Kirkby

Looking towards Whorl Hill from Carlton Bank.

Looking NW from the trig point on Carlton Moor.

Looking SE into Raisdale from the Cleveland Way.

Green Bank is a steep slope to the north of Lord Stone's.

I’ve entitled this ‘Green Bank’. That’s the name of the slight rise that can be made out on the col between Cringle Moor and Carlton Bank. Just to the left of Roseberry in the distant. The col is now lorded over by the misnamed Lord Stones Cafe. The foreground is heavily dominated by the skeletal remains of last summer’s bracken. The holloways probably result from the sledding down of peat/turf and heather from the moor top. I’ve always thought bracken was the bane of the farmer’s life, the bane of the conservationist’s. Yet I was reading an article the other day which actually sees the bracken problem as an “opportunity”. The soil on which bracken grows is apparently deep and rich, and so very suitable for trees, which we need more of. This richness of the soil is indicated in an old farming saying: ‘Where there’s bracken there’s gold; where there’s gorse there’s silver; where there’s heather there’s poverty’. So, the article advocates that bracken strands should be planted with trees, which will, once mature, shade out the bracken. Obviously the trees initially need to be of sufficient height for themselves not to be shaded out by the bracken. As bracken is generally avoided by grazing animals, there won’t be any need for the ubiquitous army of plastic tubes. I try to imagine forests of trees, broadleaf that is, not coniferous, wherever there is bracken. The steep escarpment slopes would be most affected. In the long term this would certainly change the look of the moors. In the short term it is likely to be met with a negative public reaction. For sources and references see Link

I tried to use a little used Public Footpath which loops around from the foot of Carlton Bank to the now demolished Underhill House. But I became distracted by a mountain bike track and ending zig-zagging up through the trees eventually coming across an old holloway, well above the present road. Overgrown by gorse, it must be of some age as it doesn’t appear on the earliest Ordnance Survey maps. It is tempting to assume the holloway was made by quarrymen sledding their stones to the village below but alum-workers and turf cutters could equally have been responsible. Today, Carlton Bank is a notorious climb on a bike but benefitting from a tarmac surface. It has had many names. The gentle slope as it leaves Carlton village has been known at various times as ‘T’ Bank Lonnin’, ‘Alum House Lane’, or ‘Peak Lonnin’. When the gradient steepens it becomes ‘Butter Hill’ — “so-called on account of its spongy character” — and cresting the summit, the ‘Red Shale Road’ or ‘Moor Yat’. The former because of the use of reddish alum shale as a road surface and, the latter, because it eventually leads to ‘Chop Yat’, an old name for Chop Gate. For sources see my blog Link

Possible abutments of an old bridge into Busby Park.

Estate Boundary Marker called the Hall Cliff Stone, on Green Bank, north of Lordstones Café. On the boundary of Bilsdale Midcable and Great Busby parishes. See also Link. Milestone Society National ID: YN_BIMGBU01em

The first of two footbridges that occur within a few metres of each other on footpath 10.58/10.

Tarmac leads from the road at Great Busby to Cote House, but south of the farmyard there's a wet and occasionally muddy track continuing south to Manor Farm. The track is also a bridleway which has a few unpleasant sections for the winter walker, but is as nothing compared to the path beyond Manor Farm.

The farmer warned me that it was wet, and he was understating the conditions. Lots of mud and water, presumably draining down off Busby Moor and settling into a glutinous mess in these fields.

A field at Manor Farm with the ground rising steeply towards Carlton Bank in the distance.

Wind and rain battering from the west have given this tree a distinct lean. Foreground shade is caused by the proximity of the steep banks leading to Cringle Moor to the south.

A January walk along footpath number 10.83/5 was not without its difficulties. Mud, swamps and dodgy stiles were all part of the fun. The stile in the foreground here is probably the best on the whole route, but it leads into a slither down to a tricky minor beck crossing and a mini bog on the far side before reaching a hand gate. Further on, the last 'stile' into the grounds of Toft Hill lacks any footboards and requires a climb over a fence. Is this a NYM footpath I wonder, or one under the management of the local authority?

Sheep grazing on the lower slopes of the scarp that rises dramatically to Cringle Moor.

Things appear to have gone rather more upmarket since Mick Garratt's pictures taken in 2007. This is no longer a caravan and camping park, but one with mobile homes.

Part of the small reservoir works at Toft Hill below the edge of the Cleveland Hills.

The lane appears to be nameless, nothing appearing on old maps. The familiar 'pimple' of Roseberry Topping on the right.