Category: Hutton Lowcross
-
Hanging Stone Dam and the Fall of Sir Joseph
The pond in this photo was built in 1880 by Sir Joseph Whitwell Pease to power hydraulic machinery at his Home Farm half a kilometre downstream. It served that purpose until the 1950s, after which it became a swamp. Local volunteers restored it in 2004/5. Known originally as Hanging Stone Dam, it sits at the…
-
Panis Porcinus: Bread for Pigs, Medicine for Men
The common names we give to plants often say less about science and more about superstition. Take fleabane. Its title comes from the old belief that dried stems would drive away fleas. Toothwort was thought to cure toothache, not through any chemical virtue, but because its flowers looked rather like teeth. The Autumn-flowering Cyclamen carries…
-
Bold Venture Gill
The public footpaths through Highcliffe Farm have been diverted. Fascinating. I am sure there is an entirely compelling reason for depriving the public of paths they have used for decades. Perhaps the landowner fancied some peace and quiet, or maybe there was a pressing need to shift things about for reasons too profound for us…
-
A Dreary Day, a Doubtful Saint, and Too Much Christmas
A dreary, cold day, though mercifully not freezing, but with rain looming. St. Thomas’ Day Eve—dedicated to the patron saint of doubt—drapes itself in the sort of gloom that makes you wonder why you bothered to look out the window. That housing estate west of Guisborough in today’s photo? I had been blind to its…
-
Highcliff Nab and Autumn’s Troubling Showstopper
The woodlands are ablaze with reds, oranges, and yellows in what I might call a “dazzling display,” if I were given to such enthusiasms. Recent rain has kept the trees hydrated, and unseasonably warm weather has delayed their annual shedding. How quaint. I am on my way to Guisborough, following the forest track through Hutton…
-
Grenfell — Reflections
While following a trail carved out by mountain bikers through a dark plantation in Hutton Lowcross, I came across upon this lively burst of green pushing its way through the thick blanket of fallen larch needles. I believe it might be the northern buckler-fern, Dryopteris expansa. But meanwhile … The report into the Grenfell fire…
-
Cutting the First Sod on the Codhill Branch on the Gisbro’ and Middlesbro’ Railway
Cutting the First Sod on the Codhill Branch on the Gisbro’ and Middlesbro’ Railway. — It having been generally circulated throughout the town of Gisbro’ and neighbourhood that the first sod on the Codhill branch of the Middlesbro’ and Gisbro’ railway for the working of ironstone would be removed on Monday last, a large company…
-
Ruthergate
My plan was to take a photo of an old route from Guisborough climbing Kemplah Bank on to Hill Plain. The pasture fields of Hill Plain can be seen in the top left corner, while Ruthergate is recognisable by the diagonal line of dark green gorse that stands out against the brown of the withered…
-
The Hanging Stone
Overlooking the heavily forested Hutton Lowcross, the sandstone outcrop at the end of Ryston Nab is well known as the Hanging Stone, presumably because it ‘hangs’ over the valley, rather than it being a site of execution. Ryston Nab, the nose on which it’s on, has a more interesting etymology. It survives from the 14th-century…
-
Thing
Last week, I was fortunate enough to be shown around the Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh, designed by Spanish architect Enric Miralles. It’s a Marmite type of building — you either love it or loathe it. It certainly has some idiosyncrasies, but, on the whole, I liked it. The central communual area has an outdoor…