Category: Bransdale
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Bransdale
From a snowstorm to bright sunshine, Bransdale felt all seasons today. I have been doing some repairs to dry-stone walling on the west side of the dale. It’s quite rare to view Bransdale from this angle. The nearest farm is Colt House, and, across the valley, are Cow Sike and Toad House. Between them, hidden…
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Those were the days …
… standing in the queue waiting for the telephone to become free, and then, when your turn did come around, putting in 2p and shouting “phone me back” as soon as it is answered. I have two pet hates in photographs. One is sloping horizons, and two is getting my shadow in. I failed on…
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A blate cat maks a gallus moose
A dreich morning at Bloworth Crossing. Lots of water around — on the ground and in the air. Actually ‘dreich’ is quite an apt word to use on St. Andrew’s Day, the patron saint of Scotland — and also of golfers and fishermen, but that’s by the by. The word comes to us from, of…
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Bransdale
Lovely autumn sunshine today in Bransdale. Not so back in 1845, when the Preston Chronicle reported a ‘REMARKABLE OCCURRENCE IN THE DALES‘: On Tuesday, the 17th ult., the inhabitants of Bransdale and Farndale were much surprised, and even alarmed, by the appearance of a very dark cloud, from which depended something like an arm, or…
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Those pesky rabbits
Thanks to a skill beyond The craft of honest men, I’ve stood twa-hundred years, and mair; And lang may stand again. The answer to John Wilson’s riddle is the dry-stone wall, that constant feature of Britain’s upland countryside. Of course, a dry stone wall will not stand for two hundred years, if climbing sheep have…
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The Convict Peace in the North Riding
Spent the day with the National Trust in Bransdale, tidying up Spout House farm which is due to have new tenants. Spout House is the first one you come to as you drop into the dale from Gillamoor. While researching something to write about connected with the featured image I came across this piece in…
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Bransdale – Eastside
Bransdale is a idyllic community of scattered farmsteads. It seems to have always been the case. Eastside and Westside were once two separate townships belonging to two separate parishes before they were merge into Bransdale-cum-Farndale in 1873. You would have thought that crime would have been a rare occurrence in this remote dale, but in…
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Stork House
It’s 2½ years since I was last at Stork House in perhaps the remotest part of Bransdale and decay has continued to creep on. Such neglect seems a real shame but the cost of renovation would be prohibitive, and of course, being a National Trust property, it can not be sold, a condition of its…
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Bransdale Mill
Volunteering with the National Trust in Bransdale, planting 350 wildflower ‘plugs’. I must qualify that: I didn’t do all that number alone, it was a collective effort. But an opportunity to post another photo of the mill, from the rear, the north aspect clearly showing the water race funnel into the building where the water…
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The Old Schoolroom, Bransdale
The former schoolhouse, now used as a community centre for the families of this isolated dale. In 1874, an old schoolmaster of Bransdale met an unfortunate end which caused an outrage in the dale, indeed it was headlined in the regional press as: THE OUTRAGE UPON AN OLD SCHOOL-MASTER AT BRANSDALE. The old schoolmaster was…