Month: June 2018
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Pointer Stone
Pamperdale Moor seems to be randomly scattered with sandstone boulders of various shapes and sizes. In the middle of an area denoted as a Bronze Age field system on the OS map is a triangular stone propped up on another boulder. Apparently, it has a tapered cup mark on it, rock art. It has been…
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End of Paddy Waddell’s Railway
I’ve written about Paddy Waddell’s Railway before, the railway that never was. A grand plan devised in the 1870s to link the ironstone mines at Glaisdale with the North East Railway at Skelton. Embankments were built and cuttings excavated and just one bridge was constructed here at Rake House near Lealholm just before the line…
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Lenticular clouds
Super clouds this morning. Lenticular clouds I think formed when high winds flow over an obstruction such as a mountain range producing a standing wave such as you often see in whitewater on a river. If the temperature at the top of the wave drops to below the dew point, moisture in the air will…
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Two bridges over the Tees
Until the building of the Tees Barrage towards the end of the 20th century, the River Tees was still tidal at Yarm. A wooden bridge existed in the 13th century and was replaced by a stone one in about 1500 thus ensuring Yarm became a strategic crossing point of the river and ensured the development…
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Middlesbrough
Yes, honestly. But not the Infant Hercules by the River Tees, for Middlesbrough is the name of the spur opposite at the foot of Black Hambleton. The one with the small copse on top, Moor House Plantation, and surrounded by fields, ‘improved’ moorland to fatten up the cattle while their drovers rested at the Chequers…
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Marwood School
The stone building overlooking the River Leven is Marwood school, opened in 1851. It was endowed by the Rev. George Marwood of Busby Hall to provide Anglian education for the children of Great Ayton. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Bransdale Mill
The National Trust is currently finishing off the renovation of Bransdale Mill as bunkhouse accommodation but the waterwheel and milling mechanism is badly in need of preservation to prevent further deterioration. The mill dates from the 18th-century and rebuilt in 1842 according to a datestone although a mill probably existed on the site since medieval…
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White Hill
A large swathe of clear felling on White Hill. It may be a coincidence but the clearance is almost exactly on the disturbed ground of the 1872 landslip when the Stokesley to Helmsley road was covered to a depth of up to 24 feet with rocks, shale and soil. The argument about who should repair…
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Dryads’ Saddle
Dryads were tree spirits of Ancient Greek protected by the gods whose wrath befell anyone who damages a tree without first appeasing these shy and elusive nymphs. They would presumably use this bracket fungus to sit on when riding their ponies. It is quite common and supposedly edible when young but quickly becomes hard and…
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Two months to the Glorious Twelfth
While mother hen feigns an injured wing tempting me off the dusty track, and flying fast and low above the ling, the cock screams ‘Go back, go back, go back’ their moorfowl chick lies perfectly still but in just two months ready for the kill. Open Space Web-Map builder Code