Category: Roseberry Topping
-
Bridle Gill Road
A view of the north side of Little Roseberry. There is no indication of a footpath on the 1856 Ordnance Survey Six-inch map, nor the parallel gulleys. Instead a ‘Bridle Road‘ is shown, initially following this route, then taking a right angle, contouring around the nose and ascending on the north side. This Bridle Road…
-
Newly painted Roseberry trig point
Roseberry’s trig point received a fresh coat of brillant white this morning. A clean canvas for a new generation of graffiti artists. How long until the first arrives?
-
‘Ohensberg’
The bridleway between Aireyholme Farm and Hutton village, passing through the col on Roseberry Common, is referred to as ‘the great road of Ohensberg‘ in one of the foundation charters of Guisborough Priory of about 1120. The original is in medieval Latin of course but nevertheless it sounds as if it was a main route…
-
In search of Regency Graffiti
I came across a letter the other day in the Yorkshire Gazette dated 1st December 1821. There are some words which were frustratingly unreadable because of the binding — I’ve included these as [?]: Sir, — As your columns are often [with] classical notices, it cannot be doubted that [you will] readily admit the following…
-
A shower on t’moors
Every poet since Chaucer has waxed lyrically about April showers: Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote And bathed every veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flour; and foretold of flowery times for May. But I don’t think many had in mind a blizzard.
-
Black Bank
The eastern edge of Newton Moor, still showing signs of the devastation left after felling some twenty years or so ago. I wonder how long will the old tree stumps take to decay. This sandstone outcrop is shown as a quarry on the 1856 O.S. map. But no access track is shown, nor is there…
-
Witches’ Knickers
A dreich day, witness my photo of Roseberry not quite smothered by mist. ‘Witches’ Knickers’ is an Irish epithet for the poly bags that attach themselves to shrubs and trees, and barbed wire as here on Newton Moor, slowing shredding in the wind. I keep meaning to clean it up but put that fiddly job…
-
Dydd Gŵyl Dewi hapus
Well, Spring has sprung, it’s pancake day, and of course it’s St. David’s day, so ‘Dydd Gŵyl Dewi hapus‘ to all you Welsh speakers. As one proverb says ‘March (has) many weathers‘ so it’s not surprising that there are many proverbs foretelling the weather. If we have a wet month, we might say: A wet…
-
The mystery of Roseberry’s pits
My posting of Cockle Scar three days ago reminded of the mysterious pits that align the top of the scar. I posted about them in 2017 featuring a photo of the southern end of the scar in Newton Wood. They continue almost linearly along the edge finishing in a cluster at a promontory, at the…
-
Cockle Scar
When we look at a landscape photo it is very easy to be overwhelmed by the big picture and to miss the little features. In centuries past, these features meant something, far more than now, and they had names. It is these features that reveal interesting aspects of the landscape. The distinctive change in steepness…