This stone is thought to date from around 1720 at a time when each parish was responsible for looking after its own roads.
This is at the edge of Farndale (F) and presumably the end of their patch, i would say the other side is Rosedale (RO)
Monthly Archives: July 2013
Margery Bradley Stone
The Margery Bradley stone marks the meeting point of three parishes. Farndale East, Rosedale West Side and Westerdale.
An ordnance survey mark has been cut into the road side.
The other face was inscribed “TD” for Thomas Duncombe in the 18th century.
The stone has existed as a waymarker since medieval times, but it could have originally have been from the bronze age and be associated with the nearby Flat Howe burial mound.
Rosedale Rode North Guidestone
Old Ralphs Cross
‘Old Ralph’ stands just a short distance from the very well known ‘Young Ralph’, famous for being on the logo of the national park.
The lesser visited Old Ralph could be as old as the 11th century, the Guisborough Charters of 1200AD mention a Crucem Radulphi, possibly named after Bishop Ralph of Guisborough Priory.
One face of the cross carries the inscription CD 1708 which was added for landowner Charles Duncombe.
Most moor crosses are way markers or land boundaries, rather than religious objects.
Frank Elgee Memorial, Blakey Ridge
Frank Elgee was born in North Ormesby on 8th November 1880, when the Dorman Museum opened in 1904 he was made assistant curator and became the curator in 1923.
He authored numerous books on the North Yorkshire Moors such as The Moorlands of North-Eastern Yorkshire (1912), The Romans in Cleveland (1923) and Early Man in North East Yorkshire (1930)
He was instrumental in the excavation of the Iron Age hillfort at Eston Nab
Elgee died in 1944 and this memorial stone was erected in 1953.
Westerdale Filter House
This strongly built building first appears on maps some time between the late 1950s and early 1970s.
That co-incides with the reservoir to the south-east being built.
The building currently appears completely empty and unused and would make a fantastic coversion into a home before it deteriorates any futher. (currently only swallows living in there)
Westerdale Hall
Pevsner states that Westerdale Hall was built as a shooting lodge for the Duncombe family before 1874 by Thomas Henry Wyatt, well before because the first edition OS map from 1857 shows it.
It became a Youth Hostel between1946-1992, heres a photo of my mum there in the early 1960s
The building is now in private ownership again.
Guidestone, Westerdale
Beresford House / Park View, Grove Hill
These two identical houses were built 1865-67 for Thomas Vaughan.
No 274 Marton Road was known as Beresford House.
In 1889 it was onwed by Marmaduke Watson Proudlock who was the general manager of the Teesside Iron and Engine Works.
The next owner was Colonel Penry William who renamed it Consett House, he was later to become MP for Middlesbrough in 1910. In later years it has served as a Salvation Army Home.
The neighbouring Park View was originally owned by Sir Joseph Calvert (one time Mayor of Middlesbrough), it became a medical centre in 1932 under Dr William Irwin.