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Top of Brant Gate
I learnt the other day of the Old Norse word ‘brantr‘ meaning steep, although it’s unattested and has been ‘reconstructed’ from the Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian form ‘brattr‘. I guess this means that it’s a bit of a guess. However, I read also that ‘brant‘ is actually a Cleveland dialect word for steep, and…
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The Four Sisters
I am not sure who coined the term the ‘Four Sisters’ for the Cleveland hills of Hasty Bank, Cold Moor, Cringle Moor and Carlton Moor. Maybe it was Martyn Hudson who used that term in his book ‘on blackamoor‘. They form a familiar view from the vale of Cleveland. From urban Teesside, the flattened aspect…
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The hills look down on Westerdale, and Westerdale looks at the hills
So the Whitby gazette wrote in 1911, borrowing heavily from Lord Bryon’s poem about the battle at Marathon. Today it’s such a sleepy village, home to about a hundred and thirty retirees and professionals, with a handful of working farms. Its location is not conducive as a base for walking, so most of us fly…
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Ladder traps
I spotted this trap the other day, deep down in the northern horn of Lonsdale. So a battle through the bracken to take a closer look. It’s what is known as a ‘ladder trap’ and consists of a timber-frame covered in chicken-wire mesh with a ‘V’ shaped roof leading to a narrow opening so that…
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Ailesbury Ironstone Mine
Another visit to an old favourite, almost 7 years ago. I read that some conservation work had been done to the mine entrance, some trees cleared and the ditch cleared out. It looks as though some of the stones on the parapet have fallen. Ailesbury Ironstone Mine operated from 1857 to 1885 and named after…
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Cable Stone Crag
I can’t believe it’s getting on for 4 years since I last visited Low Cable Stone, or Cable Stone Crag as I’ve titled this post, a name I picked up from a 19th-century account of a foxhunt in which “a bag fox” was released and “pulled down within twenty minutes”. Twenty minutes of cruelty but…
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Benjamin Flounders (1768 – 1846)
I originally started this blog as a photo-blog. A photo a day with a bit of a caption, and more often than not that’s the way it goes, I pick my best picture and write something to accompany it. Occasionally however I come across a interesting snippet of history or whatever and then make it…
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Happy days are here again
🎶Happy days are here again The skies above are clear again So let’s sing a song of cheer again Happy times, happy nights Happy days are here again🎶 Quiz question: who was the Britain’s worst prime Minister? I’ll give you a clue: he was educated at both Eton and Oxford. The answer is Sir Anthony…
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Unfinished millstone on Kildale Moor
A short excursion to look at the unfinished millstone just off the Baysdale road. I’ve been before but the same old questions remain. Why was it abandoned? Who abandoned it? And when? The NYM Historic Environment Record dates it to “post medieval” which is anytime between 1540 and 1799. The bedrock at this location is…
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Erica cinerea
The moors will soon be a profusion of lilac with the blooming of the Ling, but for several weeks now the deeper purple blaze of Bell heather has been taking the glory. This swathe of Bell heather is the largest I’ve seen. Normally it prefers to grow in small clumps on drier ground, the tops…
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