Category: Roseberry Topping
-
Dry hedging in Newton Wood, two years on
Volunteering with the National Trust in Newton Wood. Two years on the dry hedges built to allow the regrowth of the woodland floor seemed to have done their job, but were looking tied. So the task today was to rejuvenate the hedges, and extend then to discourage visitors from using the erosion gulley. Dry (or…
-
The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill 2022
So a new PM is inflicted upon us. One part of this government’s growth agenda was the ditching of environmental protections. So far there has been no indication of any reversal of this agenda with the coronation of the new PM. On the day when fracking was being debated in Parliament ‘The Retained EU Law…
-
For a week so Roseberry summit has been home to a handful of Snowflakes or Snow buntings
A dreich day, “Roseberrye Toppinge weares a cappe“, so a photo from yesterday. For a week so Roseberry summit has been home to a handful of Snowflakes or Snow buntings, to use their more common name. Canny little birds which seem to find pleasure in teasing you — flying off a couple of yards or…
-
Since time immemorial, all who have lived within the shadow of Roseberry must must have had a sense of affection to Cleveland’s iconic “mountain”
Thomas Kitchingman Staveley, Lord of the Manor of Newton, went as far as to name his daughter Roseberry. When Archibald Primrose was granted a peerage in Scotland in 1700, he chose the title of Viscount Rosebery, supposedly after “a hill near Archibald’s wife’s estates in Yorkshire“. He continued with the name when he was later…
-
Roseberry Common ‘omega’ sign
The oak leaf on an ‘omega’ shaped plaque has become the National Trust’s iconic sign since it was designed by Yorkshire artist Joseph Armitage (1880-1945) in 1935. “The oak leaves were chosen as being no less symbolic of England than the more usual lion, and more in keeping with the use of the emblem”. Omega…
-
Mell-suppers and mell-acts, a long lost tradition of the harvest
A fine view of Roseberry and Black Bank. Today is the autumnal equinox and a reminder that from now on the hours of darkness will exceed that of daylight. By now harvest should be largely over. In our modern society harvest passes us by with hardly a notice. The day before yesterday I wrote about…
-
Not the Queen’s funeral
Plenty of folks taking advantage of the extra bank holiday and preferring not to be glued to the telly watching wall-to-wall coverage of Her Majesty’s funeral. I notice the trig. point hasn’t escaped adornment by Elizabethan themed graffiti. Which places the National Trust with a bit of a dilemma: how long to leave it up.…
-
Powder House at Roseberry Mines
Had a wander down to the old Powder House to see how it’s faring. The pointing applied to conserve the gable wall facing Roseberry looks as though it’s doing its job. The rest of the stone walls, reduced to a few courses, are grassing over. The tramway down is a jungle of bracken. At this…
-
The foothills of Eston Moor
I’d like to say that it was the two small hills across the vale of Cleveland caught my attention, but it was actually the two cols; cols through which the roads of Ormesby Bank and Flatts Lane pass. The hills though — but perhaps ‘knoll‘ is a better word, ‘hill‘ sounds much too lofty — …
-
Ground hugging mist slowly dissipating as the day warms
Roseberry was busy this morning. Along with the usual Sunday climbers, there was an abseil down the rock face going on and runners in the ‘Hanging Stone Leap‘ race. It was the 31st running of the event, although the inaugural race was run in 1988. So there’s been a bit of a gap. Today’s race…