Month: December 2018
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East Bonsor Copper Mine
Copper has been mines in the valley west of Coniston since Elizabethan times but it is only below ground can remains be found. Wooden false floors in the vertical voids that a rotting away make exploring quite a hazardous pastime. Above ground most of the remains are 18th-century. At East Bonsor the remains of the…
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Tarn Hows
One of the National Trust’s iconic properties. A place for which I have a lot of affection. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Blackarse sheep
Spotted near Coniston. You will have heard, of course, of blackface sheep, well these are blackarse sheep, a truly rare breed. Those were my first thoughts but then noticed the patches were of a material “sewn” onto the fleece. Ah, must be a sheep’s chastity belt. Hasn’t stopped the tups trying. A farmer fellow confirmed…
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Belmont Ironstone Mine
Early morning. A good day beckons but Guisborough has not yet escaped the shadow of Highcliff Nab. Morning mist creeps up from the Cleveland valley. The range of buildings on the left was stables built for the Bolckow, Vaughan and Company’s Belmont Ironstone Mine when they drove a new drift to old workings which operated…
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Boxing Day Hunt
It’s becoming a tradition. Keeping an eye on the Boxing Day Hunt to see if they stray onto National Trust land. They appeared to have done last year and caused damage to the walkways in Newton woods. Admittingly that was in November; on a high profile day such as Boxing Day, I would be surprised…
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Cushat Hill
A glorious Christmas Day in Cleveland. Not sure the weather was so good in Bilsdale. It looks as though the dale was filled with cloud and overflowing the col between White Hill and Urra Moor. Most refer to the pass as Clay Bank but old maps show it as Cushat Hill. Viewed from some distance…
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Módraniht, a pagan tradition of Christmas Eve
To our pagan Anglo-Saxon ancestors, December 24th was the Night of the Mothers or Módraniht when thanks were given to the mothers of the tribe. It was attested to in Bede’s 8th-century manuscript and probably involved a sacrifice. The tradition may have roots today in the Orkneys where Helya’s Night sees the children of each…
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Clumber Lake
A wet trip down to Clumber Park in the Dukeries of Nottinghamshire, created from an 18th-century sporting estate by the Duke of Newcastle. The 87-acre serpentine lake was built by damming the River Poulter and took 15 years to complete. This section of the lake was not part of the original and was probably created…
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Danby
A peaceful rural village scene. Sheep grazing on the green at Danby. The gable end on the left belongs to the Duke of Wellington Inn. According to the inn’s website, it dates to back beyond 1765 and was originally called the Red Briar and later the Lord Wellington, presumably, after 1815 when he became a…
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Yuletide greetings
Since June the days have been getting shorter, tomorrow they’ll start getting longer again. Yippee. Let’s celebrate the ancient pagan festival of the Winter Solstice, Yule. You won’t see any noticeable difference in the morning light for a while though, by some quirk of astronomy sunrise actually gets a minute or so later. To our…