The lost village of Pinchinthorpe from Newton

7 miles                        Grey and cold

Clive is away so today I am supervised by my wife on this pleasant and undemanding walk that we last did a couple of years ago.

We parked in the lay-by at Newton under Roseberry and walked through the village past the King's Head pub to the pay and display car park at the other end of the village.  Our track leaves the main road just before the car park and goes directly towards Roseberry Topping, which dominates the skyline.

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

Roseberry Topping from the car park

The track to Roseberry Topping has been resurfaced since we last walked it and is much improved.  

We followed the path up to Roseberry Common then left towards Bousdale Hill.  Keeping left we walked towards a conifer wood in the distance.  This is Hanging Stone Wood and we turned left into a field just as we reached it.

Good new surface on what was once a very muddy track

Walking towards Hanging Stone Wood

Looking back towards Newton under Roseberry

We turn left away from the Topping

Bousdale Hill

New memorial bench

Nearing Hanging Stone Wood 

We turned left before reaching Bousdale Hill and walked along a broad footpath until we came to a gate on our left, which we passed through fields.

Walking across a couple of fields led us to Bousdale Farm and we went by the front of the buildings which appear unoccupied while renovations are being carried out.  These renovations seem to be long term and little has changed since spring of 2016 when we last passed by.

Tom Scott Burns explains that Bousdale Farm was built to house Sir Joseph Pease's thoroughbred hunters. There was no water supply so Pease introduced a syphon system using a huge boiler which had done service in the first steamship that berthed in the Tees.

The old stables are an interesting design and it looks as if they are also being converted, perhaps into holiday homes.

Indistinct footpath across fields

Hanging Stone Woods

There will be changes at Bousdale Farm

The old stable block

Large stable block undergoing major works 

Leaving the farm across fields

After the farm the path crosses a field before following the field edge until a forestry track is reached.  This gently descends to meet the old disused railway track to Pinchinthorpe station.

Guisborough over to our right

Through the gate into Pinchinthorpe Woods

Activity Trail for kids in Pinchinthorpe Woods

Lots of wood carvings to see

... and some unusual sights among the trees

We meet a strange man in the woods... (only kidding Graham!)

Pinchinthorpe is an old village and TSB relates that the Domesday Book says Ulchil possessed a manor of 3 carucates, which is the amount of land that could be ploughed in a year using one team, between 60 and 180 acres depending on soil quality, at Torpe. The village's present name comes from the Norman family name of Pinciun who held the land in the 12th century.

We stopped at the cafe here for coffee and scones.

Pinchinthorpe Station

Pirate leads Carole into the cafe

Warmed through and fully refreshed we set off once more along the disused railway track that once took trains from Middlesbrough to Guisborough.  We passed by the old station and as we walked along the track had a fine view to Roseberry Topping on our left.

The Codhill Kibble

Old station building

Newer station buildings

A straight walk for two miles brought us to the end of the old railway walkway and we turned left up some steps into fields.

Now to our right was the Middlesbrough to Whitby railway line and to our left the buildings of Spite Hall Farm. TSB says that this farm was well named because it was built by a younger son to obstruct the view of his elder brother who had inherited Pinchinthorpe Hall, across the fields.

We walked parallel to the railway for a couple of fields before following a diagonal path across a field to reach a bridge over Nunthorpe Stell.

The old railway track from Pinchinthorpe to Nunthorpe

Turn left at the sign into fields

A diagonal path across a field...

... to a bridge over Nunthorpe Stell

Nunthorpe Stell

The word Stell is used locally to describe man made ditches used to drain marshy ground and an internet search finds it probably has Saxon roots:

North German: topographic name for someone who lived near a marsh, from an old dialect word stel ‘bog’, where the land was built up on mudflats (behind the dyke) for cattle grazing. 

After crossing the bridge we made our way over a field to Snow Hall Farm.  TSB thinks this unusual name might relate to Ann Snowdon who lived there in the 1890s. 

Approaching the farm we were surprised and delighted to see our first lambs of the year.

Snow Hall Farm

January lambs

Pond at Snow Hall Farm

The lane quickly leads from Snow Hall Farm to Newton and the ancient St Oswald's Church.  We had a look around the walls of this interesting old building and admired the Anglo-Saxon carved stone set in the tower of the church showing a dragon and some sort of quadruped.  Tom Scott Burns says that this stone was actually described in an eleventh century book called 'Bestiaries'.

TSB notes that until the dissolution of the monasteries this church was run by the monks at Whitby but was made a parish in 1539.

