Tag: history
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Salts Mill: Industry, Philanthropy, and an Uncomfortable Truth
The River Aire spills over a weir past Salts Mill, a vast textile factory that was the sole reason for the existence of the so-called ‘model village’ of Saltaire. Both the mill and the village were the brainchild of Sir Titus Salt (1803–1876), a man famed for his paternalistic attitude towards his workforce. In what…
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Lake Greenhow: A Forgotten Relic of the Ice Age
Yesterday’s post led me to glaciers, glacial lakes, and the like. At Botton Head, my imagination ran riot. Difficult as it is to picture now, 10,000 years ago, a glacier covered the Tees Valley before me. The ice sheet, it is well-known, never quite managed to smother the North York Moors. So, naturally, I wondered…
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Newtondale: A Gorge Too Big for Its Stream
North Dale sits at the top end of Newtondale, a gorge that stretches all the way to Pickering. Newtondale is an oddity, or so everyone says, because the little Pickering Beck, which now trickles through it, could never have gouged out such a deep, narrow valley. At its tightest points, the valley is only 500…
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On this day in 1933, Germany passed the Enabling Act
Also known as the “Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich,” the act was a charmingly titled law that, in reality, handed Hitler absolute power and turned Germany into a totalitarian dictatorship. Yes, the “Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich”—a masterclass in euphemism. A harmless little law that merely allowed…
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An Abandoned Stone Quarry on Ayton Bank
Someone once told me, or perhaps I read it somewhere, that there were twelve quarries along the edge of the escarpment between Roseberry Topping and Easby Moor, including the one on the summit itself. Do not expect a citation; it is just one of those pointless facts that have lodged themselves in my brain, refusing…
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Fire, Fumes, and Fatality: Scugdale’s Calcining Kiln
In the early 19th century, Scugdale was an unremarkable little dale where people busied themselves with weaving and bleaching fine linens. The local economy depended on at least four water mills, all fed by the ever-reliable Scugdale Beck. That is, until 1857, when progress arrived in the form of a two-mile railway branch between Swainby…
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Cocken Kirke: A History of Threats, Mumbling, and Collapse
A day spent clearing up yet more storm damage with the National Trust at Bransdale. Which storm was it? Storm Éowyn, perhaps? It is hard to say; they all blur together after a while. Despite a dusting of snow on the high moors overnight, the weather has been suspiciously well-behaved. Lunch on the green at…
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Lord Raby’s Smelting Scheme: The Story of Gaunless Mill
The weather has taken a turn for the worse, so a modest walk it is, to gaze upon the Gaunless Mill Chimney at Copley. This lone, crumbling relic of Teesdale’s lead smelting past stands in quiet defiance of time and indifference. The Gaunless Mill, despite being on a tributary of the Wear rather than the…
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The Bishop’s Stones
Up on the bleak moorlands of the North Pennines today, straddling the borders of Durham, Cumbria, and Northumberland. A landscape of peat groughs and bogs thick with sphagnum moss, stirring memories—not necessarily unpleasant, just good times when I was fit enough to fly over this stuff without hesitating. Judging by the abundance of medicated grit…
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Harehope Burn Lead Mine
What a thrill it is to stumble upon the unexpected. A bit of history, a scenic spot, or perhaps a fleeting moment with nature. Weardale is unfamiliar to me, and my expectations were suitably low for the hills south of Wolsingham. So imagine my joy when we found the remains of Harehope Burn Lead Mine,…