Tag: woodland
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Wiley Cat Wood
I came across this old weir today but frustratingly I have been unable to find out any history about it. Wiley Cat Wood is a lovely little valley but, at this time of the year, it is heavily vegetated. It’s drained by a beck which flows north seemingly a tributary of Boos Beck but abruptly…
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Exercising
Day 26 of the Lockdown. Or is it? Life has settled into a routine. Get up, exercise, eat, doze, an odd job or two around the house, eat again, then start thinking about tomorrow’s posting. This crisis has made me realise just how fortunate I am in having easy access to woods and open land.…
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Webder Wood
A magical place. The lush green was spellbinding. Goredale Beck sprawls out over the dale bottom. Ash dominates its steep, verdant sides. Apparently home to two rare molluscs. A potential site for John Lambert’s mill which smelted lead ore mined high on Malham Moor in the 17th-century. Lambert lived with his family in Janet’s Cave,…
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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”.…
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Ingleby Beck, Church Plantation
A Woodland Trust wood straddling Ingleby Beck just downstream of the Church of St. Andrew in Ingleby Greenhow in the Vale of Cleveland. At this time of the year, the damp wood floor is a carpet of ramsons or wild garlic filling the air with the smell of garlic. The leaves of the plant are…
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Valley Garden, Bransdale
In 1826 Charles Duncombe of Duncombe Park near Helmsley was given the title Baron Feversham. To celebrate he had built Bransdale Lodge which was gifted to the National Trust in 1969 following the death of the then Lord Feversham in lieu of death duties. Bransdale Lodge was a shooting lodge used spasmodically during the grouse…
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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…
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A mossy bagel
Woke up this morning to wind and solid rain with no reprieve forecasted. Inspiration found me in a tweet by Robert Macfarlane. A piece of music by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg is titled “Skovstilhed”. It’s his Opus 71 no. 4 and is translated as woodland peace. Macfarlane describes it as the calmness of spirit…
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Permissive Footpath, Newton Wood
I know this is not the most architecturally significant structure but it will soon be gone so I’ve taken this photo for posterity. Work started this week on upgrading the permissive footpath running along the bottom of Newton Wood. The two sections of wooden boardwalk, which at least twenty-one years old, will be replaced by…
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The art of Kemplah Wood
I seized on an opportunity to be dropped off in Guisborough and run home and, as the weather was dire, decided to stick to the woods and go over my old training grounds. It’s almost thirty years since I lived in Guisborough but while the main forest tracks are the same much has changed under…