There were some ancient gravestones, some too old to read but we were disappointed to find the church locked. 

Newton under Roseberry

St Oswald's Church, Newton

Ancient stone coffin

Saxon Carving (see below)

Owl box at Newton under Roseberry

Leaving the church we turned left at the road to walk back to the lay by and our car.

Boltby to Gormire Lake and Whitestone Cliff

7 miles                  Cold and bright

We thought we would return to Gormire where we recently saw a Golden Pheasant, but on this walk approaching the lake from the opposite direction, Boltby.

We reached Boltby from the A19 Knayton turn off and drove right through the village and up a steep hill to a small designated car park at the side of the road.

We walked back down the road into Boltby where we took the first left into a lane.  Tom Scott Burns explains that Boltby is of great antiquity and is mentioned in the Domesday Book as the property of Hugh, son of Baldric.

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

The Old School House in Boltby

We turn left at the junction

Weather vanes in Boltby

We passed the last of the houses and soon our lane petered out and we went through a gate to follow a faint track over the shoulder of Little Moor, from where we were able to look down on Greendale Farm.

The lane ends at a ford and we cross the bridge...

... through the mud to Little Moor

Horse riders have made the footpath difficult as we approach Cow Pasture Wood

Follow the sign to Tang Hall

Looking down on Greendale Farm

We dropped down to Greendale Farm and continued around the side of a hill to reach Tang Hall Farm where we turned left just before the buildings.

Turn left to walk past Tang Hall Farm

A mixed flock at Tang Hall

We were now walking on the old coach road across Huggon Howl to Southwoods Hall, although it is now just a grassy path.

Reaching the gates of Southwoods Hall we turned onto a forest track into South Woods, which we followed to reach Southwoods Lodge.

Huggon Howl and Southwoods Hall

Large lake in front of Southwoods Hall

We pass by the closed gates to the Hall

Southwoods Lodge

On reaching the lodge we followed the track straight ahead through Garbutt Wood, eventually reaching Gormire Lake.  Despite walking quietly and looking carefully, we saw no sign of last walk's golden pheasant.  We walked round the lake to find a sheltered spot and sat watching a heron work his way along the far bank while we enjoyed our coffee and scones.

We take the track straight on from Southwoods Lodge

Gormire Lake appears ahead

A good spot for coffee

A heron on the far bank

There are two terraces around Gormire and TSB explains that these were once shorelines when the lake was much deeper.  Its is often described as bottomless but is actually about 27 feet deep in the centre and covers about twenty six acres.  Tradition has it that a town stood here which was destroyed in an earthquake, but the lake is actually the result of a glacial overflow channel being blocked by a landslip, hence its position up a hillside.  No streams flow from it and its waters are mainly supplied by rain and diminish with evaporation.  A major landslip happened here on the 25th March 1755 which was described by Rev John Wesley as 'like many cannons or rolling thunder'.

Leaving the lake we climbed straight up through Garbutt Wood to reach Sutton Brow.  This is a steep half mile diagonally up the side of the bank and we were much warmer by the time we reached the top.  

From here there is a fine view back to Gormire Lake and to the left over towards Roulston Scar.  After catching our breath we set off past Whitestone Cliff, still looking down at the lake from various vantage points.

A steep climb

Looking over to Hood Hill

We reach the top and walk alongside the gallops

Gormire now far below

 A couple of walkers enjoy the view even though they don't appear to have scones

Now looking back from Whitestone Cliff

We now had a three mile walk along the ridge, passing the remains of several tumuli to our right and with fine views to our left over Boltby.

Eventually we passed by the remains of an old hill fort and quarry and reached the derelict High Barn where we left the ridge at a sign, turning left to descend towards Boltby.

Tom Scott Burns explains that the fort originally had a D shaped rampart enclosing three acres.  Gold earrings from the early Bronze Age have been unearthed, along with pottery from an earlier culture, probably Neolithic.

The sky darkens but the storm clouds soon blow over

Ignore the path to Boltby and continue on the Cleveland Way

Boltby below

Looking over the quarry and hill fort

Approaching High Barn

Looking back at the workings from High Barn

The wooden sign points us down to Boltby

We followed the path steeply downhill past Hesketh Grange Farm, over a couple of bridges and then steeply uphill, back towards Boltby and our car.

Steep descent

We can see the car parked at the top of the hill

Looking back at Boltby Scar from the car park, that sign looks interesting..

A promise of things to come!  It'll soon be March..