Tag: history
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Ardenside
I came across a rather poignant tale the other day. It concerned William Wass of Ardenside who was called up to fight in the Crimean War. Now one way of escaping the call up apparently was to get someone else to go in your place and so Wass persuaded his friend, John Barr, who subsequently…
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Castle Hill, Easby
From a distance Castle Hill is barely a ripple on the flatlands of the Vale of Cleveland. Now dominated by mature trees, it would, in the 12th-century, have commanded fine views and overlooked any movement on the King’s road from Stokesley to Whitby that passed the foot of the eminence on which the castle stood.…
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The day Guisborough led the nation
A view of Highcliff Nab across Bold Venture Gill. This boundary stone is one of a line of marking the former boundary of Guisborough and Hutton Lowcross boundary. It is inscribed ‘T.C. G. 1860’; standing for Thomas Chaloner and Guisborough. But it is his father, Robert Chaloner, I want to write about today. I have…
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Battle of Inkerman
Remember, remember the 5th of November … Not because of “the last man to enter Parliament with honest intentions”, but because it is also the anniversary of the Battle of Inkerman in 1854 when the allied armies of Britain and France defeated the Imperial Russian Army during the Crimean war. 635 British soldiers, 175 French…
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Gribdale
I’ve never really figured out where Gribdale begins and where it ends. There is no dale as such. The col between Capt. Cook’s Monument and Great Ayton Moor is known as Gribdale Gate. Beyond that, we’re into Lonsdale, so Gribdale must lie this side. But there is no valley. A stream does spring out from…
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Kildale and St. Cuthbert’s Coffin
I delayed going out this morning because of the dismal weather. It was still raining when I left the house at 12:00 but by the time I crossed the River Leven at the other end of the village the sun was out. I discovered something about Kildale the other day, although when you think about…
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The Wreck of the Rohilla
At 1:00 pm on 29th October 1914, HMHS (His Majesty’s Hospital Ship) Rohilla set sail from Leith Docks bound for Dunkirk where she would help evacuate wounded soldiers from the Western Front. She had been built in 1906 and intended to be used as a luxury cruise ship, but almost immediately was requisitioned as a…
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Osmotherley Cross and Barter Table
The mornings have become more gloomier as October draws to a close, and an early start meant the honey pot that is Osmotherley was quiet. Sited next to the village cross is the unique Barter Table, a large flat sandstone on chunky legs. It is thought to date from the 16th-century and was used as…
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A view of Swainby from Scarth Nick …
… but the point of interest is not the village of Swainby, nor the wooded Whorl Hill on the far right. It is the field visible in the between the gap in the treeline on the left. Or more specifically the isolated tree in that field. It is around about here that a stone coffin…
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The Wishing Stone
This has been on my to-do list since the spring after reading a blog post on the Arcanum web-site. It’s a large, deep, circular basin on a boulder on Ingleby Moor that is speculated to have be manmade and used for ritual purposes: the making of wishes or prayers, or curses and so on. As…