Category: Coate Moor
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Kildale’s Telecoms Mast Dilemma
The picture doesn’t quite portray the hurricane-like gusts, making it a struggle to stay upright. Another rain shower is looming, chasing away the previous one in no time. I’m up on the moor behind Park Nab, looking across Kildale. On the distant skyline, at its highest point, stands Captain Cook’s Monument. But something’s amiss with…
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Ward Nab (aka Cook’s Crags)
Ward Nab on the edge of Coate Moor is much beloved by local climbers who know it simply as Cook’s Crags. It overlooks the sleepy village of Kildale — the dale of Chil — and used to host a medieval market. Even in more recent times it had a pub, a post office, and a…
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Another magicial day
The temperature inversion was not quite as dramatic as yesterday. But tomorrow is looking wet so best appreciate the day. The autumnal colours are particularly good this year with the fallowing of the oaks and beeches. Even the ubiquitous larch is looking splendid. I came across this old use of the word ‘fallow’ the other…
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Nanny Howe and the Devil’s Court
A view across Kildale from Park Nab to the densely forested Coate Moor. The highest point towards the left is actually Easby Moor with its monument to Capt. Cook but this story is about a Bronze Age barrow hidden amongst the trees on Coate Moor called Nanny Howe. It’s a story about a witch and…
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The Boulder
“I like that boulder. That is a nice boulder.” So said Donkey to Shrek. The climbing fraternity have dubbed this huge boulder below Ward Nab on Coate Moor as simply “The Boulder”. I feel sure it must at some time have had another name but it looks like that has been lost to history. A…
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Devil’s Matchsticks
One of the lesser known residents of Great Ayton was William Mudd (1829–1879) who the head gardener for Thomas Richardson, a retired banker and one of the village’s most influential and generous benefactors. Mudd came under the influence of George Dixon, a fellow Quaker and superintendent of the North of England Agricultural School, the predecessor…
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Edward Jenner, the pioneer of the smallpox vaccine
Today’s photo is of Ward Nab, or Cook’s Crags, the name by which the climbers know it. It’s on the southern tip of Easby Moor. A completely unrelated fact is that today in 1823 Edward Jenner, the pioneer of the smallpox vaccine, died. He has been referred to as the ‘Father of Immunology’ whose work…
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A match and a hatch in a Yorkshire village
Capt. Cook’s Monument was busy, busy this morning. The early sunshine brought out the crowds. But while everyone headed as far as the monument, a hundred metres or so south-east, Cook’s Crags above Kildale was deserted. A favourite viewpoint of mine. And now, still in the festive mood, a complete rambling diversion. A quiz question,…
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St. Swithin’s Day
A damp run on the moors this morning. Light rain, hardly wetting the paving slabs on Coate Moor. Would it though, be enough to satisfy St. Swithin, who according to the legend, if it rained today (15th July), it will be the start of forty days of rain. He was bishop of Winchester Cathedral and…
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Monument Mine
On this day, June 8th, in 1850, legend has it that John Vaughan and John Marley were out shooting rabbits on Eston Nab. Marley tripped over a burrow and as he sprawled on the ground, his hand landed on the purest ironstone he had ever seen, “Eureka!” he cried. He had discovered vast main seam…