Cold Moor: A Close Brush with Industry
Cold Moor today looks like the sort of place that looks as though history slipped it by. Green, quiet, and peaceful. You would never guess how close it came to becoming a roaring industrial scar.
In 1911 the calm nearly ended. Plans were laid to turn this part of Lord Feversham’s vast es ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/02/27/cold-moor-a-close-brush-with-industry/
#ClevelandHills #ColdMoor #NorthYorkMoors #20thCentury #history #IronstoneMining
A Mystery Beneath our Feet on Cold Moor
Last Sunday, the weather gods allowed a final memorable spectacle of blue skies over the North York Moors before the autumnal gloom. From the heights of Cold Moor, the view towards the Wainstones was as grand as ever, but my eye was drawn not to the distant crags, but to something ra ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/10/15/a-mystery-beneath-our-feet-on-cold-moor/
#ClevelandHills #ClevelandWay #CoastToCoast #ColdMoor #NorthYorkMoors #wainstones
1772: A Path, A Stone, A Hanging
The so-called “Miners’ Trod”, with Cold Moor rising beyond it, cuts a broad, unsightly scar along the hillside courtesy of the forestry workers. The path’s name comes from the nineteenth-century jet-miners, though it is unlikely they were its first users. That large boulder to the left bears t ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/06/14/1772-a-path-a-stone-a-hanging/
#ColdMoor #GarfittGap #GreatBroughton #NorthYorkMoors #18thcentury #ClevealndWay #history
POW! WHACK! The Circus Returns to Town
On this day in 1966, the campy spectacle of Batman made its debut on American television. Adam West donned the cape, Burt Ward chirped as Robin, and Cesar Romero refused to shave his moustache to play the Joker. Although by the time it hit British screens, I was too old, but I remember it well. It had simplistic morals for children, a relentlessly upbeat the ...
A Ruined Shelter, a Romantic Name, and some Random Latin
An opportunistic photograph, captured during a rare moment when the winter sun managed to pierce the unrelenting gloom of an overcast day.
Here I am on Cold Moor—or, if you are feeling fanciful, Mount Vittoria Plantation. I prefer the latter; it has that pretentious 19th-century flair. This narrow strip of hea ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=36994
#ClevelandHills #ColdMoor #CringleMoor #MountVittoria #NorthYorkMoors #history
Welkin’s Cheek
Before "sky" became the common term for the vast expanse above us, it was poetically known as "welkin"—a word closely related to the German "Wolke," meaning cloud, and even more so to "Wölkchen," meaning little cloud. Today, the welkin offered a breathtaking sight for those who gazed upward.
Shakespeare himself was no stranger to this enchanting word. In “ ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=35969
#ColdMoor #NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping #wainstones #meteorological
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 ...
Morning Sun on Cold Moor
A panorama of Cold Moor from the vantage point of the Wainstones; to the right, the col known as Garfit Gap.
What caught my eye in this view is the way the morning sun, hanging low, highlights the remains of the old jet mining drifts. These drift entrances, now long collapsed, appear as V-shaped scars etched into the hillside. They create a line, gently tilting to the le ...
Barbed Wire’s Impact on Land, Livestock, and Liberty
In 2003, the heavy metal band Iron Maiden released their album, Dance of Death, which including the epic ‘Paschendale’ [sic]:
Whistles, shouts and more gun fire
Lifeless bodies hang on barbed wire
Battlefield nothing but a bloody tomb
Be reunited with my dead friends soon
Many soldiers eighteen year
Drown in mud, no more tears
Surely a war no-on ...
A Windy Morning Pondering Mount Vittoria’s Secrets
A wander up here in the dark the other day reminded me of the old name for this long ridge descending deep into Bilsdale, which most people know today as Cold Moor. The prevailing conditions today wasn't particularly cold, but rather characterised by gusty winds—remarkably so—sufficient to blow the cobwebs away, as the saying goes.
The old name does ...
Mick Garratt
