Category: Great Ayton
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Gribdale
I’ve never really figured out where Gribdale begins and where it ends. There is no dale as such. The col between Capt. Cook’s Monument and Great Ayton Moor is known as Gribdale Gate. Beyond that, we’re into Lonsdale, so Gribdale must lie this side. But there is no valley. A stream does spring out from…
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Bullfinch sky
A dash up to Gribdale to catch the sunset. At first a disappointment but then the distant clouds caught fire. This was twenty minutes or so after the actual sunset, well into twilight; the display lasted barely five minutes before fading. According to the writer Robert Macfarlane, the Finnish call this orange afterglow of twilight…
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The White House
I normally try to avoid taking photos of private houses but I must have walked, run or cycled past this cottage on Dikes Lane on the outskirts of Great Ayton a thousand times. Probably more come to think of it, it’s on my usual route up Capt. Cook’s Monument. But the other day, an observant…
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Track To Summer Hill
I’ve lived in the area for almost fifty years and there are still footpaths I’ve never trodden. I’ve known about this Right of Way but I’ve never bothered with it. For me, getting to the start would entail a kilometre or so of road running, it ends abruptly and doesn’t link up with over routes.…
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“Give us our eleven days”
So the story goes when the Gregorian Calendar was introduced and the 3rd September became the 14th, but it may all have been some satire generated by the artist William Hogarth. The phrase is included in his painting ‘An Election Entertainment‘ (bottom right on a black banner under the foot of a gentlemen who appears…
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On this day in 1962 …
… mountaineers Chris Bonington and Ian Clough become the first Britons to conquer the north face of the Eiger. The 13,040 ft. climb took them two days and was one of the fastest ever. Within three hours of reaching the summit they were back in their hotel room. Here’s what the Guardian said in their…
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Capt. Cook’s Monument and Aireyholme Farm
The familiar sight of Capt. Cook’s Monument on Easby Moor appearing as the low cloud dissipates. It wouldn’t have been familiar to the young James Cook who lived as a young boy at Aireyholme Farm (centre of photograph). His father was employed there as a hind or skilled farm hand. However problematic Cook is in the…
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Inclosure Act 1845
On this day in 1845, the Conservative government of Robert Peel oversaw the passing of the Inclosure Act 1845, the first of a string of Acts finally taking away public land, and appointing enclosure commissioners who could enclose more land without submitting a request to Parliament. It was the zenith of a process of enclosure…
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Freedom Day
Another ‘dog day’, so named because these hot and sultry days of summer (in the northern hemisphere at least) are associated with the Dog Star Sirius rising with the sun. And ‘Freedom Day’ to boot. ‘Freedom’ to all those key workers, NHS staff and care helpers who cannot avoid the risk of prolonged exposure, to…
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Ayton Banks – former Water Supply
I have been saving this up for a rainy day; and it was a bit damp this morning. I understand it was part of the water supply for the Cleveland Lodge Estate, home of the Fry family and was one of at least five springs around the edge of the moors from which water was…