#kildale — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #kildale, aggregated by home.social.
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Petlar’s Bridge Quarry: A Brief Flirtation with Industry
I must have cycled past this old quarry near Petlar’s Bridge a couple of dozen times or so since the plantation hiding it was felled, and it has since been on my list to write about.
The quarry must pre-date the Eskdale railway by half a century. One unverified internet sou ...http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/07/17/petlars-bridge-quarry-a-brief-flirtation-with-industry/
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Percy Rigg: Iron Age Living
The heather has gone. Local archaeologists have begun to strip the vegetation back to where the 1960s excavators left off, not to dig fresh ground, but to expose what was already found and read it again with sharper eyes. The aim is a proper sequence: which house came first, which blocked which, and how five round houses on this ridge ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/07/12/percy-rigg-iron-age-living/
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Echoes in the Vale: The Ghostly Rise and Fall of Leven Vale Cottages
By the mid-1850s, “Ironstone Fever” had Cleveland in its grip. The success at Eston tempted the Trustees of the young Robert Bell Turton to open up the Kildale Estate through an 1855 Act of Parliament. Investors fell for the “rabbit ...
#Kildale #NorthYorkMoors #RiverLeven #19thcentury #history #IronstoneMining
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A Murder at Kildale, 1871
The view from the hills above Kildale, taken yesterday — when the weather was rather more agreeable than today’s thoroughly dreich conditions.
The North York Moors is not the sort of place one associates with violent crime. Yet on the evening of Wednesday 16 August 1871, a quiet farm in Kildale became the scene of a killing that shoo ...
https://www.fhithich.uk/2026/05/09/a-murder-at-kildale-1871/
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The Pale — Playground of the Percys
Viewed here from Percy Cross Rigg, Capt. Cook’s Monument is just about visible on the highest point of Easby Moor. This eastern end, in the parish of Kildale, is known as Coate Moor and those unforested fields on the spur are labelled “The Pale” on Ordnance Survey maps. It is a relic of one of the three medie ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/03/24/the-pale-playground-of-the-percys/
#CoateMoor #Kildale #Lonsdale #NorthYorkMoors #history #medieval
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Iron Age on the Moors: Percy Rigg’s Hidden Houses
For centuries, five Iron Age round houses sat quietly on this ridge in North Yorkshire, and nobody noticed. Not bad for a neighbourhood that was probably occupied for over 300 years.
The site was only spotted in 1962, when Fred Proud of Sleddale Farm found it and reported it to ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/03/21/iron-age-on-the-moors-percy-riggs-hidden-houses/
#Kildale #NorthYorkMoors #GrouseMoorManagement #history #IronAge
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When Infographics Burn Brighter Than Evidence
An image drifted across my feed this morning: a mugshot of a certain former prince. Briefly amusing, obviously fake, the work of some obliging AI dressed up as reality. Elsewhere, a Facebook post from the Moorland Association offered something far less harmless. A polished infographic declared, ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/02/21/when-infographics-burn-brighter-than-evidence/
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Coate Moor, Larches
A view from the top of Coate Moor towards the head of Kildale, an obsequent valley biting back into the Cleveland escarpment. The glacial upheaval forced the River Leven to scour a narrow gorge through the shales and sandstones below Coate Moor. I have posted about this before.
But Kildale has another, somewhat obscure, point of interest. A map from 1612 sti ...
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Under the Beech: Kildale’s Tribute to the Fallen of WW2
In the quiet heart of Kildale stands this modest stone shelter. Walkers on the Cleveland Way pause here to rest, unwrap their sandwiches, and watch the rain fall. Each morning, local children gather beneath its roof, waiting for the school buses to Stokesley or Ingleby Greenhow, th ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/11/09/under-the-beech-kildales-tribute-to-the-fallen-of-ww2/
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Echoes of Killi: A Brief History of Kildale
Hidden behind the trees to the left in the photo stands St Cuthbert’s Church, its quiet stones guarding secrets far older than the building itself. During construction in the 19th century, workmen uncovered a remarkable find: several Viking graves, complete with swords and traders’ weighing scales. The discovery hinted that ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/10/08/echoes-of-killi-a-brief-history-of-kildale/
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Yan Tan Tether Mether Pip …
Old Molly Metcalfe counting sheep
Yan tan tether mether pip she counted
Up upon Swaledale steep and bleak
Yan tan tether mether pip she said...So sang Jake Thackray about a Yorkshire shepherdess. It is tempting to think her sheep-counting chant is native to Yorkshire alone, but its roots run far deeper. The method likely began with Cumbric, a lost Celtic language ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/07/16/yan-tan-tether-mether-pip/
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Leven Vale and its Wayward River
The 1856 Ordnance Survey 6-inch map labels this ruin as a sheepfold. I remain unconvinced. It looks too small, for a start. But what would I know.
This view looks down into Leven Vale, where the River Leven begins its oddly ambitious journey. It starts here in the upper reaches flowing east, then pulls off a dramatic U-turn, be ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/07/09/leven-vale-and-its-wayward-river/
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VE Day: 80 Years On
Eighty years have passed since Victory in Europe Day, a moment etched in the collective memory by black-and-white newsreels showing ecstatic crowds flooding the streets of London and other major cities. But away from the capital, in the quieter corners of Cleveland and North Yorkshire, the mood was more restrained — though no less meaningful, filled with ...
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The Terminal Moraine at Kildale: Elgee Revisited
An early morning climb up Park Nab before the day’s work began at the Kildale chapel archaeological dig (Out & About passim). I shall wait until later in the season to write properly about that—when we have found something to write about.
