IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
High Street, MIDDLESBROUGH, TS9 6NH

Another drizzly misty morning so came back through the village. Ayton’s bridge over the River Leven was built in 1909 replacing an earlier humpbacked one. There has been a lot of rain overnight and the river is high. But I really wanted to photograph Easby Lane. That’s it, a residential road heading off in the distance, although the Post Office says first few houses are on Bridge Street. Easby Lane heads out the village climbing Halfpenny Hill, attaining a grand height of about ten metres. It is said Halfpenny Hill was named after a woman was found hanging there with only a halfpenny in her pocket. But it is another tragedy I want to relate. On this day, October 20th, 1925, Oliver Jackson, a 68-year-old boot and shoemaker, was out having an evening stroll with a friend along Easby Lane, then a country lane, when a hare ran out of a field in front of them. Perhaps momentarily transported back to their childhood days the two men became so excited at the prospect of a chase but unable to compete with the hare they threw their walking sticks at it. In doing so Jackson overbalanced and fell in front of a passing motor-car fracturing his skull. He died at his home within two hours from compression of the brain. An interesting insight into the speed of the proceedings at that time, the inquest took place the next day at the Buck Hotel and was reported the same day in the Middlesbrough Evening Gazette carrying the headline “Unusual Fatality at Great Ayton”. From my photo-diary for 20th October 2019 see http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=21801

The WW2 inscription on the memorial which can be seen in this picture by Trish Steel: Image The memorial itself is 12 foot high and was made from a block of freestone by local sculptor and stone mason Arthur Pearson in his workshop in Park Square in the village. It was erected in 1920 with the stone coming from Dunhouse Quarry near Darlington. Inspiration for the design came from the Celtic cross of St. Martin on the Isle of Iona off the west coast of Scotland.

Great Ayton takes its name from Ea-tun the tun or farm on an 'ea' or river. The village is overlooked by Roseberry Topping. Roseberry Topping is the most prominent and well-known natural landmark in Cleveland and it has its fair share of folk-tales associated with it.

Carrying the A173 through the village, bridge was built in 1909 replacing an earlier one dating from the late eighteenth century. The building reflected in the River Leven was formerly the Temperance Hotel. Opposite was Worthy Pearsons, the newsagents (first floor only visible above the bridge parapet).

Built for a cost of £5,000 mostly raised by private donations and opened in 1877 to accommodate the growing population of Great Ayton. The old church being too small and in need of major repair Image The architects were Ross & Lamb, John Ross being an old boy of the Friends School. Pevsner describes the church as of "a restless composition, and an uninteresting interior". The modern structure to the right is the Parochial Hall.

Intended as a recreation of a photo dated 1955 by Francis Firth, see http://www.francisfrith.com/search/england/cleveland/great+ayton/photos/great+ayton_G112008.htm (for other examples see the forum thread http://www.geograph.org.uk/discuss/index.php?&action=vthread&forum=12&topic=3983&dontcount=1&page=0 ). Very little has changed since 1955. Trees are more dominant but the buildings are structurally the same. There is now an absence of telegraph poles but more cars.

The River Leven running between High and Low Green. The village was the childhood home of the explorer Captain James Cook, who lived here between the ages of 8 to 16.