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Runswick Bay
Regarded as one of the quaintest of all the fishing villages of the Yorkshire coast but sadly not much fishing goes on from here now. I suspect there are not many cottages which have year-long residents. In the middle of the 19th-century, Runswick had 18 boats fishing for the herring and another 20 on the…
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Cotoneaster, Roseberry Common
The lull before Storm Brendon. Sporadic sunshine and a meander around Roseberry Common. This small tree full of brightly coloured red berries stood out amongst the muted browns and greens of the winter foliage. Berries bigger and redder than haws, not a rowan. Whereas birds have been almost stripped the neighbouring rowans and hawthorns bare…
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The National Trust, 125 years old today
On this day in 1895 three Victorian philanthropists, Miss Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley met and founded the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty. Octavia Hill had campaigned about the poor availability of open spaces for poor people and developments on suburban woodlands. She had helped to…
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Does Biodiversity Matter?
‘A moor that is well managed for grouse shooting is likely to have a higher biodiversity than an unmanaged moor.’ I came across this quote and the title on an activity sheet issued by the North York Moors National Park Education Service in conjunction with the Dawnay Estates and intended, I guess, for secondary school…
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Wolf Moon
Pagan Anglo-Saxons in the days before the adoption of Christianity followed a lunar calendar with the last month of the year was known as ‘Æfterra Geola’ meaning ‘after Yuletide’. So the first full moon after Yule, that ancient festival celebrating the Winter Solstice became known as ‘Æfterra Geola’. Tonight, 10th January, is the first full…
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Roseberry Ironstone Mine
The site of the Roseberry Ironstone Mine which operated from 1871 to 1926 although, in the early years, there is some doubt as to whether the mine actually produced any ore other than in the brief period from 1881 to 1883. By 1906, however, the mine was again a going concern and operated throughout the…
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Cleveland Hills from Cook’s Crags
A pootle around Coate Moor. This is from Ward Nab aka “Cook’s Crags”. Not much to say that hasn’t already been said, so I’ll have to trawl my memory bank for a completely unrelated fact. So looking at the date, 7th January, what happened in years past. Well, in 1904, the Marconi Company introduced a…
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Painted Rock
My heart sank when I came across this while descending Little Roseberry. Now call me a killjoy but is this really necessary in a National Park, “our most breath-taking and treasured landscapes”. It’s only a painted pebble left in a prominent place and asking finders to post photos to a Facebook page. A craze from…
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Siss Cross
A beautiful January but marred by the smell of burning heather. And on a Sunday too. It seems like we’re just spitting in the face of the Australians. And all to maximise the grouse bag. There are some rules: heather should not be burnt where the smoke is likely to damage health or cause a…
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Ingleby Arncliffe
From Beacon Scar looking down on the Vale of Mowbray and the twin villages of Ingleby Arncliffe and Ingleby Cross, now merged into one. Both are mentioned in the Domesday Book although the names imply earlier settlements. Ingleby is simply the village of the Angles whereas Arncliffe is a mixture of Old English and Old…
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