#roseberrytopping — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #roseberrytopping, aggregated by home.social.
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A New View, a New Mudd.e
The recent clear felling of a block of forestry in Ayton Banks Wood has opened up a new view of Roseberry. The commercial timber has gone, leaving a few gangly birch trees to stand guard over the valley. It turns out that Gribdale Terrace, that isolated row of white cottages, has a history which is a bit of a muddle.
One academic maintains that thes ... -
A New View, a New Mudd.e
The recent clear felling of a block of forestry in Ayton Banks Wood has opened up a new view of Roseberry. The commercial timber has gone, leaving a few gangly birch trees to stand guard over the valley. It turns out that Gribdale Terrace, that isolated row of white cottages, has a history which is a bit of a muddle.
One academic maintains that thes ... -
A New View, a New Mudd.e
The recent clear felling of a block of forestry in Ayton Banks Wood has opened up a new view of Roseberry. The commercial timber has gone, leaving a few gangly birch trees to stand guard over the valley. It turns out that Gribdale Terrace, that isolated row of white cottages, has a history which is a bit of a muddle.
One academic maintains that thes ... -
A New View, a New Mudd.e
The recent clear felling of a block of forestry in Ayton Banks Wood has opened up a new view of Roseberry. The commercial timber has gone, leaving a few gangly birch trees to stand guard over the valley. It turns out that Gribdale Terrace, that isolated row of white cottages, has a history which is a bit of a muddle.
One academic maintains that thes ... -
A New View, a New Mudd.e
The recent clear felling of a block of forestry in Ayton Banks Wood has opened up a new view of Roseberry. The commercial timber has gone, leaving a few gangly birch trees to stand guard over the valley. It turns out that Gribdale Terrace, that isolated row of white cottages, has a history which is a bit of a muddle.
One academic maintains that thes ... -
Kirby Bank — A Hill With a Past
Bluebells pour down the sun-baked flank of Kirby Bank above the plain of Cleveland. Gorse burns yellow across the slopes. Below, the white walls of the Pybus Scout Centre gleam in the spring light. Beyond the green patchwork of fields, Roseberry Topping rises on the far hor ...
https://www.fhithich.uk/2026/05/01/kirby-bank-a-hill-with-a-past/
#Kirby #KirkbyinCleveland #NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping #18thcentury #alum #history #medieval #monastic
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The Last of the Lords
Roseberry Topping, North Yorkshire, 29 April 2026 — a perfect English spring morning. Out there, bluebells. In Westminster, history.
Today, the current Parliament ended. And with that, seven centuries of hereditary peers sitting in the House of Lords came to a quiet end.
No fanfare. No farewell parade. Just the music stopping.
The story begins in 1999, whe ...
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The Pimps of Roseberry
Today’s photo is, of course, of Roseberry Topping. That dry stone wall running up the slope marks the boundary between the parishes of Newton-under-Roseberry and Great Ayton. Before the great landslip of 1912 it ran all the way to the summit.
Looking at a photograph taken before 1912, you can see vegetated ground running right to the ba ...
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2001: A Foot and Mouth Odyssey
25 years ago, in 2001, the country fell into an eerie stillness. Across the countryside, the "smell of death" drifted from funeral pyres as millions of animals were burned, transforming green fields into a "gigantic charnel house". What began as a livestock disease quickly became a national trauma, exposing how frag ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/02/20/2001-a-foot-and-mouth-odyssey/
#CliffRigg #NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping #history #NationalTrust
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From Parish Wall to Prime Minister
Despite the slush and the grey skies, snow lends even the most familiar ground a quiet grandeur. Roseberry Topping, half veiled in white, looks less like a hill and more like a stage set, its lines sharpened and its history briefly made visible.
