Category: Guisborough
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Highcliff Nab
Recent felling has opened up a new view of Highcliff Nab, a bluff overlooking Guisborough. One myth once told by Guisborough folk is that Oliver Cromwell had cannons planted on the Nab, from which he bombarded Guisborough Priory, causing its demolition. Three old cannon balls were apparently found embedded in the stone wall of the…
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The House of Lords is “useless and dangerous to the people of England”
The House of Commons so declared on this day, 19th March, in 1649, when the House of Lords was abolished. In January of that year, Charles I had been executed and Oliver Cromwell, ‘Lord Protector‘ dominated the Government. The House of Lords was reduced to a largely redundant body having no powers and was abolished…
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Gisborough Priory
Called in at Gisborough Priory to look at the ruins that are dominated by the iconic east window. It took a while to frame this view, the grounds were swarming with students from the sixth-form college. It was good to see so many young people relaxing and enjoying their surroundings. But I wonder if those…
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In search of an Iron Age “encampment” on Highcliffe Nab
I was intrigued by this view of Highcliffe Nab that has been opened by the felling in Guisborough Wood and particularly with what appears to be a distinct earthwork descending diagonally from the nab to the col of Highcliffe Gate. First thing when I got in was to have a look at the Lidar mapping,…
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Willow hedging
I spotted this newly layered willow hedge this morning and was quite impressed. I thought willow hedging was mainly ornamental or perhaps useful in boggy ground so it’s surprising to see it used as a field boundary. I guess the hedge is only partially complete and the long ‘poles‘ will be laid sideways and interweaved.…
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Went for a bimble around the Belmont Ironstone Mine
To be clear this is the old mine, which operated between 1855 and 1877, and not the new one which was sited a kilometre further west and which operated in the first half of the 20th-century. I didn’t really expect to find anything. The authoritative “Catalogue of Cleveland Ironstone Mines” by Peter Tuffs doesn’t mention…
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The day Guisborough led the nation
A view of Highcliff Nab across Bold Venture Gill. This boundary stone is one of a line of marking the former boundary of Guisborough and Hutton Lowcross boundary. It is inscribed ‘T.C. G. 1860’; standing for Thomas Chaloner and Guisborough. But it is his father, Robert Chaloner, I want to write about today. I have…
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Belman Bank
Around a decade ago, felling on Belman Bank — ‘Beautiful Mountain’ — revealed the great bowl left by Thomas Chaloner’s alum works, said to be the first in Yorkshire. The manufacture of crystals of alum, used in waterproofing hides and in medicinal products, from the alum shales in the Upper Lias beds is a complicated…
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Mesolithic Guisborough
I often stand on a viewpoint and wonder what the landscape before me was like in times past. What did our ancestors, standing on this same spot see? More often, my imagination struggles to extend beyond the past century. A millennium past and it becomes hazy and obscure. Eight millennia, I can only reach in…
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Spawood and Spa Ironstone Mines
At Slapewath near Guisborough, there were two ironstone mines operating in the late 19th-century within one hundred metres of each other. To the south of Alumwork Beck (the Guisborough side) was Spawood, and to north (the Skelton side) the Spa mine. They were operated by different companies and worked different royalties, but apart from their…