Saved by a pigeon

With Roseberry wrapped in a misty shawl, and rain pouring its way down, I kitted up for a run up the Topping – a dash, more than my usual stroll. Well, maybe not a dash. Those days are long gone. It wasn’t exactly a day for photography, all grey and soggy. But, just then, a pigeon swooped across like a feathery surprise, photo-bombing my snap.

This pigeon, one of a pair, has become like the talk of the local Facebook. Fluttering about for a handful of days, folks are fussing, worrying that they’re pampered pigeons of the racing sort. But the pair is strutting about without a care, feeding on crumbs left by the visitors to the hill.

Now, and this is where the fun starts – an excuse to compare with an Edwardian postcard of the summit.

The most obvious difference is that the iron railings are all missing, just the one stanchion remaining. The other post, the giant needle between the stanchion and the trig point, that’s from a bonfire celebrating King Edward VII way back in 1902. It’s there in the postcard, which gives us a date. The stanchion held a snatch wheel or pulley, used to haul a sledge up the slope, packed with logs, and powered by a steam engine that was normally used at Aireyholme farm for sawing and threshing. And would you believe it, 32 tons of wood went up in smoke¹“Roseberry Topping”. Great Ayton Community Archaeology Project. 2006 ISBN 978-0-9554153-0-2.. Some bonfire.

Those iron railings were probably pulled down by the rockslide of 1912, which – surprise, surprise – gives us a latter date for the postcard. The landowner of the time must have been concerned that with all the visitors to the hill, there was a serious risk of an accident.

But the cherry on top of this history mashup is the Lilliputian quintet, perched up on that large block of rock behind the 42-inch high fence post. Take a gander at the lady on the right, toeing the edge like a modern rock athlete. Turns out, this group must have got pasted onto a monochrome photograph after it was taken, then colourised, and all for a splash of pizzazz to jazz up what would otherwise have been a pretty dull picture.

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  “Roseberry Topping”. Great Ayton Community Archaeology Project. 2006 ISBN 978-0-9554153-0-2.