Moorland stones' roll of honour (From Gazette & Herald)

Moorland stones' roll of honour

A UNIQUE record of hundreds of memorial stones, boundary markers and crosses on the North York Moors has come to light as a result of the recent article in the Gazette & Herald regarding the state of many of the ancient landmarks in the national park.

Retired painter and decorator Ian Hodgson and Beck Isle Museum curator Gordon Clitheroe spent many hours walking the moors and recording and photographing the stones for posterity.

It was recently revealed that the inscriptions on many have been eroded due to generations of winds and rain.

But Mr Hodgson, of Marshall Drive, Pickering, believes that air pollution has also taken its toll.

It is 40 years this month since he and Mr Clitheroe and two friends started walking the moors.

"We began walking the moors after the closure of the Pickering to Whitby railway line in 1965," he recalls.

"We would do between 15 and 20 miles every Sunday using the 23 Ordnance Survey maps of the moors and locating the stones."

One of Mr Clitheroe's prize possessions is a 36ft long record of some 350 memorial stones in the 500 square miles of the park, detailing their inscriptions, many of which have since been lost.

Both Mr Hodgson and Mr Clitheroe kept up their hiking hobby, exploring the stones and researching their history.

Many, said Mr Hodgson, were put up in the 18th century as boundary markers, while others recalled tragic deaths.

They have also taken a keen interest in carvings and engravings on buildings.

A gable end of a house at Egton Bridge described how Father Nicholas Postgate preached at secret masses.

He was later hung, drawn and quartered at York, and in recent times has been Beatified by the Vatican.

The two men have given talks and slide shows relating their research not just of the moorland stones and crosses, but of some churchyard memorials.

One at Thornton-le-Dale is of Matthew Grimes, who died in 1875 and was a pall bearer for Napoleon.

"These stones have a tremendous wealth of history which must be safeguarded and recorded for future generations," said Mr Hodgson.

Updated: 14:55 Wednesday, February 16, 2005