Alder Covert

Hidden away in the forestry above Bank Foot is a tramway incline that served the sandstones quarries higher on Greenhow Bank. It first appears on the 1893 OS 25 inch map. Blocks of sandstone would have been lowered down to a siding by the Rosedale Ironstone railway. I guess here a bridge was built to allow the incline to pass carrying an existing track. The line of the incline can be followed quite easily. The lowest of these quarries is at 230m level. Here the incline branches, one climbs to a quarry at 330m level, the main incline to one at 290m. The 330m quarry was the subject of a post in 2015. It is tempting to assume that these quarries, which seem to have been used entirely for building stone were operated by the Ingleby Ironstone & Freestone Company which built the original three mile long narrow gauge line to their ironstone mine at Rudd Scar. However, that mine was abandoned in 1860. Their narrow gauge railway had by then been upgraded to standard gauge by the North Yorkshire and Cleveland Railway. For sources and references see my blog: Out and about ... (2021). Park Plantation Quarry Tramway. [online] Available at: Link [Accessed 11 Dec. 2021]. Update 26/12/21 The quarry was operated by the Ingleby Stone Quarry Company, a company probably under the direction of a Mr. Wren. The stone was lowered down to the Rosedale Railway by an incline known as Wren's Incline see [The Gazette. (1883). Page 6651 | Issue 25299, 25 December 1883 | London ... [online] Available at: Link [Accessed 22 Oct. 2021].]. In 1866, it was reported that a Mr Wren (the same?) had opened an ironstone mine in the area which was "soon afterwards abandoned" ['The Cleveland Ironstone' (1866) Yorkshire Gazette, 25 Aug, 4, available: Link [accessed 26 Dec 2021].]. This must be referring to the Ingleby Manor ironstone mine which briefly operated between 1856 and 1860 [Tuffs, Peter. "Catalogue of Cleveland Ironstone Mines". Page 17. Cleveland Ironstone Series 1996.]. The mine had been developed with high hopes, having expectations of an annual yield of 150,000 tons ['News' (1857) Newcastle Journal, 12 Dec, 8, available: Link [accessed 26 Dec 2021].].

Stone parapets of a small bridge over Mea Beck, north of Ingleby Greenhow. The road is shown as Ingleby Avenue here, but anyone expecting a grand line of limes or sweet chestnuts is likely to be disappointed as the trees and hedges are less than exciting.

The road leads out of this grid square towards Station Farm, some 400m beyond which is Battersby Station.

From my blog see Link

Straight on for Battersby or turn right for Bank Foot.

The bridge is of the concrete beam type which seem to have been a popular style in the old North Riding some 60 years ago. Ingleby Beck flows beneath the bridge and across the adjoining ford. The footpath leads directly into the churchyard.

A dead end road for vehicles but also an ancient route which climbed on to the moor heading south towards Rudland Rigg and Kirkbymoorside. The house on the left stands by what was once a railway crossing, so presumably was a crossing keeper's house.

Behind the camera position is the start of what is now a section of the old Rosedale railway that can be walked or cycled all the way to that dale, but in this direction for about 1km there is no track as agriculture has taken over. The line of the former track is marked by the hedgerow heading off into the distance.

Looking north back towards Bank Foot, with the familiar outline of Roseberry Topping in the distance.

Numerous tiny streams pour off the nearby moorside making much of the land immediately west of the old railway line rather ill drained, but that's the way that alders like it.

Ewes with lambs in this April scene at Low Farm.

Viewed from nearly a kilometre away, the beech trees on this low hill line up nicely with distant Roseberry Topping.

An area of recently planted broadleaf trees in a field below How Hill.

This is not far from a photo taken by T Eyre in July 2020, but since then there's been extensive planting of deciduous trees in the area. Government grants currently mean that saplings of the right sort are provided free of charge. In the background is Hasty Bank with the northern prow of Cold Moor beyond.

Just within the boundary of the NYM National Park, this is path number 10.75/013 following the boundary of Ingleby Manor towards Ingleby Greenhow village.

The road is either named Stone Stoop Hill or it soon becomes that. Here it's passing The Old Vicarage.

The road leads to the farm at Ingleby Mill, a farm just north of Ingleby Greenhow.

The road has descended gradually from higher moorland and is approaching a marked steepening of the slope at Ingleby Bank with an awkward stony descent to reach low ground. In the distance Roseberry Topping is just visible with Easby Moor and the obelisk of the Captain Cook monument to the right of it.