Walking in North Yorkshire

Along the Old Drovers' Road from Osmotherley

6 miles Showers

We drove to Osmotherley and parked in the village opposite the Queen Catherine pub.

Today's walk from The Walker's Guide to the Cleveland Hills

The Queen Catherine Hotel

North End

Tom Scott Burns notes that in the Domesday Book the village was called Asmundrelac, meaning Asmund's Clearing. The village was ravaged by William the Conqueror in 1069 and was still described as waste land in its entry in the Domesday Book in 1085.

TSB also relates that the village was raided by the Scots on several occasions and a raid in 1315 was so severe that the village was excused all taxation because of the distress it had suffered. A few years later, in 1348, the Black Death carried off nearly half the population of Osmotherley.

We left the car and followed the road left at the crossroads at North End, passed by the cross and walked up Quarry Lane to reach an old pinfold at the corner with Rueberry Lane.

Osmotherley Pinfold

Rueberry Lane led us to Lady Chapel which was founded by Catherine of Aragon in 1515, and as we approached the Chapel we saw that the Stations of the Cross are marked out on the right side of the path.

Reaching the chapel we found the door unlocked as someone was arranging flowers, so we asked permission to look around the ancient building. The ground at the front of the chapel is apparently the last resting place of Carthusian monks who were accommodated at the chapel while Mount Grace Priory was being built below the hillside.

One of the Stations of the Cross

Lady Chapel

Inside Lady Chapel

"This cottage fallen ruinous was again made habitable by Sir Hugh Bell Bart during the Great War 1916"

The front of Lady Chapel

The modern house adjoining the chapel was built around 1725 and restored by Sir Hugh Bell in 1916.

We left the chapel and dropped down to a field path which we followed, now on the Cleveland Way.

Leaving the grounds of Lady Chapel

We drop down to join the Cleveland Way, looking over the Vale of Mowbray

Following the Cleveland Way past the transmitter masts at Beacon Hill

We walked uphill through the birch trees of South Wood to reach transmitter masts. Passing through gates at the side of the masts we followed the Cleveland Way upwards towards Scarth Wood Moor, all the time enjoying a fine prospect towards the Cleveland Hills, and in the foreground Whorl Hill.

Eventually we reached a wooden sign at the deep trough of Scarth Nick, pointing towards Cod Beck Reservoir, and we left the Cleveland Way to soon join a tarmac road that runs from Swainby to Sheepwash.

TSB explains that during the Ice Age of approximately 20,000 years ago, a glacier from the north enveloped an area 20 - 30 miles wide and 1000 or more feet thick. It failed to cover the moors but crept into Scugdale depositing materials from Scotland, Cumbria and Durham. Sand, gravel and stones left by meltwater formed the conspicuous mound of Round Hill, the present car park at Sheepwash.

Reaching the water splash at Sheepwash we sat by the stream and enjoyed coffee and scones with the pleasant background accompaniment of burbling water.

Whorl Hill and Roseberry behind

We leave the Cleveland Way at Scarth Nick

Car park and reservoir at Round Hill

Walking along the Swainby to Sheepwash road

Coffee and scones by the stream at Sheepwash

After enjoying our break we crossed the beck and climbed up Pamperdale Moor, our path running alongside the woods that drop down to the reservoir. This path is known as High Lane and is the old Drovers' Road. TSB suggests that it was probably used by prehistoric man, the Romans and, before the present day road was made, as a corridor through the Cleveland Hills. Just as we reached the tarmac road from Osmotherley we saw the ruins of Solomon's Temple, which was built by the eccentric Solomon Metcalf in 1812 and had images of the sun, moon and stars on its walls.

Looking back to Sheepwash

Clive admires some early heathers

Many different varieties of heathers to be seen

Joining the Drovers road

The Drovers road

The remains of Solomon's Temple

We followed the tarmac road to Chequers Farm. This interesting building was an old inn and held a licence for 300 years until 1945. When it was a hostelry it was famous for keeping an old peat fire alight for 150 years! The sign of the Inn was a chequers board signifying that it would change money for the drovers and on the sign was the cryptic message "Be not in haste, Step in and taste, Ale tomorrow for nothing.' As we all know, tomorrow never comes! The old sign has been mounted behind glass on the farm wall.

Chequers Farm

Old Inn Sign - "Be not in haste, step in and taste, ale tomorrow for nothing"

TSB notes that drovers used to bring vast herds of cattle from the Highlands of Scotland across the Hambleton Hills on their way to the markets of East Anglia, the Midlands and London. Their average pace was just 2 miles per hour.

We turned right off the Drovers' road onto a green track and almost immediately saw a small shrine against the wall on our left side. When I reported this shrine in my blog a couple of years ago I received a nice email explaining its significance, which I'll copy here:

a sutton6 March 2015 at 11:29

The shrine you mention is that of my Mam. The significance is my Mam and Dad spent a glorious day together walking around Osmotherley in 1945 and they had a photograph taken there as a young couple, Dad in his uniform. He was a Paratrooper in the 6th Airborne, 9th Battalion. He was only 18 years old when he dropped on D day in Normandy and on the Rhine crossing, he had a miraculous escape, saved by a tiny cross which stopped a machine gun bullet. He has written a book called 'A Teenager's War' by Ron Tucker, it is a moving, heartwarming, funny story and there are photographs of them at the very same spot in Osmotherley! and if anyone is interested we sell his book for £13 (inc p&p) and all the proceeds go to S.A.F.A.
We can be contacted at g.a.sutton@ntlworld.com, please feel free to email.

Shrine near old Chequers Inn, see above

Late lamb

Track to Oakdale

Reaching Oakdale

Reaching Oakdale Reservoir we found the gate to the lower reservoir open so walked in to have a look at the lower reservoir, usually inaccessible from this side. It is a very pretty and peaceful spot.

Oakdale Lower reservoir

Lower reservoir

Leaving the reservoir we joined the farm road across Slap Stone Beck (apparently this name refers to slippery stones at the ford) and admired an attractive conifer garden before entering Green Lane to pass by White House Farm.

Attractive conifers

Passing White House Farm

Woodlands and Cote Ghyll at the bottom of Middlestye Bank

Across fields to Osmotherley

As We entered the village along narrow alleyways we noticed an old chapel in the terraced row of cottages, obviously still in use. Tom Scott Burns tells us that John Wesley preached in Osmotherley in 1745 and the chapel was built nine years later. Wesley returned to preach again at Osmotherley in June 1761, and probably used this chapel.

Passageway is still on Cleveland Way

Old Chapel

Chapel

Back to Osmotherley centre

Emerging into the village near to North End we crossed the road and went behind the Queen Catherine Hotel to look at the 12th Century St Peter's Church, which is almost hidden from view on the High Street.

It was unlocked and we went inside to look around. The tower is 15th century and the walls were built on Norman remains. There are fragments of Saxon crosses and part of a hogback in the porch.
http://www.osmotherley.com/St-Peters-osmotherley.php

St Peter's Church, Osmotherley

Although there were plenty of gravestones dating back to the 1700s we were disappointed to find little in the way of flowery Victorian epitaphs. Perhaps they were frowned upon in this area where Methodism and Wesleyan chapels held sway in most villages.