Category: North York Moors
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Commondale from the south
The quiet village of Commondale, once a hive of industrial activity. Best known is the brickworks of the Cleveland Fire Brick and Pottery Company which occupied the small dale behind old school and St Peter’s Church built with its distinctive red bricks. This was started in 1860 by John Slater Pratt, a printer from Stokesley,…
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Little Roseberry
Falling Foss was the aim but overnight snow had closed the Whitby road at Birk Brow and Gerrick. Drove for an hour and ended up back in Guisborough. A couple of hours later and the snow was rapidly disappearing off the Cleveland Hills. Quickly come quickly go. Suddenly a reminder that spring is just around…
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Former workshops and stables, Belmont Ironstone mine
Around the back of the impressive range of buildings used for stabling the ponies that were used underground in the Belmont Ironstone Mine. They are probably the best-preserved surface remains of mine buildings in Cleveland and have found use once again for stables. In the 1970s I remember them being used for housing pigs. Or…
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Roseberry Mine Reservoir
Operations at the Roseberry Ironstone Mine would have been dependent on steam power. In the 1931 public auction when the mining equipment was sold off, the lots included 2 hauling engines, 1 compressor, 1 fan engine, 4 boilers, and 2 pumping engines. To supply all these steam engines with sufficient water a reservoir was built 25 feet on the slope…
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The prehistoric linear boundary at Bridestones
Working on the prehistoric linear boundary at Bridestones Moor for the National Trust today and this morning I got drenched. My 20-year-old waterproofs let me down. It rained so heavy we sat it out at one point in the pickup. But the good news is the new fencing is now finished. It has taken three…
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Nab Ridge, Kepwick
A walk from Osmotherley to Boltby along Hambleton Street, the old Drovers’ Road. A rather dull afternoon with failing light and a bit of drizzle. This is taken from the Drover’s Road looking down along Nab Ridge onto the village of Kepwick. Just beyond Kepwick and slightly to the right is Howe Hill, which, although…
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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…
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14th February 1779 – Death of Capt. Cook in Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii
I can not let St. Valentine’s Day pass without a mention of Captain James Cook R.N., Great Ayton’s most famous son, who was killed on this day in 1779 in Kealakekua Bay, Hawai’i. He is remembered as a hero, a great explorer, navigator, cartographer, “discoverer” of New Zealand. Ayton was his boyhood home, his father…
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Location, location, location
A wet day with sleet and low cloud on Roseberry Common removing Rowan trees and creating wildlife habitats with the brashings. This might sound harsh, cutting down trees especially in these days of a growing awareness of their essentiality in the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Roseberry Common is an area of semi-open…
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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…