Appleton-le-Moors (From York Press)

Appleton-le-Moors

10:19am Saturday 21st February 2009 in Walks

APPLETON-LE-MOORS is a textbook ‘double row’ village, very nice too, in limestone. Its houses line up ten degrees west of north, in the direction of the centre of the North York Moors that start in earnest a few miles distant. To the south it has its own little moor of common land. We went north, chasing the extra chill to crisp the snow and prolong the brilliance.

Hamley Lane and Howldale Lane did for the start, back lanes both and further quietened by sheet ice. The common bird was the pigeon, the quadruped the horse. We picked up the main land shape, heading towards the edge where the land dips before rising again to the moors.

A wood held the cooler night air and the path had a set of footprints, but not the best for following complained my navigator, the angled out sort. “Look, here he stopped,” she said.

The sun dazzled on the high flats, trees cast hard, exact shadows, an ash, another, a loud woodpecker and unerringly we reached Victoria Cross.

It stood on virgin snow on its hexagonal base. It’s not signed and a little off the route’s junction, but is a cracking position, a super vantage point, a steep-sided nab, a bulge of land, and directly below nestles the village of Lastingham. Beyond is the space of Spaunton Moor.

A twin nab used to be named Gallows Hill and, at a guess, the villagers would just have had to raise their eyes to see a dead and dangling delinquent. The bench by the cross would normally make a five-star sandwich stop, but there was a chill off the moors.

So we moved on through Spaunton, that has another double row of houses and farms, and then turned south and on to the mirrored sun.

Tracks named Spaunton Lane, Ings Balk and South Ings Lane took us back, straight and slightly downhill with a right angle turn and the views were long and lovely. The land to the west now, which we have circled round today, was once called Hunger Hills. Presum-ably few locals are still hungry, and the name has gone. An orange tractor visited a pile of big bales.

What was, for us, a new experience was the permissive bridleway over track previously just footpath. A sign is posted courtesy of Appleton’s Parish Council and the Spaunton Estate, a Notice To Horse Riders And Cyclists. It reads: “Please Use The Right Hand Side Of Track In Order To Keep The Other Side More Easily Usable By Walkers.”

Evidence of any mounted sympathy was muddied, a tractor had done the churning. We finished along the 12th century Back Lane. This is another name gone missing and runs behind the houses and their medieval plots, now rectangles of orchard, grass or garden.

Directions

When in doubt look at the map. Check your position at each point. Keep straight on unless otherwise directed.

1. Road north through village, first right (Cropton sign).

2. Stile on left to path through wood (sign/waymark), gently uphill. Fieldgate out of wood, path by wood edge for two fields.

3. Fork left off track (‘No public right of way’ sign ahead), 20 yards, left to field-edge path (fingerpost) 4. Right at field corner, 100 yards, track on left (waymark), fieldgate and diagonally across field towards Spaunton. Fieldgate by pond and right to road.

5. At road junction across the grass that is to the left of and above the road downhill, 100 yards to Victoria Cross. Return to junction and right to Spaunton, through village, left at end of village (signed dead-end), road becomes track.

6. At bend, straight on to open track between fields (fingerpost/bridleway). Gate/fieldgate and left to track (three-way fingerpost).

7. Back Lane on right or straight on into village.

Fact file

Distance: Five miles.

General location: North York Moors.

Start: Appleton-le-Moors.

Right of way: Public, except the medieval back lane at Appleton that is a permissive bridleway until at least 2013.

Date walked: February 2009.

Road route: Signed off the A170.

Car parking: Roadside in Appleton-le-Moors.

Lavatories: None.

Refreshments: Inn at Appleton-le-Moors.

Tourist and public transport information: Pickering TIC 01751 473791.

Map: Based on OS Explorer OL26 North York Moors western area.

Terrain: Flat.

Difficulty: Moderate.

Please observe the Country Code and park sensibly. While every effort is made to provide accurate information, walkers set out at their own risk.