Tag: pond
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Designated Landscapes Review
In January 2018 the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs published a 25 Year Plan for the Environment with the intention of setting out an approach to protect the landscapes and habitats in England and committed to undertake a review of National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs). Last week the Landscapes…
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Pond, Great Ayton Moor
I managed to get my feet a little wet trying to take this photo and was reminded of the 1973 British Public Information Film “The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water” menacingly narrated by Donald Pleasance, perhaps better known as Blofeld, James Bond’s arch-villain. This is a modern version of folk tales told to instil…
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Swainby Shooting House
Just over a year to the day (well three days actually) and I find myself again at this remote spot on the vast expanse of heather moorland to the east of Osmotherley. But what a difference in the weather. Clag down and a heavy drizzle. The shooting house stands at a height of 319m above…
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Blossom Pond, Hetton Lyons Country Park
Trying to navigate my way around Hetton Lyons Country Park using the 1922 6″ to the mile Ordnance Survey map. A lot has changed. The old surface workings of the Hetton Colliery. The heart of the colliery was to the south of the Durham, Elvet & Murton Branch railway, now a walkway/cycle path. An industrial…
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Hodge Close Quarry
Sometimes I forget that the Lake District is largely a manmade environment. This is Hodge Close, a spectacular hole in the ground the result of quarrying for slate. It is said to be 100m deep of which a half is below the level of the pond. An overnight dump of snow making the whole scene…
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Oxbow pond near Holmes Bridge
Today is the winter solstice, the shortest day. From now we can look forward to longer days. On the River Leven, just upstream of Holmes Bridge is an oxbow lake, an old loop of the river. It had almost silted up but is now being used to re-flood when the river is high. Wattle fencing…
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Larners Lake
This artificial fishing lake seemed to have appeared overnight but realistically it would have been sometime in the 80s when I was not resident in Great Ayton. It takes its name from Larners Hill, a ridge with a bridleway eventually leading up to Easby Moor and Captain Cook’s Monument. For many years I regularly used…
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Mermaid’s Pool
Local legend says that a mermaid lives in this pond on the otherwise steep boulder strewn hillside below Kinder Downfall and tries to entice visitors into the water. Apparently several people have succumbed to her charms over the years. And if any refuse she’ll drag them into the depths. Of course all this is supposed…
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Cockshaw Quarry
A glorious evening, very autumnal although Autumn is still a week or so away. Cockshaw is a very abused part of the escarpment between Captain Cook’s Monument and Roseberry Topping. The sandstone cap was intensively quarried. Lower down the remains of a clamp, leaching pits and cisterns for the alum industry can be traced, except…
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Skelton Pond
Not such an ugly duckling. A brood of eight cygnets with a pair of adults. And very tame, no doubt expecting stale bread. Could Skelton Pond be the fish pond mentioned in a 13th-century document? Or where a witch drowned herself after being chased following a murder? I have my doubts. Witches are so 17th…