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 ...

https://www.fhithich.uk/2026/05/12/echoes-in-the-vale-the-ghostly-rise-and-fall-of-leven-vale-cottages/

#Kildale #NorthYorkMoors #RiverLeven #19thcentury #history #IronstoneMining

Floods, Mills and a Sunday Flush

A flood warning late last night prompted me to wander down the village this morning and along the river. The so-called “waterfall” was in full spate, though hardly dramatic enough to warrant excitement.

It is not a waterfall at all, of course, but a weir built in 1840 thanks to local benefactor Thomas Richardson. Its medieval predecessor had be ...

http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/09/21/floods-mills-and-a-sunday-flush/

#GreatAyton #RiverLeven #history

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/

#Kildale #LevenVale #NorthYorkMoors #RiverLeven

Lent—A Season of Daffodils, Fasting, and Fuzzy Maths

Another year, another excuse to photograph some daffodils—sorry, Lenten Lilies, as they are so charmingly called in Yorkshire. Whether these particular specimens on the bank of the River Leven in Great Ayton are the pure, wild, English variety is highly doubtful, but what a tragedy that would be.

Now, in c ...

http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/03/19/lent-a-season-of-daffodils-fasting-and-fuzzy-maths/

#GreatAyton #RiverLeven #flora