Category: Bransdale
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Bransdale
Only the ice covered road in the foreground is a give away for the temperature. A brisk day in Bransdale, blue skies and brilliant sunshine. In spite of snow falling overnight on the coastal North York Moors, not a flake had fallen on Blakey Ridge for the drive over. But with snow forecasted in the…
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Two-stoop yate
‘Gate’, as in Westgate and Belmangate of Guisborough, is an old Scandinavian word meaning a ‘way’ or ‘road’. This is etymologically different to the modern useage of the word, which stems from the Old English word ‘geat‘ for a “door, opening, passage, or hinged framework barrier”. In Yorkshire though, we say ‘yate’, ‘yat’ or ‘yet’.…
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The unmistakable silhouette of Scots Pine …
… ‘haloed‘ by the National Trust to give a breathing space and a chance to harden up before the remaining larch plantation is felled next winter. These trees are on a ridge called, quite coincidentally I think Scot Ridge, in Bransdale in the heart of the North York Moors. Barker Plantation is shown on the…
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Volunteering with the National Trust in Bransdale
Barker Plantation is a reasonably sized larch plantation covering Scot Ridge, the hill between Hodge Beck and Shaw Beck. The plantation is due to be felled, and to do this, a contractor will be brought in, but the amongst the conifers there are many birch, oaks and Scots Pine which the Trust want to retain…
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John Scarth, a “well-to-do” Bransdale farmer
A lovely view of St Nicholas Church appearing through a window in the autumnal canopy from a field near to Bransdale Mill where the National Trust are creating a wildflower meadow. The little church at Cockayne was built about 1800, so it would have been very familiar to John Scarth, a well-to-do farmer who was…
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Bransdale Mill
Another view of the rear of Bransdale Mill but from a different viewpoint standing on the wall of the mill-race. The first record of a mill in Bransdale is a late 13th century will, when the Mill was included in the estate of the Lady de Stuteville, who left her estate to her son Baldwin…
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Flashback to 1948: ‘Yorkshire dale to begin new life’
Bransdale Eastside and the farmsteads of Smout House (formerly Loft House and now the National Trust’s office and stores), Toad Hole, and Cow Sike. I came across an interesting article in the Yorkshire Post dated 27 November 1948, which gives a very good insight of what life was like in Bransdale in the first half…
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I love it when I can get to somewhere new
Even to see a different view of a familiar place. This is Bloworth Slack, the easternmost fork of upper Bransdale. There is no peace and quiet though — contractors were felling the coniferous plantation on the left with their heavy machinery. Bransdale is perhaps the remotest dale in the North York Moors. It’s hard to…
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Bloworth Crossing
Or Blawith, as I’ve seen it written. Or Blowith. Many names, but a well-known feature on several long-distance path over the moors. Where the Rosedale mineral railway crossed the ancient track along Rudland Rigg, a track which, in 1934. Alec E. F. Wright described as a “grass road” and “exhilarating”. In the 21st-century, the Rudland…
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A Snowdrift
I can’t claim these are the first snowdrops I’ve seen this year but they are certainly the most impressive. This drift is behind the little church at the head of Bransdale, along a beck with no name. In a month’s time, the bank will be dominated by daffodils, only to be overtaken by bluebells a…