| Web | http://www.fhithich.uk |
| Treads handle | @Fhithich |
Bloworth Slack—Not as Lazy as It Sounds
Bloworth Slack, just moments before it meets Badger Gill to become Hodge Beck. Bransdale again — but today we’ve been beside this quietly lovely woodland stream, its amber rocks lit by a sky so clear it almost seems rude.
I never took Geography at ‘O’ Level. I was a science boy, apparently, and Geography was firmly on the ...
https://www.fhithich.uk/2026/04/02/bloworth-slack-not-as-lazy-as-it-sounds/
Easedale: Where William Paced and Dorothy Wrote
Another photo from Monday’s climb up Helm Crag. Looking down Easedale, you see more than a rugged Cumbrian landscape. You see a living library.
To the left, Helm Crag rises as what Dorothy Wordsworth called “a Being by itself” in 1801. Its summit bristle ...
https://www.fhithich.uk/2026/04/01/easedale-where-william-paced-and-dorothy-wrote/
A Brief Moment of Sun, Raven Crag
Raven Crag catches a rare shaft of sunlight, and frankly it has earned it. This brooding giant overlooks the foot of Thirlmere Reservoir and has been stopping writers in their tracks for generations. They have called it everything from “vertical white walls” and a “chiselled face furred with conifer” to a “gigantic round tower” that ...
https://www.fhithich.uk/2026/03/31/a-brief-moment-of-sun-raven-crag/
The Last Traces of the Belmont Ironstone Mine
Green “Yorkshire” fields in early spring, and nothing here looks remotely industrial. Yet the three red-brick Edwardian cottages sitting neatly in the middle distance were built for the men who ran Belmont Ironstone Mine, and the large brick building in the distance was once the stables for the horses ...
https://www.fhithich.uk/2026/03/28/the-last-traces-of-the-belmont-ironstone-mine/
Reflections on Sobriety
A day of rest after yesterday’s National Trust volunteering. The body, it turns out, has opinions.
So — the River Leven at Great Ayton. A stone wall keeps the High Street dry and throws its reflection onto water so calm it seems almost embarrassed to move. Daffodils and a pink-blossomed tree do their best to liven things up. Right of centre stands a solidly b ...
The Duncombe Drive: Lost in Plain Sight
Repairs to fencing offered a rare glimpse into a part of Bransdale not open to the public.
The photograph shows Hall Plantation, where a line of beech trees accentuates what is clearly an old trackway, its course still visible beneath a deep carpet of last year’s leaves.
The track has been sittin ...
https://www.fhithich.uk/2026/03/26/the-duncombe-drive-lost-in-plain-sight/
#Bransdale #NorthYorkMoors #19thcentury #history #NationalTrust
Lady Day: When England Turned Over a New Leaf
March 25th was not just another date. It was the day England once held its breath, then exhaled.
Until 1751, Lady Day was the legal New Year. Winter ended. Debts were called in. Contracts expired. The nation lurched back to life like a cart horse after a long cold stable. Rents fell due, farm tenancies e ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/03/25/lady-day-when-england-turned-over-a-new-leaf/
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
Who Gets the Land? Everyone Wants a Piece
Britain has a land problem. There is not enough of it, what there is in the wrong place, and far too many people want it for far too many things — housing, food, energy, nature, and apparently shooting birds for fun. The Government has finally noticed and published its first Land Use Framework: a long-term plan to stop ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/03/23/who-gets-the-land-everyone-wants-a-piece/
Farndale: Rather Less Yellow Than Expected
Last Friday’s trip to Farndale, home of the famous wild daffodils was, if truth be told, rather a mixed blessing.
The display was, shall we say, not quite the riot of yellow one might have hoped for. The far bank of the River Dove, where the public cannot go, looked considerably more impressive. Years of well-meanin ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/03/22/farndale-rather-less-yellow-than-expected/
