Nether and Over Silton to Hanging Stone and Oakdale Reservoir

                  7.8 miles                                  Fine, cold wind 

This is one of our favourite walks as it has a bit of everything; moors, villages, forests and even a reservoir.  We parked once again at Square Corner, the moors car park which is two miles from Osmotherley on the Hawnby road.  


Leaving the car we walked southwards along the forest path up the shoulder of Black Hambleton.

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

Clive chats to another walker

Black Hambleton

We turned right through a gate giving access to the remains of the conifer plantation where the path, known as Moor Lane, takes one steadily downhill for about 2.5 miles.  We paused to examine frogspawn in several small ponds but there was no sign of adult frogs.

Turn right off the Hambleton Drove road

Walking alongside the remains of Silton Forest

Plenty of frogspawn to be seen

Moor Lane

We walked down Moor Lane through conifers, passing the ruins of a lime kiln and the imposing Moor House, where we saw Southdown sheep and lambs in a field.

Moor House

We are seen off at Moor House

Kepwick across fields to our left 

Southdown Sheep

It's too windy to come out

A little further along Moor Lane we came to Rose Cottage and then on the right an ancient drinking trough, before joining the lane leading into Nether Silton.  

Moor Lane

Rose Cottage

Ancient drinking trough

The path from the village is almost hidden where it leaves the road alongside the old post office, through a white gate at a point opposite the chapel of All Saints. 

Four wheel drive in Silton

All Saints Church

Leave the road at this gate....

.... which leads between houses to...

... a stile and fields

After crossing several fields we came to the ancient and isolated church of St Mary, Over Silton, standing alone in the middle of fields without any path leading to it.  The graveyard is full of daffodils but unfortunately we appeared to be a week or so too early to see them at their best.

Looking over to Over Silton and its manor house

St Mary's Church, Over Silton

Recently re-roofed with aid of a lottery grant

Daffodils yet to open to their full glory

The wind was too strong to sit on the Jubilee bench and we retreated to the porch for our coffee and scones.  Whilst there Clive spotted an owl pellet and breaking it open found that it was full of small bones, including a couple of tiny (vole?) skulls.

Shelter from the wind

Owl pellet

Tiny bones

Rodent teeth

Finishing our coffee we looked around the graveyard and read some of the cheerful Victorian epitaphs.

Afflictions sore long time I bore,Physicians were in vain, Till God alone did hear me mourn, And eas'd me of my pain

'In vain the tears that fall from you, And here supply the place of due, (sic) How vain to weep the happy's dead, And now to heavenly realms are fled, Repine no more your 'plaints forbear, And strive at last to meet me there' 

'Just in the darling of my youth,Then death to me was sent, And you that have a longer stay, Be certain to repent'

Mary, wife of Charles who died April 16th 1788 aged 44. 'Sweet children and husband dear, live still by faith and nothing fear, But sin which is the root of strife, The seed of death the bane of life, What am I now, dust and shade, Yourselves the same, your life doth fade, This I suggest from silent urn, that whilst I speak your heart may burn, and be in flame with heavenly love, Aspiring still to things above,'

'Can love you hate, can life you kill, Can evil spring from God's good will.  This is his will that widowers chaste, Should trust in God and not make haste, Accept those words. Not else I crave.  Do not despise a spouses grave. And let me whisper one thing more, you and the children have in store, Treasure of sighs, tears, groans and prayers,  Of which you are the rightful heirs.  She that in silent dust doth sleep For you to God did often weep.  Struggling with God that he might give,  you grace in Christ to make you live. Hoping for this she did expire, God will you save, you shall Admire, Our pledges to thy care are given, the choicest gift of kindest heaven,  Their father, mother both in thee, United now they nearly see,  The soul that hindering wishes to be free,  Would yet a train of thoughts impart to thee,  But strives in vain the chilling hand of death.'

The epitaphs on the graves from the eighteenth century usually seem to leave a cautionary message for the living but we were baffled by the above. Exactly what was the long message about?  It must have been very expensive to have a gravestone engraved with such a long epitaph.

We walked across the fields away from the isolated church and towards the village of Over Silton where we passed by the old manor house.  TSB tells us that this was once owned by the gallant gentleman Sir George Orby Wombwell, baronet, who served with the 17th Lancers and took part in the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava on 25th October 1854.  His horse was shot from under him and he was taken prisoner but escaped on a Russian horse to rejoin his brigade and charge again, without sword or pistol!  He managed to continue to cheat death until 1913 when he died aged 81.   

Inside St Mary's, no electricity

We thought the chandeliers must have been made by the local blacksmith

St Mary's from the rear

Looking back at the isolated church

Manor House, Over Silton

We turned right and walked past the Manor House to a signpost where our path left the road and climbed steeply into Crabtree Bank Plantation. 

The next 2.5 miles were to be through conifers, sometimes on wide forestry tracks and sometimes on narrow footpaths but always very muddy and difficult to negotiate.  

We climbed steeply for the first mile then our path levelled out for a mile.  As we picked our way through the muddy tracks of Crabtree Plantation we saw the Hanging Stone above us.

Leave the road here...

.... and climb steeply

Hanging Stone can just be seen through saplings

In the 1980s when TSB walked through these woods he would have had a fine view of Hanging Stone and of the countryside below but sapling growth has spoiled both views to a certain extent.

Trying to see beyond the saplings

Horses and bikes have made the path very muddy in places

We came to a fork in the path where we turned right through a very muddy entrance and headed immediately upwards.  A steep climb took us through the Thimbleby Bank Plantation to emerge at a conifer wood below Thimbleby Moor.

We need to go up. Clive tries to find a path through the mud

Climbing through Big Wood

We wondered what animal had caused this damage? Deer?

Osmotherley below

Steep descent to Jenny Brewster's Gill

We followed a distinct path into the dense trees of Big Wood and  crossed a clearing where felling had taken place, to re-enter dense conifers and follow a way-marked path until we came to a slippery descent into Oak Dale.

Reaching the bottom we exited the trees and crossed a bridge over Jenny Brewster's Gill and emerged from the wood.

Tom Scott Burns explains that Jenny Brewster's Gill was named after a famous witch and was once the haunt of smugglers who peddled liquor to the surrounding villages.  Several secret stills were dotted around the moors, one being at Solomon's Temple, another Wildgoose Nest, near what is now Cod Beck Reservoir and another at Swainsty Crag on Nether Silton Moor.

Recent storm damage

Bridge over Jenny Brewster's Gill

We now walked alongside Oakdale Reservoir which was built in the 19th century to provide water to the local area but which has been decommissioned. The reservoir has been downgraded to a small lake that it is hoped will attract wildfowl.  Nothing to be seen today however!

Path to Oakdale 'reservoir'

Looking back at the trees of Big Wood

Oakdale lake

Leaving Oak Dale we climbed steeply back to Hambleton Road where a brief walk took us back to the car.  A short drive from Square Corner took us once again to Osmotherley and the Golden Lion.