Category: Hutton Lowcross
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A pair of boundary stones
Earlier this week, I wrote about ‘The Race’, a leat built in the early 18th-century to capture water from the Esk side of Great Ayton Moor. There’s more here. This boundary stone is located just inside the forestry boundary next to ‘The Race’ above Hell Gill. It is inscribed ‘TC 1860’, which refers to Admiral…
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Hell Gill Reservoir
A familiar feature for those in the know. Tucked away a few metres up from the main forest track. A much used control site in orienteering races. This reservoir near the head of Hell Gill was built in the 1870s to supply water for Joseph Whitwell Pease’s Hutton Estate. The mains ran first to Home…
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Haswell’s Hut
Dull, overcast, and menacing rain. The blue skies over a snow blanketed moors seem an age ago. ‘Haswell’s Hut (Site of)’ is a feature named on the 1856 Ordnance Survey map that has intrigued me for some time. It is shown as just south of the Spot Height of 714 feet and east of the…
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How to recognise different trees from quite a long way away: No. 2 – The Yew
So the sketch in Monty Python’s Flying Circus might have progressed had it gone on past No. 1 – The Larch. Wet and wild today so hugged the forest. I came across this yew tree with a distinct browsing line. This surprised me. I thought the needles were toxic but it turns out deer can…
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Hutton Hall
Sir Joseph Pease had this pile built in 1866, and lost it in the banking crash of 1902. It was subsequently repurchased by his son, Sir Alfred Pease, in 1935, and has since been converted into flats and apartments. In 1937 Sir Alfred agreed for it to become home for 20 refugee children aged between…
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The fields of Hutton Lowcross
A blue sky first thing this morning. Enough to momentarily forget our troubles. Plenty of runners and dog walkers. The hills are still open, they’re not in lockdown. Yet. Lockdown, an American word first recorded in 1973 meaning the temporary confinement of prisoners to their cells for all of the day. Quarantine, on the other…
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Dawn over Guisborough
High on my bucket list of the places to visit is Iceland but since it’s become the de rigueur tourist destination it’s probably dropped down a bit. But I am still very interested in all things Icelandic. “Þetta reddast” is an Icelandic phrase which google translates as “it will all work out”. Living in a…
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Hutton Lowcross Woods
The autumnal colours are really striking at the moment. I have always known these as Hutton Lowcross Woods. The Ordnance Survey map says so. But Forest England refers to all the contiguous woods from Roseberry Common to Slapewath as Guisborough Forest. They form a backdrop to the town of Guisborough, the “ancient capital of Cleveland”.…
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Blue Lake
Originally known as Hanging Stone Dam it became known as Blue Lake because of the blueish tinge it had from salts washing out of the alum shales. But after a day’s rain, there was no sign of any blue tonight. It was built in 1880 by Sir Joseph Whitwell Pease to provide water power for…
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Play of the Weather
The god of rain took an early lead in the ageless battle to decide the British weather. And as I write this the day ends with the god of wind, Gareth, firmly dominant. This parallel was explored in John Heywood’s “Play of the Weather“: Amidst a mass of bickering, in-fighting, backstabbing and intrigue, the gods…