Out & About …

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

Category: Thimbleby

  • Osmotherley Show, Thimbleby Hall and the Barwick Lineage

    Osmotherley Show, Thimbleby Hall and the Barwick Lineage

    Among my most popular posts this year is ‘From Barbados to Morrisonsā€”The history of Thimbleby and its owners.’ An observant reader noted that I had overlooked a significant chapter in this chronicle.Today, Thimbleby Hall opened its grounds for the Osmotherley Show, allowing the fell race to Black Hambleton and back. And an opportunity for me…

  • The Nine Stones of Thimbleby Moor

    The Nine Stones of Thimbleby Moor

    Isn’t it funny how when you haven’t been to a place for months, you seem to end up going there over and over again? This is now the third time in just a few weeks that I’ve ended up around Thimbleby Moor. This time, I took a different route, coming via the Hanging Stone after…

  • From Barbados to Morrisonsā€”The history of Thimbleby and its owners

    From Barbados to Morrisonsā€”The history of Thimbleby and its owners

    The agricultural landscape of the Vale of Mowbray stretches across to the Dales , a view made visible through the recent felling of what was called ‘The Big Wood’ on the Thimbleby Estate. This shooting estate, its boundaries marked by imposing notices, guards its rights with a vigilance matched only by its size. There, off-centre,…

  • Hanging Stone and the Vale of Mowbray

    Hanging Stone and the Vale of Mowbray

    A circular walk from Osmotherley with the intention of having a gander at Nunhouse Farm, the site of a Benedictine nuns priory, just south of the village of Thimbleby. William Grainge wrote in 1859 of a hidden treasure “At a small farmhouse immediately in the plain below, called Nunhouse, near to Thimbleby Banks, tradition says,…

  • Thimbleby Moor

    Thimbleby Moor

    Finally, two hours after leaving Osmotherley, a view of distant scenery.Ā  I had seen nothing except the forested Thimbleby Bank and clag ā€” cloud or mist, however you want to call it. With Osmotherley opening out before me, I was left with no doubt this was the Thimbleby Estate, for every path junction, every decision…

  • Hanging Stone and the Vale of Mowbray

    Hanging Stone and the Vale of Mowbray

    A hammer-shaped sandstone rock on the southern end of Thimbleby Bank, between Osmotherley and Over Silton and offering fine views across the Vale of Mowbray. Views which were spoilt by the noise of a constant barrage of gunshots, many a clay pigeon blasted to smithereens. The Vale of Mowbray is that the broad lowlands between…