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The Old Schoolhouse, Bransdale
The former schoolhouse, now used as a community centre for the families of this isolated dale, which number around 25 including 9 farms. A far cry from Bransdale at its peak in the 19th-century when the population numbered around 400 including innkeepers, shoemakers, blacksmiths, millers, school teachers, dairymen and jet and coal miners. The small…
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Farndale Daffs
Headed over into Farndale to see the famous native wild daffodils. I wonder if the huge crowds that trudged the short gravelled path beside the River Dove between Low Mill and Church Houses were as disappointed as me. Very patchy with large areas completely void of flowers. It’s said that the first bulbs were planted…
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Kildale
As viewed from Percy Rigg Farm. A fertile green valley with Park Nab on the left and Coate Moor on the right. J. Fairfax-Blakeborough writing in 1901 in his book ‘Great Ayton, Stokesley & District, past and present’ recounts that Satan was often seen poaching in the dale with his imps. The gamekeeper, a Stephen…
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Sheaths
It was the dry stone wall that first caught my eye. A wobbly wall. The two walkers are using the well constructed Cleveland Way to cross Scarth Wood Moor, a National Trust property given in 1937 by Major Herbert Peake and his son Capt. Osbert Peake, later to become the 1st Viscount Ingleby of Snilesworth.…
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Tarn Hows
The National Trust has been doing a lot of felling on their Tarn Hows property opening up new vistas but this is a small consolation for the change in the character of the tarn and woods from an iconic Lakeland wooded tarn to an area resembling the aftermath of a Tunguska event. The felling is…
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Home for the weekend
Rose Castle, overlooking Tarn Hows, near Hawkshead. An annual weekend retreat for twenty-five years. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Hodgson’s Leap
Just west of Kendal is the limestone plateau of Helsington Barrows. It achieves the moderate height of 229 metres above the sea but offers fine views over the Kent estuary. On the east, there is a gentle slope down to Kendal, but the west is dominated by the dramatic Scout Scar. Hodgson’s Leap is a…
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Brrrr … chilly
Full moon swimming. In the North Sea, In March, Sans combinaison. In skins. Brrrr … chilly. From the pier at Saltburn-by-the-Sea. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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More moor burning
Dear Tony Juniper CBE, Congratulations on your appointment as Chair of Natural England. I very much admire and respect your work as one of the country’s leading environmental campaigner and writer. I must admit however I am a bit cynical of Michael Gove’s motives. I appreciate your to-do list will be very long but I…
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Three Howes Rigg Bus Shelter
A graffiti skirmish has erupted on the East Cleveland moors using this disused bus shelter as a canvas. I have photographed it before but then, a couple of years ago, I noticed the EU/Union flag addition. It’s on one of my regular cycle routes and over the months I have photographed the ‘artwork’ several times…
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