Out & About …

… on the North York Moors, or wherever I happen to be.

Category: Roseberry Topping

  • Roseberry from Cockshaw Quarry

    Roseberry from Cockshaw Quarry

    What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare. No time to stand beneath the boughs And stare as long as sheep or cows. No time to see, when woods we pass, Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass. No time to see, in broad daylight, Streams full…

  • A pair of hares

    A pair of hares

    Can you say a brace of hares? What is the collective noun for a group of hares? So many to choose from: a band, a down, a drove, a flick, a herd, a husk. I don’t like herd, but do two count as a group anyway? I haven’t the patience for nature photography so when…

  • Roseberry

    Roseberry

    It looks like the ending of this lockdown is going to be as mismanaged as its introduction, exacerbated by certain sections of the media. Judging by their front page, The Daily Mail now seems to be intent on generating animosity for teachers by suggesting they are cowards if they don’t risk their health. We currently…

  • The bluebell meadows, Newton Woods

    The bluebell meadows, Newton Woods

    With the lockdown eased I don’t feel so guilty about posting photos taken on my daily exercise. I have deliberately avoided doing so. Roseberry is still there, and the bluebells are out, intoxicating the woodland floor with a violety-blue wash but, in the upper meadow at least, they are perhaps past their prime. Bluebells flower…

  • Roseberry Topping, December 2005

    Roseberry Topping, December 2005

    Lockdown Log Day 10 ….. I thought I would post this, my most favourite photo of Odin’s hill, as a reminder that it will still be there when this is all over. I have deliberately avoided mentioning the word ‘Coronavirus’ in recent posts. This now dominates our lives and is inevitably jeopardising our access to…

  • Social distancing on Roseberry

    Social distancing on Roseberry

    Should I feel guilty? On the one hand, we have our snollygoster of a Prime Minister saying that it is OK to go out for exercise (not that I would necessarily believe anything he says); silence (as of today) of all official advice from the Government and the NHS on being out in the countryside;…

  • Site of Summerhill Farm

    Site of Summerhill Farm

    In 1658 John Coulson, lord of the manor of Great Ayton, together with twenty other freeholders of the village made an agreement to enclose the ancient open fields and common pastures dividing them up amongst themselves. Sometime after this, the farm at Summerhill, nestling below Ayton Bank, would have been created. In spite of its…

  • More moor burning

    More moor burning

    As soon as the weather improves so the heather burning resumes. The left-hand plume is, I think, on Cold Moor, the right, on Snilesworth. A further one, behind me to the east is Gisborough Moor. Six weeks to go before the season ends for this winter, on 15th April. If you want some good news,…

  • Little Roseberry

    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…

  • Roseberry Mine Reservoir

    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…