Tag: 19th-century
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Port Carlisle
In the early 18th century, there were high aspirations to transform the Solway coast into ‘a second Liverpool.’ A canal was built, connecting the coast to Carlisle, and what was once a smattering of houses burgeoned into a flourishing village. This canal facilitated maritime navigation into Carlisle. The photo shows the entrance to the canal…
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Hutton Moor—A Story of Ownership and Change
Hutton Moor, with Highcliff Nab and Guisborough in the distance, holds memories of the 1970s when I initially settled in the area. At that time, it bore scars of degradation due to off-road motorcyclists exploiting it as their playground. Under the ownership of the Owners of the Middlesbrough Estate, I found myself compelled to seek…
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Bransdale Westside — a potted history
A clearing in the appropriately named High Plantation, elevated above the hamlet of Cockayne, affords a magnificent view of the western side of Bransdale. Bransdale is drained by the Hodge Beck, which, in medieval times, formed a significant boundary. To the west lay lands granted to Rievaulx Abbey, while to the east, they belonged to…
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A View from Wath Hill and Echoes of Life at Clough House
A view of Wath Hill from above the remains of the old farmstead of Clough. Just a handful of moss-covered stones indicate where Clough House farm used to stand. It’s simple to overlook its past as a bustling farm, a family home. A solitary out-building still stands, its roof clad in corrugated sheeting. The rest…
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The Smiddy, Bransdale Mill
Doing some work at Bransdale Mill, specifically in the old smithy, known as ‘smiddy’ in the local Cleveland dialect, which is being repurposed into a wood store. This structure, formerly a dilapidated two-room, single-story building, had its fortunes revived in the recent past by the National Trust, which rendered it weatherproof with a fresh blue…
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Ashmore, Benson, Pease and Co.’s tank at Rounton Grange
Rounton Grange, the ancestral home of the Bells, is now a bit of a no-show, given that the house was demolished back in 1965. The site’s now reverted to woodland. But a few buildings in the grounds are still hanging on. Like this one with an unmistakable cast iron tank proudly sporting the name of…
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From a Scenic View to Deadly Plots: The Cato Street Conspiracy
On the parish boundary between Easby and Kildale, looking through the self-seeded birch wood toward Ward Nab, a sandstone outcrop the origin of which name escapes my grasp. Therefore, I must lean on hodiurnal past happenings for the rest of this post. In the tumultuous throes of economic strife and political unrest in the early…
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Connections: A Hidden Iron Age Gem to Trevelyan’s Controversial Past
According to the National Trust’s heritage records, this conspicuous feature is termed a “small univallate earthwork.” ‘Univallate’ is just a fancy way of saying it’s got one raised edge encircling a ditch. Usually, that word is usually associated with hillforts, but here, the lack of any visible signs of habitation inside points more towards a…
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A winter’s view from Yoad House
The view from the garden of Yoad House in Bransdale, where the emergence of snowdrops signals the impending arrival of spring. The tranquillity of the snow-clad fields extending down to the beck is lost in the mist veiling the opposite bank, and by the stark silhouettes of skeletal trees and precarious dry-stone walls, lend a…
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Easby Hall and the Rise and Fall of the Whitby Campions
The tiny hamlet of Easby serves as a picturesque setting against the majestic backdrop of the Cleveland Hills. The large prominent house to the left of centre is Easby Hall. Easby Manor came into the possession of Robert Campion, a prominent figure in Whitby during the early 19th century. Campion, a banker and businessman of…