Category: North York Moors
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Sleddale Farm
A shaft of sunlight falls upon Sleddale Farm, an island of cultivation in a sea of dull heather moorland. The name itself means “a wide flat valley”. The farmhouse is probably Victorian but it’s been cultivated since at least the 16th-century. At the dissolution of Gisborough Priory, Henry VIII granted its grange, Sleddale Close, to…
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Nanny’s Nook
A dull morning for a bike ride, but dry. Just outside Commondale on the Kildale road, there is a small copse. It hides a double right-angled bend in the dry stone wall called Nanny’s Nook, said by Frank Elgee to have been frequented by a witch and the site of an ancient settlement. This may…
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“They say this is the finest view in all England, my liege”
So Robert the Bruce’s groom may have remarked as the Scottish King contemplated the view on the afternoon of 14th October 1322. Probably – not “Yer bum’s oot the windae” the King replied. Definitely – not. But it is quite likely this spectacular view could have indeed been seen by Robert the Bruce. On a…
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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…
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Waites House Farm, Westerdale
On 13th January 1858 the Teesdale Mercury carried a report: “SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION – An instance of spontaneous ignition among alum shale has lately occurred in the parish of Westerdale in the North Riding. At a certain point in Westerdale Head the process of jet mining has been carried on for some time past, and a…
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The Cleveland Way at Codhill Plantation
A day for saying farewell to a good friend and a personal reflection on an early walk. Jon Williams was my training partner during those years we both lived in Guisborough during the 1970/80s. Many times we pushed each other across the boggy Codhill Slack on the final climb up to Highcliff Nab. Of course,…
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Brandy Well
John Fairfax-Blakeborough in his 1912 book with “Life in a Yorkshire village” writes: Speaking of superstitions reminds me of a tradition that the water in Brandy Well, half way up Carlton Bank, has most wonderful curative properties, and that a wish made here when drinking, is pretty certain to be fulfilled. The well is by the road side…
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It’s looking a bit black over Bill’s mother’s
So me mam used to say. A Nottinghamshire expression. But who was Bill? Some say Kaiser Wilhelm II. Some say Shakespeare. This was from Carr Ridge, looking like it’s raining over Stokesley. Not sure if this is the shower that drenched me twenty minutes ago or a new one approaching. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Whorlton Moor Shooting House
At the beginning of September, a photo did the rounds on FaceBook showing some graffiti on a shooting house purporting to have been done by Extinction Rebellion. This was linked to an article on the website Campaign for Protecting Moorland Communities (C4PMC), a site “dedicated to protecting moorland communities and the driven grouse shooting”. I…
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Not a lot to see, all is still,among the tubes of Cockshaw Hill
It was the National Poetry Day on Thursday, so my pathetic attempt is a bit late. Would it be too pretentious to call it an epigram? Anyway a wet miserable day, but Sunday’s looking better.