Category: Capt. Cook’s Monument
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An early start
It was dry when I left home but by Gribdale Gate, the wind had picked up and it was beginning to spit, and any thoughts of photography had been forgotten. Still, it was pleasant to see Gribdale empty of cars; apart from two early dog walkers. It’s has always been a popular car park as…
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A brilliant day on Easby Moor for the Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team’s Remembrance Sunday gathering
The gathering took place at the memorial to the aircrew who died when their Lockheed Hudson aircraft crashed into the hill on 11th February 1940. The aircraft took off from Thornaby-on-Tees at 04:10 and failed to gain suffient height due to ice forming on the wings. It clipped the escarpment, ploughing on through a drystone…
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Capt. Cook’s Monument
It’s been quite a few weeks since I last posted a photo of the dear old monument on Easby Moor to Great Ayton’s favourite son. Over the years, it’s been through its trials and tribulations. The originally one was made of wood and erected in 1827 but it caught fire and was replaced by the…
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On Gisborough Moor
With a rather dull view across the patchwork moors of Codhill Heights and Great Ayton Moor to Capt. Cook’s Monument. In the foreground, the triangulation pillar on Gisborough Moor, 324m above sea level. Or 1,063 feet as our esteemed Prime Minister would have it. Or maybe he prefers cubits — a cubit being the distance between…
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Shit Sack Day
Two years ago I posted about Royal Oak Day, 29th May, to commemorate when Charles II returned to London and was restored as King in 1660. On this day, true Royalists wear a sprig of oak leaves in recognition of Charles’s escape by hiding in an oak tree at Boscobel House, Shropshire, after his defeat…
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It can be done …
The relatively small patch of heather moorland around Captain Cook’s Monument has recently been strip mowed. This photo is technically of a strip on Little Ayton Moor, north of the parish boundary wall, but the area surrounding the monument, Easby Moor, also has at least two parallel strips. The moors are technically dry upland heath,…
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Has the Duke of York ever been to Yorkshire?
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a photo of Capt. Cook’s Monument on Easby Moor. Ugly looking isn’t it. Its only beauty coming from its familiarity as part of the landscape. James Cook is of course Cleveland’s most famous son, even though when he left Middlesbrough was just a hamlet, home to 25 people…
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Capt. Cook’s Monument and Aireyholme Farm
The familiar sight of Capt. Cook’s Monument on Easby Moor appearing as the low cloud dissipates. It wouldn’t have been familiar to the young James Cook who lived as a young boy at Aireyholme Farm (centre of photograph). His father was employed there as a hind or skilled farm hand. However problematic Cook is in the…
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Capt. Cook’s Monument in Storm Francis
Woke up to Storm Francis throwing everything it had at us. But on the positive side, under a new Government algorithm, it’s now been downgraded to Force 3 on the Beaufort Scale, a gentle breeze. But what to do. I needed inspiration. That old fallback, Capt. Cook left Plymouth today (25th August) on the first…
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Sunrise on Cliff Rigg
Two major achievements. First I dragged myself out of the house whilst still dark and secondly, I managed a hypnopompic run up Cliff Rigg, the first since my attempt at an Icarus imitation. They say the darkest hour is before dawn. That’s probably not true once your eyes have become accustomed. Dick Turpin and his…