The Elizabethan Glass Makers of Spaunton Moor
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2015 The Northern Echo 35 Walks what’son Walks The Elizabethan Glass Makers of Spaunton Moor furnace is thought to date from 1580 you follow the left-hand broad Walk information and was probably built by Huguenot path straight on to soon reach the glass workers, French Calvinist conspicuous Ana Cross. Distance: 12.8 km (8 miles) Protestants who fled to this remote Time: 4 hours corner of England at the time of the French Wars of Religion. This At Ana Cross, carry straight on Maps: Ordnance Survey Explorer area provided the raw materials for 2along the eroded path down to OL26 & OL27 glass-making, but also provided the soon join a clear shooters’ track, Parking: On street parking seclusion they needed. It is thought where you head left along this track throughout Lastingham; please park that the furnace was abandoned and follow it for 0.75 km to join the considerately. around 1600, perhaps they had been moorland road at Bank Top. Turn right along this road (take care), Refreshments: Pubs at Lastingham discovered? The Elizabethan glass which soon winds very steeply and Rosedale Abbey furnace was removed from Spaunton Moor and reconstructed at the down Chimney Bank into Rosedale Terrain: Clear moorland tracks and Ryedale Folk Museum. The tradition Abbey to reach the White Horse paths for most of the way, with a of handmade glass continues today Farm Hotel (opposite the road steep descent down Chimney Bank at the studio of Gillies Jones Glass, turning towards ‘Thorgill’). into Rosedale Abbey. Exposed to the which can be found at Rosedale elements, and some boggy, slippery Abbey. High up on this moorland and rough ground in places. Turn right here along the track stands Ana Cross, the tallest cross 3into the car park (signpost), and How to get there: Lastingham lies Seven, and a fence now continues on the North York Moors at 12-ft walk across the car park passing in along a minor road to the north-east ahead. Carry straight on along high. There has been a cross on this front of the pub and then straight of Kirkbymoorside on the southern the clear path alongside the fence site for centuries, indeed, remnants on along the track at the far end edge of the North York Moors. of the original pre-Norman Ana on your left (still heading down of the car park. Continue straight Cross can still be seen in St Mary’s Caution: Rough paths in places, as on along this clear track, passing a through Rosedale along the foot of Crypt at Lastingham. well as a stream crossing (Tranmire number of farms and houses, for 1.5 the moorland bank) for 500 metres Beck), the bank down to which km (keep to the clear track) all the to reach a stone wall enclosure is eroded and slippery. There is a The walk way to reach Hollins Farm at the on your left, where you continue dropping down for 450 metres section of boggy ground on the end of the track, with its roofless straight on alongside this wall across heather moorland into the approach to Askew Rigg (SE 743 From the Blacksmith’s Arms barn. (passing the site of the Elizabethan 918) that has a couple of submerged 1in the centre of Lastingham glass furnace). Where the wall side-valley of Tranmire Beck (take flagstones – the bog to the side (with your back to the pub), turn bends away again to your left, care crossing the stream). Cross of these flagstones is very deep; left along the road through the Just before the gate that leads continue along the clear broad path the stream then follow the path either walk across the submerged village then sharp left towards 4into the farmyard of Hollins for 300 metres before rising gently ahead climbing quite steeply up flagstones by testing the ground in ‘Cropton, Pickering, Rosedale’ then Farm, branch off to the right up then levelling out again, where out of the valley. As you head up front of you with a walking pole or continue along the road over a (signpost) along a grassy track you continue along the broad path/ onto the moorland (at the top of the skirt around this section completely. bridge across a stream then, where up alongside the wall on your left track for a further 475 metres to climb), carry straight on to soon Take care walking along the roads, the main road bends sharp right, (passing two old stone gateposts) reach an intersection of paths and join the corner of an enclosure on particularly on the descent down turn left up along a road passing rising up across the hillside to soon a waymarker post (be observant), your right (fence and overgrown Chimney Bank. Lastingham Grange Hotel and up reach a fork in the grassy track as at Grid Ref SE 745 