Month: October 2021
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Percy Cross Rigg
These posts often result from a faint memory which I then spend an hour or so trying to verify or research further in the evening — it beats watching ‘Strictly …’. But then, every so often, I plunge head first down a rabbit hole after I’ve pressed the post button. Yesterday was a case in…
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Leven gorge, Kildale
A rather dull and murky walk home from Kildale. The estate have been opening up the gorge, yet further restricting access to the river and waterfall. Today, 19th October, 1536 is the day Henry VIII got tough on those who took part in the Pilgrimage of Grace. In a letter to the Duke of Suffolk,…
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Lychgates
Many churches have lychgates. A roofed, mostly open-sided gatehouse into the churchyard. Traditionally, it marked the division between consecrated and unconsecrated ground, where the priest would meet the funeral possession, say prayers over the body, and then lead the way into the church. ‘Lych‘ is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word for a corpse. If the…
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Sandsend and The Maharajah of Mulgrave Castle
In the decade following the death of Maharajah Ranjit Singh in 1839, the Punjab was thrown into turmoil with several successions to the throne and a threat of annexation by the British East India Company. In 1843, Duleep Singh, just five years old, was crowned King of the Punjab and head of the Sikh nation.…
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Scarth Nick
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Scottish drovers breasted this cleft in the Cleveland Hills driving their cattle to southern markets along the Hambleton Drove Road after fording the Tees at Yarm. It has probably used in prehistory, by the Romans and in medieval times. Today’s tarmac road winds up the climb from Swainby taking…
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Roseberry from Larners Hill
A bank of cloud still smothers Little Roseberry while big brother is clear under blue skies. By the time I made my way around there, the cloud had dissipated. As something new, I thought about doing a somewhat arbitrary ‘on this day’ posting, so I pulled up the Daily Mail for 15th October fifty years…
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Grime Moor
On rather dull overcast day with the National Trust on their Bridestones property. Quite a windy day and, for a fleeting moment, the sun came out. To the west of the small secluded valley Dovedale Griff, which was once known locally as the ‘Doodle‘, is what remains of Grime Moor. The effect of the ploughing…
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Whorl Hill, the lair of the Worm of Sexhow
Autumnal sunshine, long shadows and a morning chill. A slight navigational error opened up this fine view of Whorl Hill, where there be dragons. Or rather one dragon, the worm of Sexhow. Thomas Parkinson wrote about it in his “Yorkshire legends and traditions” of 1888, but it was John Fairfax Blakeborough who suggested Whorl Hill…
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The White House
I normally try to avoid taking photos of private houses but I must have walked, run or cycled past this cottage on Dikes Lane on the outskirts of Great Ayton a thousand times. Probably more come to think of it, it’s on my usual route up Capt. Cook’s Monument. But the other day, an observant…
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Pinchinthorpe
I am very conscious about posting a photo of the same feature or from the same viewpoint. I knew had posted one from this spot before, but I now find I’ve actually posted three, here and here. But whatever; comparison of photos years apart can itself be interesting. I also forgot that in one of…