Category: Newton Moor
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Black Bank
The eastern edge of Newton Moor, still showing signs of the devastation left after felling some twenty years or so ago. I wonder how long will the old tree stumps take to decay. This sandstone outcrop is shown as a quarry on the 1856 O.S. map. But no access track is shown, nor is there…
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Witches’ Knickers
A dreich day, witness my photo of Roseberry not quite smothered by mist. ‘Witches’ Knickers’ is an Irish epithet for the poly bags that attach themselves to shrubs and trees, and barbed wire as here on Newton Moor, slowing shredding in the wind. I keep meaning to clean it up but put that fiddly job…
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Thomas Kitchingman Staveley
I took this photo of a pair of 19th-century boundary stones that identifies the old parish boundary between Newton under Roseberry and Great Ayton to demonstrate the extent of the National Trust land on Newton Moor. The National Trust property boundary follows the old parish boundary, so the beck just beyond the boundary stones is…
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Bell heather – the most beautiful of the heathers
This day, in 1940, is officially recognised as the start of the Battle of Britain, a fight for control of the skies that would begin the German bombing campaign known as the Blitz. A bombing campaign against British cities was not unforeseen. Before the war, the Chamberlain government feared deadly raids by the German Luftwaffe,…
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Melegate
The cyclists and the walkers are on the Cleveland Way between Little Roseberry and the Kildale track. This is supposed to be the route of an ancient and important route called ‘Melegate‘. The name is mentioned in a 13th-century charter between Guisborough Priory, and Richard de Hoton and his brother, Humphrey, following a dispute over…
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What’s below this pond on Newton Moor?
I’m guessing this is a manmade pond, at the head of Howden Gill. It’s not shown on the 1958 OS Map. I’ve photographed it before but have always assumed it to be on Great Ayton Moor, but on closer inspection it’s actually to the north of the Newton parish boundary, so strictly that will make…
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Piss off early tomorrow’s Saturday
It was a bit bleak on Newton Moor this Friday morning. In case you don’t recognise where I’m at, it is the ‘hole in the wall’ at Little Roseberry. Odin’s Hill should be visible on the far left. Odin’s wife was Frigg, a Norse goddess in her own right, and Friday is named after her,…
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“It’s back to square one”
So headlined the Daily Mail this morning. Or as I heard on the radio; I didn’t actually read the paper. But it got me thinking where does that phrase come from. So I reached for my copy of the Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, the 1993 edition when the World Wide Web was still…
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Who did this then?
I noticed this last week. It’s hard to imagine it was accidental. Someone has gone to the effort of moving the stones to the side creating a clear route through. If a stonewaller had done that, the stones would have been laid out and graded, heavier stones nearer the gap, with receding rows of smaller…
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Quagmires, Sphagnum moss and WW1 wound dressings
If you find yourself stuck fast in an area of seemingly stable ground that suddenly gives way underfoot and leaves you becoming engulfed and unable to go forwards or backwards, you’ve probably found yourself in a quagmire. Obviously, there may be current political parallels but this is about quagmires in which the predominant vegetation is Sphagnum…