Category: Bank Foot
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Checking on Medusa: A Slippery Slope to the Ancient Oak
Caught on Greenhow Bank in a shower and finding myself taking more time than anticipated, I decided to take a shortcut by descending the bank directissimo, which led me to a spot above Medusa. My thought I would pay a visit to the old gorgon to check on her well-being. The descent was nothing short…
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William Parkinson and the gibbet on Turkey Nab
I reckon Turkey Nab must be one of the steepest hill climbs in Cleveland. It’s one of those routes where vehicles can be driven without tarmac, which makes it popular with 4WD enthusiasts. But for cyclists, it’s a different story altogether. That loose gravel turns it into a proper challenge. This high moorland route has…
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Abandoned sandstone quarry near Turkey Nab
A pair of cairns have been constructed on the nab itself, where once a gibbet stood, last used so I understand, in 1729, when Willam Parkinson was hung there in chains. My notes say that Parkinson was tried at York assizes for the murder of a Scottish drover at Great Broughton. He was brought back…
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Turkey Nab
Turkey Nab with a backdrop of Carr Ridge and White Hill. A gloomy over cast day, which doesn’t do credit to probably the best view of the Cleveland Hills and the fertile plain below. The stiff, steep climb of Turkey Nab, a favourite for off-road enthusiasts, is an ancient track over the dark moors to…
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Park Plantation Quarry Tramway
Hidden away in the forestry above Bank Foot is a tramway incline that served the sandstones quarries higher on Greenhow Bank. It first appears on the 1893 OS 25 inch map. Blocks of sandstone would have been lowered down to a siding by the Rosedale Ironstone railway. I guess here a bridge was built to…
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Face to face with the snake-haired Gorgon
I popped along to see how Medusa’s fairing. Deciding to approach the old dear from above, I descended through a remaining swathe of coniferous trees, sheltered briefly from the incessant rain. For a moment I thought I had blown it as I sled on my derrière past the massive split boulder through which the ancient…
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A new vista across Greenhow bottom to the Cleveland Hills
Recent felling on Ingleby Bank has opened up a new vista across Greenhow bottom to the Cleveland Hills. In the near distance are Bank Foot Farm and the old railwayman’s house formerly known as Poultry House Cottage. Poultry House Cottage has a dark history. I wrote about it here on my old site dated 18…
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Dorothy’s Stone
I met an oldish chap on the climb up Turkey Nab once and he told me this was Dorothy’s Stone. I wished I’d have pressed him why now. A mixture of thoughts. After the gloom of the overnight mist, the blue is refreshing and joyous. It’s enazuring or turning azure. An old word that is particularly…
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Silver birch, Turkey Nab
Perhaps my favourite tree, one of the first trees to recolonise Britain after the ice sheets retreated. It is an opportunist tree, producing hundreds of windblown seeds that are quick to germinate and grow rapidly making it the bain of gamekeepers and foresters alike. Even the National Trust control the tree cover on their moorland…
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Roseberry from the old railway at Bank Foot
An afternoon stroll along the course of the old mineral railway to Rosedale. Storm Erik has been and gone, leaving a cloudless sky. Super views of Roseberry in the distance. Just realised I didn’t get a Model Release Form. Hope I don’t get sued. Open Space Web-Map builder Code