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You never know what the day will bring
It’s almost 50 years since I moved up to North Yorkshire from the Midlands and started my exploration of the North York Moors. I love going ‘off-piste’ and I thought I had explored every path, every sheep track, and every swidden on the Cleveland Hills. But today, on a very familiar patch of heather moor,…
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John Scarth, a “well-to-do” Bransdale farmer
A lovely view of St Nicholas Church appearing through a window in the autumnal canopy from a field near to Bransdale Mill where the National Trust are creating a wildflower meadow. The little church at Cockayne was built about 1800, so it would have been very familiar to John Scarth, a well-to-do farmer who was…
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Sandwick
Another view from the weekend. Sandwick, a small hamlet on the shore of Ullswater. To the right the 1,271′ Hallin Fell, which Wainwright regards as “the motorists’ fell, for the sandals and slippers and polished shoes of the numerous car-owners who park their on the crest of the zig-zags on Sunday afternoons have smoothed to…
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Martindale
I’ve been off-grid in the Lakes for a few days, specifically in Martindale, perhaps the most secluded and certainly the least touristy of the dales. Martindale drains into Ullswater. To get there you have to follow the east of the Lake from Pooley Bridge to Howtown then negotiate The Hause, a steep little pass with…
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Bransdale Mill
Another view of the rear of Bransdale Mill but from a different viewpoint standing on the wall of the mill-race. The first record of a mill in Bransdale is a late 13th century will, when the Mill was included in the estate of the Lady de Stuteville, who left her estate to her son Baldwin…
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Jennet o’ t’ Dales
I wanted to post an image of Chapel Well, a holy well near Great Ayton to accompany another story by Richard Blakeborough. Chapel Well is today a small hollow in a small patch of brambly wood called, not surprisingly, Chapel Wood. There is not much sign of any water — I suppose the hydrology has…
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Why?
All acts of vandalism are just mindless and irresponsible but some defy any sort of explanation whatsoever. Look closely to the right of the seat and you can see a patch of wall that has been repaired. I reported this to the National Trust just last week and they have promptly been up and repaired…
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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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Ravensgill, Commondale
When The Commondale Brick & Pipe Works closed its gates for good in 1947, this would have been a very different scene probably with no tree or blade of grass to be seen. It is now a Scout camp, so not normally accessible. I took the opportunity to search the beck for a memorial carved…
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The Scugdale ‘Loop’
I was interested to read of a Neolithic “ritualised route” around Scugdale that was published in the journal of the Teesside Archaeological Society The authors conjecture that the route starts at Sheep Wash near the Cod Beck reservoir, climbs the Red Way estate track on to Near Moor, and follows the skyline of Scugdale eastwards…
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