Out & About …

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

Month: March 2022

  • It can be done …

    It can be done …

    The relatively small patch of heather moorland around Captain Cook’s Monument has recently been strip mowed. This photo is technically of a strip on Little Ayton Moor, north of the parish boundary wall, but the area surrounding the monument, Easby Moor, also has at least two parallel strips. The moors are technically dry upland heath,…

  • Joan Hutton-Wilson Memorial

    Joan Hutton-Wilson Memorial

    I’ve come across this memorial before, in a bracken infested copse just off the steep Trenet Bank out of Bilsdale. I was almost surprised to find it: 1968 Joan Hutton-Wilson who loved Bilsdale Not that I thought it would have  disappeared. The main photo is the view from the memorial. Chop Gate is centre, the…

  • The House of Lords is “useless and dangerous to the people of England”

    The House of Lords is “useless and dangerous to the people of England”

    The House of Commons so declared on this day, 19th March, in 1649, when the House of Lords was abolished. In January of that year, Charles I had been executed and Oliver Cromwell, ‘Lord Protector‘ dominated the Government. The House of Lords was reduced to a largely redundant body having no powers and was abolished…

  • Gisborough Priory

    Gisborough Priory

    Called in at Gisborough Priory to look at the ruins that are dominated by the iconic east window. It took a while to frame this view, the grounds were swarming with students from the sixth-form college. It was good to see so many young people relaxing and enjoying their surroundings. But I wonder if those…

  • Low Staindale

    Low Staindale

    A delightful former farm-house situated in Staindale in the parish of Lockton. The farmstead is shown on the Thomas Jefferies map of 1775 and it is believed the farmhouse certainly dates from that time with later alterations and extensions. The house itself is Grade II listed but two of the outbuildings are also of historical…

  • The Marsh-marigold (Caltha palustris)

    The Marsh-marigold (Caltha palustris)

    A murky morning so my eyes were drawn closer to earth seeking for signs of the vernal awakening. This spring, in the old Slack’s Quarry, seems to be a favourite spot for the marsh marigold, its vivid yellow flowers already in bloom. Wikipedia says it should flower between April and August, but I suspect the…

  • Kirby Bank

    Kirby Bank

    Once a scene of industry, with an ‘alum house’ believed to be on the grassy tract on the right near the patch of gorse. The workings were higher up the bank, out of shot to the left, where the bridle way contours around the hillside. A wooden channel is thought to have carried the liquor…

  • Cliff Rigg and Great Ayton from Roseberry

    Cliff Rigg and Great Ayton from Roseberry

    We are informed from Great Ayton near Gisborough, in Yorkshire; that a mad Cat has lately bit two Women, a Horse, and also several other Creatures at some Miles Distance from the Place it belonged to. As it is found by Experience, this Malady (which is much more terrible in the Human Species than Death…

  • The Chevin

    The Chevin

    A popular “Forest Park” overlooking the River Wharfe and the town of Otley. ‘Chevin’ is a Brittonic word probably meaning a ridge of high land which seems quite apt. The gritstone escarpment has been much exploited for building stone. The foundation of the Houses of Parliament are said to been hewn from blocks from The…

  • Nova Scotia Farm and Ladhill Gill

    Nova Scotia Farm and Ladhill Gill

    A view north-east from Hawnby Hill. A view with several interesting features. Bumper Hagg, on the far side of Ladhill Gill, contains an abundance of pre-historic features. Cairns, and linear earthworks. In the distance, seemingly on the highest point of Bumper Moor, is Wethercote Farm. This was one of the main sheep-rearing farms of Rievaulx…