Month: January 2020
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Wolf Moon
Pagan Anglo-Saxons in the days before the adoption of Christianity followed a lunar calendar with the last month of the year was known as ‘Æfterra Geola’ meaning ‘after Yuletide’. So the first full moon after Yule, that ancient festival celebrating the Winter Solstice became known as ‘Æfterra Geola’. Tonight, 10th January, is the first full […]
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Roseberry Ironstone Mine
The site of the Roseberry Ironstone Mine which operated from 1871 to 1926 although, in the early years, there is some doubt as to whether the mine actually produced any ore other than in the brief period from 1881 to 1883. By 1906, however, the mine was again a going concern and operated throughout the […]
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Cleveland Hills from Cook’s Crags
A pootle around Coate Moor. This is from Ward Nab aka “Cook’s Crags”. Not much to say that hasn’t already been said, so I’ll have to trawl my memory bank for a completely unrelated fact. So looking at the date, 7th January, what happened in years past. Well, in 1904, the Marconi Company introduced a […]
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Painted Rock
My heart sank when I came across this while descending Little Roseberry. Now call me a killjoy but is this really necessary in a National Park, “our most breath-taking and treasured landscapes”. It’s only a painted pebble left in a prominent place and asking finders to post photos to a Facebook page. A craze from […]
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Siss Cross
A beautiful January but marred by the smell of burning heather. And on a Sunday too. It seems like we’re just spitting in the face of the Australians. And all to maximise the grouse bag. There are some rules: heather should not be burnt where the smoke is likely to damage health or cause a […]
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Ingleby Arncliffe
From Beacon Scar looking down on the Vale of Mowbray and the twin villages of Ingleby Arncliffe and Ingleby Cross, now merged into one. Both are mentioned in the Domesday Book although the names imply earlier settlements. Ingleby is simply the village of the Angles whereas Arncliffe is a mixture of Old English and Old […]
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St. Nicholas’s “gold balls”
After the season’s festivities, the big cleanup begins. Roseberry is no different. A morning spent litter picking with the National Trust. The usual: cans, plastic bottles, little doggie presents. And plenty of orange peel scattered around, accompanied by the inevitable wet-wipe. What’s the big thing about oranges at Christmas? St. Nicholas’s “gold balls”. Of course, […]
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Old gate posts, Halliday Slack
A slack is a word frequently found in the names of the very upper tributaries of moorland becks. It’s a northern word for the marshy shallow area between two stretches of rising ground. Yet Halliday Slack is a steep, precipitous gorge in the escarpment of the Cleveland Hills between Kirby and Broughton Banks. Thirty metres […]
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Former “Equine Trecking Cente”
A photo taken for posterity. This former “Equine Trecking Cente” (sic) on Dikes Lane below Gribdale Terrace has planning permission to be converted into a “Cycle Hire Shop, Cafe and Holiday Accommodation”. It was built in 1973 as an equine trekking centre with car parking for 20 cars but I can not remember it ever […]