Yearby

An early, gloomy start from Yearby Bank back home via Eston Nab, a prominence which used to be a regular run but now I rarely go.

After a few minutes, the sun broke over the hill revealing super lighting over the coastal plain.

Yearby is that quiet hamlet at the foot of Yearby Bank, notorious, or at least it used to be, for speed traps. Since at least the roaring twenties it has been a dry village, but there used to be a pub called the “Turners Arms” today a farm by the same name¹Cook, Hugh. HOLIDAY JAUNTS. | Northern Weekly Gazette | Saturday 18 July 1925 | British Newspaper Archive. [online] Available at: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003075/19250718/058/0010 [Accessed 3 Jul. 2022]..

The village was first recorded as ‘Uverby‘ in 1174 and has gone through many changes: ‘Overby‘, ‘Ureby‘, ‘Eureby‘, to the present Yearby²WRIGHT, ALEC E. F. ‌OVER THE HILLS WITH WAYSIDE REFLECTIONS. | Cleveland Standard | Saturday 09 June 1934 | British Newspaper Archive. [online] Available at: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003490/19340609/161/0008 [Accessed 19 Apr. 2022]..  It is interpreted that the “by” element of the name denotes that it was the dwelling of a Danish owner named “Ore,” who is thought to have been Lord of the manor before the Conquest³‘Ancient Yearby. | Cleveland Standard | Saturday 29 April 1933 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2022. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003490/19330429/158/0008> [accessed 22 October 2022].

So I was deposited on Yearby Bank, once the road by which the fish caught at Redcar were conveyed by the monks of Guisborough Abbey, Fountains Abbey. and Basedale Priory during the 13th- and 14th-centuries to their kitchens. Guisborough Abbey also conveyed salt from their old works on Coatham Marshes along this route⁴WRIGHT, ALEC E. F. FINDING THE SPRING AT KIRKLEATHAM | Cleveland Standard | Saturday 05 May 1934 | British Newspaper Archive. [online] Available at: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003490/19340505/189/0008 [Accessed 19 Apr. 2022]..

My memory of Yearby Wood from many years ago was of mud. That memory was not misplaced. The woods were laid out in the 18th-century as a pleasure grounds for Kirkleatham hall complete with grottos and waterfalls. I resisted the temptation to go off-piste to search for the ice house, the undergrowth being too dense. The Old Decoy Pond and The Folly did sound intriguing but again I stuck to the muddy track.

• 1
  Cook, Hugh. HOLIDAY JAUNTS. | Northern Weekly Gazette | Saturday 18 July 1925 | British Newspaper Archive. [online] Available at: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003075/19250718/058/0010 [Accessed 3 Jul. 2022].
• 2
  WRIGHT, ALEC E. F. ‌OVER THE HILLS WITH WAYSIDE REFLECTIONS. | Cleveland Standard | Saturday 09 June 1934 | British Newspaper Archive. [online] Available at: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003490/19340609/161/0008 [Accessed 19 Apr. 2022].
• 3
  ‘Ancient Yearby. | Cleveland Standard | Saturday 29 April 1933 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2022. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003490/19330429/158/0008> [accessed 22 October 2022]
• 4
  WRIGHT, ALEC E. F. FINDING THE SPRING AT KIRKLEATHAM | Cleveland Standard | Saturday 05 May 1934 | British Newspaper Archive. [online] Available at: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003490/19340505/189/0008 [Accessed 19 Apr. 2022].