Author: Fhithich
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Roseberry from Larners Hill
A bank of cloud still smothers Little Roseberry while big brother is clear under blue skies. By the time I made my way around there, the cloud had dissipated. As something new, I thought about doing a somewhat arbitrary ‘on this day’ posting, so I pulled up the Daily Mail for 15th October fifty years…
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Grime Moor
On rather dull overcast day with the National Trust on their Bridestones property. Quite a windy day and, for a fleeting moment, the sun came out. To the west of the small secluded valley Dovedale Griff, which was once known locally as the ‘Doodle‘, is what remains of Grime Moor. The effect of the ploughing…
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Whorl Hill, the lair of the Worm of Sexhow
Autumnal sunshine, long shadows and a morning chill. A slight navigational error opened up this fine view of Whorl Hill, where there be dragons. Or rather one dragon, the worm of Sexhow. Thomas Parkinson wrote about it in his “Yorkshire legends and traditions” of 1888, but it was John Fairfax Blakeborough who suggested Whorl Hill…
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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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Pinchinthorpe
I am very conscious about posting a photo of the same feature or from the same viewpoint. I knew had posted one from this spot before, but I now find I’ve actually posted three, here and here. But whatever; comparison of photos years apart can itself be interesting. I also forgot that in one of…
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Belman Bank
Around a decade ago, felling on Belman Bank — ‘Beautiful Mountain’ — revealed the great bowl left by Thomas Chaloner’s alum works, said to be the first in Yorkshire. The manufacture of crystals of alum, used in waterproofing hides and in medicinal products, from the alum shales in the Upper Lias beds is a complicated…
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Thimbleby Moor
Finally, two hours after leaving Osmotherley, a view of distant scenery. I had seen nothing except the forested Thimbleby Bank and clag — cloud or mist, however you want to call it. With Osmotherley opening out before me, I was left with no doubt this was the Thimbleby Estate, for every path junction, every decision…
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Sunset, Scaling Dam Reservoir
On this day in 1926, it was reported, most probably in the Darlington & Stockton Times: A VILLAGE FEUD – Insult from Stokesley Much heat has been engendered in Great Ayton by an utterance from Councillor Robert Armstrong. The councillor is one of Stokesley’s representatives on the Rural District Council. At a recent meeting of…
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Bridestones Moor
Bridestones Moor has been managed for nature since 1943 when the National Trust was bequeathed the 165 acre estate including the small farm of Low Staindale. The Times reported that “this is a wild and beautiful region, the haunt of curlew and grouse, with lovely stretches of heather, attracting many visitors for its own sake…
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Bilsdale
I didn’t realise it this morning but in the skyline is the Bilsdale transmitter mast that was damaged by fire on 10th August. And this afternoon, it was demolished. It is no more. Wish I had known, I would have got a bit closer. And there were blue skies too unlike this morning. The replacement…