This wall climbing its eastern flank marks the old parish ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/02/13/from-parish-wall-to-prime-minister/
#NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping #17thcentury #history #NationalTrust
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Access Without Respect
A pack of a dozen mountain bikers bursts down the newly rebuilt, stone-stepped path on Roseberry Topping. Several are motor-assisted. Gravity does the rest. Gravel skitters, walkers flinch, gates are left yawning behind them. For a few loud seconds the hill is theirs, claimed by speed and noise. It looks impressive, in the way a juggern ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/02/08/access-without-respect/
#NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping #AccessRights #NationalTrust
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Letting Sheep Be Sheep
I cannot quite tell whether these sheep huddling under the gorse to dodge the sleet are tough old “moor” sheep or soft “lowland” types, but either way they carry the usual reputation. Sheep, like cows, belch methane, methane warms the planet, and that is that. Or so we thought. A study with the esoteric name “Forage for CH4nge”, carried out in ...
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Initials in Stone, Mist in Motion
I stood on the summit of Roseberry Topping this morning, watching the mist drift over the fields below like a slow tide. The place felt as old as the hills, quiet enough to hear your own thoughts. Looking down at graffiti cut into the rock centuries ago only sharpened that feeling.
I am guessing, of course, that these carvings ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/01/16/initials-in-stone-mist-in-motion/
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Merry Mōdraniht
Christmas seems to arrive earlier every year. This Christmas Eve the summit was packed to the rafters. This view follows the line of the old ironstone tramway. Now labelled a Permissive Path, it runs alongside the Public Bridleway that is Aireyholme Lane and is largely ignored, so it feels like just a box-ticking exercise.
Long before Christmas muscled its way i ...
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A Glimpse of a Windhover
Despite spending at least two hours outdoors on most days, close meetings with nature are thin on the ground. There is the odd distant view, a brief flicker at the edge of sight, usually gone before my patience can catch up.
My bird identification skills are basic, but even I know this much. A bird that is not fleeing nor perched, but h ...
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A Long View from Cockle Scar
Scar, scarp and escarpment have a knack for muddling people. The landforms overlap, and to add to the fun a scarp can carry several scars on its own back.
Despite how they look, scar is not related to the other two. It comes from the Old Norse “sker”, meaning crag, with a nod to “sg ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/12/18/a-long-view-from-cockle-scar/
#CockleScar #NewtonunderRoseberry #NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping #etymology #geology #NationalTrust
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Roseberry Watching Over Enclosed Land
The nearest field in today’s photograph marks the site of the old farmstead of Summerhill, born out of Great Ayton’s enclosure of the common land in 1658. At that time, the commons stretched all the way to the top of Roseberry, open and shared in a way that would soon vanish.
...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/12/17/roseberry-watching-over-enclosed-land/
#Aireyholme #AytonBank #GreatAyton #NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping #17thcentury #history
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Before Satellites Spoilt the Fun: The Rise of Triangulation
Trig points cling to hilltops like relics from a time when humans trusted metal and masonry rather than shining toys orbiting the earth. This one on Roseberry’s summit keeps being repainted in traditional white, only to be graffited again by passing aritists who imagine post ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/12/05/before-satellites-spoilt-the-fun-the-rise-of-triangulation/
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December Arrives and Haws for the Birds
And so we stumble into December, once the proud tenth month of a Roman calendar designed by people who thought it wise to leave sixty days of winter adrift like sheep in a snow drift. Eventually they realised this was a fool’s errand, tacked on January and February, and shuffled December to twelfth place. One is tem ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/12/01/december-arrives-and-haws-for-the-birds/
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Little Roseberry and an Echo of Old Norse
From this viewpoint on Ryston Bank the knoll of Little Roseberry takes on a presence rather more commanding than its shy appearance on the O.S. Map, where it is denied even a ring contour.
If the name Roseberry grew out of “Othenesberg”, the Old Norse for Odin’s Hill, it seems ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/11/23/little-roseberry-and-an-echo-of-old-norse/
#LittleRoseberry #NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping #RystonBank #history #medieval
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Solitude on Roseberry
The summit of Roseberry lay in an uncanny hush this morning, hidden beneath a dense veil of cloud that turned the familiar rocks into something resembling a far-off alpine mountain. The first snow of winter was still drifting down in slow, wavering flakes, a little damp but enthralling nonetheless. The whole scene felt charged with quiet wonder, and there was a small ...
