Out & About …

… on the North York Moors, or wherever I happen to be.

A medium shot captures a pastoral scene in Bransdale. On the left, a moss-covered dry stone wall, constructed from roughly hewn, rectangular grey stones, stands partially in shadow beneath a large, bare-branched oak tree. At the end of the wall is a stone post with three ‘L’ shaped rebates cut in. The topmost one is close to the top of the post suggesting the post has been broken sometime in the past. The tree's trunk is thick and gnarled, its branches reaching upwards and outwards, some extending into the top of the frame. To the right of the wall, a patch of vibrant young green bluebells, yet to flower, slopes gently downwards towards a valley. Further back, the landscape opens up to reveal a rolling hillside covered in a mix of light brown bracken and patches of green conifer trees. Bare trees and a forest road wind across the hillside, leading towards a distant horizon under a cloudy sky. The overall impression is one of a tranquil, slightly overgrown rural scene, with the textures of the stone, moss, grass, and bare branches creating a varied visual experience.

A Bransdale Stang Stoop That Time has Forgot

Up on Gimmer Bank in Bransdale today, just above Bloworth Slack before it merges with Badger Gill to become Hodge Beck, I noticed this old piece of farming history: a ‘stang stoop’, or ‘heave’, or ‘slip gate’—back from when labour was cheap and farmers made do with local resources instead of buying five-bar gates from the local agricultural supplier.

A weathered, upright stone gatepost with three distinct, circular hollows carved into its front face stands prominently in a natural setting. The stone is roughly rectangular but tapers slightly towards the top and is covered in patches of moss and lichen, giving it a mottled gray, brown, and green appearance. The hollows are evenly spaced along the central vertical axis of the stone. To the right of the upright stone is a dry stone wall constructed from irregularly shaped, moss-covered rocks. The wall extends out of frame to the right. Behind the stone and wall, the base of a tree trunk with peeling, light brown bark is visible on the left side. Lush green Bluebell shoots, grow at the base of the tree. The ground is covered with fallen leaves, twigs, and some moss. The background is slightly blurred, suggesting a natural, outdoor environment, possibly a woodland or field edge, with hints of other trees and foliage visible. The lighting suggests it is daytime.
The southern stoop.

It is a decent enough example, though clearly not built for giants. The ‘L’-shaped rebates carved into one post give the game away. Its opposite number has matching deep sockets. You would shove one end of a wooden spar, or ‘stang’, into each socket, then slide the other into the rebate. No hinges, no nonsense. Wedges probably kept it in place. One farmer once tried to tell me the cattle had figured out how to lift the spars with their noses. Hence the wedges. Of course.

The stoop is rough stone, partly tooled, and quite possibly broken off at the top, given that the uppermost rebate is right on the edge. The other stoop is just a rough slab—no signs of shaping—with three sockets to match1National Trust Heritage Records Online Record ID: 33904 / MNA145988. Two stoop gate opening, centre of wall 436, NE of Cockayne, Bransdale. https://heritagerecords.nationaltrust.org.uk/HBSMR/MonRecord.aspx?uid=MNA145988.

A gate was apparently shown here on an estate map from 1782. I briefly questioned the point of gating off a steep, bluebell-covered slope, but it turns out the oldest Ordnance Survey map shows a track running along the top. So there we are—sense, for once.

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