Out & About …

… on the North York Moors, or wherever I happen to be.

Tag: 19th-century

  • Storms, Sunlight, and a Trespass to Remember

    Storms, Sunlight, and a Trespass to Remember

    Given the grim weather forecast of strong winds, we opted for a walk that would not risk life and limb. The summit of Latrigg offered a theatrical view: a single beam of sunlight, no doubt feeling very pleased with itself, pierced through dark clouds to spotlight a few houses near Keswick, with Bleaberry Fell lurking…

  • Lealholm and the story of John Castillo, Poet and Stonemason

    Lealholm and the story of John Castillo, Poet and Stonemason

    Lealholm developed around the first place you could sensibly cross the River Esk, just downstream of the dramatic gorge of Crunkly Ghyll. In the good old days, people splashed through a ford until someone finally built this graceful 17th-century bridge, which managed to survive the disastrous 1930 flood—unlike the bridges further downstream in Glaisdale, Egton,…

  • Hummersea’s Lost Industry Beneath Jurassic Cliffs

    Hummersea’s Lost Industry Beneath Jurassic Cliffs

    On the Cleveland Way, below Hummersea Farm, a Public Footpath descends toward what was, as a Victorian postcard once called it, a “beach.” The path has been generously cleared of bracken and other wild vegetation, and a few strategically placed trail markers beckoned me downward. Naturally, I followed. But halfway down, at a shiny new…

  • Slacks Wood Quarry And a Stream of Many Names

    Slacks Wood Quarry And a Stream of Many Names

    A dreich morning. Rain, wind and low cloud forced me to keep low, sticking to the woods where I could at least avoid the worst of the weather. This meant I had little choice but to focus on the minutiae. Hence this stream. It cannot even decide on a single name. Near its source on…

  • Charles Gough’s Fatal Ascent and his Dog’s Vigil

    Charles Gough’s Fatal Ascent and his Dog’s Vigil

    It has been some time since I last dragged myself up Helvellyn via Striding Edge. Definitely before the pandemic chaos. This photograph, taken around midday, gazes slightly east of south. St. Sunday Crag and Fairfield flaunt a dusting of snow. A marvellous day: cloudless peaks, sub-zero temperatures, and a wind that was brisk enough to…

  • Beldi Hill Smelt Mill

    Beldi Hill Smelt Mill

    Following my exhausting cycle ride around Swaledale yesterday, I wisely opted not to stray far today. So instead, here is another photograph from that trip. I was aware of Swaledale’s lead mining legacy, but stumbling upon this particular site was an unexpected delight. The Beldi Hill Smelt Mill sits awkwardly wedged into the hillside, just…

  • Thwaite’s Gift to the Natural World: The Lives of the Kearton Brothers

    Thwaite’s Gift to the Natural World: The Lives of the Kearton Brothers

    A typical Swaledale landscape: stone-built cottages in Thwaite and those endlessly fascinating dry-stone walls dissecting the surrounding fields. Many of the walls date from the 18th century, but, alas, there is the obligatory parked car ruining the scene. Otherwise, one imagines this view would be instantly familiar to Thwaite’s greatest sons, Richard and Cherry Kearton.…

  • Crime, Concealment, and Moral Panic in Newton-under-Roseberry

    Crime, Concealment, and Moral Panic in Newton-under-Roseberry

    On the 6th of November, 1847, the Yorkshire Gazette regaled its readers with a dark tale from the village of Newton-under-Roseberry. “Concealment of Child Birth. — On Saturday last, the body of a newly born female child was found in a privy, in the village of Newton-under-Roseberry, by a person named Jackson, who nailed fast…

  • Armouth Wath: “Here Coal was Expected”

    Armouth Wath: “Here Coal was Expected”

    In March of 1803, a notice in the York Courant trumpeted the forthcoming sale by auction of the “MANOR and DEMESNE of BASEDALE ABBEY,” an estate furnished with a “COALMINE supposed very considerable.” One imagines that the allure of a rich seam of coal lent the whole sale a dash of speculative glamour. The “considerable”…

  • The Baysdale Barn That Time Forgot

    The Baysdale Barn That Time Forgot

    Ah, the approach to the decaying edifice—otherwise known as a barn—familiar to anyone who has spent time wandering this remote part of Baysdale. Here I am, hurrying along a bridleway on the northern side of the dale, with the tantalising memory of veering off and subjecting myself to the rigours of climbing over into the…