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Shale, Sandstone and a Coffee Cup
I set out this morning hoping to capture a clear view of the mound on Roseberry’s western slope, formed by the landslip of May 1912. The result was underwhelming; the photograph failed to do justice to the defining shape of the old slump.
During the second week of that May, a great section of Roseberry’s expos ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/11/03/shale-sandstone-and-a-coffee-cup/
#NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping #history #litter #NationalTrust
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RIP SKIPPY: A Memorial Nobody Wants
Just below the summit of Roseberry Topping—a name that sounds like a pudding but is in fact Teesside’s iconic hill—there’s a large crag sandstone, rock that was laid down millions of years ago. The hill itself has only existed for twenty thousand or so, which makes it practically new money in geological terms. Moss and lichen ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/10/05/rip-skippy-a-memorial-nobody-wants/
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The Summerhouse Below Roseberry
A small plaque fastened to the wall of this sandstone shell of a building offers a neat explanation. It claims this was once a shooting box, commissioned by Commodore William Wilson of Ayton Hall. A tidy story, except for one small problem. It does not add up.
A sketch by George Cruit in 1788 proves the building was already here. But o ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/09/02/the-summerhouse-below-roseberry/
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Down among the Thistles
The hedgerows are heavy with the spoils of summer. Blackberries shine darkly in the shade, crab apples blush among the leaves, and Rowan berries hang in bright clusters. Rosebay Willowherb releases its silky seeds to the wind, while the thistles too surrender their down, sending it drifting like smoke across the fields.
Thistles are cursed a ...
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The Windmills Are Winning
Ah yes, a truly legendary clash of minds and metal, as the supremely rational, astoundingly gifted Don Quixote—sharp as ever—heroically attacks a gang of… consults notes… windmills. Indeed. Definitely windmills. Not, say, wind turbines, or anything remotely threatening like giant knights in armour.
From atop Roseberry Topping, the view is tragic. The frontline of ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/07/28/the-windmills-are-winning/
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Swifts on Roseberry, Silence on Easby Moor
It has been a while since I last stood on Roseberry, looking down on clouds. And even longer since I came up here on a Saturday. Most seemed to have taken the yellow thunderstorm warning as a cue to stay indoors. Easby Moor, with its pointed monument to Captain Cook, rose clean above the mist.
...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/07/19/swifts-on-roseberry-silence-on-easby-moor/
#CaptCooksMonument #EasbyMoor #NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping
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Because It’s There: Tourists on Roseberry
Another day, another climb up Roseberry. I often wonder when someone first made the effort simply for the sake of it—“because it’s there,” as Mallory said of a rather taller peak. When did the first tourists arrive? And what exactly counts as a tourist?
With its sharp outline and looming bulk, Roseberry Topping has ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/07/08/because-its-there-tourists-on-roseberry/
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Before the Ling: Bell Heather in Bloom
The moors will soon flush lilac with the bloom of Ling, but for now it is the Bell heather that holds court. Its deeper purple has lit the hills for weeks. This sweep across Ingleby Moor is the broadest I have seen. Bell heather usually prefers modest clumps, favouring dry ridges, crag tops, and path edges.
Bell ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/06/25/before-the-ling-bell-heather-in-bloom/
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Route Choice Down Roseberry
Today’s photo looks down the steep, green slope of Roseberry Topping’s northwestern flank.
Below, Newton-under-Roseberry sits quietly among ripening fields. To the right, thick woodland hugs Bousdale Hill in dark contrast.
