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The Teachers’ Bridge A comment on an old post prompted me to take this photograph. It shows the River Leven meandering lazily through what was once the grounds of the Friends’ School in Great Ayton. The water tumbles over a small weir on the left, adding a touch of drama to an otherwise tranquil…

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Urra Moor on Pancake Day Up on Urra Moor this morning, the sun made an appearance, but the wind still had a bite to it. This is the view across Bilsdale to Hasty Bank. If you strain your eyes, you might just make out Roseberry Topping in the far distance. I suppose I must acknowledge that it is…

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

A Costly Collop — The Ubiquitous Smoke of Burning Heather A view south-east, straight into a hazy sun, down Lonsdale and across to Kildale Moor. The scene is, of course, marred by a hibernal plume of smoke from the burning of the heather, because no landscape is complete without an artificial…

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Baysdale and a Digression into the Art of Grave Digging Baysdale today, perhaps the remotest dale in the North York Moors, accessible by car only from its head. This is Shepherd’s House, the last in the dale—or perhaps the first, depending on one’s perspective. I have already posted about Baysdale…

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Seamer: A Village, a Church, and a Step Worn by Time So, the weather being positively vernal, and since it is, after all, the first day of the meteorological spring, I felt obliged to take my bike out for a spin. The first time this year. Wishing to avoid any unnecessary exertion, I chose the…

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Beyond the Pale: The Lingering Echoes of Kildale’s Past The sky was an unnervingly perfect shade of cerulean this morning, while overnight frost clung on stubbornly in the shadows. This is the view from Percy Rigg towards Coate Moor, the back of Captain Cook’s, … #history

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The Sheep of Clough A heap of moss-covered sandstone, once a farmstead, now a sheep stronghold. This is Clough, where the path from Bilsdale Moor West meets another from Staindale to Raisdale Mill. In 1781, William Hunton lived here, followed in 1826 by John Garbutt, who managed thirty-five…

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Family Farms or Tax Havens? The Debate Over Farmland Inheritance A picturesque view of Roseberry looming over the Cleveland Vale, a landscape dotted with the usual mix of arable and livestock farming. A typical lowland farm grows wheat, barley, and oilseed rape while also rearing cattle and sheep.…

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Locky, de Eure, and the Mystery of the Weathered Effigies Kirkby-in-Cleveland (or Kirby, for those who prefer brevity) is an ancient settlement, though that much is obvious. The name could either come from old Scandinavian, meaning “the farm by the church,” or from Adam de Kirkby, a Norman baron…

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

@followthatpage.com I keep getting daily emails of the form: The page www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/lis... has changed since the previous check. Changed: - Incident ID: 065da30f-cqcf-4845-b42a-2a6d301bfdc0 ... into: + Incident ID: effcae8a-cqcf-4259-8e4e-00461d3bad3a

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A Brief and Unnecessary Guide to Burrs When I was a lad, I remember a Saturday morning BBC Radio programme called Children’s Favourites. One of the songs frequently played was I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, sung by an American named Burl Ives. I thought Burl was an cool name. At the time,…

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

Please share this fact sheet on Ukraine with anyone who needs it understandingwar.org/backgrounder...

submitted 11 days ago • 137 comments

Cliff Rigg Scallywags Hideout A year ago, I wrote about the Great Ayton Scallywags Patrol, a secretive Auxiliary Unit stationed in the area during the Second World War. Unlike the familiar, shambolic image of “Dad’s Army,” these men were part of a covert Home Guard unit. If the Germans had…

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Saltburn Pier: A Stubborn Relic of Victorian Opportunism With the weather forecast putting an end to our morning plans and since we did not particularly want to be battered about on the high moors, we decided instead to be battered about on the beach. Hence, our impromptu visit to…

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

Roseberry Topping and the Lingering Trace of a Railway A view of Roseberry Topping that will be familiar to anyone enduring the A173. A fleeting moment of brightness in an otherwise wet and windy day spent planting trees in Bransdale. Of mild interest here is the embankment, now smothered in…

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Hall Wood, Farndale A pleasant little wander around Farndale on another bitterly cold morning. The route, regrettably, was largely tarmac, because the North York Moors, in their wisdom, provides very few Public Rights of Way in the dale bottom away from the ever popular daffodil trail. By chance,…

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Colmán’s Legacy: From Lindisfarne to Inishbofin (Possibly via Commondale?) Today marks the anniversary of the death of Colmán of Lindisfarne in the year 675. A fine excuse, I thought, to wander over to Commondale, a place supposedly named after the saint. At least, that is what Tom Scott Burns…

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

A Water Tank, Legal Loopholes, and the Persistence of Bloodsports One of my first photographs on this blog featured an abandoned concrete water tank below the escarpment of Great Ayton Moor. I had visited it often as a checkpoint on various orienteering courses. On a sunny day, its corrugated tin…

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Rievaulx Bridge: Monks, Floods, and Tanks In 1826, William Turner stood on this bridge to paint his famous view of Rievaulx Abbey. Anyone hoping to recreate his masterpiece today would be sorely disappointed, thanks to the abundance of trees along the river and the endless stream of traffic…

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

A Short History of the Ormesby Ironstone Mine and Its Surroundings After many years, I finally returned to Flatts Lane Country Park and was astonished to find it looking clean and free of litter. This was undoubtedly the work of the Friends of Flatts Lane Country Park, who evidently have more…

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Percy Rigg Farm: The Struggles of a Tenant Farmer Standing above Percy Rigg Farm in a biting wind is a fine way to appreciate just how bleak and precarious farming here must be. The farm, once known as View Hill or Viewley Hill Farm, and before that, with little charm, as Piggery Farm, likely came…

