Digging out at the Lion Inn

The road over to Kirkbymoorside has been closed for several days due to drifting snow and there are still several minor roads blocked today.
Here are some pictures taken this afternoon 14th January, and below, a video I found on youtube from earlier in the week, when the wind was bad and a group were stranded at the Lion Inn.

New Year snow from space

Midday on 6th of January 2010.

Snow cover has persisted since the 17th of December, despite a slow thaw between Christmas and New Year.
There now seems to be almost 18 inches of lying snow which would drift very easily should the wind pick up.
There has been problems with drifting snow over the moors already but nothing too extreme as yet.

Last weekend there were problems on Blakey Ridge see this story in Yorkshire Post

The Danby Surgery

Just found the new website for the local doctor which may be worth bookmarking.
There's useful information, for example about what to do out of hours and more.
You can also sign up for an email newsletter.
It's listed on the left too. (may need to scroll down)
www.danbysurgery.nhs.uk

Bin collection days

http://scarborough.gov.uk/pdf/refuse-collection-weeks-1-and-2-2010.pdf

Christmas and Winter Schedule

As always the Christmas and New Year period is quite busy in the village,
and has come around with the usual inexplicable speed.

Sheep sale season

Sheep farming is as important in Westerdale as it's ever been,
and the Autumn is an important time with several large sheep sales
when farmers buy and sell this years lambs and replacement ewes and rams.

Here's a few pictures from the recent sale on the old Airfield at Wombleton.
This sale was originally the Fadmoor sheep sale, but has moved to this larger site
with good hard standing on the old runways for the vehicles.

Getting ready for Spring

The Council have been clearing ditches, and setting kerb stones around some of the junctions to stop the edge of the tarmac breaking away.

The bare soil at Crown House road end seemed an excellent opportunity for these youthful gardeners to put in some daffodil bulbs.
I wonder if they'll remember planting them when the blooms appear in March 2010?

Heather !

It's that time of year again, when for about a month the moor tops are a splendid sight with immense areas of purple.

People are often surprised how late the main show starts, and sometimes assume the patches of Bell heather in June are what it looks like.

Heather is also known as Ling, the Latin name is Calluna Vulgaris.
As usual, Wikipedia has surprising information.
Did you know Heather is a member of Ericacea family and so related to Rhododendrons, Bilberry and Juniper?

Westerdale has some of the best heather in the North York Moors - which in turn have some of the best displays in the UK - and heather moorland is a rarity outside the British Isles.
The moors are not truly natural and need regular maintenance to favour heather and bilberry.
The mainstay of this is rotational burning of small areas in sequence through the Winter, this stops scrub encroaching in the lower areas and the patchwork of plants of different ages gives ideal conditions for moorland birds as there will be short young growth a short distance from tall old heather which gives shelter on the wildest days.
Without controlled burning large amounts of old dead material would build up, creating extreme risk of devastating hot fires in dry summer spells. At this time of year the peat is dry enough to catch fire also and would burn for months once alight.
The Winter burning is a 'cool' fire which cannot ignite underlying peat.

Westerdale is also notable for the lack of bracken beds.
This is mainly due to Jonathan Morley, a previous estate owner who made a tremendous difference by extensive aerial spraying with Asulox.
Only now more than a decade later is the full benefit evident with heather and bilberry well established on the slopes which were once dominated almost entirely by toxic bracken.

Esklets road

History of Westerdale from 1923

"A History of the County of York North Riding: Volume 2"

An interesting read about early history of Westerdale can be found online here.

I'll quote the main section about Westerdale here but there is much more relating to Baysdale and the area in general.

"The parish is composed of the township of Westerdale and hamlets of Baysdale and Esklets, all lying in lofty, narrow valleys among the Cleveland Hills. Its area is 9,914 acres of land, of which 663 acres are arable, 1,570 acres permanent grass, 9 acres woods and plantations, and the rest grouse moor covered with heather and bracken, rising from the dales where the height is about 600 ft. to a height of 1,500 ft. above ordnance datum. An Inclosure Act was obtained in 1810–11.

The earliest recorded lords, the Balliols of Barnard Castle, held the forest called first Westerdale, then Baysdale and finally Stokesley. The second Bernard de Balliol held this in the latter half of the 12th century, and between 1240 and 1251 Ada de Balliol granted half the forest of Baysdale to Hugh de Eure. This moiety subsequently descended with the manor of Stokesley; it was described in 1716 as 'a large forest or moor called Stokesley and Stockdale Moor,' extra-parochial, containing 2,500 acres, and still appears as the forest of Stokesley in 1790. Between 1154 and 1181 the second Bernard de Balliol granted to Rievaulx Abbey 2 oxgangs of land in Westerdale, pasture for 120 animals throughout his forest of Westerdale, and in connexion with this pasture a house and close near Wooddale Beck (Wulvedalebec) by 'Hogthaith.' With the consent of his forester the canons might set snares to entrap wolves, and their shepherds when threatened by wild beasts or thieves might freely blow their horns. The abbey was assessed for 11s. 4d. subsidy in Westerdale in 1301–2.

Barrows here have been opened and in two an axe-hammer and other prehistoric remains have been found; there are earthworks on Crown End.

The subsoil is upper and lower lias and inferior oolite, the soil peat and clay. There is no record of iron mining, but this was carried on by Rievaulx Abbey in the adjacent parish of Danby, and besides the Hole Pits there are eight slag or 'Cinder' hills in Westerdale. Jet of inferior quality was worked for a short time.

The population is entirely agricultural, the products of the district being butter, cheese, cattle and wool. Of late years great attention has been paid to the breeding of horses, sheep and cattle."

July downpours

July this year as had it's fair share of rain, and often very heavy when it falls.
So far (23rd) the total is about 130mm, 5 inches.
Notably there was 25mm on the 3rd, 52mm on the 17th and 18mm on the 23rd.

This is as nothing compared to the deluge commencing on 20th July 1930.
The following clips are from The Times newspaper.
It's evident that the higher ground from Egton to Danby and Castleton received considerably more than the coast.
We might assume that much of the Esk catchment over the high moors had totals approaching 20 inches.
The chart shows a similar situation to this year on the 17th - A slow moving low pressure system in the southern North Sea.
Fortunately this year it moved away quite rapidly, and about 2 inches fell in 24 hours.
The 1930 total was almost 12 inches at Castleton over four days.

This flood damaged several bridges and swept away the dam which served Westerdale Mill.