An old holloway up Carlton Bank

I tried to use a little used Public Footpath which loops around from the foot of Carlton Bank to the now demolished Underhill House¹.

But I became distracted by a mountain bike track and ending zig-zagging up through the trees eventually coming across an old holloway, well above the present road. Overgrown by gorse, it must be of some age as it doesn’t appear on the earliest Ordnance Survey maps.

It is tempting to assume the holloway was made by quarrymen sledding their stones to the village below but alum-workers and turf cutters could equally have been responsible.

Today, Carlton Bank is a notorious climb on a bike but benefitting from a tarmac surface. It has had many names. The gentle slope as it leaves Carlton village has been known at various times as ‘T’ Bank Lonnin‘, ‘Alum House Lane‘, or ‘Peak Lonnin‘².

When the gradient steepens it becomes ‘Butter Hill‘ — “so-called on account of its spongy character” — and cresting the summit, the ‘Red Shale Road‘ or ‘Moor Yat‘. The former because of the use of reddish alum shale as a road surface and, the latter, because it eventually leads to ‘Chop Yat‘, an old name for Chop Gate³.

1
Ordnance Survey National Grid Maps, 1940s-1970. NZ50SW – A (includes: Bilsdale Midcable; Broughton; Carlton; Faceby; Great Busby… Available online at: https://maps.nls.uk/view/188154498#zoom=7&lat=6663&lon=2830&layers=BT [Accessed 22 Apr. 2022].
2
Carlton-In-Cleveland To Scugdale, Swainby, and Castleton. | Northern Weekly Gazette | Saturday 04 August 1906 | British Newspaper Archive. [online] Available at: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003075/19060804/075/0012 [Accessed 5 Apr. 2022].
3
Ibid.

Posted

22nd April 2022

Carlton Bank, North York Moors

Fhithich

Tags:

historical

Comments

6 responses to “An old holloway up Carlton Bank”

Kevin Wilson

23rd April 2022

When I was a teenager the locals refered to the holes as “bomb holes” from a German bomber dumping it’s bombs after missing Middlesbrough. But this might have been made up by the kids?

Reply
1. Fhithich
  
  23rd April 2022
  
  I think the bomb craters, if that is what they are, will be below the tarmac road. I was above it.
  
  It’s the first I’ve heard of any on Carlton Bank. There are a few on the moors.
  
  M
  
  Reply
NAB

15th February 2024

When I was growing up in the late 60s and 70s the bomb holes were small ponds and were not overgrown like they are now.
We used to collect frogspawn and catch newts there (we didn’t know any better in those days).

Reply
1. Fhithich
  
  16th February 2024
  
  “Bomb holes”? That’s a new one to me. Have you any other info? Thanks.
  
  Reply
Nick Balmer

6th August 2024

Thank you for researching & writing this blog. I am related to the Prissick family from the 1740’s when Miss Bate Prissick married Rev John Baber, one of my 5 x gt uncles.
I had had little luck establish who she was, until relatively recently when I discovered that she came from Carlton-in-Cleveland. Since then I have really enjoyed searching the archives.
I visited Carlton Bank last week and walked up the paved pack house route from Long Stones to the alum pit for the first time. I would be fascinated to discuss how the alum & later jet left the bank, & were it was headed for.

Reply
1. Fhithich
  
  7th August 2024
  
  I posted something today which may answer your question.
  http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=36028
  
  Incidentally I found this piece in Peter Appleton’s book which may interest you…
  
  In a lease dated 7th March 1719, between John, Duke of Buckinghamshire and Normanby (the title by which the Earl of Mulgrave was then known) and Sarah Prissick of “Carleton-in- Cleveland”, the Duke agreed to pay £500 per annum for 21 years for Carlton-in-Cleveland Alum works. This was a large, complex document, possibly due to the minority of one of the interested parties. The preamble described the agreement as being between:
  “…Sarah Prissick widow wife and Adminstratrix of Christopher Prissick late of London Merchant her late husband deceased which Sarah is also Adminstratrix of Christopher Prissick of Carleton in Cleveland in the County ofYork Gentleman her late son deceased who was son and heir of the first named Christopher Prissick Merchant deceased and which Sarah is Mother and Guardian to Codrington John Prissick of London Gentleman who is of the age nineteen years or thereabouts and is heir at Law of the said Christopher Prissick the son of the first part, the said Codrington John Prissick ofthe second part and the most noble John Duke of Buckinghamshire and Normanby of the third part…”
  
  Reply