Category: North Yorkshire

  • River Leven at Hutton Rudby

    River Leven at Hutton Rudby

    Mondays are my cycling days. Tootling around the villages of North Yorkshire. The River Leven at Hutton Rudby is spanned by a two-segmented arched bridge built in 1755 according to Pevsner, the historical architect. The river flows down a deep valley separating the two parts of the village. Rudby on the north side, and Hutton…

  • River Ribble

    River Ribble

    Swollen from overnight rains a radged River Ribble, born in Yorkshire, flows on its 75 mile journey to the Irish Sea. It officially begins at Selside just a mile upstream but its main tributary, Gayle Beck, makes a significant contribution, draining Gayle Moor and half of Blea Moor and Cam Fell. Open Space Web-Map builder…

  • Rathmell Beck

    Rathmell Beck

    A lovely little footbridge over a lovely little stream, a tributary of the River Ribble in the Yorkshire district of Craven. The name Rathmell probably drives from the Old Norse rauðr meaning red and melr meaning a sandbank. No doubt referring to a sandbank which once existed on the floodplain of the Ribble between the…

  • Twilight

    Twilight

    A mad dash to catch the sunrise. Just a small window, ten minutes later the redness had dissipated as the sun cleared the horizon. I guess this is officially Civil Twilight as the sun is less than 6º below the horizon but I prefer the Swedish name “vargtimmen” – the “hour of the wolf”, the…

  • St Mary’s, Over Silton

    St Mary’s, Over Silton

    Sited in a shallow valley, half a mile from the village of Over Silton is the church of St. Mary. It dates to the 12th century and can only be approached only by a footpath. The original village that it served no longer exists, just a few lumps and bumps in the surrounding fields remaining,…

  • Zwartbles

    Zwartbles

    In a field near Stokesley, a flock of rare breed sheep. Brown with a white blaze on their heads and white socks. Google’s first suggestion was that they were Balwens, a Welsh Mountain breed but further down the page came Zwartbles. After much deliberation, this 19th-century Dutch breed seemed the more likely.

  • The Leven

    The Leven

    A purling brook swift gliding from its fount, From Botton Head (that sterile, craggy cliff), The rill descends, meanders down the hill, The woody Hagg its course continues on, By Ingleby then gurgling through the meads, Loses its current, and the Leven joins; So runs the Leven down from Kildale’s brows, Thence falls to Easby,…

  • Ee baa gum

    Ee baa gum

    Today, August 1st, is White Rose Day or Yorkshire Day, a modern invention founded by the Yorkshire Ridings Society in 1975. I would like to say I wore a wear white rose and had Yorkshire Pudding for dinner but ran around the fields of Great Busby in North Yorkshire instead with the Cleveland Hills forever…

  • Battersby Moor

    Battersby Moor

    In yesterdays’s posting I quoted a piece of written evidence to Parliament submitted ahead of a debate on Monday to ban driven grouse shooting. That evidence very much supported a ban on driven grouse shoots. I promised to give an opposing view so this morning so I went for a run on Battersby Moor in…

  • Three Coast Charity Tractor Run

    Three Coast Charity Tractor Run

    Driving back through the village today I was surprised to find 30 or so vintage tractors parked up on the high green. They were taking part in the Three Coast Charity Run from Liverpool to Whitby and back. Apparently it’s the longest annual vintage tractor road run in the world with Great Ayton providing a welcome breather where, as you…