Category: Bransdale
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Wesleyan Chapel, Bransdale
In most villages and dales of the North York Moors, there will be a nonconformist chapel. Sometimes it will be a Wesleyan Methodist, sometimes a Primitive Methodist, sometimes some other dissenting religion. Often there may be two in close proximity. Nonconformity played such a major part in many communities it was often the dominant religious…
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Bransdale
A refreshing day spent in Bransdale, making repairs to some of the field boundaries. Bransdale’s walls are quite distinctive. In other uplands, dry stone walls are constructed of two skins of stonework, usually dressed and tapering inwards towards the top, with the gap filled with small pieces. Bransdale’s walls are just a single skin, huge…
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A hawthorn in Bransdale
Have you ever noticed the sudden drop in temperature and light by the shadows cast by drifting Cumulus clouds? Shadows that creep over the ground on a sunny day. The flowers of this hawthorn tree are blazing in the sun whilst across the dale, the hillside is dark and gloomy. Many hawthorns are now losing…
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Disused weir, Hodge Beck, Bransdale
I’ve wanted to visit this part of Bransdale for a while, in particular, this disused weir, just below the confluence of Hodge Beck and Shaw Beck. It was built in 1936 as part of the proposed scheme by the Hull City Council Water Board to construct “the second largest reservoir” in the country in the…
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Spout House
A 19th-century farmstead in Bransdale, typical of that found in the North York Moors. It must have replaced an earlier building for according to a 1782 survey it was tenanted out to a William Petch. “Spout” is an odd name, typically meaning a pipe through which water flows off a roof. As a farm or…
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Bransdale
A lovely day in Bransdale. Bransdale’s walls are precarious features. Irregular sandstone boulders built in a single skin with more holes than a colander, yet this wall is shown on mid-19th-century maps but as a boundary between the moor and the richer fields of the dale, it might well be much, much older, first constructed…
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Valley Garden, Bransdale
In 1826 Charles Duncombe of Duncombe Park near Helmsley was given the title Baron Feversham. To celebrate he had built Bransdale Lodge which was gifted to the National Trust in 1969 following the death of the then Lord Feversham in lieu of death duties. Bransdale Lodge was a shooting lodge used spasmodically during the grouse…
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The Old Schoolhouse, Bransdale
The former schoolhouse, now used as a community centre for the families of this isolated dale, which number around 25 including 9 farms. A far cry from Bransdale at its peak in the 19th-century when the population numbered around 400 including innkeepers, shoemakers, blacksmiths, millers, school teachers, dairymen and jet and coal miners. The small…
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A tree guard in the making
According to an old Chinese proverb “the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now.” I was reminded of this today when planting an oak sapling in Bransdale. It will take 20 to 30 years until it produces its first acorns and might even still be around…
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Stocking Crags Wood, Bransdale
A slow, misty drive over Rosedale Head. Past the Lion Inn, its solitary light pinpointing our position. Into lovely Stocking Crags Wood with its enrapturing colours and moss-covered boulders. Very autumnal. Cleaning up the bird boxes ready for next year’s tenants. Out with the old nest, just one tiny unhatched egg. And for the treecreepers…