Category: North York Moors
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30 June 1934, the Night of the Long Knives
Strong winds and a threat of rain were keeping folks away from Roseberry this morning. I’ve gotten in the habit of avoiding the summit if crowded, so this was my first visit for a week or so. When this is posted, it’ll be 86 years since the leaders of the SA, the Nazi Party’s paramilitary…
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Red Barn
In 1678, long-held Protestant hostility towards Catholicism was re-ignited by the Popish Plot which alleged a Catholic conspiracy to assassinate King Charles II. Panic gripped the country. Anyone suspected of being Catholic was driven out of London and forbidden to be within ten miles of the city. In November that year, the House of Commons…
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It’s looking a bit black over Bill’s mother’s
An East Midlands expression that came back to me on Potter’s Ridge, a small hill that has Highcliffe Nab on its northwestern end. A few moments later the first drops of rain arrived. And don’t ask who Bill was, ’cause I never found out. On strange phrases, I learnt a new word today – ‘quockerwodger’…
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Hedge Bedstraw
I thought at first someone had placed this posy of flowers in the top of the one metre high Tuley tube, but after much deliberation, the family conclusion is that it’s Hedge Bedstraw (Galium mollugo), a herbaceous annual of the same family of plants that gives us the sticky weed or cleavers, those long straggling…
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Lonsdale Slack
The dog found a new pool in Lonsdale. A welcome relief for a black dog from the morning’s sun. Well, three pools actually, in Lonsdale Slack, a tributary of the River Leven. Presumably created as a wildlife habitat. Forestry felling work is ongoing so it’s pleasing that time and money have gone into this project.…
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“The finest view in England”
It was a tad wet and misty this morning at Sutton Bank. “The finest view in England” according to local author James Alfred Wight (1916 – 1995) was not much of a view. Wight is more widely known by his pen name James Herriot. With no photos in the bag for today’s featured image, I…
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Wiley Cat Wood
I came across this old weir today but frustratingly I have been unable to find out any history about it. Wiley Cat Wood is a lovely little valley but, at this time of the year, it is heavily vegetated. It’s drained by a beck which flows north seemingly a tributary of Boos Beck but abruptly…
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Robert Chaloner
A gentle breeze this morning on Great Ayton Moor leading to a slight increase in visibility. In the absence of a stunning view, I had to resort to another of the many boundary stones that scatter the moors. This one is inscribed ‘R C’ so it is likely to refer to Robert Chaloner, but is…
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Boundary Stone, Great Ayton Moor
A roughly dressed boundary stone, probably limestone, and inscribed “RY 1752”. This probably stands for Ralph Yoward who became Lord of the Manor of Hutton following the death of his father in 1751. When Henry VIII dissolved Gisborough Priory in 1539, it was the fourth richest religious house in Yorkshire. The priory land at Hutton…
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One misty moisty morning when cloudy was the weather
I didn’t meet “an old man a-clothed all in leather” this morning. In fact, there were not many folks around at all. Plenty of evidence of money spiders (Liniphiidae) activities. I think these are the webs of the money spider, normally un-noticed until they capture the morning mist. In case you are wondering the title…