Cloudfall
Up on the moors above Greenhow Botton today, where the Cleveland Hills were doing their best impression of a waterfall in the clouds. The kind of view that makes the uphill pedal entirely worth it. Just another quiet Wednesday on the North York Moors.
At the head of the valley lies Midnight Corner, which never sees sunlight in the depth of winter becaus ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/03/04/cloudfall/
#ClevelandHills #InglebyGreenhow #NorthYorkMoors #etymology #history
Inheritance and Oblivion on Urra Moor
On the bleak expanse of Urra Moor, a lone boundary stone stands sentinel over the heather. Winter has tried to lay its white shroud over the name FOULIS, once lord of the manor at Ingleby, but hasn’t quite succeded. It reads like a quiet obituary in stone, the record of a family slipping out of the world ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/02/14/inheritance-and-oblivion-on-urra-moor/
#InglebyGreenhow #NorthYorkMoors #UrraMoor #19thcentury #history
The Twisting Plume of Ingleby Greenhow
A familiar landscape, yet on a still autumnal day in the Vale of Cleveland, when not a single turbine blade so much as twitches, an unexpected sight smudges the view. A solitary plume of smoke twists into the air, unsettling in its beauty, creating a scene both ordinary and strangely unfamiliar.
At first glance, it ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/10/11/the-twisting-plume-of-ingleby-greenhow/
Dorothy’s Stone
Turkey Nab, near Ingleby Greenhow, is one of the steepest “road” climbs in Cleveland. The loose stony track that winds up it is not for the faint-hearted. Any driver attempting the ascent needs both patience and a steady nerve, for there is little room between the track and the sheer drop of the Nab’s edge.
To the left, immense boulders hang on as if by chance, e ...
Witch Tree, Maiden Tree
This week, public outrage greeted the news that two men have been found guilty of cutting down the Sycamore Gap tree beside Hadrian’s Wall.
Though obviously a cultural icon, sycamores are not native to Britain. The tree came from Europe and only arrived in Britain around the fifteenth or sixteenth century. The idea that Robin Hood passed it on his way ...
Lake Greenhow: A Forgotten Relic of the Ice Age
Yesterday’s post led me to glaciers, glacial lakes, and the like. At Botton Head, my imagination ran riot.
Difficult as it is to picture now, 10,000 years ago, a glacier covered the Tees Valley before me. The ice sheet, it is well-known, never quite managed to smother the Nor ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/03/26/lake-greenhow-a-forgotten-relic-of-the-ice-age/
#Greenhow #InglebyGreenhow #NorthYorkMoors #geological #glacial #history
Mouldwarps, Misconceptions, and Mass Extermination
Only the other day, we were marvelling at the sheer number of molehills littering the fields this year. Which, naturally, means an abundance of moles—or, if one prefers their grander, more traditional name, “mouldwarps,” an old English term meaning “earth-thrower.”
I remarked that their presence mus ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/03/24/mouldwarps-misconceptions-and-mass-extermination/
On this day in 1933, Germany passed the Enabling Act
Also known as the “Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich,” the act was a charmingly titled law that, in reality, handed Hitler absolute power and turned Germany into a totalitarian dictatorship.
Yes, the “Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich”—a masterclass in euphemism. A harml ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/03/23/on-this-day-in-1933-germany-passed-the-enabling-act/
Greenhow Botton with a Fleeting Glimpse the Birthplace of Ivor Cummings
A view down Greenhow Botton towards Roseberry, which distinctive shape barely manages to poke above the skyline. Remarkably, it is a clear day—clear enough that, far off in the distance, from this the highest point of the North York Moors, Hartlepool is visible, gleaming faintly through a break in the cloud ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=36935
#Greenhow #InglebyGreenhow #NorthYorkMoors #20thCentury #history #OTD
Ingleby Manor and Lady Mary Ross’ Spectral Odyssey
I've wanted to post a photo of Ingleby Manor for quite some time now. However, the Grade II* Listed building is shielded from view by a formidable stand of lofty lime and oak trees. From this vantage point on Turkey Nab, one can just make out, albeit faintly on this murky morning, the rooftops nestled within that tongue of wood, positioned slightly to ...
Mick Garratt
