful of the heathers

    This day, in 1940, is officially recognised as the start of the Battle of Britain, a fight for control of the skies that would begin the German bombing campaign known as the Blitz. A bombing campaign against British cities was not unforeseen.  Before the war, the Chamberlain government feared deadly raids by the German Luftwaffe,…

  • Melegate

    Melegate

    The cyclists and the walkers are on the Cleveland Way between Little Roseberry and the Kildale track. This is supposed to be the route of an ancient and important route called ‘Melegate‘. The name is mentioned in a 13th-century charter between Guisborough Priory, and Richard de Hoton and his brother, Humphrey, following a dispute over…