Category: Westerdale
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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…
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Crown End, Westerdale
The rigg separating Westerdale and Baysdale is mapped as Crown Head. That’s it on the right, rising to 236 metres (774 feet) at its highest point. Baysdale is the nearer valley, Westerdale straight ahead. Crown Head is best known as a site of pre-historic remains, representing activity between the Bronze Age and late Iron Age.…
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Round Hill Iron Age hillfort, Westerdale
Although a much brandied term, believe it or not there are only a handful of prehistoric fortified sites recorded within the North York Moors. All, with one exception, are ‘Promontory Forts‘, the exception being Round Hill in Westerdale. These Promontory Forts are generally located on the Cleveland and Hambleton Hills: Eston Nab, Roulston Scar, Boltby…
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Otter Hills, Westerdale
I never know what’s the proper name for this dale. It’s the dale of Tower Beck which becomes Whyett Beck before its confluence with the River Esk which takes the name Westerdale up to the river’s source in the Esklets. Yet if you follow Tower Beck upstream to its source just below Young Ralph Cross…
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Waites House Farm, Westerdale
On 13th January 1858 the Teesdale Mercury carried a report: “SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION – An instance of spontaneous ignition among alum shale has lately occurred in the parish of Westerdale in the North Riding. At a certain point in Westerdale Head the process of jet mining has been carried on for some time past, and a…
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Westerdale and Crown End
Westerdale, as the name suggests is the westernmost dale of the valley of the River Esk, although why Westerdale and not just Eskdale is lost to time. It’s a dale which has escaped the 19th-century mineral extraction of other valleys. There was some jet mining but this was mostly small scale and has not left…
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Armouth Wath
The North York Moors is not renown for its coalfields, but in the late 18th-century, coal was being mined here but on a much smaller scale than the deeper coalfields in other parts of the country. ‘Moor Coal’ seams are thin, usually between 15 and 55 cm. thick and generally occur in three bands, the…
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Crown End
A run from Kildale to Castleton. Took a slight detour to look at the ancient bronze age settlement remains on Crown End of Westerdale Moor. The end is a spur, due north of the village of Westerdale at a height of 236 metres. Plenty of humps and bumps and a bits of rocks but not…
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Stockdale
An offshoot of Westerdale penetrating deep into Baysdale Moor. Castleton and Danby Riggs in the distance. At the foot of the dale was the medieval hamlet of Braithwaite, signifying an area cleared of woodland. Today, there are just a handful of scattered farms, Leath House, Hill House, Daleside Farm and, on the left, New House…