What caught my eye was the wide grass path on the right. It appears to follow the Right-of-Way, though an ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/06/24/route-choice-down-roseberry/
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Ogy Ogy Ogy: Elegy for a Dog Named Skip
From the Great Pyramid to Trump’s sad obsession with giant flagpoles, mankind has always clawed at meaning. Mere survival is never enough. They must carve something, build something, paint something—anything—to shout, “I was here!” Whether it is a monument propping up social hierarchies, a prize history will laugh at, or f ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/06/22/ogy-ogy-ogy-elegy-for-a-dog-named-skip/
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Summer Solstice on Roseberry
I had not expected the summit to be empty, but the quiet that met me was unexpected. A small crowd sat scattered on the rocks, all facing east, waiting for the sun. They were silent, respectful, marking the midpoint of the year with stillness. Even the stonechats seemed to join in, their song fitting the moment. Then the orange line appe ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/06/21/summer-solstice-on-roseberry/
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Foxgloves and Stone
The bright purple foxgloves inject a sharp burst of summer colour into this view of Roseberry Topping, the conical shape of which remains instantly recognisable even from its backside. The rough dry-stone wall that cuts across the scene, adds texture and, for me, some interest.
Yesterday I was out on the coast with the National T ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/06/13/foxgloves-and-stone/
#LittleAyton #NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping #DryStoneWalling #history
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Of Brass Monkeys, May Blossoms and Other Perils
Growing up in Nottingham in the early 1960s, I shall never forget me mam barking “naer cast a clout till May is out” whenever I dared venture into the Spring air without full Arctic gear—duffle coat, string vest, probably a balacalva too. She assumed, and I dutifully followed, “May”meant ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/05/05/of-brass-monkeys-may-blossoms-and-other-perils/
#Aireyholme #NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping #flora #folklore
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Furze: Fodder, Folklore, and the Smell of Coconut
A sudden change in the weather, as if the sky has grown bored. No more sun-drenched optimism; just a grey sheet of disinterest overhead. Still, Roseberry manages to look charming, despite being surpassed by the only plant capable of making scrubland smell like a tropical cocktail — gorse. Its yello ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/04/09/furze-fodder-folklore-and-the-smell-of-coconut/
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Cleveland: A County No One Wanted
All Fools’ Day 1974—the perfect occasion for bureaucratic tomfoolery. On this particular day, the North Riding of Yorkshire relinquished half of Roseberry Topping to the nascent “County of Cleveland.” A curious choice of name, given that “Cleveland” means “hilly land” in Old English, whereas this new county ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/04/01/cleveland-a-county-no-one-wanted/
#NewtonMoor #NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryCommon #RoseberryTopping #history
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A Nisly Day over Aireyholme
An old book of weather proverbs I own offers an array of predictions for March, ensuring that, whatever the weather, one can always find something vaguely reassuring within its pages. One such gem is a French proverb: “When March is like April, April will be like March.” How profound.
The notion of “April showers” stems from se ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/03/14/a-nisly-day-over-aireyholme/
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4th February, 1921: Redundancies at Roseberry Ironstone Mine
His day began long before any sensible person would even consider waking. At 4:30 in the morning, he and his wife dragged themselves from their bed, greeted not by comfort but by the biting cold. The morning’s first ordeal was the outhouse—an unenviable journey in deep winter, where snow, ice, and the ever-present r ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=37378
#Aireyholme #NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping #history #IronstoneMining
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Flocking Together: Hebridean Sheep and Sheepdog Training
I heard, through the ever-reliable grapevine, that this small flock of Hebridean sheep at Aireyholme Farm is being used to train a young sheepdog. Predictably, just before this photo was taken, the dog had had its lesson, and the sheep were beginning to calm down.
Hebridean sheep are apparently the darlings of the sheepdog train ...
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The Light: Conspiracy Bile Delivered Direct to Your Letterbox
There I was, about to embark on my virtuous trek up Roseberry Topping, coat in hand, when a free newspaper crashed through the letterbox like an unwelcome guest. A relic of a bygone era, I thought, since such things had ceased to grace my street years ago. Still, the design carried a whiff of credibility, enough to spark curiosity. A quick ...
