Another cold sunday. At the car park in Goathland it was around freezing point. We walked down the incline towards Grosmont, up to Lease Rigg, along Randymere and along the beck to the Mallyan Spout.
This village which appears regularly in Heartbeat - but under the name Aidensfield has changed enormously over the last 15 years. The obvious one to me is how some of the shops and businesses have forgotten their real names, such as Goathland Village Stores and now call themselves Aidensfield Stores, even the Goathland hotel was called the Aidensfield Arms for a while. The garage once a real one, operated by someone I went to school with, is now dedicated to selling the kind of tat you can buy at the sea-side.
The village green now has footpaths from end to end as the grass was wearing out, where once it was shared by sheep there are now many cars parked.
Several of the larger houses are now occupied by brash newcomers. One such house, The Stone House now sports a tank and a helicopter in its garden which replace the once mature trees. I've been told by a friend that, "He's a wheeler dealer". Clearly the Dell Boy kind*.
Even on the surrounding moors evidence of increased usage is obvious as there are now cairns built along paths and many of these paths are very, very muddy.
The walk back to Goathland via Lease Rigg was in the face of a cold NE wind and a fair bit of snow. A solitary Golden Plover was seen rather close, in one field. A quick look through my ever present bins showed the reason - an injured foot. one field was full of Field Fares & Redwings. A Green Woodpecker could be heard in the distance.
The old peat cuttings at the south end of Randymere are now no longer used and are totally obscured and overgrown with birch and pines. I also remember on my last visit to Randymere the plantation of pines had just been cut down. The replacements - mainly larch are now well over twenty feet tall. It was a long time ago obviously!.
At the car the thermometer reads -2c A thin veneer of snow covers the road.
* Well it shows you how wrong you can be - I met him today(14 Feb 08). He's local and certainly not a 'Dell Boy' type.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
Certainly does show how wrong you can be! I was outraged for the first 4 paragraphs but calmed down when I read your amended bit at the end. They are great people an have been in the village some 25 years!
Post a Comment