#guisborough — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #guisborough, aggregated by home.social.
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The Last Traces of the Belmont Ironstone Mine
Green “Yorkshire” fields in early spring, and nothing here looks remotely industrial. Yet the three red-brick Edwardian cottages sitting neatly in the middle distance were built for the men who ran Belmont Ironstone Mine, and the large brick building in the distance was once the stables for the horses ...
https://www.fhithich.uk/2026/03/28/the-last-traces-of-the-belmont-ironstone-mine/
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I have just got back from walking along part of the Cleveland Hills above Guisborough in North Yorkshire. It was a sunny but frosty morning after several days of rain. The air was very clear. The Cleveland Hills and Pennines were capped with snow. Beyond Teesmouth, on the northern horizon were two white shapes that I had not seen before. The leftmost was long and flat, the rightmost narrow and pointed. I am fairly sure these were the snow-capped Cheviot and Hedgehope Hill, 80 miles away and almost on the Scottish border. When I was at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the '80s my tutor said that he could see the Cheviot from his office in the Claremont Tower. See the image in this old article in the Guardian for what they look like: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/26/country-diary-cheviots-clear-view-1968. Today the snowline on them was at a lower level than in that image.
#teesside #northyorkmoors #cheviothills #walking #guisborough #sightlines
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I have just got back from walking along part of the Cleveland Hills above Guisborough in North Yorkshire. It was a sunny but frosty morning after several days of rain. The air was very clear. The Cleveland Hills and Pennines were capped with snow. Beyond Teesmouth, on the northern horizon were two white shapes that I had not seen before. The leftmost was long and flat, the rightmost narrow and pointed. I am fairly sure these were the snow-capped Cheviot and Hedgehope Hill, 80 miles away and almost on the Scottish border. When I was at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the '80s my tutor said that he could see the Cheviot from his office in the Claremont Tower. See the image in this old article in the Guardian for what they look like: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/26/country-diary-cheviots-clear-view-1968. Today the snowline on them was at a lower level than in that image.
#teesside #northyorkmoors #cheviothills #walking #guisborough #sightlines
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I have just got back from walking along part of the Cleveland Hills above Guisborough in North Yorkshire. It was a sunny but frosty morning after several days of rain. The air was very clear. The Cleveland Hills and Pennines were capped with snow. Beyond Teesmouth, on the northern horizon were two white shapes that I had not seen before. The leftmost was long and flat, the rightmost narrow and pointed. I am fairly sure these were the snow-capped Cheviot and Hedgehope Hill, 80 miles away and almost on the Scottish border. When I was at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the '80s my tutor said that he could see the Cheviot from his office in the Claremont Tower. See the image in this old article in the Guardian for what they look like: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/26/country-diary-cheviots-clear-view-1968. Today the snowline on them was at a lower level than in that image.
#teesside #northyorkmoors #cheviothills #walking #guisborough #sightlines
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Biodiversity Net Gain: Green Promises, Thin Results
The UK’s Biodiversity Net Gain scheme was meant to be our environmental shield. A simple promise that development would leave habitats “in a measurably better state than they were before.” It is sold as a key tool to halt “catastrophic declines in nature.” Fine words, neatly printed.
The proposal to develop an 1 ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/02/10/biodiversity-net-gain-green-promises-thin-results/
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Tinghou: From Meeting Place to Housing Estate
Not the most flattering view for today, I will admit. A quiet field, currently earning its keep as horse pasture, pressed up against Lowcross Farm. I took the photograph for two reasons, neither of them aesthetic.
First, for the record. This field sits under a planning application for a new estate of 117 ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/01/24/tinghou-from-meeting-place-to-housing-estate/
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Viaducts, Violence and Victory: How Rival Railways Fought for Cleveland
The old viaduct at Slapewath stands forlorn and overgrown. It looks peaceful now. Built in 1861 by the Cleveland Railway, it sat at the centre of one of the fiercest railway battles in the north of England.
By the time the Middlesbrough & Guisbroug ...
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The Station That Was Not for the Plebs: How Guisborough Got a Railway, Reluctantly
The photograph shows an overgrown piece of railway history: the remains of the private station, built not for a town, but for Sir Alfred Edward Pease of Hutton Hall. It is a neat place to begin, because it tells you almost everything about ...
