Category: Rosedale
-
The Shah of Thorgill and His £26 Rebellion
This is Thorgill: a tributary of the River Seven, the main drainage for Rosedale. While technically a watercourse, it is perhaps better known as a hamlet, once even managing to sustain a Methodist Chapel. Thorgill briefly staggered into the national spotlight in the 1950s, not through any great achievement, but thanks to the antics of…
-
Repairing the Damage: A Belated Attempt to Save the Moors
In 1955, Bill Cowley had the bright idea of establishing a long-distance walk across the North York Moors, from Osmotherley to Ravenscar. By the late 1970s, the Lyke Wake Walk had become a rite of passage for the outdoor-obsessed, with an estimated 18,000 people a year trudging the 42-mile route. Unsurprisingly, by the next decade,…
-
Hollins Ironstone Mine
An exploration of the east side of Rosedale—Northdale Rigg and Heygate Bank—yields splendid views across the dale, the hillside punctuated by two notable scars from the ironstone mining era. This is the site of Hollins Mine, where ironstone mining began in Rosedale in the modern period. The two drifts, known as Garbutt’s on the left…
-
Northdale’s Mysterious Stone Pig-Sty?
During my wandering around the aesthetic barns of Northdale yesterday, this little curiosity caught my eye. A curving quadrantal chamber within a natural rock formation, adorned with two large recesses flanking the “southern” entrance and another substantial chamber gracing its northern flank. Clearly, the hands of man have toiled here, evident in the distinct dressing…
-
Red House
According Tom Scott Burns, Red House formerly served as a tavern for wayfarers traversing the moors, likely vying with The Lettered Board Inn, or Hamer House, where those in the business of panniers, colliers, and smugglers sought reprieve during their journey. Red House, like Hamer House, fell into ruins over the ages. While the stones…
-
Blakey Ridge and The Lion Inn: From Crutched Friars to Modern Hikers
A view across Rosedale towards Blakey Ridge. In the front, Florence Terrace, one of many rows of terraced cottages built to house the ironstone miners and their families. Rosedale’s population surged in the two decades between 1851 and 1871. Barely discernible on the distant skyline stands the Lion Inn. There are few inns more remote,…
-
Young Ralph Cross
A breather after riding up from Westerdale. Not the highest part of the Moors — that falls to Round Hill on Urra Moor — but it certainly has that feel about it. Young Ralph Cross has stood for centuries guiding and reassuring the weary traveller. Nowadays, most folk don’t stop on the busy Castleton to…
-
Rosedale & Lastingham Light Railway
In 1896, the Light Railways Act 1896 was enacted which allowed new ‘light railways’ to be expediently built, principally in rural areas. A light railway was “one constructed with lighter rails and structures, running at a slower speed, with poorer accommodation for passengers and less facility for freight”, and working “with less stringent standards of…
-
Rosedale Glass Works
I’ve been meaning to explore the lower part of Rosedale for some time. especially the site of an Elizabethan glass works. A lovely Spring day with blue skies but the site of the works were a little underwhelming. The ruins of a building associated with a 19th-century sandstone quarry was much more interesting. On the…
-
Low Baring: The end of the line
The former terminus of the east branch of the Rosedale Ironstone Railway. The branch line was built to serve the mines on the east side of the dale. It was opened in August 1865 by the North Eastern Railway although it is likely construction may have begun by the mine owners. The 4¾ mile route…