Out & About …

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

Month: February 2020

  • 29th February – Leap Day

    29th February – Leap Day

    According to tradition, on Leap Day women were allowed to propose to men. This is common across many cultures. If the man refuses, he is obliged to buy her a dress or a pair of gloves supposing to hide her embarrassment of not having a ring. But why do we need to go through this malarky…

  • Ravenscar WW2 Radar Station

    Ravenscar WW2 Radar Station

    Just off the Cleveland way, south of Ravenscar are the remains of the coastal defence radar system for the protection of the UK during the Second World War. It was one of a chain of stations built along the east coast during 1941 to detect approaching aircraft. There are four buildings, nearest is a fuel…

  • Cockmoor Hall Earthworks

    Cockmoor Hall Earthworks

    The Tabular Hills have a high concentration of Neolithic or Bronze Age earthworks: linear boundaries in the form of ditches and earthbank and round barrows and at the head of Wy Dale, before Stainton Lane descends steeply into Toutsdale, is an extensive area of a confusing mixture of prehistoric earthworks overlain by medieval. Only a…

  • Finally a sunny morning and an escape from the mud

    Finally a sunny morning and an escape from the mud

    Looking down from Cockle Scar onto the village of Newton-under-Roseberry. A cold morning with just enough frost to harden the clarty paths. In the shade of the north-west slope, it’ll be a couple of hours yet before it’s warmed by the winter sun. At the western end of the village, the roof of the National…

  • Commondale from the south

    Commondale from the south

    The quiet village of Commondale, once a hive of industrial activity. Best known is the brickworks of the Cleveland Fire Brick and Pottery Company which occupied the small dale behind old school and St Peter’s Church built with its distinctive red bricks. This was started in 1860 by John Slater Pratt, a printer from Stokesley,…

  • Little Roseberry

    Little Roseberry

    Falling Foss was the aim but overnight snow had closed the Whitby road at Birk Brow and Gerrick. Drove for an hour and ended up back in Guisborough. A couple of hours later and the snow was rapidly disappearing off the Cleveland Hills. Quickly come quickly go. Suddenly a reminder that spring is just around…

  • Saltburn darkening

    Saltburn darkening

    Down to Saltburn for the end of the day. And so busy for a Sunday evening with the fish and chip shop doing a good trade in spite of Il Duce’s flying visit during the last election. Quickly forgotten. But oh so cold. Cold enough to freeze the tail, nose, ears and other parts of…

  • Former workshops and stables, Belmont Ironstone mine

    Former workshops and stables, Belmont Ironstone mine

    Around the back of the impressive range of buildings used for stabling the ponies that were used underground in the Belmont Ironstone Mine. They are probably the best-preserved surface remains of mine buildings in Cleveland and have found use once again for stables. In the 1970s I remember them being used for housing pigs. Or…

  • Roseberry Mine Reservoir

    Roseberry Mine Reservoir

    Operations at the Roseberry Ironstone Mine would have been dependent on steam power. In the 1931 public auction when the mining equipment was sold off, the lots included 2 hauling engines, 1 compressor, 1 fan engine, 4 boilers, and 2 pumping engines. To supply all these steam engines with sufficient water a reservoir was built 25 feet on the slope…

  • The prehistoric linear boundary at Bridestones

    The prehistoric linear boundary at Bridestones

    Working on the prehistoric linear boundary at Bridestones Moor for the National Trust today and this morning I got drenched. My 20-year-old waterproofs let me down. It rained so heavy we sat it out at one point in the pickup. But the good news is the new fencing is now finished. It has taken three…