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Life Support for a “Green and Pleasant Land”
A gloomy photograph for a gloomy day in a gloomy month. The sky is doing that flat grey thing, the sort that drains the colour out of everything. As if on schedule, the news has joined in, with fresh misery arriving from across the Atlantic, where the headlines manage to sink the mood even further. With that as the backdrop, h ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/01/19/life-support-for-a-green-and-pleasant-land/
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Lost Without Moving: Britain’s Wandering North
A cracking morning. This view looks north-east from Newton Moor, over Guisborough, out to the North Sea and whatever lies beyond it, behaving impeccably for once.
“Grid to mag, add; mag to grid, get rid” is the sort of mnemonic that lodges in the brain for life, usually thanks to the Cubs and a damp field. ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/12/13/lost-without-moving-britains-wandering-north/
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The Watchers of the Plain: Highcliff Nab in the Stone Age Landscape
From Gisborough Moor, Highcliff Nab rises starkly above the Cleveland Plain, and it is easy to imagine the lives of its earliest visitors, the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers who roamed here during six millennia before 4000 BC — long befor ...
#Guisborough #HighcliffNab #NorthYorkMoors #history #mesolithic #prehistoric
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Panis Porcinus: Bread for Pigs, Medicine for Men
The common names we give to plants often say less about science and more about superstition. Take fleabane. Its title comes from the old belief that dried stems would drive away fleas. Toothwort was thought to cure toothache, not through any chemical virtue, but because its flowers looked rather ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/09/05/panis-porcinus-bread-for-pigs-medicine-for-men/
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The Slow Decay of Belmont Mine
It is disheartening to see the old mine buildings at Belmont Ironstone Mine partially collapsed. Built around 1909, they may not be the grandest examples of industrial architecture, but they are likely the most intact surface remains of any ironstone mine in the Cleveland area. Remarkably, some sections are still used as stables. I ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/06/30/the-slow-decay-of-belmont-mine/
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The Priory Gatehouse: Overshadowed but Not Forgotten
I had reason to visit Guisborough today and took the chance to walk around the old priory. I have posted before of its great east wall—impressive as it is, it remains only a fragment of what must once have been a formidable structure.
The priory met its end in 1540 with the Dissolution. Ten years later ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/06/20/the-priory-gatehouse-overshadowed-but-not-forgotten/
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Temperature Inversions and Timetable Errors
A glorious morning on the hills south of Guisborough, the so-called top of Belmangate. While the town wallowed in cold and damp misery, those above the temperature inversion were treated to the breathtaking sight of Eston Nab and Airy Hill rising like islands from the clouds, with a diffused Brocken spectre thrown in for good measure.
Dr. ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=37071
#Guisborough #NorthYorkMoors #EarlyMedieval #etymology #Roman
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A Dreary Day, a Doubtful Saint, and Too Much Christmas
A dreary, cold day, though mercifully not freezing, but with rain looming. St. Thomas’ Day Eve—dedicated to the patron saint of doubt—drapes itself in the sort of gloom that makes you wonder why you bothered to look out the window. That housing estate west of Guisborough in today’s photo? I had been blind to its charms until no ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=37025
#Guisborough #HuttonLowcross #NorthYorkMoors #folklore #mediaeval
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Where Birch Meets Rust: A Forgotten Landmark
Descending from Highcliff Nab to Guisborough, I felt a sudden urge to revisit a landmark I often passed on my runs around these woods many years ago. This viewpoint, on top of a spoil heap from the Belmont Ironstone Mine, was mercifully spared the blight of commercial conifers—perhaps because even saplings had standards and found the s ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=36958
#Guisborough #NorthYorkMoors #20thCentury #history #IronstoneMining
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Highcliff Nab: A Crusty Puzzle
Highcliff Nab today, and an enduring puzzle on its crag face. Nearly the entire surface is smothered in light green lichen, except for one striking vertical band where the rock is inexplicably bare, as though the lichens collectively decided this spot was beneath them.
Lichens, those delightful symbiotic oddities born of desperation between fungi and algae, ...
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Highcliff Nab and Autumn’s Troubling Showstopper
The woodlands are ablaze with reds, oranges, and yellows in what I might call a “dazzling display,” if I were given to such enthusiasms. Recent rain has kept the trees hydrated, and unseasonably warm weather has delayed their annual shedding. How quaint.
