Category: Bransdale
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Bransdale Mill
Another view of the rear of Bransdale Mill but from a different viewpoint standing on the wall of the mill-race. The first record of a mill in Bransdale is a late 13th century will, when the Mill was included in the estate of the Lady de Stuteville, who left her estate to her son Baldwin…
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Flashback to 1948: ‘Yorkshire dale to begin new life’
Bransdale Eastside and the farmsteads of Smout House (formerly Loft House and now the National Trust’s office and stores), Toad Hole, and Cow Sike. I came across an interesting article in the Yorkshire Post dated 27 November 1948, which gives a very good insight of what life was like in Bransdale in the first half…
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I love it when I can get to somewhere new
Even to see a different view of a familiar place. This is Bloworth Slack, the easternmost fork of upper Bransdale. There is no peace and quiet though — contractors were felling the coniferous plantation on the left with their heavy machinery. Bransdale is perhaps the remotest dale in the North York Moors. It’s hard to…
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Bloworth Crossing
Or Blawith, as I’ve seen it written. Or Blowith. Many names, but a well-known feature on several long-distance path over the moors. Where the Rosedale mineral railway crossed the ancient track along Rudland Rigg, a track which, in 1934. Alec E. F. Wright described as a “grass road” and “exhilarating”. In the 21st-century, the Rudland…
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A Snowdrift
I can’t claim these are the first snowdrops I’ve seen this year but they are certainly the most impressive. This drift is behind the little church at the head of Bransdale, along a beck with no name. In a month’s time, the bank will be dominated by daffodils, only to be overtaken by bluebells a…
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Bransdale
From a snowstorm to bright sunshine, Bransdale felt all seasons today. I have been doing some repairs to dry-stone walling on the west side of the dale. It’s quite rare to view Bransdale from this angle. The nearest farm is Colt House, and, across the valley, are Cow Sike and Toad House. Between them, hidden…
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Those were the days …
… standing in the queue waiting for the telephone to become free, and then, when your turn did come around, putting in 2p and shouting “phone me back” as soon as it is answered. I have two pet hates in photographs. One is sloping horizons, and two is getting my shadow in. I failed on…
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A blate cat maks a gallus moose
A dreich morning at Bloworth Crossing. Lots of water around — on the ground and in the air. Actually ‘dreich’ is quite an apt word to use on St. Andrew’s Day, the patron saint of Scotland — and also of golfers and fishermen, but that’s by the by. The word comes to us from, of…
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Bransdale
Lovely autumn sunshine today in Bransdale. Not so back in 1845, when the Preston Chronicle reported a ‘REMARKABLE OCCURRENCE IN THE DALES‘: On Tuesday, the 17th ult., the inhabitants of Bransdale and Farndale were much surprised, and even alarmed, by the appearance of a very dark cloud, from which depended something like an arm, or…
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Those pesky rabbits
Thanks to a skill beyond The craft of honest men, I’ve stood twa-hundred years, and mair; And lang may stand again. The answer to John Wilson’s riddle is the dry-stone wall, that constant feature of Britain’s upland countryside. Of course, a dry stone wall will not stand for two hundred years, if climbing sheep have…