Highcliffe Nab — observer of history

Guisborough is an ancient place, with a long and varied history. It was important enough during the time of the Conquest to be listed in the Domesday Book, a detailed record of The Conqueror’s ill-gotten gains, although it was of relatively low value, contributing just a few shillings per year to the royal coffers.

Over the years, like the rest of the country, inc ...

http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=31828

#ClevelandWay #Guisborough #HighcliffNab

Butts and bullets: A bimble up Butt Lane

Walking up Butt Lane (right of centre in the photo), I couldn't help but notice the "tree-mendous" (sorry) amount of felling that's taken place in Guisborough Woods in recent years. And, lo and behold, I saw an obvious path leading upwards. I had never seen it before, which turned out to be the work of daredevil downhill mountain bike riders. Fortunately, ...

http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=31812

#Guisborough #NorthYorkMoors #19th-century #history

Ryston Nab

Ryston Nab, or Hanging Stone, overlooking Guisborough. A bit dreich on the tops, with rain and gale force winds.

Guisborough is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Redcar and Cleveland. Even though it has been over half a century since it lost its Yorkshire association, for many folk, Guisborough will always be a town of the North Riding of Yorkshire.

The word 'Riding', or 'tr ...

http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=31714

#Guisborough #NorthYorkMoors #RystonNab

Ruthergate

My plan was to take a photo of an old route from Guisborough climbing Kemplah Bank on to Hill Plain.

The pasture fields of Hill Plain can be seen in the top left corner, while Ruthergate is recognisable by the diagonal line of dark green gorse that stands out against the brown of the withered bracken. A standing stone used to be located where Ruthergate met the crest of the bank ...

http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=31667

#Guisborough #HuttonLowcross #NorthYorkMoors #medieval

A boundary stone on Hutton Moor

A boundary stone on Hutton Moor inscribed on the north-east face with "RC TC 1856" which stand for Robert and Thomas Chaloner who inherited the manor of Guisborough in turn on the death of their father, also named Robert, in 1842.

On this day in 1649, the funeral of King Charles I took place. His dignity during his trial and execution had won him much sympathy and he ...

http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=31505

#Guisborough #HuttonMoor #OnThisDay #OTD

I walked past the entrance to Sleddale Farm today

There are several noticeable changes since, in the late 1970s, just before Christmas, I would take a bottle of malt to the Sleddale farmers — two brothers by the name of Proud if I recall — in recognition of them allowing the Guisborough Moors Race to run through their farmyard. Neither of the two Public Footpaths that go to the farm, actually come up this a ...

http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=31101

#Guisborough #NorthYorkMoors #Sleddale

The natural temptation, when standing on Highcliffe Nab is to look north over Guisborough town …

... this view is south — towards Highcliffe Farm, Codhill Slack and Percy Cross Rigg.

Highcliffe Farm is an exposed location, gaining no shelter from both northerly and southerly winds. In 1908, it was being farmed by Thomas Wedgewood.

One day Wedgwood and a farm labourer were snaring rabbi ...

http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=31065

#Guisborough #HighcliffNab #NorthYorkMoors #Edwardian

“Spare the Trees”

Two facts confront us, and deserve serious consideration. The forest of the world are going just as the coal beneath our feet is going — man is a cooking animal, and must have fuel. In all the great outlets of water floods multiply, and become more and more destructive. We are compelled to ask if there is any necessary, or perhaps, obvious connection between the two facts? Undoub ...

http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=30967

#GisboroughMoor #Guisborough #NorthYorkMoors

A day of strange atmospherics

On this day in 2005, at 0601 in the morning, a huge explosion rocked an oil depot in Buncefield near Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire. It was the largest in peacetime Europe and the noise is said to have been heard as far away as the Netherlands.

I seem to remember people at work saying they had heard the boom ...

http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=30877

#Capt.Cook'sMonument #EasbyMoor #EasbyMoor #Guisborough #NorthYorkMoors #RystonNab #temperatureinversion

On me bike which meant I had to negotiate Guisborough’s busy town centre!

Surprisingly quiet.

The town cross is relatively modern but the steps are worn, perhaps part of the Medieval Market cross although a 17th or 18th century engraving shows circular steps.

Perhaps the engraving also shows the town's bull-ring which was located very near the cross. Yes, bull-ba ...

http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=30845

#EastCleveland #Guisborough #18th-century #BloodSports #BullBaiting #Regency

Guisborough Races, 1784: Asses, Mens’ sack race, Ladies, and a Soap-tail’d Pig

Guisborough, population around 17,000. At the turn of the 19th-century, in the 1801 cenus, it was a mere 1,719. This was the eve of the industrial revolution, nevertheless it was the largest town in the area, the focal point of trade, although the alum industry, once a major employer, was in decline.
...

http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=30745

#Guisborough #HighcliffNab #NorthYorkMoors #18th-century #sports

On this day in 1853, the Middlesbrough & Guisborough Railway was opened with great fanfare to transport ironstone from Joseph Pease’s mines at Codhill to the smelting furnances of the nascent Teesside
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=30604
#Guisborough #19th-century #ironstonemining #OTD #Victorian