Author: Fhithich
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Thor’s Cave
The abode of the god of thunder, or maybe just a corruption of the word “tor” meaning hill. Evidence has been found that man’s earliest ancestors were here well before the last ice age, over 50,000 years ago. Bones, human as well as animal bones, long extinct bear, giant deer, wooly rhinoceros and lion have…
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Peacock
Almost had peacock for dinner. This fine bird wandered nonchalantly within the range of the dog. It would have been a feast fit for a king, peacocks featured regularly of a medieval king’s table. More for display though. Peacocks are native of the Indian sub-continent but were familiar to the ancient Greeks who considered them…
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Viator’s Bridge and the River Dove
The White Peak is the name given to the southern half of the Peak District, because of its predominate limestone geology and also by comparison with the millstone grit northern half of the Dark Peak. During the last ice age, deep running north-south gorges were cut in the limestone plateau by the runoff of glacial…
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Monsal Dale
“There was a rocky valley between Buxton and Bakewell, once upon a time, divine as the Vale of Tempe… You Enterprised a Railroad through the valley – you blasted its rocks away, heaped thousands of tons of shale into its lovely stream. The valley is gone, and the Gods with it; and now, every fool…
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Snow, bracken and bluebells
Beneath the wet, dirty snow, beneath last year’s carpet of dead bracken, the bluebells remind us that spring is on its way. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Great Ayton Weighbridge
I heard earlier this week that the demolition of this small building in the old goods yard at Great Ayton railway station was imminent. Yesterday’s snow might have given it a few days reprieve. It’s an old weighbridge and buried in the tangled undergrowth is, I am told, the weighing mechanism built by Henry Pooley…
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Roseberry Topping
Woke up this morning to a hard frost, overcast but bright skies in the distant out over the North Sea. By nine o’clock, a whiteout. Utter chaos, all roads south at a standstill. By tea time, blue skies, roads clear, and, with Roseberry as a backdrop, warm enough for a moment’s reflection. Open Space Web-Map…
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Petrified forest, Redcar Sands
Every so often, after a particularly fierce storm, petrified tree stumps appear out of the sands on the beach at Redcar, only to be buried again a few weeks later. The last time was 2013. Last week’s Beast from the East scoured away a vast tract of sand revealing several tree stumps, fallen logs and…
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Every year 100,000s of tonnes of plastic is thrown away, we must all do our bit
Plastics have been getting a bad press recently. The horrific film footage in Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet 2 of turtles and birds entangled with discarded plastic has had a profound impact on public opinion. Just going on the amount in our recycling bin, we have managed to at least half our plastic use since…
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Harpley’s Well
Came across this peculiar sandstone structure while running through Heathwaite on the way back to Swainby. The lintel over the dilapidated door is carved “Harpley’s Well 1880”. Opposite Harpley House on Holgate Lane. It seems such a shame that the well has been neglected. I have no idea who Harpley was. Open Space Web-Map builder…