All Saints (Rudby-in-Cleveland)

Trip No.56  Entry No.3  Date Added: 16th Oct 2017
Site Type: Early Christian Sculptured Stone Country: England (Yorkshire (North))
Visited: Yes on 15th Oct 2017. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: All Saints Church, Rudby-in-Cleveland: We’d spent so much time walking round Castle Hill, that by this time of day the sun was very low in the sky and dusk was going to fall pretty quickly, pretty soon.

Parking opposite the church at NZ 47133 06667, just off Rudby Bank in a small paved area which apparently used to be used for the main benefactor’s horse and carriage, we walked into the churchyard.

Much to our surprise, the church was open, so we let ourselves in. Parts of this building are really old. There is also an Elizabethan pulpit and a memorial slab to a 14th century monk holding a chalice.

We also found some old pieces of stone, not mentioned in the church guide, but one portion of which was on the AS Corpus.

Whilst I explored the church, Andrew went in search of the moat, and found it running round the northern part of the churchyard. It is very weird – just a large ditch, most of which is largely dry.

The eastern (modern) part of the graveyard contains the grave of Sir Rex Hunt, Governor of the Falkland Islands when Argentina invaded in 1982.

In the west wall of the vestry, this is also a very strange headless statue, which has been inserted into the wall using part of an old tombstone as a shelf.

Castle Hill (Bishopton)

Trip No.56  Entry No.2  Date Added: 16th Oct 2017
Site Type: Misc. Earthwork Country: England (County Durham)
Visited: Yes on 15th Oct 2017. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Castle Hill, Bishoptop: This monument is literally just within sight of the church, just over 420 metres to the north west, at the south eastern edge of the village, opposite the pub and next to a garage.

There is a public footpath which runs through the field in which this motte and bailey is sited, accessible by a rather tumbledown stile. There is also an information board, although this had cracked and fallen off its plinth. We pieced it back together to have a quick read, although the text was so faded we couldn’t really make it out.

The site is really well preserved, and I’ve not seen another quite like this. It is as if someone has built a large hillfort in a flat piece of land and put a round mound towards one end. There are also extensive earthworks leading off this.

The motte itself has been fenced off, presumably to stop the sheep and cattle from damaging it, although there is a gate in the south western part of the fence, with a very steep path leading up to the top of the motte.

We walked around the exterior twice, marvelling at the deep ditches and banks.

St Peter's Church (Bishopton)

Trip No.56  Entry No.1  Date Added: 16th Oct 2017
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (County Durham)
Visited: Yes on 15th Oct 2017. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Medieval Cross in St. Peter's Churchyard, Bishopton: Driving into Bishopton, I realised looking at the cottages and houses that this was a very old village, and had it not been for all the parked cars, it would have been very picturesque.

The church was locked so we couldn’t go in, but the remains of this cross was visible near the edge of the churchyard. It was easier to photograph it from the road, looking over the wall.

I didn’t photograph the replacement village cross, in the very small village green, near the wall memorial, as I thought it was modern, and we didn’t stop after looking at the earthworks nearby.