Category: Roseberry Topping
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Location, location, location
A wet day with sleet and low cloud on Roseberry Common removing Rowan trees and creating wildlife habitats with the brashings. This might sound harsh, cutting down trees especially in these days of a growing awareness of their essentiality in the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Roseberry Common is an area of semi-open…
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Roseberry from Nunthorpe
An early reference to Roseberry Topping in literature appears in an 18th-century farce by Stockton-on-Tees born Joseph Reed “The Register Office”. His play was first performed in 1761 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and is the story of, what in modern terms we would call an employment agency where workers and prospective employers were…
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Roseberry Hermitage
At one time there was once a hermitage on the summit of Roseberry. It was referred to in a letter to Sir Thomas ChalonerĀ (1559 ā 1615) by a person with the initials ‘H. TR’ (who remains somewhat of a mystery). The letter was quoted in theĀ ‘The Topographer and Genealogist Volume II’, edited by John Gough…
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“No path” off Aireyholme Lane
It would have been a bit breezy on the top of Roseberry this morning. I was battered coming across Great Ayton Moor heading into the wind. The land far side of the gate is certainly not a path but it is Open Access land all the way to the summit. I think the hawthorn trees…
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Cleared semi-open woodland of the slope of Roseberry
At peak times the summit of Roseberry Topping can get very crowded. Weekends especially. One of my regular routes avoiding the summit is to hug the boundary of the Open Access around the southern flank from Roseberry Ironstone Mine to the Summerhouse. It passed through a strip of semi-open woodland of mature hawthorn contouring around…
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The National Trust, 125 years old today
On this day in 1895 three Victorian philanthropists, Miss Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley met and founded the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty. Octavia Hill had campaigned about the poor availability of open spaces for poor people and developments on suburban woodlands. She had helped to…
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Roseberry Ironstone Mine
The site of the Roseberry Ironstone Mine which operated from 1871 to 1926 although, in the early years, there is some doubt as to whether the mine actually produced any ore other than in the brief period from 1881 to 1883. By 1906, however, the mine was again a going concern and operated throughout the…
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Painted Rock
My heart sank when I came across this while descending Little Roseberry. Now call me a killjoy but is this really necessary in a National Park, “our most breath-taking and treasured landscapes”. It’s only a painted pebble left in a prominent place and asking finders to post photos to a Facebook page. A craze from…
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St. Nicholas’s āgold ballsā
After the season’s festivities, the big cleanup begins. Roseberry is no different. A morning spent litter picking with the National Trust. The usual: cans, plastic bottles, little doggie presents. And plenty of orange peel scattered around, accompanied by the inevitable wet-wipe. What’s the big thing about oranges at Christmas? St. Nicholas’s āgold ballsā. Of course,…
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Smart water
Inspired by the humble cloud. Water as pure as the first drop of rain. Northumbrian spring water Vaporised to remove impurities, Then condensed back to ā¦ water. With mineral electrolytes added Potassium, calcium and magnesium. Replicating the water cycle. In a bottle of Polyethylene Terephthalate, Light and strong, Perfect for backpacking, Made from 30% of…