Category: Westerdale
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The Pike Stone: From Waste to Common Land
The Pike Stone marks the boundary between the common land of Westerdale and the “wasteland” of Baysdale Moor. At first glance there is little difference: both are heather moor, both are Open Access. Yet the distinction matters, and the Open Spaces Society is seeking to have Baysdale Moor registered as common land. Common land is…
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Westerdale: From Templars to Ironmasters
A rare chance the other night to climb Top End, the nose of the rigg that leads up to Young Ralph’s Cross. Usually I pass this way in a rush—driving, or sometimes cycling—keen not to lose momentum on the steep bank. Below me lies Westerdale, so named for its place as the westernmost dale in…
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From a Templars’ Retreat to a Cobbler’s Last Stand: The Many Lives of Brathwatte
I see a rock outcrop on the crest of a hill and feel a maddening urge to investigate. So, naturally, I ended up on Tor Hill Crags, gazing down over Westerdale. Or, perhaps, that should be Camisedale—a name found in the Domesday Book, while Westerdale, notably, is not. The general presumption is that they are,…
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Shadow of suspicion: gamekeepers and the Red kite’s plight
As I cycled my way through picturesque Westerdale, I held out a glimmer of hope, albeit a rather optimistic one, for a sighting of magnificent Red kites. More specifically, I yearned to catch a glimpse of that one resilient Red Kite who may had managed to survive the cruel onslaught of illegal, heartless, and downright…
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Hunter’s Sty Bridge
The River Esk has a few single-arched bridges, but the best one is probably the Hunter’s Sty Bridge. It’s located at the bottom of Huntersty, the ‘steep path of the hunters,’ just past the northern end of Westerdale village. Hunter’s Sty Bridge was most likely built in the late 13th century to provide access to…
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The old road to Westerdale
The moors are filled with standing stones that span across different periods in history. You can find prehistoric monoliths, medieval structures, and even contemporary edifices scattered throughout the vast terrain. According to the 1853 6″ O.S. map, there is a boundary stone labelled Stockesley Cross located near the ruins of a supposed smugglers’ hideout called…
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The hills look down on Westerdale, and Westerdale looks at the hills
So the Whitby gazette wrote in 1911, borrowing heavily from Lord Bryon’s poem about the battle at Marathon. Today it’s such a sleepy village, home to about a hundred and thirty retirees and professionals, with a handful of working farms. Its location is not conducive as a base for walking, so most of us fly…
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Lingcote End
An unfamiliar view of the lower portion of Westerdale, taken whilst being buffeted by Storm Malik, the latest of this winter’s storm. I am on what is named as Grange Bank on the old O.S. map descending into the dale after a slog over Baysdale Moor. The photo gives a good overview of the medieval…
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Westerdale Hall
Originally built as a shooting lodge by Colonel Duncombe in the “Baronial Tudor style”, sometime before 1874, between 1946 and 1992, Westerdale Hall was a youth hostel but now it is a private residence. Today, the hall is largely hidden, surrounded by mature trees, but would, in its day, have commanded good views over the…
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Orthostatic walling, Westerdale
An orthostat, in the true sense of the word, is a large upright stone, think of a standing stone or menhir, but one that has been built into a structure or wall. There’s a few in Stonehenge. However, the term has been applied vernacularly to any huge stones that are built into walls such as this…