The Tarn, once a winter playground

On Two Howes Rigg, south of Goathland, is a dainty pool named “The Tarn.” It is manmade, built in the early 20th century. The early O.S. map show the area with marsh symbols¹NYM NP HER No: 8788.

Between the wars, this pond transformed into an icy playground during severe winters. Goathland, it seems, morphed into a local St. Moritz boasting news of available pastimes like skating, skiing, and tobogganing in the county papers²‘SKATING IN NORTH | Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer | Tuesday 24 December 1935 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2024. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000687/19351224/385/0010> [accessed 26 January 2024].

In milder weather, golf was the more usual diversion of choice. A course, complete with its own clubhouse, adorned the moor just north of The Tarn³NYM NP HER No: 9121. Whitby Golf Club, after several unsuccessful attempts within their hometown, finally established these links in January 1892⁴‘Whitby Golf Club. | Whitby Gazette | Friday 08 January 1892 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2024. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001103/18920108/037/0002> [accessed 26 January 2024]. The inaugural match was played later that very month⁵‘Whitby Golf Club. | Whitby Gazette | Friday 29 January 1892 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2024. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001103/18920129/103/0002> [accessed 26 January 2024].

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• 1
  NYM NP HER No: 8788
• 2
  ‘SKATING IN NORTH | Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer | Tuesday 24 December 1935 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2024. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000687/19351224/385/0010> [accessed 26 January 2024]
• 3
  NYM NP HER No: 9121
• 4
  ‘Whitby Golf Club. | Whitby Gazette | Friday 08 January 1892 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2024. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001103/18920108/037/0002> [accessed 26 January 2024]
• 5
  ‘Whitby Golf Club. | Whitby Gazette | Friday 29 January 1892 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2024. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001103/18920129/103/0002> [accessed 26 January 2024]