Bromley Hill

Despite the 'Gothic' windows OS maps show that it was built as a village hall between 1892 and 1913.

I was attracted by their signs.

The signpost is for a public footpath.

The small village of Newby has no church, shop or pub, but it does have a large and irregularly shaped village green. This part is near the southern edge of the village.

Newby is a tiny village a few miles south of the Middlesbrough/Stockton conurbation. Here is a rural scene, but industry is nearby.

A short cut across a field on the fringe of the village. A hollow way along the field side would suggest an old route into the village, but the first edition OS map of 1856 offers no clues.

Less than a mile from the fringes of the Teesside conurbation, this is still a rural area to the east of Newby.

Heading east towards Tunstall with the prominent 'pimple' of Roseberry Topping in the distance.

Tunstall must be a decayed medieval village site, still with the name of the old village, but now comprising just a farm and one other dwelling. The ridge and furrow shows old plough strips, which could be of medieval date.

This morning, the air on Great Ayton Moor was crystal clear, but away in the south-west, a low mist crept up the Vale of Cleveland, making the wind turbines at Seamer look like they’re levitating. That white house yonder caught my eye. Turns out, it’s Howe Hill. Now, I can therefore take a brief detour into a tale about the Saxon Battle of Stokesley that supposedly went down in the 5th century at that very spot. The battle has also been called the Battle of Seamer Caves and was fought between the Saxons and the Danes. Word is, it was Prince Arthur himself who gave the Saxons this thrashing in 492 A.D. It seems the Saxons were keen on taking over this land, but the Britons stood their ground, causing hefty casualties. The Saxon commanders, Osca and Otha, were both slain, along with thousands of from both sides. In the decades before the battle, the Britons, no longer under the protection of the Romans, took many a beating from the Saxons, who were being relieved by their kin from Germany. The triumph at Howe Hill, though, was short-lived. Despite the Britons’ victory, the Saxons kept pushing till they had carved out seven kingdoms known as the Heptarchy. They say there was a stone marking the spot, but it’s sunken deep into the earth and doesn’t, in any case, have any inscription on it. Now, that’s the legend, but what’s the facts? In the fields by the farm, 19th century reports mention a trench and how ploughs kept unearthing armour, swords, and human bones. In 1926, the Cleveland Naturalists’ Field Club found “part of the unburnt remains of a short round-headed man” in the tumulus at the farm. But, as far as I can maintain, all these finds seem to have now disappeared. Much more recently, in summer 2020, a section through a ditch was excavated by local archaeologists and was found to contain pottery and other artefacts. The pottery suggests that the site was occupied by Saxons in the 5th to 6th centuries, but there was also evidence of earlier Roman and British activity in the area. It is speculated that the ditch may have been a boundary marker or a defensive ditch. For sources see my journal Link

Sneck Gate Lane is a minor road, seen here heading towards Newby.

With a 73 metre spot height under the power lines.

Not blocked when it was Geographed in 2005 NZ4912 : Gate and Farm Track.

No longer used. The gateway has been purposely blocked NZ4912 : Blocked gateway and flytipping notice, on Seamer Road.