Category: Percy Rigg
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Percy Cross Rigg’s Hut Circles
I thought I would take a re-look at the Percy Rigg Iron Age hut circles. It has been quite some time. Alas, the perimeter fence lies in disrepair, casting a pall of melancholy over the entire site. Located on the Percy Cross Rigg, just 460 metres down from the remains of the medieval cross, this…
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Ernaldsti, never a RUPP
Ernaldsti, that medieval track associated with the Percy family crossing Hutton Moor, down Percy Rigg and over to Ralph Cross, via Westerdale. I suspect that the true line of this historical route over the moor lies concealed within the hollow-way, just a stone’s throw to the right of the modern track, and to the left…
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Cercy Pross Rigg and its chet warm
On this day in 1844, a man named William Archibald Spooner was born. He later became an Anglican clergyman and warden of New College, Oxford. What made him famous were his ‘Spoonerisms,’ where he accidentally switched letters in phrases, resulting in amusing expressions like ‘It is kisstomary to cuss the bride,‘ and ‘a well-boiled icicle.‘…
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Percy Cross Rigg
These posts often result from a faint memory which I then spend an hour or so trying to verify or research further in the evening — it beats watching ‘Strictly …’. But then, every so often, I plunge head first down a rabbit hole after I’ve pressed the post button. Yesterday was a case in…
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Standing stone on Kildale Moor
I believe this is just a waymarker rather than a boundary stone or religious cross. The North York Moor Historic Environment Record (HER) map suggests it dates from the 19th-century. It stands alongside a path designated as “F.P.”on the 1895 Ordnance Survey map. This is one of the paths The Ramblers have identified during their…
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Percy Rigg Hut Circles
It’s been at least three years since I posted a photo of the Iron Age hut circles at Percy Rigg. This is a group of five circular huts, one of which can be seen in the photo, although not all would have been in use at the same time. The occupants were farmers, probably living…
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Percy Rigg Farm
In 1806, Sir Charles Turner of Kirkleatham had a cash flow problem and was forced to sell his Kildale and Westerdale Estates. His family had owned them since 1662 when they were brought from the Earl of Northumberland, who would have been Algernon Percy, the 10th Earl. The Sale Advertisement exists and makes interesting reading.…
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Climb to Percy Cross from Lonsdale
Last Tuesday evening I walked with the Smellies, a group of ex-athletes. Think Last of the Summer Wine. Anyway, we walked from Bank Foot across the fields to Battersby, then climbed Coleson Bank, along the moor before descending Turkey Nab. Both Coleson Bank and Turkey Nab are ‘green lanes’, ancient routes which have managed to…
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The Pheasant vs The Lapwing
In the early 80s, I worked on the tropical island of Borneo for 18 months. It was on my first run on the moors after I returned that I realised just how quiet they were. In the jungle, there was a constant cacophony of sound, so much you tended to become oblivious to it. Here…
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St. Mary’s Well
I have called this St. Mary’s Well. It is a name referred to by the archaeologist Roland Close in his report on his excavation of the Iron Age huts on Percy Rigg. Unfortunately, I have not been able to read his report published before the days of the internet. A copy has been requested but…