Category: North Yorkshire
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Winter sunshine, with a light dusting of snow, casts a golden hue over an abandoned meander of the River Leven near Woodhouse Farm in Easby.
A meander is caused by erosion of the concave outer bank and deposition of sediment onto the convex inner bank. This often results in a narrow neck being formed which is prone to being broken through by floodwaters to create an ox-bow lake. Eventually, over time, the lake will silt up with fine-grained, organic-rich sediment…
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Quiz time: what links this photo to the Yangon-Mandalay railway in Myanmar?
Myanmar was once a province of British India which, from 1824 to 1948, and was known as British Burma. The British first introduced a railway to Lower Burma in 1877 connecting Rangoon (Yangon) to Prome (Pyay) — 161 miles long. Subsequent developments included, in 1884, a 166 mile line along the Sittaung River from Yangon to…
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Goldsborough Roman Signal Station
Prompted by a recently published article giving a fresh interpretation on the five Roman signal stations or fortlets along the Yorkshire coast, I popped down to re-visit the one at Goldsborough. A murky day. And not really much to see when there. just a few vague humps and bumps. In the featured image, Goldsborough can…
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Jackson’s Bank
A cold morning with the puddles covering by a skimpy layer of brittle ice, the first of the winter. This is looking down on Greenhow Bottom from the top of Jackson’s Bank. I would love to find out who Jackson was. He is elusive but certainly lived before the first Ordnance Survey was published in 1857.…
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“The autumn rain-rot deeper and wider soaks”
This autumnal carpet of dead leaves caught my eyes. The Scots have a word for a “circle of rotted dead leaves round the foot of a tree”: “Rain-rot”. Not to be confused with the modern useage for an equine skin disease. The word seems to have been a favourite of the Victorian English poet William…
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The Marwood family
A tranquil River Leven as it flows through Great Ayton below the stone bridge. The edifice on the left is the Marwood primary school which opened in 1851 when the Postgate school closed up the top end of the village. It was endowed by the Rev. George Marwood, a major landowner in the village whose…
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The mysterious coffin of Stokesley Church
When the nave of Stokesley Church was restored in 1771, a coffin was unearthed and, as it was found broken, it was opened. It was completely empty; there was nothing inside except “sawdust and shavings“. The coffin was supposed to contain the mortal remains of “Elyzabeth Hornsby” as recorded in the parish register books: “Buryed…
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Runswick Bay Rescue Boat
While a number of fishermen were on the look-out during the height of the storm at Runswick Bay on Saturday afternoon, a large laden vessel was seen drifting towards the shore. So enormous were the waves that at times only the tops of the masts were visible. Just outside the broken water a huge wave…
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Nunnington Hall
This National Trust property is tranquilly situated on the banks of the River Rye. Built on the site of a Saxon homestead it’s a place that oozes history. The earliest part of the south-facing house dates from the mid-16th-century but most is 17th-century work carried out for Richard Graham, first Viscount Preston and Master of…
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River Leven at Stokesley
Simple structures intended to slow the flow of the river by making it more wiggly. Centuries of canalisation of the river and an over-enthusiastic flood prevention scheme built in the 1970s have resulted in a poor aquatic environment. The barriers have been built in conjunction with major improvements to flood alleviation upstream which should allow…