Category: Roseberry Topping
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Roseberry In the Golden Hour
Roseberry was looking its usual self this morning as we trudged up Aireyholme Lane, the sun just beginning its obligatory climb over the Cleveland Hills. From this angle, Roseberryâs distinctive shape is rather less obvious. High above, a waning gibbous moon lingered sulkily in the sky, and the early morning sunlightâin what us self-important photographers…
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Falling Rocks: One from Space, One from a Chopper?
On this day in 1795, a meteorite made an unscheduled stop in Wold Newton in the East Riding, thrilling a ploughman who narrowly avoided being flattened. Witnesses reported a dark object streaking through the sky before slamming into the earth, leaving a crater nearly a metre wide. It punched through 300 mm of soil, embedding…
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A Mild Christmas and Damnable Corsets: A Hundred Years Ago in Yorkshire
A sunny Roseberry loiters under a moody grey cloud, creating a scene that could make even the most indifferent observer take out their iPhone. Light and shadow play their parts, flaunting a contrast that seems to suggest nature itself has a flair for the dramatic. But exactly one hundred years ago, the 9th of December…
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Roseberryâs Kissing Oaks
When two tree trunks or branches rub against one another long enough to wear away their bark and expose the cambium â the cellular plant tissue â they sometimes fuse into a single entity, forming what is charmingly called a natural graft. This process, termed âinosculation,â is derived from the Latin for âto kiss,â as…
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The Timeless Elegance of a Spray-Painted Phallus
This brilliant display of human ingenuityâsprayed haphazardly onto the ancient rock face on Roseberry Toppingâis truly a sight to behold. The âartist,â undoubtedly a revolutionary thinker of his age and who clearly imagines himselfâundoubtedly masculine, of courseâas the Teesside Banksy, has chosen this timeless canvas to bless us with his daring vision. The frantic scrawls…
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Bert: From a Cockney Chimney Sweep to Meteorological Menace
A seemingly harmless photo that utterly fails to capture the ferocious winds and horizontal sleet of Storm Bert. Truly, a day only a fool would choose for photography. Thus, the muted colours of this image of Roseberry Topping are my sole reward after braving the tempest. The image does, however, showcase the dry-stone wall that…
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Crime, Concealment, and Moral Panic in Newton-under-Roseberry
On the 6th of November, 1847, the Yorkshire Gazette regaled its readers with a dark tale from the village of Newton-under-Roseberry. âConcealment of Child Birth. â On Saturday last, the body of a newly born female child was found in a privy, in the village of Newton-under-Roseberry, by a person named Jackson, who nailed fast…
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The Power of 1001: A Curse of Commercial Memory
Roseberry â there is something rather comforting about returning to oneâs own patch after a trip away, as if the local familiarity becomes a source of great solace. During my recent travels, I was struck by a different type of familiarity, altogether less welcome. A chap of my own vintage was sharing with us the…
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Bracken, Oaks, and their Folklore
Brackenâour most invasive ground cover, steadily browning itself to perfection. How marvellously it complements this oak woodland on Cockle Scar, on the west-facing slope of Roseberry. Who needs daffodils or bluebells when you can have a decaying fern carpeting your view? And did you know that bracken is charmingly referred to as the âoak fernâ? Apparently,…
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From Hill to Hill: Chasing Leys Across the Moors
I have nearly finished a book recommended to me after a posting about an ancient trackway over the North York Moors. I found a copy of Alfred Watkinsâ 1926 book on eBayânaturally, as one finds such treasures in this modern age of commerce. Watkins postulated the existence of ley lines, an idea that prehistoric sites…