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

High Lingrow: From Wartime Deception to Agricultural Use At Port Mulgrave today, where the weather could not make up its mind, shifting between sunshine and snow flurries. Lingrow Cliffs is just that little headland across the bay, not really anything special, especially at low tide. But near its…

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

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…

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12 February 1933: A quiet damp Sunday in Great Ayton, a bold message from Berlin. Britain’s Sunday Express gave Hitler an early chance to explain himself. He took it. A warning? Too bad hindsight was not available at the time. #history

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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 relicNYMNPA HER Records (Monuments) HER No: 1306 Harker Gates. One suspects it is a holiday let rather than a cherished family home. Sir Ralph Tancred…

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

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 treesNYMNPA HER Records (Monuments) Nuns' Well at Arden HER No: 22137  . A perfect circle, 2.4 metres across, with a stepped stone base and sides, it is…

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

Walking on Water: What Happens When Public Paths Are Washed Away? This photo has been on the cards for a while now. It’s one for posterity. The river, as rivers do, is steadily eating away at the bank. Sooner or later—perhaps next year, perhaps in ten— that electricity transmission pole will keel…

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

Nothing like a “lazy wind” slicing through you while squinting at prehistoric burial cairns on Kildale Moor. Victorian antiquarians got there first, of course—they loved a good furtle—rummaging for treasure and leaving behind helpful central depressions.

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Dug holes, planted trees, surrounded by smoke, saw a hen harrier, remembered the buzzards buried under a rock. Welcome to Bransdale. www.fhithich.uk?p=37402

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Once Crannimoor, now Cringle Moor. A study in how names fade, shift, and eventually vanish. Plus the Three Lords’ Stone: a boundary marker, a misused name, and a relic of a time when place names actually meant something.

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

Another day, another way in which Trump's America apes the British empire "Parallels have been drawn with the British policy in the early 18th century, when convicts were sent first to the American colonies, and then, after the American Revolution, to Australia" www.thetimes.com/article/ad2a...

submitted 29 days ago • 8 comments

USAID isn’t about federal bureaucracy. I’ve been to several of the poorest countries in the world and seen the lifesaving impact it has on some of the world’s most desperate people. The richest man in the world is illegally snatching medicine and life preserving necessities from the world’s poorest

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An ironstone miner’s life was cold, hard, and relentless. On 4th February 1921, it became even worse—redundancy notices were issued, and the Roseberry Mine’s slow death began. #history www.fhithich.uk?p=37378

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

An ironstone miner’s life was cold, hard, and relentless. On 4th February 1921, it became even worse—redundancy notices were issued, and the Roseberry Mine’s slow death began.

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

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. ... #history

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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…

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

Another view from our recent trip to the Lakes. This surprisingly hibernal scene of the Grasmere valley, with Helm Crag taking centre stage, was captured from Alcock Tarn below Heron Pike. The green pasture fields in the valley provide a pleasant contrast to the lifeless, bracken-covered…

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

A View from Alcock Tarn: Grasmere and Helm Crag Another view from our recent trip to the Lakes. This surprisingly hibernal scene of the Grasmere valley, with Helm Crag taking centre stage, was captured from Alcock Tarn below Heron Pike. The green pasture fields in the valley provide a pleasant…

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

Hey @followthatpage.com, recently I’ve started to get the following emails with the message: Changed: - Incident ID: a3b10b34-cqcf-4686-b79d-05af1ec91282 ... into: + Incident ID: 3051eeeb-cqcf-4fc5-ada3-da81fa33feee

submitted 32 days ago • 1 comment

Tarn Hows Yesterday, I reflected on my perceived sorry state of Tarn Hows, now resembling the aftermath of a minor apocalypse. The larches, felled due to the ravages of Phytophthora ramorum, are gone, and the recent storms have left a trail of destruction. One might be reminded of those eerie…

submitted 32 days ago • 0 comments

Rose Castle Revisited A few days of nostalgia at Rose Castle, once part of the Monk Coniston Estate and now within the National Trust’s Tarn Hows property. There is a certain sadness in the loss of its quirks, though not for the old toilet—the one-holer, the thunderbox. Electricity and piped…

submitted 34 days ago • 0 comments

A Red Grouse, the Civil War, and Pennyman‘s Delinquency This Red Grouse, clearly unimpressed by my presence, stood its ground clucking defiantly as I trudged up Easby Moor. Its red wattle gave away its gender, maybe it was trying to attract a mate. Back in the 17th century, grouse would not have…

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

Slippery Paths and Roseberry’s Summerhouse A supposedly “gentler” path to the top of Roseberry Topping winds up the southern side from the Summerhouse Field. After last night’s heavy rain, the path has become a veritable death trap, with these walkers wisely prefering the rough grass for better…

submitted 37 days ago • 0 comments

The Cleveland Hills on a Myst-Hakel Morning I slogged up through the old whinstone quarry, staring at the ground, my thoughts elsewhere. I braced myself to find the usual rubbish left behind by quad bikers, as if the world is their personal skip. I could hear them active yesterday. The…

submitted 39 days ago • 0 comments

Burns Night: Tartan, Haggis, and a Global Legacy Ah, Burn’s Night, that annual spectacle of tartan-wrapped sentimentality when the Scots remind everyone of their heritage. Beyond haggis, neeps, and tatties, there is, of course, The Address itself: Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face, Great Chieftain…

submitted 39 days ago • 0 comments