#bilsdale — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #bilsdale, aggregated by home.social.
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Chop Gate: Pedlars, Vikings and a Farmer’s Opinion
Chop Gate sits quietly in Bilsdale until the TT roars through and reminds everyone it exists. But the village has a quieter puzzle that never goes away: nobody can agree on what to call it, or what it means.
Travel guides and linguists will tell you confidently that it is pronounced “Ch ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/04/11/chop-gate-pedlars-vikings-and-a-farmers-opinion/
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Lady Day: When England Turned Over a New Leaf
March 25th was not just another date. It was the day England once held its breath, then exhaled.
Until 1751, Lady Day was the legal New Year. Winter ended. Debts were called in. Contracts expired. The nation lurched back to life like a cart horse after a long cold stable. Rents fell due, farm tenancies e ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/03/25/lady-day-when-england-turned-over-a-new-leaf/
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Wath Hill
A view from the rear of Cranimoor, or Cringle Moor as modern maps insist on calling it. Raisdale splits into two narrow arms, held apart by the modest bulk of Wath Hill, a hill so thoroughly “improved” for pasture that every trace of wild moor has been rubbed out. No heather, no grouse. Pheasants aplenty instead.
Wath is an oddity. It seems to bar the valley like a stubborn gate, yet ...
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When the Monks Assarted Bilsdale
In windswept Bilsdale, a ring-fence of bank and ditch at Garfitts and a scatter of medieval sherds tell a story not often told. This was not always a quiet dale of lonely farms. For a brief, brittle spell it was a proving ground, a place where organised power tried to turn moor and forest into profit and permanence.
The thirtee ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/02/04/when-the-monk-assarted-bilsdale/
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When the Monks Assarted Bilsdale
In windswept Bilsdale, a ring-fence of bank and ditch at Garfitts and a scatter of medieval sherds tell a story not often told. This was not always a quiet dale of lonely farms. For a brief, brittle spell it was a proving ground, a place where organised power tried to turn moor and forest into profit and permanence.
The thirtee ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/02/04/when-the-monk-assarted-bilsdale/
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When the Monks Assarted Bilsdale
In windswept Bilsdale, a ring-fence of bank and ditch at Garfitts and a scatter of medieval sherds tell a story not often told. This was not always a quiet dale of lonely farms. For a brief, brittle spell it was a proving ground, a place where organised power tried to turn moor and forest into profit and permanence.
The thirtee ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/02/04/when-the-monk-assarted-bilsdale/
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When the Monks Assarted Bilsdale
In windswept Bilsdale, a ring-fence of bank and ditch at Garfitts and a scatter of medieval sherds tell a story not often told. This was not always a quiet dale of lonely farms. For a brief, brittle spell it was a proving ground, a place where organised power tried to turn moor and forest into profit and permanence.
The thirtee ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/02/04/when-the-monk-assarted-bilsdale/
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When the Monks Assarted Bilsdale
In windswept Bilsdale, a ring-fence of bank and ditch at Garfitts and a scatter of medieval sherds tell a story not often told. This was not always a quiet dale of lonely farms. For a brief, brittle spell it was a proving ground, a place where organised power tried to turn moor and forest into profit and permanence.
The thirtee ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/02/04/when-the-monk-assarted-bilsdale/
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Urra: What’s in a Name?
Urra. A name that sounds as if the wind itself whispered it across the moor. Once, according to Richard Blakeborough, this lonely hamlet in upper Bilsdale had a blacksmith and an inn – the twin hearts of any small community. Now it is little more than a name on a map, clinging to the edge of the North York Moors.
Its origins are murky, and sch ...
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Urra: What’s in a Name?
Urra. A name that sounds as if the wind itself whispered it across the moor. Once, according to Richard Blakeborough, this lonely hamlet in upper Bilsdale had a blacksmith and an inn – the twin hearts of any small community. Now it is little more than a name on a map, clinging to the edge of the North York Moors.
Its origins are murky, and sch ...
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Urra: What’s in a Name?
Urra. A name that sounds as if the wind itself whispered it across the moor. Once, according to Richard Blakeborough, this lonely hamlet in upper Bilsdale had a blacksmith and an inn – the twin hearts of any small community. Now it is little more than a name on a map, clinging to the edge of the North York Moors.
Its origins are murky, and sch ...
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Urra: What’s in a Name?
Urra. A name that sounds as if the wind itself whispered it across the moor. Once, according to Richard Blakeborough, this lonely hamlet in upper Bilsdale had a blacksmith and an inn – the twin hearts of any small community. Now it is little more than a name on a map, clinging to the edge of the North York Moors.
Its origins are murky, and sch ...
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Urra: What’s in a Name?
Urra. A name that sounds as if the wind itself whispered it across the moor. Once, according to Richard Blakeborough, this lonely hamlet in upper Bilsdale had a blacksmith and an inn – the twin hearts of any small community. Now it is little more than a name on a map, clinging to the edge of the North York Moors.
Its origins are murky, and sch ...
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Easterside: Where a German Bomber Crashed
Easterside Hill stands guard over Bilsdale, yet is all too often passed by without a second thought. Perhaps it is too familiar, or perhaps the eye is stolen by the graceful turns of the B1257.
Its striking form is no accident. A crown of Oolitic Limestone sits upon Calcareous Grit, itself resti ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/09/19/easterside-where-a-german-bomber-crashed/
#Bilsdale #EastersideHill #NorthYorkMoors #Ryedale #history #WW2
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Jack’s Short Life: From Rural Bilsdale to the Trenches of the Great War
A view from Cold Moor to Garfit Gap. The row of sheds belong to the industrial pheasant rearing farm at Whingroves, a shining example of rural diversification, if one defines success as raising battery-bred birds for folk ...
