NEWTON-UPON-RAWCLIFFE

Newton-upon-Rawcliffe
and Newtondale

 

 

 

Apart from a forest halt in lovely Newtondale, the next stop on the Moors Railway is at Levisham Station. This station is reached by road from the A169 from Pickering to Whitby, through the tiny village of Lockton. The pretty village of Levisham is situated to the east on the plateau high above Newtondale and the road drops steeply to the station where is then becomes just a forest track.

 

 

 

Newton-Upon-Rawcliffe is on a plateau to the west on the opposite side of Newtondale on the very southern edge of the national park just four miles from Pickering. This is a very pretty village where the few farms and cottages cluster around a village green with duck pond.

The entrance to the village follows a steady climb up from Pickering and is flanked by the Methodist Chapel on the left and the former school room on the right.

Once a busy agricultural village, many of the little farms and cottages have been given over to tourist accommodation

The village shop and post office is now closed but the pub with its small camp site continues to trade

The views from the village over Newtondale are spectacular.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The weather can be inhospitable on this high ground.

 

 

 

 

 

GOATHLAND

Goathland is a small village in the North York Moors nine miles

south of Whitby.

Between 1992 and 2010 the village was the Aidensfield of the T.V series Heartbeat, about the local police in the 1960's.

 

 





The village has a station on the North York Moors Railway between Pickering and Whitby and was often featured in Heartbeat.

The village green, the post office, Scripps garage and the Aidensfield Arms will all be familiar to Heartbeat fans.

 

 

 

 

The bus stop has a gate to prevent its use by the sheep grazing freely throughout the village.

 

In Ad 71 the Roman army had established a fort at Malton from which a number of roads radiated. The remains of a road close to Goathland known locally as Wades Causeway may have been one of these roads leading north-eastwards
to the North Sea coast. Wade was a local giant of many legends and is said to have created The Hole of Horcum.

This amazing landscape has many twists and turns as well as ups and downs.
and one of its most spectacular features is The Hole of Horcum a huge natural amphitheatre south of Goathland. It is 400 feet deep and over half a mile in length and is known locally as The Devil's Punchbowl. Local legend says that local Giant Wade scooped up a handful of earth to throw at his wife during an arguments and it landed as Rosebury Topping at the other end of the Moors. It was actually formed by glacial action and a process called spring-sapping.

In 1962 a ballistic missile early warning station was established at RAF Fylingdales close to Goathland. Three radomes, 40 metres in diameter, were erected to house the radar units and soon became a tourist attraction 
known as 'The Golfballs'.
They were replaced in 1992 by a single pyramidal structure.
 



 

 

 

 

The North York Moors National Park of 554 square miles was established in 1992, God's own country indeed.

 

 

 

 

WHITBY 3

TOWN CENTRE AND WEST CLIFF

 

 

The town centre is on the west side of the river where there are modern shops and a supermarket.  Baxtergate is the main street .

 

Pedestrians and vehicles must wait for the bridge to re-open 

when river traffic has passed through.

 

Baxtergate is on the opposite side to the left.

 

The Old Smuggler in Baxtergate with Loggerheads Yard alongside abounds in tales of smuggling and there are rumours of a tunnel connecting to the harbour.

 

 

 

There are several alleyways and yards leading through to the harbour side.

Pier Road on the east side of the river estuary is where the
few fishing boats unload their catch.

On the other side of the road there are a few amusement arcades
and souvenir shops.

At the end there is a bandstand leading onto the outer piers and the road swings up to the left. With the unusual name of  Kyber Pass it leads up to the West Cliff where there is a promenade lined with hotels and guest houses.

 

 

On the cliff edge Captain Cook surveys the scene.

A favourite attraction in Whitby is the old steam bus and charabanc.
This 1931 steam wagon was converted into a 30 seat bus to carry tourists round the town.

Whitby still maintains a rail link to Teeside but the old lines to Scarborough and to Pickering fell under the Beeching axe in the 1950's. However the North York Moors Steam Railway now runs between Whitby and Pickering providing a useful link from Whitby to the Heartbeat village of Goathland.
Goathland appears in the next blog.
 

WHITBY 2

 

 

 

 

The old town and the East Cliff

 

 

 

 

 

Sandgate on the east side of the town leads us through the older part of Whitby to the old Market Place. Here most of the shops are given over to the tourist industry and several Jet shops.

 

 

 

 

 

Jet is a mineraloid deriving from fossilized wood of the Monkey Puzzle tree which is only found in the Whitby area. This black coal like mineral has been fashioned into jewellery since Roman times and became fashionable when Queen Victoria wore it when she was in mourning 

following the death of Prince Albert.

A Victorian jet workshop can be visited at the end of Church Street where a carver can be seen carving jet using modern tools.

 

 

Although the Market Place dates to 1640, the old Town Hall and Market, a Grade 11* listed building, was built in 1872.

 

The end of Sandgate leads to a pier and a small sandy beach, where the lifeboat can be seen close up.
There has been a lifeboat at Whitby since 1802.

 

Henry Freeman lifeboat cox 1877-1899

Church Street is a charming old street which runs across the top of the Market Place to a dead end and steps leading up the church. Here the old fishermen's cottages line both sides of the street, overlooking the river and also

climbing up the Cliffside.