Month: March 2018
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Monsal Dale
“There was a rocky valley between Buxton and Bakewell, once upon a time, divine as the Vale of Tempe… You Enterprised a Railroad through the valley – you blasted its rocks away, heaped thousands of tons of shale into its lovely stream. The valley is gone, and the Gods with it; and now, every fool…
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Snow, bracken and bluebells
Beneath the wet, dirty snow, beneath last year’s carpet of dead bracken, the bluebells remind us that spring is on its way. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Great Ayton Weighbridge
I heard earlier this week that the demolition of this small building in the old goods yard at Great Ayton railway station was imminent. Yesterday’s snow might have given it a few days reprieve. It’s an old weighbridge and buried in the tangled undergrowth is, I am told, the weighing mechanism built by Henry Pooley…
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Roseberry Topping
Woke up this morning to a hard frost, overcast but bright skies in the distant out over the North Sea. By nine o’clock, a whiteout. Utter chaos, all roads south at a standstill. By tea time, blue skies, roads clear, and, with Roseberry as a backdrop, warm enough for a moment’s reflection. Open Space Web-Map…
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Petrified forest, Redcar Sands
Every so often, after a particularly fierce storm, petrified tree stumps appear out of the sands on the beach at Redcar, only to be buried again a few weeks later. The last time was 2013. Last week’s Beast from the East scoured away a vast tract of sand revealing several tree stumps, fallen logs and…
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Every year 100,000s of tonnes of plastic is thrown away, we must all do our bit
Plastics have been getting a bad press recently. The horrific film footage in Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet 2 of turtles and birds entangled with discarded plastic has had a profound impact on public opinion. Just going on the amount in our recycling bin, we have managed to at least half our plastic use since…
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Harpley’s Well
Came across this peculiar sandstone structure while running through Heathwaite on the way back to Swainby. The lintel over the dilapidated door is carved “Harpley’s Well 1880”. Opposite Harpley House on Holgate Lane. It seems such a shame that the well has been neglected. I have no idea who Harpley was. Open Space Web-Map builder…
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Ruin, Mount Vittoria
A well-visited ruin on Mount Vittoria, or Cold Moor to use its modern name. I prefer the more romantic 19th-century name. A name which conjures up a vision of a son or husband lost in a faraway land when Wellington’s forces routed the French under Bonaparte in the Battle of Vittoria. Pure speculation of course…
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Odin’s Little Brother
Just 20m shorter than its big brother, the climb up Little Roseberry is just as draining on tired legs. Walkers on the Cleveland Way have to descend it and then climb back up as part of the extension up Odin’s Hill, Roseberry Topping. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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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…