Raisdale

Looking down Raisdale from the back of Cringle Moor. The plan was to descend to the farm, High Clay (left of centre in the photo) and pick up the Public Footpath but the bracken proved uninviting.

One thing that I hadn’t realised before and evident in this photo by the spoil heap (right of centre) is the jet mining industry in Bilsdale. Mining started in the 1850s and by the 1861 census there were 11 miners recorded in Bilsdale. By 1871 there were 42, but 10 years later it was down to 4¹“Jet Mining.” Bilsdale.org.uk, 2021, www.bilsdale.org.uk/index.php?id=24. Accessed 4 July 2021. ‌.

In the distance, partially hidden by the clouds is the 314 metre high Bilsdale mast, used for radio and television transmissions²Wikipedia Contributors. “Bilsdale Transmitting Station.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2 Mar. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilsdale_transmitting_station. Accessed 4 July 2021..

This mast was built in the late 1960s, and was controversial at the time. In a letter to the Times in 1967, the ardent defender of the Moors and founder of The Lyke Wake Club, Bill Cowley wrote³COWLEY., BILL. “Britain’s Wild Places.” Times, 20 Sept. 1967, p. 9. The Times Digital Archive, link-gale-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/apps/doc/CS152661300/GDCS?u=ed_itw&sid=bookmark-GDCS&xid=2b9ff48d. Accessed 4 July 2021.:

BRITAIN’S WILD PLACES,

From Mr. William Cowley,

Sir,-The mast on the Mendips (Mrs. Keays, September 16) is just one of many.

Another is going to dominate Bilsdale West Moor. 1,200 feet, one of the loveliest panoramas of moor and dale in North Yorkshire. A third is threatened for the cliff top by Whitby Abbey itself. Elsewhere on moor and cliff are at least two other masts (one police, one British Transport) and a television booster station.

Just 12 years ago the Lyke Wake Walk traversed 40 miles of open moor passing no human habitation. Since then has come the Early Warning Station on Fylingdales with its great radomes; forestry and forestry fences in rather too many places; “firebreaks” bulldozed out of the heather in long ugly gashes by some landowners; a glider station that has all but obliterated one moor; and the threat of natural gas. A reservoir also threatens to engulf the wild daffodils of Farndale.

Soon there will be nowhere in all the 500 square miles of the so-called National Park where on even a moderately clear day some man-made monstrosity does not spoil the view. One of the very few remaining opportunities for minor adventure and exploration will be lost. Is no one strong enough to say that some wild areas must be kept inviolate at any cost?

Yours faithfully,
BILL COWLEY, The Lyke Wake Club,
Potto Hill, Swainby, Northallerton. Yorkshire. Sept 18.

• 1
  “Jet Mining.” Bilsdale.org.uk, 2021, www.bilsdale.org.uk/index.php?id=24. Accessed 4 July 2021. ‌
• 2
  Wikipedia Contributors. “Bilsdale Transmitting Station.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2 Mar. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilsdale_transmitting_station. Accessed 4 July 2021.
• 3
  COWLEY., BILL. “Britain’s Wild Places.” Times, 20 Sept. 1967, p. 9. The Times Digital Archive, link-gale-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/apps/doc/CS152661300/GDCS?u=ed_itw&sid=bookmark-GDCS&xid=2b9ff48d. Accessed 4 July 2021.