St Mary’s Whitby

The Abbey at Whitby was one of the earliest Romanesque buildings to be erected in the North of England but my focus today was on the neighbouring church of St Mary. A while ago my friend Chris Corner posted a picture of a head carved on a capital within the church, so on a whim, I headed over the storm-battered moor road to see what I could find.

I’ve visited this church many times in the past but this was prior to my explorations of Early Medieval stonework, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The south door with its arch and carved spiral capitals lifted my spirits.

Inside the church I made my way between the beautiful box pews to the chancel arch. The arch is mostly hidden behind the upper level, the lord of the manor’s pew. There is a second arch over the entrance to the tower but this has been completely hidden behind the organ.

On the capital of the left hand arch is a carving of a head emitting unfurling foliage. This bears a striking resemblance to the ‘Green Man’ carving in Marske Church.

Marske

Liverton

Lythe

There are other foliate heads to be found locally at Easington, Liverton and Lythe .

Durham Castle

Kirklevington

Long Marton

One of the capitals on the right hand side of the arch has a carved head with a star on either side. The star is not an uncommon motif on Northern English Early Medieval stonework.

There are other elements of early stone work to be found in and around this lovely church, coupled with the Abbey next door, it is a wonderful place to visit. For me, with the failing light and the howling gale of Storm Barra blowing across the clifftop, it was time to head for home.

Blakey Topping by Chris Corner

https://cornerillustration.blogspot.com/2021/06/blakey-topping.html

Dykes on the Tabular Hills

The linear dykes of the Tabular Hills of north east Yorkshire are the third largest group in Britain both in area and the number of dykes.

The Scamridge Dykes are the most famous of the North Yorkshire Dykes, they run six abreast in a large curve for almost three kilometers from the scarp edge of Troutsdale south to the head of Kirkdale.  Their scale can only really be appreciated from the air. The dykes are thought to be prehistoric in origin, they most probably define prehistoric territorial boundaries

The Cockmoor Dykes also run south from the Troutsdale scarp where as six large dykes. As they run south to Wydale they are joined by another fourteen smaller parallel dykes.  The six large dykes are thought to be prehistoric and the additional dykes are thought to be burrowing mounds connected with the large-scale rabbit warrening industry of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

My friend Chris Corner and I took a trip down to the Tabular Hills to have a look at these mighty earthworks. We started by trying to find an embanked pit alignment at Givendale but found nothing apart from dense conifer woodland, debris and deep forestry plough ruts. We moved east to Cockmoor.

The multiple small dykes at Cockmoor, probably the result of commercial rabbit warrening.

One of three round barrows on the margins of the Cockmoor Dykes. The other two barrows have been destroyed by agricultural activities.

The rabbits have all gone. Tiny spoil heaps in the sides of the dyke, probably caused by burrowing miner bees.

One of the six large Cockmoor Dykes running down to the scarp edge overlooking Troutsdale.

A Penny Bun & Oysters

The Scamridge Dykes form a dense mixed woodland corridor across the large open fields.

 We dropped down into Troutsdale and come across this beautiful abandoned building. Chris informs me that it is a school house built in 1870

Sources

Linear Earthworks of the Tabular Hills, North East Yorkshire. D.A Spratt 1989

MAGIC

Historic England

Google Earth

 

Cursus by Cursus

This wonderful album by Chris Whitehead is my favourite album of 2019 so far. It has been released by TQ Zine.

You can get the download by ordering the latest copy of TQ or you can buy the album directly from the TQ Bandcamp page. Any income is being donated to TQN-aut by the artist to help fund other releases by artists who need financial support to do so

The Penny Hedge

Read Chris Corner’s account of The Penny Hedge (Horngarth) Ceremony here

Stoup Brow Moor

Hunting for glyphs

Happy New Year

I’d just like to wish all my readers a very Happy New Year and thank you for taking the time to visit my blog. 2016 has been a pretty fruitful year for me, I started the year curating The Black Path exhibition at the House of Blah Blah gallery and finished the year with the release of the music from the project.

