Spout House, Bilsdale

It felt like spring today. Spout House is a fine example of a 16th century cruck framed farmhouse and according to Tom Scott Burns in his book Round and About the North York Moors it takes its name from a spring on the hillside behind the house. It comprises two pairs of crucks, which are naturally curving beams supporting the roof structure. Its a very traditional mediaeval method of construction. Originally a farmhouse with a dwelling one end and a byre the other, the building could date from 1550 at a time when the boy King Edward VI was on the throne but another source puts it later as 1606.

What is certain though in 1714 the resident farmer acquired a license to sell ale and was renamed as the Sun Inn replacing an earlier inn in Birch Wood a couple of miles down the dale. Diversification is not new. The last pint was served exactly 200 years later in 1914 when the new Sun Inn was built next door.

It wer reet parky on’t moor this morning

Icicles or to use the Yorkshire term ice shoggles on a small beck draining Urra Moor. This tributary of the River Seph, is surprisingly not named on the O.S. map. Lower down a spring on the north bank is named as Cowkill Well and further downstream the beck is named as Rotten Scar but that seems more likely to refer to the small valley down which it flows. Even further downstream it becomes Bilsdale Beck before finally maturing into the River Seph below Chop Gate.

Raisdale

In its upper reaches Bilsdale splits into two separated by the mass of Cold Moor. The western arm is Raisdale. This photo is taken from a small prominence called Wath Hill and is looking up the valley towards the Lord Stones Cafe.

To the left is the farm, Staindale. And to the right another farm Broomflatt. In John Marius Wilson’s Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales, 1870-72, Raisdale is described as a constablewick which is an obsolete word meaning the district over which a constable exercises his duties and power. A constable is not the modern police constable but an official who initially was responsible for collecting the taxes due to the Lord of the Manor on behalf of the King.

Over time the office of Constable would gain various other duties such as dealing with felonies, vagabonds, beggars, and itinerant strangers. The list goes on and on: lewd women, pauper children, the “defaulting fathers of bastards”, welfare of the poor, the parish bull, non-attendance at church, keeping militia rolls, etc., etc.

 

Bumper Castle

A ruined farmstead overlooking Ladhill Beck north of Hawnby. Bill Cowley, better known as the founder and author of the definitive book of the Lyke Wake Walk, wrote in his 1993 booklet, Snilesworth, that “the house is well built, with a slate roof, and has the date 1722 on the gable end”. Today there was no sign of a roof. Cowley surmises the house was probably built for the Easterside Estate as a shooting lodge, the 3rd Duke of Rutland and the Marquis of Granby reputed to have stayed there for the shooting in the 18th century. The problem with this though is that the flintlock guns available at that time were not generally used for shooting birds on the wing, the time lag between pressing the trigger and the gun actually firing being too long. It would not be until the middle of the 19th century that grouse shooting as we know it became more fashionable with the invention of the percussion lock method of firing.

But by 1851 the house was used for farming. The census of that year records Richard Hilbert as the farmer of 127 acres.

Garfitt Gap

From Urra looking across upper Bilsdale. Garfitt Gap is the col between Cold Moor (Mount Vittoria) on the left and Wainstones on the right.

If a consortium of Victorian investors had had their way this scene would have been bisected by a railway which was proposed between Ingleby Greenhow and Helmsley. Plans were drawn up and a formal notice was placed in the London Gazette announcing the intention to apply to Parliament for permission. The route would have involved two tunnels under Clay Bank and Newgate Bank.

Animal Trap on a wall in Bilsdale

An animal trap set on a dry stone wall at the edge of Urra Moor overlooking Bilsdale. It’s been set by the gamekeeper to kill weasels and stoats, major predators of grouse. These fascinating little creatures have a habit of running along the tops of walls.

So much for conservation.

The gamekeeper’s job is to maximise the population of grouse so that there is a plentiful supply of birds for when wealthy “sportsmen” pay many £000s per day to stand with a gun while beaters drive the grouse towards them. Any animal which by nature tries to take advantage of this larder of food is ruthlessly exterminated. Foxes, weasels and stoats. Except birds of prey such as the Hen Harrier of course, for these are protected by law. But nevertheless in 2013, there were 238 RSPB reports of birds of prey being poisoned, shot or beaten to death. It’s been calculated by scientists that the heather moors of England could support at least 300 pairs of hen harriers, but in 2013, no hen harriers successfully bred.

Link to map.

Joseph Wade’s Hut, Bilsdale West Moor

Joseph Wade’s Hut, the feature looked interesting on the map, but all I could find was just a cairn on a bronze age round barrow. Round barrows generally occupy prominent positions in the landscape and are thought to have had a funerary function although they may have also marked the boundaries of prehistoric peoples.

The view is overlooking Ryedale and in the far distance is Black Hambleton.

Link to map showing location.

Long Barn, Bilsdale

Working in the East Midlands over the weekend so had to get my hill and dale fix before heading south.

Ran over Urra Moor and along the edge of Bilsdale. I like this long barn, above the hamlet of Town Green; I don’t think I’ve since anything like it elsewhere on the moors. Well constructed and in a good state of repair but seems to be unused except as a shelter for sheep.

Brian’s Pond

On Bilsdale West Moor, an oasis on a warm spring morning. I often disturb ducks and wild geese here. But not today.

The obvious question: who was Brian? I’ve no idea.