Category: Aireyholme
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Prehistoric Roseberry
I wrote the other day that the name Airyholme (the farm in the centre of the photograph) derives from the Old Norse ƦĢrgum meaning āat the shielingsā. That’s the seventh and eighth centuries, but what of earlier times? The Romans seem to have had Cleveland under control, perhaps they felt the Brigantes, the local tribe,…
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Aireyholme Farm
They must be lambing around now at Aireyholme Farm, the 1st April being the traditional date. There are plenty of sheep in the surrounding fields. Although a single farm now, Aireyholme was recorded in the Domesday Book as the manor of Ergun. It must have a been a moderately sized settlement then and the name…
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I learnt a new word today …
Galeanthropy – the belief that you have become into a cat. A delusion. Not that you can turn into a cat at will, like a witch’s familiar, like Professor McGonagall from Harry Potter. That would be therianthropy. Therianthropy, another new word, is the belief in the ability to change into any animal. This shamanic belief…
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Roseberry Ironstone Mine
A few concrete bases and plinths are the most obvious remains of the Roseberry Ironstone Mine. One hundred and ten years ago today, the mine was in full production with a workforce of 283 men of which 229 worked underground. One of these underground workers was Dalton Taylor who lived on the High Street in…
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Aireyholme Lane
The snow is melting fast but there is still just enough to transform what would be an otherwise lacklustre scene. In the absence of snow, the plastic covered silage bales would dominate, and Aireyholme Lane would be just a non-descript track of broken bricks. Today, it’s a river of meltwater. Perhaps not a river to…
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Aireyholme
An earlyish start for a walk back home from Pinchinthorpe and once again, setting out in the dull and gloom and thick cloud. Almost home and out pops a sunbeam, a phenomenon which in naval slang would have been termed a ‘Jacob’s Ladder‘. And the sun shone on Aireyholme Farm, and the fields south and…
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Roseberry Mine Reservoir
Operations at the Roseberry Ironstone Mine would have been dependent on steam power. In the 1931 public auction when the mining equipment was sold off, the lots includedĀ 2 hauling engines,Ā 1 compressor,Ā 1 fan engine,Ā 4 boilers, andĀ 2 pumping engines. To supply all these steam engines with sufficient water a reservoir was built 25 feet on the slope…
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14th February 1779 – Death of Capt. Cook in Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii
I can not let St. Valentine’s Day pass without a mention of Captain James Cook R.N., Great Ayton’s most famous son, who was killed on this day in 1779 in Kealakekua Bay, Hawai’i. He is remembered as a hero, a great explorer, navigator, cartographer, “discoverer” of New Zealand. Ayton was his boyhood home, his father…
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Airy Holme
A view from Roseberry Topping to Capt. Cook’s Monument across the great bowl of Airy Holme, Slacks Wood and Ayton Bank, just before a tremendous downpour. The National Trust boundary of Roseberry is the fence line in the foreground just before the bracken limit. Aireyholme Lane can just be made out crossing left to right.…
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Aireyholme Lane
Aireyholme Farm from the south-eastern flank of Roseberry with the Cleveland Hills in the distance. The view is looking down Aireyholme Lane with the course of the old narrow-gauge tramway from the Roseberry Ironstone Mine to its left. Just before the tree, the tramway took a sharp right and headed across the fields to the…