 I’d like to thank all the people who have helped and inspired me throughout the year and look forward to continuing in 2017 where we will see the start of a new project and hopefully an exhibition in 2018.

 All the best for 2017

Gavin

I wish you a merry Christmas,

And a happy New year,

A pantry of roast beef,

And a barrel of beer

*

Trad – Cleveland

Source W. Henderson 1879

 

Tonight is the New Year’s night, tomorrow is the day,

And we are come for our right and for our ray,

As we used to do in old King Henry’s day.

Sing fellows, sing Hagman heigh!

*

If you go to the bacon fitch, cut me a good bit,

Cut, cut and low, beware of your man;

Cut and cut round, beware of your thumb,

That I and my merry men may have some.

Sing fellows, sing Hagman heigh!

*

If you go to the black ark, bring me ten mark,

Ten mark, ten pound, throw it down upon the ground,

That I and my merry men may have some.

Sing fellows, sing Hagman heigh!

*

Trad – North Yorkshire

Source W. Henderson 1879

Utterances

For the fourth year in a row, and rapidly becoming a Christmas tradition, Richard Sanderson has released a themed compilation of tracks on the wonderful Linear Obsessional label. The collection is described as The fourth of Linear Obsessional’s annual “Open Access” compilations of tracks exactly two minutes long. This time the theme was the human voice. 
112 tracks from around the globe exploring all manner of approaches to the sounds of the “first instrument” 

The collection is free to download and can be found here 

Wade’s Causeway – Chris Whitehead

This arrived today, as with all of Chris’s recordings, it is delicate, atmospheric and rather beautiful.

The disc is available to buy from the Semperflorens website 

From the sleeve notes

All sounds used in this composition were recorded on Wheeldale Moor in North Yorkshire, England. Amongst the wild heather a sinuous, linear stone structure known as Wade’s Causeway crosses the windswept land like a mile long scar.

At first thought to be a Roman road, the origin of Wade’s Causeway now seems less certain. many hold it to be a Neolithic or Bronze Age boundary structure, or possibly the remains of a later Medieval road.

Wade was a mythical giant said to dwell near Whitby. His presence deeply permiates the folklore of the area.

Many thanks to Chris Corner for his advice and for mastering Wade’s Causeway

The Black Path – The Album

 

Linear Obsessional is proud to release this compilation of pieces that almost accidently refer to the demise of the once great steel making tradition on Teesside, in the North East of England.

“The Black Path” was an exhibition held at the House of Blah Blah in Middlesbrough in January 2016. This CD is a recording of sounds, music and poetry from that exhibition.

The download includes a 24 page PDF booklet of notes, photographs from the exhibition, and an essay by Alistair Nixon.

released October 21, 2016

https://linearobsessional.bandcamp.com/album/the-black-path

The Black Path is an ancient route. It has been many things: the northern boundary of an Anglian Kingdom, a medieval sailor’s trod, and a convenient path to work for the steelworkers of Middlesbrough.
The Black Path Project commenced in early 2015 as collaboration between Chris Whitehead and Gavin Parry, they soon realised that a number of other artists in the area had also created work based around the path. They then set about contacting artists and asking them if they would be willing to join the project with a goal of producing an exhibition. Once assembled, they approached the House of Blah Blah, who were very enthusiastic about the project and agreed to work with the group.
The goal of the project was to present a contemporary response to the Black Path, at the time no one could have predicted what events unfold over the following months in terms of the collapse of the steel industry. This project now has an added poignancy; it has accidentally captured the end of an era.
The exhibition and show features, field recordings, paintings, photographs, sculptures and music, all created as a response to the Black Path. The exhibition commences with a performance by two groups of musicians, Ammonites and Warped Freqs. both of who have written music especially for this occasion.