Out & About …

… on the North York Moors, or wherever I happen to be.

Category: Guisborough

  • Ryston Nab

    Ryston Nab

    Ryston Nab, or Hanging Stone, overlooking Guisborough. A bit dreich on the tops, with rain and gale force winds. Guisborough is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Redcar and Cleveland. Even though it has been over half a century since it lost its Yorkshire association, for many folk, Guisborough will always…

  • Ruthergate

    Ruthergate

    My plan was to take a photo of an old route from Guisborough climbing Kemplah Bank on to Hill Plain. The pasture fields of Hill Plain can be seen in the top left corner, while Ruthergate is recognisable by the diagonal line of dark green gorse that stands out against the brown of the withered…

  • A boundary stone on Hutton Moor

    A boundary stone on Hutton Moor

    A boundary stone on Hutton Moor inscribed on the north-east face with “RC TC 1856” which stand for Robert and Thomas Chaloner who inherited the manor of Guisborough in turn on the death of their father, also named Robert, in 1842. On this day in 1649, the funeral of King Charles I took place. His…

  • Today is the 380th anniversary of the Battle of Guisborough, fought between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War

    Today is the 380th anniversary of the Battle of Guisborough, fought between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War

    I’ve posted about the battle before: here and here. The conventional thinking was that the battle took place on the east side of the town, in fields off Butt Lane. But recent metal detector finds suggest another site for the battle — on the west side of the town, to the north of Hutton Hall.…

  • I walked past the entrance to Sleddale Farm today

    I walked past the entrance to Sleddale Farm today

    There have been several noticeable changes since, in the late 1970s, just before Christmas, I would take a bottle of malt to the Sleddale farmers — two brothers by the name of Proud if I recall — in recognition of them allowing the Guisborough Moors Race to run through their farmyard. Neither of the two…

  • The natural temptation, when standing on Highcliffe Nab is to look north over Guisborough town …

    The natural temptation, when standing on Highcliffe Nab is to look north over Guisborough town …

    … this view is south — towards Highcliffe Farm, Codhill Slack and Percy Cross Rigg. Highcliffe Farm is an exposed location, gaining no shelter from both northerly and southerly winds. In 1908, it was being farmed by Thomas Wedgewood. One day Wedgwood and a farm labourer were snaring rabbits on the hillside when he noticed…

  • “Spare the Trees”

    “Spare the Trees”

    “Two facts confront us, and deserve serious consideration. The forests of the world are going just as the coal beneath our feet is going — man is a cooking animal, and must have fuel. In all the great outlets of water floods multiply, and become more and more destructive. We are compelled to ask if…

  • A day of strange atmospherics

    A day of strange atmospherics

    On this day in 2005, at 0601 in the morning, a huge explosion rocked an oil depot in Buncefield near Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire. It was the largest in peacetime Europe and the noise is said to have been heard as far away as the Netherlands. I seem to remember people at work saying they…

  • On me bike which meant I had to negotiate Guisborough’s busy town centre!

    On me bike which meant I had to negotiate Guisborough’s busy town centre!

    Surprisingly quiet. The town cross is relatively modern but the steps are worn, perhaps part of the Medieval Market cross although a 17th or 18th century engraving shows circular steps. Perhaps the engraving also shows the town’s bull-ring which was located very near the cross. Yes, bull-baiting was a very popular in this period and…

  • Guisborough Races, 1784: Asses, Mens’ sack race, Ladies, and a Soap-tail’d Pig

    Guisborough Races, 1784: Asses, Mens’ sack race, Ladies, and a Soap-tail’d Pig

    Guisborough, population around 17,000. At the turn of the 19th-century, in the 1801 census, it was a mere 1,719. This was the eve of the industrial revolution, nevertheless it was the largest town in the area, the focal point of trade, although the alum industry, once a major employer, was in decline. Another industry which…