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Roseberry Directissimo
The main path up Roseberry Topping, stairway into the cloud. Deteriorating badly. The path was improved in 1993, when a helicopter was used to airlift 200 tonnes of stone from the lane past Aireyholme Farm. The zig-zag path was then pitched using a “technique used since Roman times” and the verges revegetated. The work was…
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Bransdale — a dire forecast but it turned out alright
With flashes of sunshine from the blue-bores sweeping down the dale. Back at Barkers Plantation in Bransdale, the National Trust property in the heart of the North York Moors. But approaching the woodland from a different direction so a view I’ve never seen before. The house at the bottom of the photo is named Wind…
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I ought not allow this day to pass without mentioning Rabbie Burns, born on this day in 1759 in Ayeshire
But I won’t quote the National Bard of Scotland’s poem most associated with Burns Night and recited worldwide on this day: ‘Address to a Haggis‘. Instead a poem in which Burns reflects on the treatment of nature and the fortunes ‘Of Mice and Men’, a line later immortalised in the title of John Steinbeck’s 1937…
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The sight of low cloud from Bilsdale pouring over the cols in the Cleveland Hills always leaves me with wonder
This is looking down on Green Bank, a flattish ring contour rise marking the head of Raisdale, and separating Cringle or Cranimoor from the steep slope up Carlton Bank. The col is nowadays more commonly known as the ‘Lordstones‘ on account of the country park. On the 22nd December 1892, the Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough…
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In 2013, David Cameron said that he wanted to talk about the future of Europe
It was ten years ago today that Cameron said the British people must “have their say” on Europe when he pledged an in/out referendum if he is re-elected . The leader of the opposition, Ed Miliband said it would “put Britain through years of uncertainty, and take a huge gamble with our economy“. And the…
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With a teachers’ strike likely, it seems timely to point out that exactly 50 years ago today teachers resumed their normal working after a three-month work-to-rule dispute with the local authority
On this day in 1973, the Daily Mirror published interviews with some Teesside pupils: HILARY COX, age 13: “It’s rotten, it’s boring, and my Mam says she’s sick of me going in and out like a yo-yo all day. There’s nothing to do at all. “I’ve been going to all the classes that have been…
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In 1740, High Farm, Pinchinthorpe (centre of photo) was owned by Ralph Ward
Ward, a Guisborian, was “once described as the richest commoner in North Yorkshire” with property in Boulby, Loftus, Aislaby (Yarm), Sandsend, and Guisborough. He was related to the Pease family of Darlington and through his sister’s marriage to the Jackson family. Farming seemed to have been his main business, buying and selling cattle, sheep, and…
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A chilly view across Garfit Gap to Hasty Bank
Right of centre is Whingroves, a farm which appears to have evolved into industrial pheasant rearing. However, in 1896 it was a typical mixed farm run by Isaac Garbutt, a surname that has been on the Bilsdale parish register since the 16th century. That year, Isaac’s wife Mary gave birth to a boy who was…
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Tis the season for burning
The annual burning of the heather moorland has begun — to the left of the house on the hill, up Badger Gill. Several of the tell-tale plumes could be seen on the way over into Bransdale. The house is Smout House, a mid-19th century farmstead, although until the 1952 edition of the O.S. map, the…
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Winter sunshine, with a light dusting of snow, casts a golden hue over an abandoned meander of the River Leven near Woodhouse Farm in Easby.
A meander is caused by erosion of the concave outer bank and deposition of sediment onto the convex inner bank. This often results in a narrow neck being formed which is prone to being broken through by floodwaters to create an ox-bow lake. Eventually, over time, the lake will silt up with fine-grained, organic-rich sediment…
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