Category: Roseberry Topping
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The mystery of Roseberry’s pits
My posting of Cockle Scar three days ago reminded of the mysterious pits that align the top of the scar. I posted about them in 2017 featuring a photo of the southern end of the scar in Newton Wood. They continue almost linearly along the edge finishing in a cluster at a promontory, at the…
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Cockle Scar
When we look at a landscape photo it is very easy to be overwhelmed by the big picture and to miss the little features. In centuries past, these features meant something, far more than now, and they had names. It is these features that reveal interesting aspects of the landscape. The distinctive change in steepness…
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New hedge along the old tramway to Roseberry Mine
I have felt uneasy for some time about the prevalence of plastic tree guards. Their never-ending march seems to pervade into every nook and cranny of our countryside — from our National Parks to motorway verges. They are supposed to protect saplings from browsing animals and to cocoon them in a mini-greenhouse. But are they…
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Roseberry Mary Staveley
On Sunday, I posted about Thomas Kitchingman Staveley, who owned the north side of Roseberry Topping and the Common in the mid-19th-century. I ended it by saying he had a son and two daughters. The eldest of the daughters was delightfully named Roseberry Mary Staveley who eventually inherited the whole estate including Newton manor. Although…
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On this day in 1950, George Orwell died
On this day in 1950, George Orwell died after a three-year battle with tuberculosis. He was a prolific writer including Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, both controversial books, widely viewed as an attack on totalitarianism. ‘Orwellian‘ is an eponym describing the world imagined in 1984. A dystopian society ruled by “The Party” with lies, disinformation, denial…
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A late afternoon wander
A strange sort of day. Blue skies in Ayton this morning but Nunthorpe enveloped in a low lying fog, which by late afternoon was beginning to creep higher. The cottage is known as Airey Holme Cottage, built sometime in the later half of the 19th-century and recently modernised. Most of the census returns are not…
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A fresh sprinkling of snow on Roseberry summit
A sprinkling of fresh snow coated the summit this morning and judging by the absence of footprints I was the first. It’s quite a rarity nowadays to have the summit to myself. Even at night head-torches can frequently be seen. Besides the 1950s trig point, two pieces of modernity adorn the summit. Both can be…
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Back in North Yorkshire and noticeably no rain
One annual ritual about this time is the New Year’s Honours list. Its publication is often met with loathing or apathy, and a pinch of ridicule thrown in. How come Raducanu, aged just 19, can be appointed an MBE, after winning just one Grand Slam title, the US Open (and the BBC Sports Personality of…
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Roseberry summit
So here it is merry Christmas, as the song goes. I managed to summit Roseberry before most of the Christmas climbers, and while the sun was shining over Middlesbrough. Thirty minutes or so later I was surrounded by a flurry of snow.
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The Glover Landscape Review
In May 2018 the Government commissioned an independent review led by journalist Julian Glover into whether the legislation for our National Parks and AONBs issued over 70 years ago, is still fit for purpose. The subsequent report was published in September 2019, and became known as the Glover Landscape Report. This 168 page report contains…