Category: Roseberry Topping
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In search of Regency Graffiti
I came across a letter the other day in the Yorkshire Gazette dated 1st December 1821. There are some words which were frustratingly unreadable because of the binding — I’ve included these as [?]: Sir, — As your columns are often [with] classical notices, it cannot be doubted that [you will] readily admit the following…
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A shower on t’moors
Every poet since Chaucer has waxed lyrically about April showers: Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote And bathed every veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flour; and foretold of flowery times for May. But I don’t think many had in mind a blizzard.
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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…
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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…
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Dydd Gŵyl Dewi hapus
Well, Spring has sprung, it’s pancake day, and of course it’s St. David’s day, so ‘Dydd Gŵyl Dewi hapus‘ to all you Welsh speakers. As one proverb says ‘March (has) many weathers‘ so it’s not surprising that there are many proverbs foretelling the weather. If we have a wet month, we might say: A wet…
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The mystery of Roseberry’s pits
My posting of Cockle Scar three days ago reminded of the mysterious pits that align the top of the scar. I posted about them in 2017 featuring a photo of the southern end of the scar in Newton Wood. They continue almost linearly along the edge finishing in a cluster at a promontory, at the…
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Cockle Scar
When we look at a landscape photo it is very easy to be overwhelmed by the big picture and to miss the little features. In centuries past, these features meant something, far more than now, and they had names. It is these features that reveal interesting aspects of the landscape. The distinctive change in steepness…
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New hedge along the old tramway to Roseberry Mine
I have felt uneasy for some time about the prevalence of plastic tree guards. Their never-ending march seems to pervade into every nook and cranny of our countryside — from our National Parks to motorway verges. They are supposed to protect saplings from browsing animals and to cocoon them in a mini-greenhouse. But are they…
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Roseberry Mary Staveley
On Sunday, I posted about Thomas Kitchingman Staveley, who owned the north side of Roseberry Topping and the Common in the mid-19th-century. I ended it by saying he had a son and two daughters. The eldest of the daughters was delightfully named Roseberry Mary Staveley who eventually inherited the whole estate including Newton manor. Although…
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On this day in 1950, George Orwell died
On this day in 1950, George Orwell died after a three-year battle with tuberculosis. He was a prolific writer including Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, both controversial books, widely viewed as an attack on totalitarianism. ‘Orwellian‘ is an eponym describing the world imagined in 1984. A dystopian society ruled by “The Party” with lies, disinformation, denial…