Author: Fhithich
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Guisborough Moor
Actually taken from Codhill Heights looking north towards Potters Ridge but all part of the great expanse that is Guisborough Moor. On 31 Mar. 1941, the Times reported that the Air Ministry and Ministry of Home Security had issued a communiqué: Though there has been some activity off the east and west coasts during the…
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A 3 wheeled tractor … now I recognise that
I used to have one as a Dinky Toy. The back lifted and it had cast alloy wheels. Had a clear out a few years ago and sold my old Dinky Toys on eBay. Someone, somewhere is lovingly caring for it. I bumped into this one, which does need a bit of T.L.C. above Lealholm.…
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Hock-Monday
Today, the Monday after Easter is Hocktide, (or more specifically the Monday and Tuesday after Easter), and was a traditional medieval festival where games and sports took place, or there would be ‘hocking‘. This was a custom where the women would capture men and only release them on payment of a ransom, which went to…
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Newton Wood
Woke up to snow this morning. The last kick of winter? By half nine the melt had begun.
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Cheese Stones
A recent Facebook posting mentioned a “font” on the Cheese Stones on Ingleby Moor. I was intrigued. It’s been a few years since I visited this sandstone outcrop but I had never heard of a rock-font. A little prompting revealed the information was found “on the web”, but the only reference I could find was…
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Blackthorn, Thief Lane
In 2012, a human headless torso was discovered during industrialised cutting of peat from a bog in in Rossan, Co. Meath. The lower half had been destroyed by the peat cutting machinery. It was dated to the Iron Age and became known as the Moydrum Man although the slenderness of the skeletal remains suggests this…
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Smout House Sundial, Bransdale
Back in Bransdale volunteering for the National Trust. Life is getting back to normal. You don’t often come across a sundial in the middle of a field. This is one of a pair (as far as I know) near to Smout House, the National Trust’s Estate Office. The other is close to Bransdale Mill and…
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Rosedale West Kilns
Ironstone has been mined in Rosedale since medieval times, but it was only small scale operations. It was in the mid-19th-century with the discovery of a very high quality seam near Hollins Farm that extraction became more serious. The mine opened in 1853 with ore being carried down the valley by a pannier train of…
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Prehistoric Roseberry
I wrote the other day that the name Airyholme (the farm in the centre of the photograph) derives from the Old Norse ǽrgum meaning ‘at the shielings’. That’s the seventh and eighth centuries, but what of earlier times? The Romans seem to have had Cleveland under control, perhaps they felt the Brigantes, the local tribe,…
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Duncombe Park Army Camp
About 3km after crossing Rievaulx Bridge with its opportunity to gaze at the majestic abbey, the Cleveland Way crosses a concrete road at Griff Lodge. Here the National Trail bears left to Helmsley avoiding Duncombe Park. The concrete road is a reminder of the military presence during WW2 at Duncombe Park. Following it through Park…