Category: Ayton Bank
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Ayton Banks – former Water Supply
I have been saving this up for a rainy day; and it was a bit damp this morning. I understand it was part of the water supply for the Cleveland Lodge Estate, home of the Fry family and was one of at least five springs around the edge of the moors from which water was…
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St. Agnes’s Day
Storm Christoph slashed its tail last night as it passed over to the North Sea. I think we got off lightly although the village flood defences kicked in. The rain last evening had turned to snow sometime during the night. Today is the feast day of St. Agnes. She is the patron saint of chastity,…
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Howden Gill on Ayton Bank with the Cleveland Hills in the distance
Not many bees and insects around at the moment. In the midst of winter, they are either dormant or are still eggs, buried deep in the leaf litter. Honey bees will be cozy in their hives surviving on a sufficient supply of honey left for them by the beekeeper. But nationwide, bees and other pollinators…
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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…
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Wurzelweg
I keep a to-do list of words which I may find useful. I knew yesterday’s word was in it somewhere and it was while searching for that word that I came across another word that I had completely forgotten about. A word which, upon waking up to rain and low cloud, provided the inspiration for…
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I’ve been running and exploring the local moors and woods since moving to Great Ayton in 1973
I thought I knew every nook and cranny but today I came across this brick structure on Ayton Bank. Quite chuffed, I feel I’ve made a major discovery. It looks like a water tank or cistern. There is a date scratched on the brickwork of 1952 but I think that is just graffiti. More likely…
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Ayton Banks Alum Works
A cold, overcast day. The fresh snow of the last few days has aged into a dirty wet surface. I found myself above Gribdale looking down on the heavily worked hillside of Cockshaw where the snow accentuated the contours of the Ayton Banks Alum Works that operated for a mere nine years in the latter…
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On Ayton Bank
The last day of February and I had had tentative thoughts of cycling into Middlesbrough to photograph the Newport Bridge for it was on this day in 1934 that the bridge was opened by the future King George VI. But more snow overnight put paid to that idea, so Plan B: head up on to…