Be not in haste, there's lots to see

11:30am Thursday 2nd August 2007

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NESTLED in a fold of the Cleveland Hills lies the attractive village of Osmotherley, (referred to Asmundrelac in the Domesday book) complete with its characteristic stone houses and hospitable pubs.

A market cross and stone table stands in the centre, once used by John Wesley as a pulpit. Produce such as fish was sold here up to 1874.

A sign above the door of Chequers Farm, a well-loved inn at one time, states 'Be not in haste: Step in and taste - Ale tomorrow for nothing'. Once much favoured by cattle drovers folktales still remain telling of the all-night merry-making.

If it is not often that a public toilet is worth mentioning but the one in Osmotherley has to be the exception.

Always to be found perfectly clean by a group of enthusiastic volunteers, I have even seen fresh flowers in there.

Appreciative visitors send letters and Christmas cards from all over the world, so grateful are they to find it in such a clean and tidy state.

It has become rather famous over the years and is reputed to be the only public convenience in the country that receives fan mail! Does it possess a letterbox, one wonders?

The Old Norse for the village was 'Osmund's Ley' a ley being a clearing in the forest and conjures up a picture of a peaceful rural idyll when the first simple dwellings were erected. But do not be fooled, during July the Osmotherley games shatter the peace and quiet with bizarre happenings such as piano smashing, sheaf tossing and quoits.

The Methodist chapel is one of the oldest in the world, the date above the door says 1754. The church is part Saxon with remains of crosses and gravestones from that time in the porch. The tower is 15th century but the fonts and most of the foundations are Norman.

On a fine day a stroll along the lanes north from the centre of Osmotherley, heading left towards Chapel Wood Farm leads to the remains of Lady Chapel. Continue along the track to Mount Grace Priory, one of the best-preserved examples of a Carthusian Priory. In virtual isolation, 24 monks lived out their lives here, each with an individual cell and garden and little else. Despite the harsh lifestyle there was a waiting list to join and eventually its success became its downfall. Queen Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII, reputedly built Lady Chapel in 1515 for the recluse Thomas Parkinson, now it is a place of pilgrimage for Roman Catholics.

During the 18th and 19th centuries Scottish drovers used the ancient Hambleton Street to bring their cattle south to the English markets. This well marked track is the starting point of a six-mile walk taking in Osmotherley and part of the Cleveland Way (the Cleveland Way stretches 112 miles from Helmsley to Filey). The Lyke Wake Walk shares the same path from Osmotherley to Blowith Crossing on Greenhow Moor.

Starting at Scarth Wood Moor, the Lyke Wake Walk was devised as a route across the moors in 1955 by Bill Cowley, accompanied by 12 other walkers.

From Osmotherley to the sea at Ravenscar was more than 40 miles and the walk began as a light-hearted idea with people competing to finish in less than 24 hours and the club was formed, even a dirge was dedicated to it.

An annual walk took place, with a wakestyle meeting in the Queen Catherine's hotel, consisting of just a few people at first, growing to 176 in 1958 just three years later.

Unfortunately it became too popular with fell runners on sponsored walks and over 1,000 turned out to compete on peak weekends in the 1980s.

Needless to say the route suffered as a consequence, too many feet eroded the fragile peat and the path became an impossible mess and declined in popularity.

Some remedial work has improved matters slightly since this time.

The Cod Beck, which enters the Swale by Asenby, is fed by three reservoirs; the upper and lower Oak Dale Reservoirs and the Cod Beck Reservoir on Osmotherley Moor. Near the late Georgian Thimbleby Hall the beck flows over a small stepped waterfall. Further along the Swainby road from Cod Beck Reservoir lies Scarth Wood Moor, a good area for picnics owned by the National Trust.

From Cod Beck continuing along the Swainby road there is a narrow gap known as Scarth Nick and was cut by melt water at the end of the last Ice Age. This spot gives an excellent view of Cleveland.