-
“Murder by a Farmer in the North-Riding” (Part 1)
So ran the headlines on the morning of Saturday, 24 October, 1863 in provincial newspapers throughout the country. From Guernsey to Stornaway. Reports were syndicated in those days, often repeating verbatim the same wording. It was a report that I had come across when researching the arsonist vicar post of two days ago. But the…
-
Bousdale Brickworks
With cloud shrouding the moorland tops, I kept low and, taking advantage of the winter vegetation die back, had a little potter around the old brickworks at Bousdale, now part of a fitness course for the Pinchinthorp Visitor Centre. A ‘Brick Field’ is shown on the 1856 Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1853). It is thought…
-
So that was February
How was it for you? We certainly have had some days of snow early in the month: If February give much snow, A fine summer it doth foreshow. But, on the other hand, the last few days have had the air of Spring: If February is dry there is neither good corn nor good hay.…
-
St. Botolph’s Church, Carlton-in-Cleveland
I am not religious. In fact, the older I get, the more cynical I become. But I do respect churches. Like any other old buildings, they have a direct connection with the past, many having stood for centuries. A connection to the average folk of the community, not the upper echelons. St. Botolph’s Church in…
-
Thruhkelde
Last Sunday I wrote about the 13th-century charter ‘Cartularium Prioratus de Gyseburne’ in which ‘Thruhkelde’ or the ‘spring on the pass’ was mentioned. It is thought to be Codhill Spring on the 1856 Ordnance Survey map. Passing by today, I though I would take a look. It’s easy enough to find, barely five metres from the…
-
Castleton Silica Quarries
See the old tramway incline up to the moor edge on the far side of the valley? I walked up it two days ago on my way to Freebrough. Here, from across the dale at High Castleton, it’s quite obvious. It leads to a complex area of disused quarries, with ponds, crags, re-entrants and spurs.…
-
From Crows to Cobras
I thought I would pop along to see if this ladder trap I last visited a couple of years ago had been in use. It doesn’t look like it. The dead crow that was there previously has long since long and the access gate was left open. Although these traps are not selective, birds of…
-
The Folly
An early dash up Roseberry on an overcast morning. I’ll risk some wrath when I say this is not a shooting box even though a small plaque erected on the building by the National Park states that it is. It is shown on a sketch by George Cruit dated 1788 and game shooting was not…
-
Moorsholm Spring
Note to self: do your research before going out and about. Heading over to Moorsholm High Moor, I had intended to take a look at a round barrow dug by Canon Atkinson in the 19th-century in which he found stones of whinstone, the volcanic rock which the nearest outcrop is 3½ miles away. I guessed…
-
Sheep House, below Medd Crag, Bilsdale
It seems to me that it is quite uncommon in the North York Moors to have a barn for housing sheep remote from the farmyard, unlike, say, the cow-houses of the Yorkshire Dales. And as barns go this is quite a long one, undivided, just one long space. Built sometime in the late 19th-century, perhaps…
Care to comment?