Ramsdale Beck is a small river that feeds directly into the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

between

Robin Hood's Bay Robin Hood's Bay is a village in North Yorkshire, England. It is south of Whitby and north of Scarborough on the Yorkshire Coast. It is an ancient chapelry of Fylingdales in the wapentake of Whitby Strand. It is on the Cleveland Way nati ...

and Ravenscar on the

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

coast in England. The stream, which rises on Fylingdales Moor, has two waterfalls, and historically was used to power two corn mills. The beck flows through a small ravine known as ''Ramsdale Valley''. There is another Ramsdale Beck in

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

which connects

Scarborough Mere Scarborough Mere is a natural lake in the Weaponness Valley, in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England. Formerly measuring in area, the construction of the York and North Midland Railway line from York to Scarborough bisected the Mere in 1845. ...

and Falsgrave to the sea.

Etymology

Ramsdale, which applies to the beck, the hamlet and the mill in the valley, was first recorded in 1210 as ''Ramesdale''. The name shares similarities with

Ramsey Ramsey may refer to: Companies *Ramsey (retailer), Turkish clothing retailer People * Ramsey (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Ramsey (surname), including a list of people with the surname * Baron de Ramsey, a title i ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

and they have derived from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

''hramse'' or ''ramese'', meaning garlic.

Wild garlic Plant species in the genus ''Allium ''Allium'' is a large genus of monocotyledonous flowering plants with around 1000 accepted species, making ''Allium'' the largest genus in the family Amaryllidaceae and among the largest plant genera in the wo ...

, or ''ramson'', is known to be prolific within the valley, even into the modern day. One of the derivations of the surname ''Ramsdale'' can be traced back to those who lived in the valley.

History and course

Ramsdale Beck begins on Kirk Moor as several streams, coming together just to the west of the

A171 road The A171 is a road in England that links the North Yorkshire towns of Middlesbrough, Guisborough, Whitby, Robin Hood's Bay and Scarborough. Locally it is known as The Moor Road. The road is mostly single carriageway but has some sections of d ...

as Kirk Moor Beck. It then heads due east through Leith Rigg, Ramsdale, then entering the North Sea at Boggle Hole as Mill Beck. It drops from at source to just above sea level at Boggle Hole, which is about south of Robin Hood's Bay. The beck flows through a narrow ravine known as ''Ramsdale Valley'', which is lined with woodland. The bedrock underneath (and in places exposed by) the stream, is a mixture of grey limestone and ironstone deposits - the ironstone belonging to the

Dogger formation Dogger may refer to: Places * Dogger Bank, a large shallow area in the North Sea between Britain and Denmark ** Dogger, a sea area in the North Sea, noted in shipping forecasts within the Dogger Bank People Individuals * Paul Dogger (1971), a ...

known in the area. The two types of rock near the surface have allowed the water to carve and erode away sections to provide the beck with two waterfalls; one at Ramsdale Mill and the other further upstream called ''Stevenson's Piece''. The beck and the surrounding woods belonged to

Whitby Abbey Whitby Abbey was a 7th-century Christian monastery that later became a Benedictine abbey. The abbey church was situated overlooking the North Sea on the East Cliff above Whitby in North Yorkshire, England, a centre of the medieval Northumbrian ...

until the Dissolution, forming part of the great hunting ground known as ''Fyling Park'' (or Buck Park) which was used by royalty for hunting deer. The walls of the park and Demense Farm are visible on old maps. The boggy nature of the narrow valley made the upkeep of the park difficult. The source of the beck at Kirk Moor was also once the gathering point for fresh water for Robin Hood's Bay. Kirk Moor was historically known as Ramsdale Moor. There are five bridged crossings of the beck; (from west to east), the A171 road, Ramsdale Mill, Fyling Hall Road, the

cinder track A cinder track is a type of race track, generally purposed for track and field or horse racing, whose surface is composed of cinders. For running tracks, many cinder surfaces have been replaced by all-weather synthetic surfaces, which provide g ...

, and a footbridge at the mouth of the beck at Boggle Hole which carries the Cleveland Way.

Industry

The beck had two corn mills, one at Ramsdale hamlet (called Ramsdale Mill), and another at the mouth of the beck where it enters the North Sea (called Bay Mill), which is now the Boggle Hole Youth Hostel. The old mill at Boggle Hole is of uncertain date being first recorded in 1666, but a sign indicates it was rebuilt in 1839. The mill at Ramsdale hamlet was the property of Whitby Abbey (before the Dissolution) according to a 17th century document, and the mill part of the building was rebuilt between 1857 and 1859. It is now a private dwelling with the waterwheel still in place. Both mills were destroyed by extensive flooding on the beck in 1857. The redundant waterwheel at Ramsdale Mill was repaired into good working order in 1935 for the film '' Turn of the Tide'', which was set in Robin Hood's Bay. In one scene, two of the main characters are shown attempting to catch migrating salmon in the beck. There is another Ramsdale Beck in the Borough of Scarborough (in Scarborough itself), which was the conduit from the Mere, to the sea via

Falsgrave Falsgrave is an area of Scarborough, North Yorkshire, Scarborough in North Yorkshire, England. The settlement pre-dates the Domesday Book survey and was the Manorialism, manor which Scarborough belonged to. Gradually the settlements importance i ...

. Like its similarly named counterpart, it too was used for powering corn mills.

Flora and fauna

The beck has been noted for salmonoid migration and also for several sightings of

otters Otters are carnivorous mammals in the Rank (zoology), subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic animal, aquatic, or Marine ecology, marine. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae Family (biology), family, whi ...

. Salmon were known to travel upstream to a pool to spawn in the 1850s. A naturalists examination of the area in 1933 noted large swathes of

Tetrodontium brownianum ''Tetrodontium brownianum'' is a species of moss commonly known as Brown's tetrodontium moss or Brown's four-tooth moss. It is widely distributed. In North America it is found in Washington state and British Columbia on the west coast and from N ...

Etymology

History and course

Industry

Flora and fauna

Notes

References

Sources

External links