Category: North York Moors
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Lonsdale with its confluence with Kildale
We are all familiar with War Memorials in villages and towns throughout the country that record the fallen, yet anything written about the soldiers who served is largely restricted to family histories. Kildale was a sparse community but many families had someone serving abroad. On 18 February 1916, the Whitby Gazette carried a list of…
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Sandwith Slack
Or is it Ewe Crag Slack? Where the watershed lies between the two slacks is not obvious. For almost a kilometre the broad depression that crosses the North Cleveland watershed at 236m. asl. on Danby Low Moor, cuts no contour line. To the north it drains into Sandwith Slack then into Haw Beck and the…
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Roseberry Mine Tramway
What a difference when the sun comes out. An otherwise dull walk around a regular route of mine taking in Capt. Cook’s Monument and Roseberry, although I avoided the summits as it’s the weekend. And crossing the field at the top of Thief Lane, brilliant sunshine. To my right, Roseberry was still in dark shadow…
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A dreich morning in Bransdale
This impressive holloway or sunken lane was once one of the major routes out of the dale. Climbing up from Groat House, it is shown on the 1857 OS Six-inch O.S. map. It is also shown on an earlier map of 1828, but not on one of 1782. The term ‘holloway‘ derives from the Old…
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Fryup Heads
An “isolated eminence”, according to the Rev. Canon Atkinson, seems an elegant way of describing the hill known as Heads, which separates the dales of Little and Great Fryup. Although designated ‘Open Access Land‘ there are few ways up onto the hill, consequently, it seems quiet and little walked. But historically it has been well…
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18th-Century Valentines
I noticed new trees have been planted on Busby Moor, that stretch of Cleveland Hills below Cringle Moor and Green Bank. And so to St. Valentine’s day, isn’t this year flying by? Francis Grose’s ‘A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue‘, written in 1785, defines a ‘valentine‘ as ‘the first woman seen by a man,…
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Skelton Tower
Corn Hill Point, a headland of a grassy plateau overlooking Newton Dale down which runs the North York Moors Railway. During the times of the Napoleonic wars, the plateau was ploughed up and used for growing crops, Hence the origin of the name. Perched on the tip are the ruins of Skelton Tower, a two-storey…
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“T’ biggest hill in all Yorkshur”
It is generally accepted that the now populous district of the North Riding which we call Cleveland is bounded on its southern extremity by the Cleveland Hills. This is not so. Historically, the district of Cleveland comprises the archdeaconry of that name, which extends considerably farther south, as far as Pickering, retaining in part the…
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Birchdale
I had a faint recollection of crossing Newton Mulgrave Moor before and indeed I had. It’s still a bit of a haze though. Lying north of the A174, it’s an unfrequented area. Very flat, and exposed to winds from all directions. But a relatively deep valley provides a welcome incision — Birchdale or Birk Dale…
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On this day in 2000, the Labour Government’s first attempt to repeal Section 28 was defeated in the House of Lords
Section 28 had been introduced by the Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher and prohibited the “promotion of homosexuality” by local authorities. Later that year the Prime Minister Tony Blair would claim that opposition to reform was “a piece of prejudice, pure and simple“. The Shadow education secretary Theresa May called the defeat “a victory for…