Tag: Victorian
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From Scugdale to America
Trudging wearily along the rugged landrover track across Whorlton Moor, passing by patches of scorched heather, you could smell the aftermath of yesterday’s burns. At long last, I reached the northern side of the moor. Below me sprawled the peaceful Scugdale valley, and up there, at the head of the dale, lay that broad col…
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Boom and Bust: Glaisdale’s Brief Ironstone Mining Era
Back in 1831, Glaisdale was a mere township within the parish of Danby. But, by the end of the century, Glaisdale was a parish in its own right. The village, though, pretty much developed as a mining community, which began around the mid-1860s, and by the end of that decade an ironworks had been built.…
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A temperature inversion covered the lowlands around Stokesley this morning, inching up the steep banks of the Cleveland Hills
The sheep munching away on the col between Cringle and Cold Moors are apathetically unaware of the creeping cloud. The distinctive red earth is a spoil heap from jet working that has been burnt to convert the soft, crumbly shale into a hard, flakey material for use in building up farm tracks. The burning seems…
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Quiz time: what links this photo to the Yangon-Mandalay railway in Myanmar?
Myanmar was once a province of British India which, from 1824 to 1948, and was known as British Burma. The British first introduced a railway to Lower Burma in 1877 connecting Rangoon (Yangon) to Prome (Pyay) — 161 miles long. Subsequent developments included, in 1884, a 166 mile line along the Sittaung River from Yangon to…
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On this day in 1853, the Middlesbrough & Guisborough Railway was opened with great fanfare to transport ironstone from Joseph Pease’s mines at Codhill to the smelting furnances of the nascent Teesside
The York Herald reported the event. This line was opened for mineral traffic on Friday, the 11th inst. The day being highly propitious, several hundred people assembled to do honour to the occasion. Long before the hour specified, masses of human beings might be seen wending their way to the far-famed Codhill, where the ironstone…
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Carradale Point
A Brobdingnagian finger pointing due south into the Kilbrannon Sound. The headland is protected by a jungle of rhododendron and populated by feral goats. A narrow dyke of igneous microgabbro 23 to 66 million years old runs down the centreline of the isthmus but the dominant rock is much, much older, heavily banded Schist, folded…
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Stacach, Goatfell
The ridge connecting Goatfell with its subsidary top, North Goatfell. Momentarily cleared in the swirling mists. Goatfell, at 874m, is Arran’s highest peak; North Goatfell is 818m high. The main route up Goatfell is a well-graded trail, and very popular, almost a pilgrimage. The Stacach ridge is a bit more serious. Goatfell has a third…
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In search of Regency Graffiti
I came across a letter the other day in the Yorkshire Gazette dated 1st December 1821. There are some words which were frustratingly unreadable because of the binding — I’ve included these as [?]: Sir, — As your columns are often [with] classical notices, it cannot be doubted that [you will] readily admit the following…
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South Gare – Storm Arwen
Even though Storm Arwen was abating, a north wind of 66 mph was still forecasted. A good day for blowing the cobwebs away. And a high tide to boot. The South Gare breakwater, guarding the entrance to the River Tees, was completed in 1888 as one of a suite of projects to improve access to…
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Cod Beck Reservoir
The head of the reservoir in the Sheep Wash valley captures the low-lying November sun. Cod Beck Reservoir was opened in 1953 for the Northallerton and District Water Board, but one had actually been mooted in the 19th-century as part of a proposed scheme by the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees. In the Parliamentary session for 1869,…