Newton-under-Roseberry to

Old Nunthorpe

7 miles                      Cold and grey

We parked at the same lay by as last week, close to the village of Newton under Roseberry.  We walked back through the village  past the King's Head pub. Tom Scott Burns informs us that the King's Head dates back to 1796 and was run by an old woman known as 'Old Gag Mally Wright'  who started a fair in the village and was a 'handy body' who acted as midwife and also laid out the dead. Locals said she 'tied up t' jaws of t' dying afore tha wur deead'.  The fair developed into a kind of disorderly annual orgy attended by the lowest classes and in 1901 the Vicar of Newton, the Rev. Tugman, successfully petitioned for it to be suppressed. 

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

We meet a rival walking group in the car park.  Hello Colin!

The King's Head

The Old Village Hall

We turned left into Roseberry Lane and walked towards the 'Cleveland Mini Matterhorn' as Tom Scott Burns fondly describes Roseberry Topping.

The name Roseberry has puzzled many historians.  In 1119 it was Outhenesbergh, then Osenburgh in 1424 and Roseberye in 1657.  The hill was mined for iron ore between 1880 and 1926 and in 1912 the mining caused a landslip that gave the hill its distinctive shape.   We climbed the hill then turned west to walk down to the folly built on its western slope.

We begin the climb

Icy paths needed care

We walk beneath the rocky face of Roseberry

Wilson's Folly

TSB tells us that a Northumbrian princess had been warned by an astrologer that her son Oswy would be drowned on a certain day.  To avoid this she took the child to the summit of Roseberry Topping where he would surely be safe from drowning. While she slept the child wandered off and fell down a well situated on the North East slope of Roseberry, fulfilling the prophecy, which led the princess to kill herself.  Mother and child were buried together and 'Os by his mother lay' and so the village of Osmotherly gained its name.   

Roseberry from Wilson's Folly

Looking down from Wilson's Folly

We walked down to a gate and entered Newton Woods.  The path follows the edge of the wood and then drops down until it arrives at the site of the old incline railway running parallel with Cliff Rigg Quarry.   We then crossed the Middlesbrough to Whitby railway line via a stone bridge and on reaching the road turned right to walk along the grass verge to the mountain rescue huts, where we turned left at a footpath sign.

Newton Woods

We descend to the Middlesbrough to Whitby Railway line

Turn left at the Cleveland Mountain Rescue Huts

  

We walked along this lane which runs parallel to the old rail bed to Langbaurgh Quarry that becomes a path parallel to a ridge with more disused quarries.  This ridge is of whinstone (the term for any hard dark coloured rock) and stretches to Quarry Hill Farm.

We came to a stile which was sheltered by trees, and used it as table and chairs to enjoy our coffee and scones with a fine view back to Roseberry Topping.

The footpath to Quarry Hill Farm....

... becomes less defined as we progress

The tups make way, we are still on the footpath

This stile makes a fine table and chairs

Resuming our walk took us through the grounds of Whinstone View Country Park from where we crossed a bridge over Main Stell and joined fields to pass by the attractive building of Quarry Hill Farm, where we admired two very old Case tractors, still rusting in a small paddock.

Our path is hidden among the fallen leaves

Passing through the grounds of Whinstone View 

Cross the bridge...

.. and walk alongside Main Stell

Field path takes us to....

...  Quarry Hill Farm

Very old Case Tractors

Leaving the tractors we crossed the A179 and walked over a field through some stables to the road through Old Nunthorpe.  The original name of the village was Torp which was amended to Nunthorpe in the early 12th century in honour of a Cistercian Nunnery.  In 1231 the nunnery moved to Baysdale.  We walked past Nunthorpe Hall, now a residential care home, and turned right at a signpost to walk through the grounds of Hall Farm.  This farm was until recently a working sheep farm but signs show that it was auctioned in 2015 and it now stands empty.  It had been part of the Hall estate and its outbuildings had once been impressive compared with other farm buildings.

We were very interested in a mural painted on the wall of one outbuilding, which appeared to show a personal story of the old tenants.

Walking past Nunthorpe Hall...

.. to turn right into farm buildings

Impressive outbuildings

Ripe for renovation 

Weather vane at Nunthorpe Hall Farm

Interesting mural at Hall Farm appears to tell a personal story

Looking back at Nunthorpe Hall as we approach the A172

We continued through the farm buildings following a footpath that led us to the A172 which we crossed to enter fields at a sign.  This track led us diagonally across a large field to a new farm building, then to the imposing Morton Carr Farm.

Morton Carr Farm

TSB reports that Carr is a Norse word for a marshy piece of land, and these lowland meadows which are drained by numerous stells are certainly marshy.  We passed by Morton Carr Farm and turned right at its outbuildings and walked across fields towards Eastfield Farm.

Three years ago when Clive and I walked this path we saw two foxes running together near to Eastfield Farm, sadly not repeated today.

Not very clear so look hard!

Recrossing Main Stell

Walking alongside Main Stell towards Eastfields Farm

Eastfields Farm

We noticed a new (to us) weather vane of a wild fowl taking off at Eastfields Farm and just after I photographed it a flock of geese passed over the farm roof.

Weather vane at Eastfields Farm

Real ones!

We walked on following our path through fields and were pleased to see a small flock of Yellow Hammers, now a red listed bird owing to recent population decline.

Yellow Hammer

Crossing the Stell as we head towards Roseberry

Several more fields brought us to the Middlesbrough to Whitby railway line where we crossed under a bridge. We soon reached stepping stones over Main Stell and the outskirts of Newton-under-Roseberry.

We need to go under that bridge

It looks passable

More fields....

A walk through a field with horses brought us to St Oswald's Church and the end of our walk.

Clive has an apple to offer

St Oswald's Church

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.