From Lealholm – 7 miles (11.26km)
The attractive village of Lealholm nestles astride a bend of the river Esk, with a broad riverside green and the eighteenth-century Board Inn providing a tempting picnic spot for travellers. The village’s entry in Domesday Book is ‘Lelun’, from the Old English ‘lael’ meaning ‘among the (willow) twigs’, and ‘holm’, which meant a ‘house’ or ‘settlement’; hence ‘the settlement by the (willow) trees’.
Due to its proximity to the river Esk, some of Lealholm’s lower-placed dwellings have a long history of flooding. The sidewall of the Methodist chapel records the heights of previous floods. At the lowest level, the floods in November 2000 stand just below the floods in July 1840. However, both are well below the major flooding on 23rd July 1930, when the Methodist chapel stood more than 3 feet (1m) underwater. The chapel stands approximately 7 feet (2.1m) above the Esk’s average water level. This deluge also swept away bridges at Glaisdale, Egton and Sleights, lower down the valley.
Besides a pub, Lealholm has a village store, farm store, service station, Post Office and welcoming tea rooms. Above the Shepherds’ Hall Tea Rooms entrance, a stone plaque identifies them as a former lodge for the ‘Loyal Order of Ancient Shepherds’. The Order was one of many ‘friendly societies’ founded in the early nineteenth century; its primary concern was the welfare and support of shepherds and their families. The term ‘loyal’ acknowledges the Crown, and ‘shepherds’ alludes to the Nativity of Jesus. Members on official business carried crooks and wore woollen cloaks, usually with a black-and-white check pattern, fastened with an official brooch.
On the green island opposite the car park stands an ornate drinking fountain, dated 1904 – one of three placed around the village. The intertwined ‘F and L’ monogram on each fountain denotes Sir Francis Ley, benefactor and former Lealholm Estate owner.
The walk leaves the village near the service station, where a track leads uphill to Lealholm station. From the station, we follow a path that undulates through lush meadows and pastures to the hamlet of Houlsyke. Although a tiny place today, Houlsyke once had a thriving bacon industry. The local farmers brought their pigs here for slaughtering and processing, and much of the bacon produced ended up in the London markets.
As we follow the lane to Oakley Side, there are fine views across the valley into Little Fryup Dale. The name ‘Fryup’ likely derives from the Old English ‘Frige-hop’: ‘Frige’ was an Anglo-Saxon goddess equated with ‘Frigg’ in Norse mythology, and ‘hop’ meant ‘small valley’.
An old woman who lived in Fryup, near an old corpse road known as ‘Old Hell Road’, was responsible for keeping the ‘St Mark’s Eve watch’. This annual event took place on 24th April, for an hour on either side of midnight, and it allowed the watcher to witness the spirits of people who would die during the forthcoming year. After her vigil, on one St Mark’s Day, she announced her own death among the foredoomed ones and assigned her reason for saying so. ‘And’ she added, ‘when I dee, for dee I shall, mind ye carry me to my grave by the church road and not all the way round by t’au’d castle and Ainthrop. And mind ye, if ye de’ant, I’ll come again.’
The church road climbed a steep bank with two zigzags, a stiff climb at any time. But burdened with a coffin, it is ‘hosses’ work, not men’s!’ Well, when the old lady died, as she had predicted, it was the middle of winter when a heavy snowfall made the crossing of the ridge very arduous. However, the coffin bearers, fearful of not adhering to the old woman’s wishes, could not, dared not, face the prospect of her ‘coming again’. Therefore, they persevered, sometimes waist-deep in the snow, to reach the graveyard and discharge their burden.
At Oakley Side, we join the Esk Valley Walk and ascend a walled track to Poverty Hill. From here, we continue uphill and follow the road around to Danby Beacon. Standing at 981 feet (299m), Danby Beacon is the highest point in the surrounding area, with extensive views along the Esk Valley from Kildale in the west to Goathland in the east. The distant ridge of the high moors above Fryup Dale is evident to the south, while Scaling Dam, the North Sea and Teesside are visible northwards.
The Danby Beacon dates back to the 1600s when the country faced the threat of invasion from France. Lines of such beacons, placed in elevated positions up and down the country, provided early warning of imminent attacks. Each beacon had a team of lookouts, and if they spotted the French fleet, they lit up their beacon, using fire by night and smoke by day. Upon seeing the signal, the militia and local men gathered to defend the threatened landing place. The present beacon, erected in 2008, stands just over 16 feet (5m) high; it has a flame-shaped basket made of blued stainless steel, which blends in with the sky.
Leaving the beacon behind, we continue across the moor, passing the remains of a wayside cross known as Stump Cross. Most crosses of this type are medieval in origin and were waymarkers to guide early travellers across these isolated regions. Surveys of the surrounding moors in 1988 discovered over 400 sites of archaeological interest. These range from early prehistoric tool production sites, which may be over 6,000 years old, to nineteenth-century boundary stones. However, the majority are Bronze Age burial mounds known as ‘howes’, ancient field systems and boundary dykes.
During the descent from the moor, there are excellent views along the valley. The wide, flat floor of upper Eskdale is typical of glacial action, whereas the lower valley owes its existence to river erosion.
PHANTOM JET CRASH
On 27th April 1979, a Phantom jet from the USAF base at Alconbury crashed at Lealholm. A memorial stone near the postbox marks the position where the aircraft crossed the road before disintegrating and killing the pilot and his navigator.