Tag: history
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An Overlooked Wartime Relic of Sherwood Forest
A pit stop at the Sherwood Forest visitor centre for some exercise. Instead of yet another photograph of the Major Oak – that 1,000-year-old tree allegedly used by Robin Hood, of which the internet is already saturated – I have chosen something more original: a pair of ditches. These ditches, grandly named ‘Military Bunker Pits’…
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12 February 1933: Hitler’s Message to Britain
On 12 February 1933, Great Ayton would have been its usual quiet self on that Sunday morning. Most of the villagers would have been dutifully attending church, the weather was dreary, and the temperature was barely above freezing. A drizzle added to the general cheerlessness. After church, families would have eaten their Sunday dinners, perhaps…
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Harker Gates
A picturesque Grade II listed cottage in Ardenside, meticulously maintained yet somehow exuding the melancholy air of a neglected relic. One suspects it is a holiday let rather than a cherished family home. Sir Ralph Tancred acquired the old Arden Priory estate in 1574, and it remained in the family’s grasp until the early 20th…
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The Nuns’ Well: The Last Remains of St Andrews Priory
The so-called Nuns’ Well in Ryedale is a peculiar sight, sitting incongruously among the trees. A perfect circle, 2.4 metres across, with a stepped stone base and sides, it is thought to be medieval. Its water, fed by springs, is clear enough to impress those easily impressed by such things. It lies due north of…
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Hill Hill and the Art of Furtling
It was one of those charming so-called “lazy winds”—the sort that cannot be bothered to go around you and instead cuts straight through, ensuring you feel every bit of its bitter, bone-chilling embrace. Hardly the sort of day for a leisurely stroll around Kildale Moor, but, there I have been, engaged in the enthralling task…
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4th February, 1921: Redundancies at Roseberry Ironstone Mine
His day began long before any sensible person would even consider waking. At 4:30 in the morning, he and his wife dragged themselves from their bed, greeted not by comfort but by the biting cold. The morning’s first ordeal was the outhouse—an unenviable journey in deep winter, where snow, ice, and the ever-present risk of…
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A Wall, a Track, and Centuries of Erosion: Bransdale’s Legacy
Ah, the wonders of dry-stone walls. This one in Bransdale is quite remarkable, though to many an eye, it might be just a very large pile of stones. Compare it to the more modest wall on the other side of the track, then maybe you’ll be as impressed as I am. It is well-built, you…
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Hinderwell’s Holy Well and the Legacy of St. Hilda
Storm Éowyn made it rather wild on Roseberry this morning, so let me take refuge in recent memories and revisit Wednesday’s more gentle jaunt to the Yorkshire Coast instead. This is the Holy Well in the churchyard at Hinderwell, once the village’s sole water supply. Apparently, the waters were deemed miraculous, curing eye diseases and…
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Port Mulgrave: A Harbour of Erosion and Memory
The last time I ventured down Rosedale Cliff to Port Mulgrave was sometime before the world discovered a new way to grind to a halt — the dreaded COVID. Shortly afterwards, a landslip completely wiped out the path. Today, visiting the beach was not on the itinerary, but fate – in the form of National…
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Cleopatra’s Needle and its Tenuous Connection to the North Riding
Let us journey back to this day, 21st January in 1878, to Gravesend, Kent. Imagine the children, thrilled to avoid school, lining the Thames estuary to witness the grand arrival of Cleopatra’s Needle. This 3,500-year-old, 224-ton, 21-metre-high granite obelisk had been towed from Alexandria to London in a cumbersome iron vessel shaped like a cylinder.…