Category: North York Moors
-
Bilsdale
On me bike today. Passing through Bilsdale on the way to Hawnby I remembered this 18th-century song I came across the other day: The BILSDALE FARMER. THERE was an old Farmer in Bilsdale did dwell He had but one Daughter a beauty excell. And many caming a courting but all to her ruin. But still…
-
A lichen covered Highcliff Nab
I’ve heard my first cuckoo of the year. Cuckoo – an echo of the bird’s call – an onomatopoeia. Words come and go. Some words are just made up – neologisms. Shakespeare was apt to make up words, so was John Milton. In 1667, Milton was blind and impoverished, and it was on this day…
-
The Wainstones
I was heading down a proverbial rabbit hole this afternoon when I stumbled across this little snippet from the York Herald, 25 Aug. 1849: “Gipsy” Party. — On Thursday week, a company from Bilsdale assembled on Wainstone-nab, intending to hold a “Gipsy” party on its summit. Wainstone-nab is a hill which overlooks the village of…
-
“Its’ t’biggest Mountain in oll Yorkshire”
Roseberry made an appearance in a play once, in a farce of two acts called ‘The Registry-Office’ by Stockton-on-Tees born Joseph Reed. It was staged at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane in 1761 and received the attentions of the Lord Chamberlain’s office because of its profanity and double entendres. An 18th-century ‘Registry Office’ was…
-
Furthering the Right to Roam
Today is the anniversary of the Mass Trespass of 1932, when four to five hundred ramblers climbed Kinder Scout in the Peak District in defiance of the restrictions on access at the time. Their aim was to establish a public right of access onto the moors that were privately owned for grouse shooting. The movement…
-
‘A Yorkshire Tragedy’
What to post about today? It’s either feast or famine. Could I muse misty-eyed about the feast day of a venerated Roman soldier who was born in Turkey of Greek stock and who (probably) never set foot in England and (also probably) never slew a dragon. Or I could celebrate the birthday in 1564 of…
-
A Bransdale dry stone wall – before and after
Today, there are about fifteen occupied farms and cottages scattered throughout Bransdale, making a population of around about 40. At the beginning of the 19th-century it was about 400. There were shoemakers, innkeepers, millers, shopkeepers, schoolteachers, dairymen, jetminers, as well as the expected farmers and agricultural workers. Far outnumbering the humans in the dale are…
-
View to Guisborough over Old Park Farm
I nearly copped it today. Mowed down by some mountain biker careering down a Public Footpath, the Cleveland Way no less, between Percy Rigg and Highcliff. I failed to get a photo but did take some of other cyclists on the same Public Footpath but riding more considerately. In the end, I’ve opted to post…
-
“At our feet lay the little village of Newton …”
In 1887, an account of one person’s ascent of Roseberry Topping appeared in the Leeds Mercury. Unfortunately the identity of the correspondent is unreadable: “… After a brief survey of the ruins [Guisborough Priory] we proceeded to Pinchinthorpe, whence we had a pleasant walk to the village of Newton, and leaving the village green and…
-
Cockayne
On the 15th April 1802, Dorothy Wordsworth wrote in her diary: Thursday 15th. It was a threatening, misty morning— but mild We set off after dinner from Eusmere— Mrs Clarkson went a short way with us, but turned back. The wind was furious & we thought we must have returned. We first rested in the…