Standing alone atop Roseberry Topping is a rare privilege. From this vantage point, Guisborough lies in the distance, with the North Sea stretching beyond. The crags of the summit are scarred by decades of graffiti, the soft sandstone inviting visitors from the towns of Teesside to carve their names into history. Many of these inscriptions are dated; some even reach back to Victorian times. I have often wondered whether it might be worthwhile to record these names and initials.
The two heavy iron posts at the summit each carry their own tale. On the right stands a stanchion that once anchored railings meant to protect Victorian climbers from the perilous edge. However, during the landslip of 1912, which dramatically altered the summit’s profile, the railings and the rock to which they were secured tumbled down the hill. This lone post is all that remains.
The other iron bar was driven into the ground by Robinson Martin, the farmer at Aireyholme. He used it to hold a pulley to haul 32 tons of logs to the summit for a bonfire celebrating the Coronation of King Edward VII on the 9th of August, 1902. Martin employed his steam engine, usually reserved for sawing wood and threshing, to drag a timber-laden sledge up the steep slopes.
We can now all relate that, after 65 years of Queen Victoria’s reign, the crowning of a new British monarch was an extraordinary event. That evening, the villagers of Great Ayton danced on the cricket field to the music of the local string band, participated in a bicycle parade, and at ten o’clock, the great bonfire was lit atop Roseberry Topping.
Nine years later, for the coronation of King George V, there was talk of rekindling the bonfire. But George Burton, the manager of the Roseberry Ironstone Mines, refused permission. The intense heat from the 1902 fire may have damaged the sandstone at the summit, and Burton, likely mindful of further harm, did not wish to risk another. He was probably concerned that pieces of rock could break off and fall, though he could not have foreseen the massive rock fall of the following year. When Roseberry was ruled out, an alternative site near Captain Cook’s Monument was considered, but it seems the event never took place.
Source: “Roseberry Topping”. Great Ayton Community Archaeology Project. 2006.
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