Tag: medieval
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“Three Legs”
Prompted by the mention of Prod Howe a couple of days ago, I chose a revisit today. In the article referred to, a key rationalisation was the fact that Roseberry could be seen from it, and sure enough the hill was just peeping over the brow of the moor. I wouldn’t go as far as…
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Winter is coming
A veil shrouds the ‘Four Sisters’ — Hasty Bank, Cold Moor, Cringle Moor and Carlton Moor. Mornings are getting damper. There’s a chill in the air. Winter is coming. I am half way up Park Nab on the Baysdale Road, killing an hour before the archaeological dig at a medieval chapel at Kildale. Today was…
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Percy Cross Rigg
Without looking at the map, I would have said the track along Percy Cross Rigg, or to use its Medieval name, Ernaldsti, on its journey south across Great Ayton and Kildale Moors, and on to Westerdale follows a pretty straight route. But this telescopic photo shows just how sinuous it actually is. The name is…
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Young Ralph Cross
A breather after riding up from Westerdale. Not the highest part of the Moors — that falls to Round Hill on Urra Moor — but it certainly has that feel about it. Young Ralph Cross has stood for centuries guiding and reassuring the weary traveller. Nowadays, most folk don’t stop on the busy Castleton to…
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Was this the site of the stronghold of the de Percys?
On the Ordnance Survey map this raised mound is annotated as a ‘motte‘, a flat-topped mound normally associated with a motte-and-bailey castle. John Walker Ord cites the Elizabethan antiquarian William Camden as being the only mention of a ‘castle’ at Kildale. it is now thought the mound is a naturally occuring knoll and the site…
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Lower Lonsdale with Kildale beyond
Before the Norman Conquest Kildale was held by Orme, a thane of the king, who also seems to have been associated with Ormesby. When the church was rebuilt in 1868, several Scandinavian skeletons were discovered along with old swords, daggers. etc., all dating from the 9th-century. Perhaps one of these was Killi, from whom Kildale…
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Little Ayton from Larners Hill
I suppose most visitors to Great Ayton wouldn’t know where Little Ayton is. You best direct them to Fletcher’s Farm café and when they get there tell them they’ve passed through Little Ayton on the way. It is an unimposing hamlet consisting of around a dozen farms or houses. The ‘centre’, I guess, would be…
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Marske-by-the-Sea
I came across a series of articles written in the Cleveland Standard during the 1930s/40 by a Hugh W. Cook of Redcar. They explore the history of ‘Cleveland’ and contain a wealth of information. One article inspired a cycle ride through Marske this morning before the day became too hot. St. Germain’s steeple stands proud…
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The Four Sisters
I am not sure who coined the term the ‘Four Sisters’ for the Cleveland hills of Hasty Bank, Cold Moor, Cringle Moor and Carlton Moor. Maybe it was Martyn Hudson who used that term in his book ‘on blackamoor‘. They form a familiar view from the vale of Cleveland. From urban Teesside, the flattened aspect…
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Thing
Last week, I was fortunate enough to be shown around the Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh, designed by Spanish architect Enric Miralles. It’s a Marmite type of building — you either love it or loathe it. It certainly has some idiosyncrasies, but, on the whole, I liked it. The central communual area has an outdoor…