Monthly Archives: December 2016

Handale Abbey / Scaw the Serpent Slayer

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Handale was site of Cistercian nunnery founded in 1133 and dissolved in 1539. In the 1750s the site was used as a Cotton Mill.
Handale Abbey Walled Garden, Liverton / Loftus
None of the original priory buildings remain today but the stone has been reused in the current farm buildings and walled garden.
Handale Abbey Walled Garden, Liverton / Loftus
A Medieval cross base and tomb lid are located just outside the walled garden.
Handale Abbey Walled Garden, Liverton / Loftus

Sixteen skeletons, a stone coffin and a sword were found on the site in 1830. Local legends speak of a serpent (or a dragon) that would devour the beautiful maidens of Loftus, until a brave Knight called Scaw killed it and rescued Emma Beckwith

The stone coffin supposedly carried the words “Snake Slayer” with Scaw inside still holding his sword, but the stone coffin on-site doesn’t seem to carry such an inscription and the present location of the sword appears to have been lost.

An unusual memorial on the site was erected to the last carthorse on the farm, before diesel tractors took over
Handale Abbey Walled Garden, Liverton / Loftus

The walled garden has been restored with funding from the National Park and LEADER
Handale Abbey Walled Garden, Liverton / Loftus

George Hanson Memorial, Staithes

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This clock and barometer in Staithes commemorate a local tragedy. George Hanson the Runswick Lifeboat Head Launcher died after saving a school boy and attempting to save a man in the harbour at Staithes.
George Hanson Memorial, Staithes
The plaque reads :-
Erected to honour the memory of George Hanson, A Staithes fisherman who lost his life in a gallant attempt to rescue a drowning bather in a rough sea on Wednesday 28th August 1957.
George Hanson Memorial, Staithes

Unveiled by Sir William Worlsey (4th Baronet of Hovingham and amateur first-class cricketer.) and dedicated by the Bishop of Whitby in 1959 (which would have been Philip Wheeldon at the time)

Frank Wild Statue, Antarctic Explorer, Skelton

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Commander John Robert Francis “Frank” Wild CBE RNVR FRGS was born in Skelton in 1873.

Quoting Wikipedia :-

Frank Wild took part in the following Antarctic expeditions:

In 1901 he was a member of Robert Falcon Scott’s crew as an Able seaman on the Discovery, along with Ernest Shackleton who was then a sub-lieutenant.
He was with Shackleton on the Nimrod Expedition 1908–1909 and was a member of the team that crossed the Ross Barrier and Beardmore Glacier at a record latitude of 88º23’S.
In 1911 he joined Douglas Mawson’s Aurora expedition and was in charge of the western base on the Shackleton Ice Shelf.
He served as Shackleton’s second-in-command on Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914–1916).
He was second-in-command of the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition (1921–22).

Frank Wild was also awarded the ‘Polar Medal with Four Clasps’

On 29 September 2016 this statue by sculptor William Harling was unveiled in the Ringrose Orchard by Mr Anthony Wharton.

Frank Wild Statue, Skelton