Author: Fhithich
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Tis the season for burning
The annual burning of the heather moorland has begun — to the left of the house on the hill, up Badger Gill. Several of the tell-tale plumes could be seen on the way over into Bransdale. The house is Smout House, a mid-19th century farmstead, although until the 1952 edition of the O.S. map, the…
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Winter sunshine, with a light dusting of snow, casts a golden hue over an abandoned meander of the River Leven near Woodhouse Farm in Easby.
A meander is caused by erosion of the concave outer bank and deposition of sediment onto the convex inner bank. This often results in a narrow neck being formed which is prone to being broken through by floodwaters to create an ox-bow lake. Eventually, over time, the lake will silt up with fine-grained, organic-rich sediment…
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A view from today’s constitutional
No prizes for guessing that it was taken the summit of Roseberry looking north towards Pinchinthorp. A lovely cold winter’s day, with a smattering of overnight snow. This was actually my second ascent of Roseberry — here’s a photo from the same spot on that first climb: So no prizes available today but a certain…
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Today is the 380th anniversary of the Battle of Guisborough, fought between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War
I’ve posted about the battle before: here and here. The conventional thinking was that the battle took place on the east side of the town, in fields off Butt Lane. But recent metal detector finds suggest another site for the battle — on the west side of the town, to the north of Hutton Hall.…
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Recent deforestation of Thimberby bank has unveiled stunning vistas of the Vale of Mowbray
To the north, the honeypot village of Osmotherley, lies snuggly between the Hambleton Hills and the Cleveland Hills. The name, Osmotherley, is derived from ‘ley‘, a clearing, belonging to ‘Asmund’ or ‘Osmund’. Its title was recorded in the Domesday Book as ‘Asmundrelac’, before being transformed to ‘Osmundeslay’ and ‘Osmonderlay’. Yet, there is also a legendary…
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Sarkless Kitty
In 2015, I posted ‘The Sad Tale of Sarkless Kitty‘, a harrowing story of a woman from Gillamoor who, allegedly having been romanced and forsaken by a farmer from Hutton-le-Hole, was supposed to have ended her own life in the shallow waters of the ford that crosses the River Dove while carrying his unborn child.…
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Cod Beck Reservoir — a view from Swinestye lane
Opened in 1953, the 115 million gallon reservoir has grown in popularity since it was first opened to the public in 1989 after Yorkshire Water was privatised. The surrounding woodland, planted soon afterwards, is now being cleared, and it won’t be too long before the ruins of the two old farms once again see the…
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Bransdale — again
Second visit this week. Appropiate this day because on 12 January, 1895, the National Trust was incorporated by three Victorian philanthropists — Miss Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley. Bransdale is of course a National Trust property, predominately comprising the dale farms, which was transferred to the Trust through the National Land…
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I set out this morning intending to take a photo on the route that Dalton Taylor would have taken on his last day at work at Roseberry Ironstone Mine from his lodgings in Ayton
He would have climbed this path, probably before dawn, in 1913. I thought it was on this day, 110 years ago, he died from a roof collapse but have since found out that Taylor was actually killed a week earlier, on the 4th January, 1913. It was reported in the Darlington and Stockton Times on…
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Everytime I go up to Capt. Cook’s Monument I find another area of clear felling
This is on Little Ayton Moor, above Hunter’s Scar — note to self: have a look at this feature — revealing a view of the whole of the short valley between Roseberry Topping, Black Bank and Great Ayton Moor. A view that has not been seen for perhaps half a century. To me, a view…