Category: North York Moors
-
Sunset, Scaling Dam Reservoir
On this day in 1926, it was reported, most probably in the Darlington & Stockton Times: A VILLAGE FEUD – Insult from Stokesley Much heat has been engendered in Great Ayton by an utterance from Councillor Robert Armstrong. The councillor is one of Stokesley’s representatives on the Rural District Council. At a recent meeting of…
-
Bridestones Moor
Bridestones Moor has been managed for nature since 1943 when the National Trust was bequeathed the 165 acre estate including the small farm of Low Staindale. The Times reported that “this is a wild and beautiful region, the haunt of curlew and grouse, with lovely stretches of heather, attracting many visitors for its own sake…
-
Bilsdale
I didn’t realise it this morning but in the skyline is the Bilsdale transmitter mast that was damaged by fire on 10th August. And this afternoon, it was demolished. It is no more. Wish I had known, I would have got a bit closer. And there were blue skies too unlike this morning. The replacement…
-
Sandbeds Plantation
Lovely morning lighting in Kildale Woods. This beech plantation was probably planted soon after Coate Moor ironstone mine was re-processed in 1875. It had been going for a mere three years. I’m not sure where the name comes from, apart from the obvious, but as far as I know there are no sand deposits in…
-
Shooting Butt No. 2 on Warren Moor
I will call this a ruined grouse butt although I suspect it is still in use. Anyway above the ‘2’ is a stone with a carved grouse dated, I think, 1975. I have it in mind that this was carved by Roland S. Close (1908-1978), the amateur archaeologist and an estate worker at Kildale. If…
-
Stone Ruck
A rather dull morning but I somehow managed to miss the downpour. The high moors have somewhat woolly boundaries. Sometimes they follow the meandering of streams and other natural features, elsewhere they may be a straight line between landmarks drawn in an office or mapped as “Undefined”. The parish boundary between Whorlton and Bilsdale West…
-
Standing Stone, Rivelingdale
At Percy Rigg Cross, a spur of the moment to pop down to have a look at the spring in Rivelingdale or Codhill Beck. There is one internet source which suggests the spring is a holy well with the name of ‘St. Mary’s Well‘. Apparently, it’s a name referred to by the archaeologist Roland Close…
-
Kildale
The ‘village green’ at Kildale. Another glorious morning. And Michaelmas day to boot. St Michael’s Day, 29th September, the Feast of Michael and All Angels, one of the traditional four ‘quarter days’ in a year, the other being Lady Day (25th March), Midsummer (24th June), and Christmas (25th December). On these religious festivals, the agricultural…
-
Sandstone Quarry, Easby Bank
A bit chilly but a lovely morning. This is an old sandstone or ‘freestone’ quarry on Easby Bank. A ‘bank’ is a Yorkshire term for “a steep hillside, often with a road taking a direct route from top to bottom”. But the Ordnance Survey on their Six-inch England and Wales, 1856 map annotated ‘Easby Bank’…
-
Recent rockfall, Roseberry
Spotted this morning, it must be fairly recent. Nothing untoward, just part of the natural weathering process. Imperceivable then suddenly … My first thought was that the enigmatic carved face of Roseberry was lying face-down but it’s actually on the lower crag. An odd carving, not exactly a Michelangelo but somehow quite intriguing. The big…