I am on my way to Guisborough, following the forest track through Hutton ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=36727
#Guisborough #HighcliffNab #HuttonLowcross #NorthYorkMoors #ecology
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Westworth Reservoir: Gorse and Other Triumphs of Nature
In my Guisborough days, I would often run a circuit round Westworth Reservoir. This morning, in a fit of nostalgia, I returned to that old stomping ground. How changed it is. The former reservoir bed has given way to a jungle of gorse, now sprawling with abandon, save for a dank, overgrown marsh clinging feebly to the old ove ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=36707
#GisboroughMoor #Guisborough #NorthYorkMoors #20thCentury #history
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Yesterday while out walking in #Guisborough we found this spooky little friend hanging from a signpost.
Our handcrafted ghost family grows!
There's a hashtag and IG handle (@pocketsizedpottery) on the back, so I will be brave and venture over there to post it too. We did something like this a few years back and seeing the posts from people who found them made all the prep work worthwhile!
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“Take Me To The Forest”
In a move that is sure to leave the squirrels bewildered, the National Portfolio Organisations‘ Wild Rumpus and Festival of Thrift have unveiled their grand plan to transform the tranquil forests of Guisborough into a festival of organised anarchy.
They are calling it "Take Me To The Forest," a spectacle destined to overwhelm the senses of any nature lover daring enough to attend. Promis ... -
1939: When Guisborough Welcomed Middlesbrough’s Evacuees
Highcliffe Nab, that well-known sandstone crag that dominates the view from Guisborough, has been the subject of these many times. But Kemplah, which sits in its shadow, doesn't get nearly enough attention. The old settlers clearly thought this promontory was important since there's evidence of both early British and Roman activ ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=36208
#Guisborough #HighcliffNab #NorthYorkMoors #20thCentury #WW2
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Flashback to the 1912 Olympics and Guisborough’s own Willie Applegarth
Last night I endured the grandiose parade that was the opening ceremony of the 33rd Olympiad in Paris. While it was undeniably an astounding spectacle on the Seine, it left me rather underwhelmed. An extraordinary production to be sure, but it dragged on interminably, with scenes so obscure they might have been devised by a surrealist on a particula ...
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The Vale of Guisborough
Looking down on Guisborough, nestled at the northern end of eastern England's scarp-lands. The town is characterised by its unique geological and historical features. It lies in a broad valley between the Cleveland Hills and Eston and Upleatham Hills, a valley unsurprisingly is not known as the ‘Vale of Guisborough.’ The town and its environs’ historical significance are marked by mineral reso ...
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Hutton Moor—A Story of Ownership and Change
Hutton Moor, with Highcliff Nab and Guisborough in the distance, holds memories of the 1970s when I initially settled in the area. At that time, it bore scars of degradation due to off-road motorcyclists exploiting it as their playground. Under the ownership of the Owners of the Middlesbrough Estate, I found myself compelled to ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=35219
#Guisborough #HighcliffNab #HuttonMoor #NorthYorkMoors #1970s #19thcentury
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Patches of blue, reflections and a spanking new gate—Highcliff Gate this morning
In her dotage, my dog exhibits a distinct lack of enthusiasm for upland walks. This now renders the crudely painted "DOGS ON LEADS" sign on the wooden rail of no matter to me. A threat for sure, yet not a command. A "PLEASE", though, would have aided in conveying the message in a less intimidating manner.
...
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Gazing over Guisborough: A historical view from a new bench
Walking home from Guisborough, I came upon this spanking new bench at the top of Belmangate, the 'road' meandering southward from the town up the 'beautiful mountain.'
The bench is actually in the field, but is accessed from the forestry track. I imagine the original line of the fence followed the boundary, so I am curious about the arrangements struck with the field own ...
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Cutting the First Sod on the Codhill Branch on the Gisbro’ and Middlesbro’ Railway
Cutting the First Sod on the Codhill Branch on the Gisbro' and Middlesbro' Railway. — It having been generally circulated throughout the town of Gisbro' and neighbourhood that the first sod on the Codhill branch of the Middlesbro' and Gisbro' railway for the working of ironstone would be removed on Mond ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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
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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
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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