Author: Fhithich
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Newton Wood
Ramsons provide a lush carpet on the floor of Newton Woods taking full advantage of the lack of tree cover in early Spring. This area of Newton Woods has been cleared by the National Trust of non-native sycamore trees allowing much more light to reach the wood floor and encouraging the growth of ash and oak…
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Grinkle Ironstone Mine
A second dose of industrial archaeology in as many days. This is just inside the drift of the Grinkle Ironstone Mine, near Staithes. The mine dates from 1865 and operated until the 1920s. Output ceased in 1921 but was recommenced six years later with final production in 1929. Ore was carried by rail through a couple of tunnels…
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“SS” Castle, Lazenby Bank
A Grade II listed building, hidden away in the woods of Lazenby Bank. Known locally as SS Castle on account of the ‘S’ wall supports, it was built in 1876 to house a Gubial fan to provide ventilation for the ironstone mines of Bolckow, Vaughan and Company. The Eston mines were the largest in the Cleveland…
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Little Blakey Howe
A bronze age burial mound, or “round barrow” on Blakey Ridge above Rosedale. The stone was erected as a boundary stone in the eighteenth century and is probably a reused standing stone of older antiquity. The contrails high amongst the cirrus clouds can be used as a navigation aid. “Contrails” is an American word, a…
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Saltburn Scar
Ended up in Saltburn this morning. The tide was out exposing the mudstone scar littered with boulders of harder rock. The mudstone was formed when Saltburn was at the bottom of a shallow sea 188 million years ago and much closer to the equator than it is now so the temperature would have been quite different…
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Solar Eclipse, Capt. Cooks Monument
Roseberry Topping summit was heaving this morning waiting for the eclipse. Easby Moor wasn’t too busy but it had clouded up by the time I got there. The cloud meant I didn’t need the fancy glasses to see the crescent but the light was diffused so it didn’t get particularly dark. It certainly got colder.…
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Victorian Graffiti
Roseberry Topping gained its distinctive shape on a May night in 1912 when an land slump caused the cliff to collapse. At the time the ironstone mining was blamed but I understand that it is now thought to have been just a natural occurrence. But prior to 1912 the temptation to graffiti the summit sandstone was…
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Throckley Aqueduct
The second day of a two day residential for Year 4 pupils from a school in Lanchester. Next to the farm near Heddon-on-the-Wall where we were staying was this feature marked as an aqueduct on the map. I took the photo early this hazy morning before there was any movement from the kids’ wigwams. It turns out it…
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Knag Burn Gate, Hadrians Wall
A day on the wall near Housesteads.
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Daffs by the River Leven
My first “wild” daffs of the year. I’ve seen the odd one in sheltered gardens in the village. I don’t get out into the low lands much. This is by the River Leven half way between Stokesley and Great Ayton. I had to drop off a minibus in Stokesley so took the opportunity of running back…