Instead, as I looked out over the valley, I found myself ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/05/07/the-terminal-moraine-at-kildale-elgee-revisited/
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Sunset Over Kikdale and a Sporting Legacy
I suppose I’m not necessarily a diurnal sort of person. But at this time of year, I have yet to shake off the winter habit of retreating indoors as soon as the temperature drops and dusk approaches. So, finding myself on Park Nab, looking over Kildale at sunset yesterday, was something of an anomaly.
The most noteworthy featur ...http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/04/02/sunset-over-kikdale-and-a-sporting-legacy/
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Surveying the Past Before the Grouse Take Over
The final day of trudging around Brown Hill, dutifully noting the remains of Bronze Age cairnfields, settlements, and funerary monuments. By Monday, the moor must be left undisturbed so the Grouse can multiply, ensuring there are enough targets for the guns on the Glorious Twelfth.
The weather, as ever, was obl ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/03/28/surveying-the-past-before-the-grouse-take-over/
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A Stone that Once Mattered — A Forgotten Boundary
A low-angle view of a nondescript triangular stone, half-buried in a bleak expanse of dry, brown heather. The pale sandstone stands out against the darker, tangled vegetation, with the occasional patch of golden rushes breaking the monotony. In the distance, the low hi ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/03/21/a-stone-that-once-mattered-a-forgotten-boundary/
#CaptCooksMonument #EasbyMoor #Kildale #NorthYorkMoors #neolithic #Prehistory
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Kildale Moor Revisited
Ah yes, for the second day in a row, I found myself wandering around Kildale Moor, once again staring down at Sleddale Slack—though, to keep things fresh, I chose a slightly different vantage point. Variety is the spice of life, after all. Off to the right, perched on the high ground, is Percy Rigg, home to a farm that’s gone through more name chan ...
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Kildale Moor: Cairnfields and Forgotten Paths
The sky is a washed-out blue, untroubled by clouds. Even in their dreary winter shades, the moors still manage to look grand.
I find myself on Kildale Moor, a vast expanse littered with prehistoric cairnfields, settlements, and funerary monuments. Allegedly. In reality, one must squint to discern any such fe ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/03/06/kildale-moor-cairnfields-and-forgotten-paths/
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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, the monument making a feeble attempt at visibility—you will need ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/02/28/beyond-the-pale-the-lingering-echoes-of-kildales-past/
#CoateMoor #Kildale #Lonsdale #NorthYorkMoors #history #medieval
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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 into existence thanks to the Enclosure Act of 1775. However, given its position beside Ernaldsti, the medieval track ...
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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 of surveying Bronze ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=37409
#Kildale #NorthYorkMoors #PercyRigg #Archaeology #history #prehistoric
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Kildale’s Agrarian Past
A stunning view of Kildale, seen from the sandstone crags of Ward Nab. Kildale, with its postcard-worthy scenery and quaint stone buildings, represents the sort of agricultural nostalgia many enjoy romanticising. Yet, beneath this charming façade lies a tale of upheaval and supposed progress.
In the 18th century, Kildale’s open fields were carved up through ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=36756
#Kildale #NorthYorkMoors #18thcentury #agricultural #history
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Kildale’s Wet Dig
And so the rains came to St. Hilda’s chapel, bringing a somewhat damp close to the archaeological dig season in picturesque Kildale. What mysteries lie behind those enigmatic stone footings — which bear more than a passing resemblance to a garden feature than to any sacred structure — must now remain hidden for yet another year. The grandly dubbed ‘cloisters,’ a few len ...
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The Overlords of Kildale
Park Nab, a smallish sandstone crag, much favoured by the climbing fraternity, who no doubt delight in the view over Kildale—suggested by some to be the dale of a forgotten Viking named Killi. Perhaps he might be one of those unfortunate Norsemen discovered inconveniently buried under the church floor during the 1868 rebuild. Quite fitting for a village where the church tower shyly peek ...
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Lilac Cottage and Other Euphemisms for the Necessary
This humble structure, built around 1780, at a discrete distance from the Warren farmhouse, was none other than the privy – or, as we might say today, the lavatory. It served the necessary purpose of waste disposal, likely relying on what was known as an “earth closet.” Now a Grade II Listed Building, it has certainly earned its place in history.
An eart ...
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Nature’s Nightmare: The Environmental Impact of Pheasant Shooting
A jaunt in the countryside typically leaves one with an idyllic sense of peace, a quaint communion with nature. But this morning, I encountered a rather more disquieting spectacle. A bevy of young pheasants, dozens of them, darting about with all the coordination of those small, ravenous Compsognathids from "Jurassic Park." These birds, though o ...
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Maiden Hair: From Dye to Deficiency
While the day was still fresh, as I wandered across Warren Moor, a vivid expanse of orange-yellow caught my eye. The bog asphodel, with its star-like blooms, presented a scene of rare splendour. Singularly, these flowers might escape notice, but en masse, they transform the landscape. Never before have I witnessed such a display on the North York Moors.
In the 16th ...
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Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Perish the thought.
In a recent study published by University College London, the projected climate change for Richmond & Northallerton over the next decade shows some notable shifts. Summer rainfall is anticipated to increase by 2.7%, while the annual temperature to rise by 0.76°C.
To place this in context, historical data from 1981 to 2010 reveals a 3.6% ri ...
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From Blue Fields to Empty Skies—The Plight of Pollinators
Blue tansies, a splendid sight, brightens up this field in Kildale. Belonging to the borage family, Phacelia tanacetifolia, though not native to Britain, is cultivated as a cover crop and green manure. Its nectar-rich flowers bloom sequentially, ensuring an extended flowering period that attracts insect pollinators such as bumblebees ...