Out & About …

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

Tag: forestry

  • A day spent with the National Trust in Barker Plantation in Bransdale

    A day spent with the National Trust in Barker Plantation in Bransdale

    The 36 acre plantation is largely coniferous, planted as a commercial crop more than likely before the property was given to the Trust by Charles Ingram Courtney, Earl of Halifax and others, in 1975. With contractors due to come in in a year or two to fell the larch and spruce only, mature oaks, Scots…

  • Sexism in the office in the 20th century

    Sexism in the office in the 20th century

    After the Susan Everard murder and subsequent vigil on Clapham Common, I realised I had never really given that much thought to women’s experience both of sexism, but in particular, their vulnerability to men’s violence. I was brought up in the 50s/60s and fortunately had little experience of outright misogyny. I do remember the teenage…

  • Boxing Day

    Boxing Day

    Everyone knows that Boxing Day originated from the practice of distributing the contents of the Christmas Box that had been placed in churches in the days preceding Christmas for casual offerings. The box money would be opened on Christmas Day and the contents doled out the next day, St. Stephen’s Day, by priests to the poor.…

  • Hutton Lowcross Woods

    Hutton Lowcross Woods

    The autumnal colours are really striking at the moment. I have always known these as Hutton Lowcross Woods. The Ordnance Survey map says so. But Forest England refers to all the contiguous woods from Roseberry Common to Slapewath as Guisborough Forest. They form a backdrop to the town of Guisborough, the “ancient capital of Cleveland”.…

  • Guisborough Wood

    Guisborough Wood

    Took a trip up to Guisborough Woods to see for myself the devastating effect of Saturday’s fire. It covered an area of about 44 acres on an area of gorse and young spruce trees on the area known as “The Warren” above Cass Rock Quarry. Much was still smouldering but I suspect many of the…

  • Bridestones Moor

    Bridestones Moor

    Spent the day on Bridestones Moor, just north of Dalby Forest. It’s so easy to forget that it’s still only February. A glorious day. Buzzards soaring high, ladybirds active and sap rising from the newly cut trees. Tree felling and scrub clearance are now almost finished for yet another winter. Time to give the wildlife…

  • Clear Felling, Hutton Lowcross Woods

    Clear Felling, Hutton Lowcross Woods

    Recent felling, new vistas. I know it’s just a crop – in, get the job done, and out but I wish it wasn’t left in such a mess. The path is there somewhere. Below Hanging Stone on Ryston Nab. Highcliff Nab in the distance. Open Space Web-Map builder Code

  • White Hill

    White Hill

    A large swathe of clear felling on White Hill. It may be a coincidence but the clearance is almost exactly on the disturbed ground of the 1872 landslip when the Stokesley to Helmsley road was covered to a depth of up to 24 feet with rocks, shale and soil. The argument about who should repair…

  • Capt. Cook’s Monument and Cockshaw Hill

    Capt. Cook’s Monument and Cockshaw Hill

    Late evening view of Captain Cook’s Monument, in this 250th year since Cook set out on his first voyage. Beneath the monument the commercial plantation of Little Ayton Moor, and below that, Cockshaw Hil,l with its disused sandstone quarry. Across the lush green fields, the line of the whinstone intrusion of the Cleveland Dyke can…

  • Broughton Bank

    Broughton Bank

    Dull muted colours with a splash of vibrancy