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A Slog up Roseberry Topping and a Nod to Pagan Roots
I could claim it was a brisk dash up Roseberry Topping this morning, but in truth, it was more of a plodding trudge. Perhaps it only felt that way because I foolishly dressed for winter, not realising it would be unseasonably warm for Christmas Eve. This is the view from the summit, looking down on Aireyholme ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=37049
#Aireyholme #ClevelandHills #NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping #EarlyMedieval #history
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Roseberry In the Golden Hour
Roseberry was looking its usual self this morning as we trudged up Aireyholme Lane, the sun just beginning its obligatory climb over the Cleveland Hills. From this angle, Roseberry‘s distinctive shape is rather less obvious. High above, a waning gibbous moon lingered sulkily in the sky, and the early morning sunlight—in what us self-important photographers refer to as ...
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The Forgotten Rebellion: Winter Hill’s Mass Trespass of 1896
Another delightfully dreich day on the North York Moors. In the murk, we stumbled upon two workers labouring away on the new footpath up Roseberry. The path, prepared to its subsoil, resembles some sort of glutinous purgatory, offering a walking experience only slightly less pleasurable than a swim in wet cement. The workers mentioned the a ...
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Making Hay While the Sun Shines
Aireyholme Farm has been hard at work hay making.
The creation of dry hay is an elaborate process, involving a sequence of operations each requiring specialised machinery. These stages are: mowing, tedding, raking, and baling.The procedure begins with cutting the grass, which is then left in the field for several days, depending on the weather conditi ...
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From Warren House to Toft Hill Scout Camp
From the vantage point up Kirby Bank, one's eyes are drawn across the Vale of Cleveland to the iconic silhouette of Roseberry Topping. Closer though, in this picturesque view, stands the Pybus Scout Camp, its white facade gleaming under the cloudy sky. Adjacent to it lies Ricey Hill, adorned with the mellow yellow flowers of gorse.
Once known as Warre ... -
Elfi The Dwarf — The Story Told at Ye Sign of the Fox & Hounds, Urra
The notion of transcribing these ancient folk tales of Richard Blakeborough, thought to be a splendid idea at first, an idea born during the Covid lockdown, now gnaws at my conscience with growing unease. Recent reports detailing the modification of Roald Dahl's cherishe ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=32062
#Castleton #HuttonleHole #Lastingham #NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping #Urra #folklore #RichardBlakeborough
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Roseberry Topped Reflection
I recently read an article about the ecology of puddles, revealing their significance as habitats for certain invertebrate species. These small, transient pools offer a refuge from larger predators and competitors due to their isolated and short-lived nature.
Many of these puddles hold high conservation value, housing rare specialist creatures. ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=34569
#GreatAyton #Gribdale #NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping #ecology #fauna
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Roseberry Ironstone Mine — A Miner’s Day Begins
A significant anniversary in the history of Roseberry Ironstone Mine. It was on this day in 1921 that the men at the mine received notice to cease work with the mine due to be made idle at the end of the period of notice. In fact, output fell gradually until, in 1924, it stopped completely and a 'skeleton' maintenance employed until ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=34488
#Aireyholme #NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping #IronstoneMining
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Winter Solstice — Earth’s rebirth
Around this time of the year, the sun's midday height in the sky changes only marginally. However, its minimum zenith, concluding precisely at 3:27 this morning, undeniably signifies a turning point for all inhabitants of the northern hemisphere — the Winter Solstice.
This day then stands as the shortest, beginning the sun's gradual ascent and the retre ...
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A Forgotten Quarry—With a view of Roseberry
A broken down dry-stone wall enticed me to scramble over for a gander and I stumbled upon an old sandstone quarry I never knew existed with a view of Roseberry from an angle I’ve not seen before.
Ah, the uncomplicated pleasures of discovery.
It wasn't a large quarry, and a quick count reveals it to be one of twelve mapped betwee ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=33881
#AytonBank #GreatAyton #NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping #quarrying