Author: Fhithich
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View east from Helvellyn
If Helvellyn were just a few metres higher we would have definitely been above the cloud ceiling. As it was, views of the Eastern Fells opened up for the briefest of moments. in this glimpse, the cliffs in the distance, right of centre, belong to Rampsgill Head. That much I’m sure. I think. The trouble…
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Lammerside Castle
In the Mallerstang valley overlooking the River Eden, the ruined Lammerside Castle dates from the 14th-century. It is a Peel-house, a fortified house built by a lesser landowner to protect his family, livestock, and retainers against predatory raids. Life in the Middles Ages was hazardous, particularly so in Northern England where a state of insecurity…
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Causey Arch
Prior to the late 17th-century, transportation of materials across the country was slow and difficult. Either by horse drawn carts or teams of ponies. More forward thinking industrialists were developing wagon-ways, horse-drawn first with wooden rails and rollers, then with flanged iron wheels. In the 1720s, when coal-owners were considering exploiting the coal fields below…
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Roseberry from Carr Ridge
It seems a bit of a waste. Posting a distant photo of my local hill. I had planned a wander over Urra Moor. A dull start but I could see this patch of sunlight slowly making its way over the Eston Hills. I figured sooner or later it would shine on Roseberry. I wasn’t disappointed.…
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Different moor, different view
I’ve never been on this bit of Kildale Moor before. Never seen Capt. Cook’s Monument from this particular angle. Usually I’m on my bike when I cross Brown Hill but today I was on foot so I was minded to leave the tarmac and head south until the view opened up. But the sun broke…
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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,…
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Roseberry Topping looking splendid this morning
Just a couple of weeks ago, I heard a joke. It was not told to me specifically but to the handful of blokes I was with. It was not new, I’d heard it before, many years ago. I won’t repeat it but essentially it was playing on the assumed intelligence of our neighbours across the…
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How York paid its MP’s
The autumnal colours of Kildale Wood are overpowering. Just the other day, I pulled up a page from an 1889 edition of the York Herald for a completely unrelated subject, when I noticed the headline in the next column: — HOW YORK PAID ITS M.P’s. It was just a short piece, a letter I think…
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The one that got away
I nearly ran over a fish today. It was massive. This big — hands held wide apart. There I was, cycling down Hob Hole and this ginormous fish was wriggling across the ford. Its dorsal fin and back were clear of the water which was about two to three inches deep. By the time I…
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CSRT Remembrance Commemoration
The Cleveland Search and Rescue Team held their Remembrance Commemoration at the memorial plaque to the airmen who were killed in the Lockheed Hudson aircraft crash in 1940. See here and here for more details. It has been recommended to me that I read Rudyard Kipling’s short story ‘The Gardener’ on this day. It’s a…