Category: Roseberry Common
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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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The season of goodwill? You’re having a laugh…
Just a piece of mindless vandalism. And a merry Christmas to you, you stupid inconsiderate bastards. Nothing more to say.
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Roseberry from Carr Ridge
It seems a bit of a waste. Posting a distant photo of my local hill. I had planned a wander over Urra Moor. A dull start but I could see this patch of sunlight slowly making its way over the Eston Hills. I figured sooner or later it would shine on Roseberry. I wasn’t disappointed.…
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A vote to ban ‘trail-hunting’ on National Trust land
Regular readers of this blog will know I volunteer for the National Trust on properties on the North York Moors. I do this principally to give something back to an organisation whose values I fully support. I am not fantastically enthused about old houses and gardens, it is conservation and the natural environment that interest…
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Bartle day
A dialect name for St. Bartholomew‘s Day, 24th August. A name that is preserved in the 19th-century poem by Captain John Harland ‘Reeth Bartle Fair’, a fair that was held at Reeth in Swaledale on St. Bartholomew’s Day. There are several weather related sayings for Bartle day: At St. Bartholomew, There comes cold dew. Which…
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Rosebay willow herb
Until the industrial revolution Chamerion angustifolium was a comparatively rare plant of woodland clearings and was often planted in gardens. Since then it has become the most successful coloniser of open land, embankments, waste grounds. I can remember the fluffy seeds being carried along in the draft of a thundering steam train. Each plant produces…
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Jet mining on Roseberry Common
An intricate necklace of 110 beads of jet was found in a burial cist in Kilmartin, Argyll. It has been dated to between 2050 and 1800 BC. The jet is considered to be ‘Whitby Jet’. Jet is the fossilised remains of the Araucaria or monkey puzzle tree that were buried in marine sediments during the…
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Heath bedstraw, Roseberry Common
Two summers ago (1 B.C. – Before Covid) Roseberry Common was sprayed with Asulox, an herbicide that specifically targets bracken. The intention was that a breed of hardy cattle would then be introduced which would over time control the bracken by trampling any remaining rhizomes and fronds. In addition it was expected that an annual…
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Orange peel
“It is a sober commentary on the British way of life that the National Trust has to spend £250 a year picking up litter on its properties in the Lake District. People presumably visit these places to drink in the especial beauty of the scene, but apparently they leave them more or less covered in…
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On this day, in 1971, the end of an era
As we further attempt to cocoon ourselves from the European project, now may be the time to think again about that disastrous venture that happened on this day in 1971, fifty years ago. Decimalisation was the brainchild of Ted Heath’s Tory Government, plunging the country into chaos. Overnight the old currency of pounds, shillings and…