I decided to take my e-bike a bit off road and cycled up Rudland Rigg, on the North York Moors, to reach Baysdale Abbey. The abbey hasn’t been there for a long, long time, and it was never an abbey anyway.
[Music] hello today I’m going to cycle from Kirby moride to basale ABY on my ebike I could do the whole thing on tarmac but I think I will tackle a few Land Rover tracks today I have a Tre allant 5 plus which is more of a hybrid than a mountain bike it does have fairly fat tires and a front suspension Fork but the tires aren’t particularly knobbly hope it can [Music] cope okay enough hanging around let’s get a move [Music] on the root heads North leaving Kirby Mo Side by Castlegate and Park Lane and then joining a fairly rough track known as back of Park’s Road and popping out on the road just outside Gilmore incidentally if you turn left here you would reach the remains of Neville castle one of two castles that used to be in Kirby moride All That Remains now is this chunk of masonry but during the 15th and early 16th century it was owned by the Neville family whose most famous member was probably wari the king maker it was never really a castle more of a palace or stately home the other earlier Castle known as the stuteville castle stood on viver Hill off to the right of this view the stuteville family lived here from 1200 to the 15th century when it passed the Nevels and was abandoned in favor of the other Castle again it wasn’t really a castle more of a moted Mana house no remains really except a very obvious rectangular ditch in amongst the trees [Music] this is where I turn left onto back of parks Road and the ground becomes a little bit more challenging for my bicycle suspension [Music] n [Music] [Applause] he [Music] n n [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] just skirting around the western side of Gilmore here there were 15 Villages here when they wrote the Doomsday Book around 1086 according to Wikipedia the name comes from getler ingga Moore meaning the more of getler people the Royal oakin is defin worth the pit [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] believe it or not but behind the buildings on the left on Boon Hill common is an Aerodrome the grass runways are only suitable for light aircraft [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] this cattle grid marks the end of the cultivated land and the start of the Moors appropriately enough the house off to the left is named Mo end [Music] this is where the tarmac heads off to the left becoming bransdale Road the rough track that goes straight ahead is rudland rig and most surely have once been the main road I wonder why they chose to tarmac bransdale Road rather than rudland rig rudland rig is surrounded by many small coal pits so in the 18th and early 19th century when hole was being extracted it must have been quite an important route [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Music] n at this point I cross a rough track leading from church houses in fale to the East and cocaine in bransdale to the West somewhere along the line we seem to have lost the Sun and are now pushing through a blanket of cold mist a [Music] oh [Music] [Music] h [Music] he [Music] [Music] if you had been here before 1929 you would be about to cross a railway track this is Blow worth Crossing and the track belonged to the rosale railway which opened in 1858 its purpose was to carry iron ore from the mines in rosale to the east Southeast to BBY to the north Northeast where it joins the esque Valley Line which still exists in 1925 the price of iron fell and the mines were closed although the line remained open until 1929 transporting caline dust extracted from slag heaps [Music] This Is Where I Leave the Cleveland way which I joined at blow Earth Crossing and head Northeast along a bridal way which is marked middle head top on the map not sure who the chain is supposed to keep out [Music] [Music] believe [Music] [Music] aha that was would be a forest looming out of the Mist with any luck basale Abbey is just the other side [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] on a clear day you can see basale ABY from here honest it should really be known as basale prior since there was never an ABY here only a prior of nuns back in the 12th century the prior was originally been at Hutton near gizbar but was relocated to Thorp now known as non Thorp almost immediately however sometime towards the end of Henry I second’s Reign that’s 1189 or shortly afterwards they moved again to baydale as it was then known spelled b a s e d a l e instead of b a y s d a l e in 1291 it was valued at £56 Shilling and6 making it the least valuable religious house in Cleveland one of the Priuses Joan deersi was removed in 1307 for various misdeeds and subsequently left taking some of the nuns with her she was sent to sinning th Convent 8 m west of York as punishment for dis disobedience in 1308 one of the nuns Agnes thorand B was deemed to have been guilty of carnice deceptor blandis which I’m guessing refers to sexual misconduct and left the order but the prior was compelled to take her back in 13143 the prioris Katherine mu was investigated by a commission responding to reports of her mismanagement it is not clear what became of her but another similar commission was issued in 1345 suggesting things were not going well Alice page resigned as prioress in 1524 due to old age and Joan Fletcher became Prius in 1524 Joan Fletcher replaced her fearing deposition she voluntarily resigned and abandoned her calling but was sent to rosale to do Penance apparent she did not show much in the way of repentance at rosale and was sent back to basale she was still there in 1539 when the house was suppressed with only 11 nuns remaining the gray stone house that now stands on the site of the prior was judging by a date over a doorway built around 1805 thanks the [Music] the [Music] n [Music] he [Music] this is where my not so cunning plan starts to go a bit wrong my plan is to cross great hogra Beck using a foot bridge and then head east along Skinner how Crossroad which is a bridal way trouble is I cannot find the foot bridge and when I do it is in a gully with very steep sides also just because the path is a bridal way does not mean it is suitable for bicycles as I found out you cannot cycle a narrow path through Heather you keep ending up in deep ruts lined on each side with Heather which catches in your pedals so I shall magically beam over to the Eastern end of Skinner how Crossroad where it reaches tarmac [Music] and here I am right in that direction is basale Abby I um got there okay and then had to cross a river on a foot bridge and get to here and it’s not really suitable for mountain bikes it’s uh kind of a a narrow rotted path with lots of stones in it and Heather on either side which you catch your pedals in if you try and cycle in it but I got here anyway and now we are back on tarmac got everything yep I think so camera’s running phone is running Google Maps bloody hether right we need to go up a bit take a fairly sharp right there I might need some assistance there in powered assistance note that at this point I had sort of planned to do a bit more off-roading but it didn’t look like a could rely on there being a Land Rover track the battery was half full and the prospect of cycling home mostly downhill With the Wind of my back was just too tempting most of it’s downhill and on road so shouldn’t be a problem heading into a wind here I’ll change a minute I hope what [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] n oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh e [Music] e [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] what [Music] [Music] [Music] he [Music] the [Music] n [Music] the [Music] That’s all folks hope you liked it if you did like subscribe and click that little notification Bell bye