#Bilsdale #ClevelandHills #GarfittGap #NorthYorkMoors #19thcentury #history #WW1
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The Ancient Hollow-Way to Nowhere in Particular
The Public Bridleway from the hamlet of Urra winds its way up to another Right of Way that follows Billy’s Dyke, that Bronze Age boundary fortification of earth and stone. This grand construction supposedly gets its name from Billy Norman, better known elsewhere as William the Conqueror, ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/04/03/the-ancient-hollow-way-to-nowhere-in-particular/
#Bilsdale #NorthYorkMoors #Urra #etymology #history #mediaeval
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The Ancient Hollow-Way to Nowhere in Particular
The Public Bridleway from the hamlet of Urra winds its way up to another Right of Way that follows Billy’s Dyke, that Bronze Age boundary fortification of earth and stone. This grand construction supposedly gets its name from Billy Norman, better known elsewhere as William the Conqueror, ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/04/03/the-ancient-hollow-way-to-nowhere-in-particular/
#Bilsdale #NorthYorkMoors #Urra #etymology #history #mediaeval
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The Ancient Hollow-Way to Nowhere in Particular
The Public Bridleway from the hamlet of Urra winds its way up to another Right of Way that follows Billy’s Dyke, that Bronze Age boundary fortification of earth and stone. This grand construction supposedly gets its name from Billy Norman, better known elsewhere as William the Conqueror, ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/04/03/the-ancient-hollow-way-to-nowhere-in-particular/
#Bilsdale #NorthYorkMoors #Urra #etymology #history #mediaeval
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The Ancient Hollow-Way to Nowhere in Particular
The Public Bridleway from the hamlet of Urra winds its way up to another Right of Way that follows Billy’s Dyke, that Bronze Age boundary fortification of earth and stone. This grand construction supposedly gets its name from Billy Norman, better known elsewhere as William the Conqueror, ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/04/03/the-ancient-hollow-way-to-nowhere-in-particular/
#Bilsdale #NorthYorkMoors #Urra #etymology #history #mediaeval
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The Ancient Hollow-Way to Nowhere in Particular
The Public Bridleway from the hamlet of Urra winds its way up to another Right of Way that follows Billy’s Dyke, that Bronze Age boundary fortification of earth and stone. This grand construction supposedly gets its name from Billy Norman, better known elsewhere as William the Conqueror, ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/04/03/the-ancient-hollow-way-to-nowhere-in-particular/
#Bilsdale #NorthYorkMoors #Urra #etymology #history #mediaeval
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Scorched Earth: A Cool Burn on Hasty Bank
Ah yes, the wonders of the so-called “cool burn”—a delightful little exercise in setting fire to the heather in supposedly small, controlled patches. The idea, we are told, is to clear out the old heather without charring the peat or moss underneath, thereby avoiding carbon loss and allowing for ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/03/18/scorched-earth-a-cool-burn-on-hasty-bank/
#Bilsdale #HastyBank #NorthYorkMoors #ecology #GrouseMoorManagement
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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 acres. Today, the only residents are the sheep, who seem perfectly content and reluctant t ...
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Brume, Roke, and Other Vapourous Delights
There is something magical about mist creeping up the dales of the North York Moors, at least you’re being sentimental. Behind me, the mist—sorry, ‘brume’—was crawling up the Vale of Mowbray, but that was less of a spectacle than this show over Raisdale and Bilsdale.
Speaking of brume, it is the ideal word for this frosty vapour, with roots in the Roman term br ...
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Raisdale’s Constablewick and the Bones of Bert
This morning was cold, but not that cold. No puddles bore that brittle layer of “cat ice,” and the dead Bracken fronds remained frost-free. Compare that to last Saturday, when midnight brought a sultry 15°C, according to the car thermometer—a temperature fit for short sleeves. Earlier that day, as Storm Bert howled and hurled snow, the mercury had plunged to zer ...
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Boundaries in Stone
Dry stone walls stand as testament to the enduring craftsmanship of generations past. They are a quintessential feature of the North York Moors and other rocky regions of the British Isles. From Cornwall and the Cotswolds, to Scotland and Ireland, these walls served as swift and sturdy field boundaries, surpassing the time it would take for hedges or trees to mature.
The technique of dr ...
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A View from Wath Hill and Echoes of Life at Clough House
A view of Wath Hill from above the remains of the old farmstead of Clough.
Just a handful of moss-covered stones indicate where Clough House farm used to stand. It's simple to overlook its past as a bustling farm, a family home. A solitary out-building still stands, its roof clad in corrugated sheeting. The rest of the stone f ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=35056
#Bilsdale #NorthYorkMoors #Raisdale #19thcentury #20thCentury
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Cold Moor Lane — Hollow Way and Medieval Trod
Taking a respite from the biting easterly breeze while in the shelter of Cold Moor Lane, a sunken bridleway climbing out of Chop Gate, a debate unfolded about its origins.
Well, if we concede that its sunken characteristic stems from centuries of human and animal movement along this route, then I suppose one could argue it's manmade. Althoug ...
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Little Raisdale — A modest dale with a forgotten settlement and chapel
In the upper reaches of Raisdale, an eastern prong stretches out to the edge of the Cleveland Hills between Cold Moor and Cringle Moor. Right of centre in the photo stands Hall Garth Farm, a name which suggests a once grand manor-house, standing proudly on the land. To its left, there used to be a town-field, now transformed into ...