Charltons

Terraces at the foot of Birk Brow

Two rows of miners' cottages face each other across the road at Charltons, colour-rendered, with benches and pot plants set out along the fronts. There were once three terraces; the third was demolished in the 1960s because of subsidence, leaving the two parallel rows you walk between today. Farmland opens out to the south, woods and low hills close in around, and the A171 runs along the front, which brings a steady note of traffic with it.

The village sits at the foot of Birk Brow, on the northern edge of the North York Moors, where the main road begins its climb onto the moorland plateau. There is no pub in Charltons itself. The nearest is the Fox & Hound Hotel at Slapewath, a short way along the road — a former coaching inn with thirteen en-suite rooms, the Retriever Bar and an on-site café that serves cooked breakfasts and evening meals. One visitor, Beryl Walton, recorded popping in with friends for lunch and finding the food really nice. Café Slapewath, nearby on the same walking route, does café food, lunchtime bistro dishes and takeaway.

Priory ruins and paths to the coast

The post office closed in 2009 and the shop went with it. Guisborough is about two miles west, with the ruined east end of Gisborough Priory — the dramatic 14th-century remnant left standing from the Augustinian church founded by the Bruce family, ancestors of Robert the Bruce.

Walkers have the better of it here. The Cleveland Way passes through Slapewath, and from Charltons you can pick it up towards Saltburn: steps climbing towards Spring Bank, open arable land, then Airy Hill Lane and woodland down into Skelton before the Skelton Beck corridor runs on to the sea. On one August 2024 walk along this stretch, the local guide Richard Baines counted a common lizard, four sparrowhawks and around four hundred linnets. The full Kildale-to-Saltburn section of the trail is close to fifteen miles, taking in Captain Cook's Monument and Roseberry Topping. For a longer loop, a circuit of ten miles or so heads out from the village across Wiley Cat Beck towards Commondale on the Quakers' Trod.

Play space and a forest day out

Behind the terraces there is a good deal of open space and a children's play area, its equipment renewed in 2011, with a community orchard planted near the community centre. For a bigger day out, Guisborough Forest has trails, ponds, an adventure playground, a café and long views towards Roseberry Topping and the coast. Saltburn is about four miles north, where the Victorian cliff lift saves you 173 steps between the town and the pier.

Arriving by road, rail or bus

Getting here, the A171 puts you two miles east of Guisborough. Saltburn station, managed by Northern, is the useful railhead — step-free to all platforms, though with no car park. Buses stop at Charltons Fox and Hounds: the Arriva 65 towards Middlesbrough and Lingdale, the X93 towards Guisborough and Whitby, and, in season, the Moorsbus.

Ironstone roots and a lived-in legacy

The community centre stands on the site of the old village hall, which once held the miners' baths. The village takes its name from Thomas Charlton, who opened the Slapewath ironstone workings in 1864 and began building the cottages for his workers in 1872. The benches and pot plants out front are still there, put out by people who stayed.