Month: August 2022
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Kildale
An autumnal morning. Once the cloud had dissipated, the top of Park Nab opened up a full view of this interesting valley once flooded, dammed up by the Tees ice sheet. The slight high ground on the valley floor to the left is a terminal moraine and the furthest extent of the glacier. Here marks…
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Oh! rowan tree, oh! rowan tree,
Thou’lt aye be dear to me,
En twin’d thou art wi’ mony ties
O’ hame and infancyThe Rowan tree, immortalised in the Scottish folk-song. This tree — alternative names being Mountain Ash, witchwood or wicken-wood— is on the climb up Whetstone Nab to Capt. cook’s Monument, and is absolutely laden with bright red berries. Rowan is traditionally a powerful protection from evil influence. Pieces of the wood were often carried in…
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Cliff Ironstone Quarry
One of the lesser known ironstone mines in Cleveland. Well, actually it was a quarry for the first 8 years of its operation from 1857 to 1865. An account published in 1866 by ‘J.G.’ is interesting: Enchanting as everything appeared we had no time to linger, so we began our trip from the beach and…
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Danby Botton
Danby Dale’s middle section is termed ‘Danby Botton’, where Botton comes from an Old Scandinavian word ‘Botn’ for a hollow. The farm nearest is Stormy Hall which is the centre of a tradition dating from the time that Danby Castle was in the possession of the Latimers. Apparently, the hall takes its name from the fact…
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Fishy WW2 code-names
A view down from above the WW2 Starfish Decoy Command Bunker on Hutton Moor down Codhill Slack, or Rivelingdale to use its medieval name. Starfish seems a strange name to have used for decoys created to simulate burning British cities. I guess a secret code-name should be completely unrelated to the operation or else it…
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A rare view of a traffic-free High Street in Great Ayton
The council’s hard at work tidying up the pot-holes, pending the arrival of the Tour of Britain cycle race a week on Wednesday (7th September). The typical Victorian-looking ediface on the left is the village hall. It started out life as a Wesleyan Methodist chapel in 1862 and was given to the village by Sir…
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The foothills of Eston Moor
I’d like to say that it was the two small hills across the vale of Cleveland caught my attention, but it was actually the two cols; cols through which the roads of Ormesby Bank and Flatts Lane pass. The hills though — but perhaps ‘knoll‘ is a better word, ‘hill‘ sounds much too lofty — …
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The Wicked Squire of Basedale
A photo of Baysdale to accompany this story I came across by Richard Blakeborough in the Northern Weekly Gazette from 1912 It’s a cracking story, which I fear would be diminshed if I attempted to trim it down. I am therefore repeating it in full which makes this my longest post ever (which I’ve split…
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I’ve finally managed to snap a photo of this graceful bird
Small and elegant with its brilliant white plumage, this attractive bird has been hanging around the village for several years with reports in Guisborough and Stokesley — but is the same bird? My RSPB 2002 book says Little egrets (Egretta garzetta) are resident in southern Britain and move south for the winter — is this…
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Johnny Longstaff
This photo of Cliff Rigg quarry looks along the whinstone ridge of the Cleveland Dyke towards Stockton-on-Tees where it crosses the Tees at Preston. I’ve posted about the Dyke many times before, so today I will write about a Stocktonian — Johnny Longstaff, who on this day in 1938 was shot and seriously wounded while…