Ginnels in Robin Hood's Bay! Wots them?

The're called Ginnels", the person saId to the group,  pointing down one of the streets down the bottom of bay bank.

Even one of the information boards in the national park caravan states that the narrow streets and alleyways in Bay are called "Ginnels".  This is wrong!!  They are NOT called ginnels here.  Ginnels is is a West Yorkshire word describing alleys and not a word used in any shape or form on the north east coast  It is not used in York either but I understand it is used in Harrogate.

I was born in Whitby, and spent most of my life there and  now live in Bay,  I have never heard the word Ginnels used locally other than by folk from west Yorkshire.   Just to be certain I  consulted a couple of my relatives, both have been life long residents in the village, one, now in his eighties  is probably the oldest long term resident of Bay . I've also checked with other native speakers in Scarborough, RHB, Whitby & Staithes.  Not one  of those consulted identified 'ginnels' as a word they would use locally to describe ANY feature along the NE coast let alone alleyways or passageways.

Nor is it an older word no longer used as none of the older books on Whitby (such as Charlton"s History....etc.,) & the coast contain the word, or more recent offerings such as 'A History of Robin Hood's Bay  by B.Farnill published by the NYMNP  (1960's) or , Robin Hood's Bay As I have known it, by R P Pennock (2002), another life long local family with long family tradition of living here.

The word 'Yard' is a description  is the word used in Whitby to describe narrow passageways between rows of houses, such as Blackburns Yard and so on, along with 'Ghaut' which describes a yard which leads down to the harbour or foreshore.   However neither of these words have ever been used locally in RHB to describe narrow passages or streets.

In York, Staithes, Whitby,  Scarborough, & RHB  or indeed further inland on the moors, the nearest word would be 'snicket "'  but this is used more in the countryside locally for gaps and shortcuts.

Most of us would simply describe the named alleys and passages simply as streets, allyes or lanes.  A snicket might connect two lanes though!.

So please use the right word!!

The Oldest Farm Building?

Along Lealhom side in the Esk valley there is a an delapitated old farm and several run down buildings.  Above one on the lintel is carved the date  1680 and in two separate panels, the initials 'TT" & 'TT' in the second panel also.

This is probably the oldest dated building in the North Yorkshire Moors.  Like the rest of the buildings it is in a poor condition and will, eventually fall down.  A shame if it does

Water Trough, Hempsyke

Between Littlebeck and Ugglebarnby you'll find this at the side of the road. 
The fountain was converted from a spring by the landowner John Allen, a ship owner born in Whitby in 1790.  
Three verses on zinc plates have been placed.
'Man made the trough,
The water God bestows,
Then praise His Name
From whom the blessing flows.'

To read the rest you'll have to do a bit of searching on foot, or the internet.











Much more intriguing a few yards away on the opposite side of the road is this offering high on the gable end of this building.  It's been there ever since I can remember and looks older  than me!! This was the house built by John Allen.Hawsker,a few miles from Whitby has this lovely roadside well on the road to RHB.  Initialled TC & dated 1790, this was probably the well for the whole village until mains water was supplied in the early 1900's.  When my grandparents owned the Hare & Hounds in the village from the 1920s to 1957 there were still a couple of hand-pumps in the village, one of which was next to the pub at Crete cottage.

Tyne Tour 2012

November sees the annual River Tyne descent.

Here's me.......

I paddled from Barrisford to Hexham... grade ii + III in the warden's gorge.
Here's a video of me half heartedly trying to get onto a surf wave at the bottom, but too many kayakers kept coming down and crashing into me.....

Inscribed Stones

After reading "An illustrated guide to the stone antiquities on the north yorkshire moors by E. Ogilvie and another booklet by Stanhope White I went in search of two inscribed by Thomas Harwood at Glaisdale.

The first at NZ742030 was easily found at the start of the bridleway leading up to Red House.

The inscription now partially obscured reads; "Francis Hartus to repare this yat and yatstead T.H.1737"

This second inscribed stone was much harder to find as both authors gave wrong grid references. The stone is not

propped against the wall as one author claims but is a part of a large stone in the base of the wall. at NZ 740033.

This inscription reads:- JOHN CAMPION GRANSIR: GAT: LEVE:OF:GAMPLIN:FROM STILE:TO COME: AND: TAKE:UP:THE:UPER END OF WATSON:COW:CLOSE:GREAT HARDIL TAKEN UP AFTER JOHGN CAMPION:GRANDSIR: TOLD THE LOW END OF WATSON:HI: HARDIL JOHN CAMPION: TOLD: THOMAS:HARWOOD:OF TAKING THEM UP:

apparently this is a record of a legal trasaction about the right of way for his friend John Campion who farmed at High Hardhill.

Grey Towers Mansion - Nunthorpe

Just over the border in Cleveland is this gothic mansion. At first glance it looks like any victorian building in proximity to any other industrial building of that time, dark and dirty. But this is an illusion. For the building material is unique and comes from the Whinstone Ridge/dyke which cuts across the North Yorkshire Moors and was widely used for setts - cobble stones! Those cobbles along the high street in Guisborough are also of the same material. It's geological name is Basalt, a very hard and almost black volcanic rock.

Built in the 1870's for the man who designed and built the tay bridge, it also became the home of another industrialist, Mr Dorman of Dorman & Long fame. It is now converted into a number of flats.

Here, in this close up you can see the sandstone quoin stones at the edge and the much smaller and darker whinstone/basalt.

(See also Round and About The North Yorkshire Moors Voll II by Tom Scott Burns & Martin Rigg, page 120)

The Esklets

The Esklets, four km south of Westerdale in the NYMNP, is well known for being the source of the River Esk.

There used to be a farm there too. Here's my picture taken in about 1975. It was knocked down and the rubble used to create a farm track in 1978. I met the owner as he admired his new track and asked him why?, and he told told me so many people were using it, it was dangerous. So he knocked it! He also told me it hadn't been lived in since WWII, which like many buildings on the edges of the moors had been evacuated to allow the military use the moors for live firing ranges.