921. hedge). Carry straight on alongside to reach a gate at the end of the the wall bends left. Take the left this enclosure on your right then, Points of interest road (and top of the village), with hand track curving round to the where this enclosure ends, carry Spaunton Moor ahead of you. left alongside the wall (track soon Turn right at this path on to quickly join a wall on your left (path becomes a track). Head HIS walk explores the Head through the gate and walk levels out). Follow this clear track 5intersection and follow the clear straight on along the clear track starkly beautiful moorland up the track to quickly reach a straight on alongside the wall on narrow path rising up across the alongside the wall on your left to of Spaunton Moor and crossroads of tracks, marked by a your left, heading down through the moorland, then levelling out across soon reach the crossroads of tracks TAskew Rigg. On the eastern signpost and the Millennium Stone. valley of Rosedale along the foot the moorland (and crossing an beside the Lastingham Millennium side of this moorland was once a Head straight on at this junction of the quite steep moorland slope. area of boggy ground – take care stone again, where you turn left secretive industry. In Elizabethan of tracks (signpost ‘Rosedale’) Follow this track for 800m until you across the submerged flagstones; back into Lastingham. times skilled glass makers came to and follow this clear track rising come to a fork in the track/path test the ground in front of you as this secluded valley to produce glass gradually up across the broad where the wall bends away down to there is deep bog), before rising Mark Reid illegally, for glass making was then moorland ridge (Lastingham Ridge) your left towards woodland – carry up onto the broad moorland ridge Walking Weekends 2015 only carried out by craftsmen who for 1.75 km to reach a track junction straight on along the clear but of Askew Rigg, where you join walkingweekenders.co.uk held special licences and so many at Spring Heads Turn. Carry rough path ahead for 200 metres to a shooters’ track across your Hill skills, outdoor adventures and glass makers went ‘underground’. straight on along the clear track re-join the wall on your left, where path (900 metres from the path team events in the great outdoors, In 1968 the extensive remains of rising up across Spaunton Moor for you continue alongside the wall intersection). At the shooters track, with Mark Reid. an Elizabethan glass furnace were a further 0.75 km to reach a fork in for 125 metres until the wall bends take the footpath directly opposite teamwalking.co.uk found on Spaunton Moor. This the track (information sign), where sharp left down towards the River (waymarker), and follow the path Countrydiary By Phil GatesBBirdwatch y Ian Kerr ARLY spring is one of the best times fascinating little OWN the ages, certainly from Arctic Circle. Meanwhile, despite the very of the year to look for common animals the patterns Shakespearian times, for many mixed weather, other small migrants have D people swallows have been the real E lizards. Chilly nights mean that these of their scales are been arriving. Willow warblers are now attractive little reptiles need to sunbathe exquisitely beautiful harbingers of spring. A steady arrival of widespread. I had my first last weekend, in the early morning to raise their body and their colour can these delightful birds is now underway just after being battered by a hail storm. temperature, offering the possibility of vary from gun-metal although many more are obviously still Among larger, more spectacular species, catching a glimpse of one while it is still grey, buff and brown lingering southwards hoping, like the rest three pairs of ospreys are now back and inactive. to, rarely, green. of us, for the weather to warm up and stay exploring nest sites at our only breeding Some of the best places for seeing Male common lizards that way. site at Kielder. Others were at Derwent lizards are in the dales, where they have develop an orange I came across my first group on Monday, Reservoir and Lamesley and, in North favourite basking spots on sunny banks belly during the feeding alongside much larger numbers Yorkshire, at Wykeham Lakes, Fulford and on dry stone walls on moorland. Last breeding season and of sand martins over a small lake. Unless and Staveley. Great white egrets were at after mating takes week we spotted one near Blanchland in weather conditions are unusually warm, Greenabella Marsh and East Chevington place the female’s eggs Northumberland, hunting insects that were newly-arrived swallows and martins and a purple heron overflew Wallsend.