Kildale

A Dale Village and Its Railway

A stone on the village green marks the spot where a tree once stood, and under that tree, in 1772, John Wesley is said to have preached. The tree is gone. The stone stays, on a green kept trim beside a working farm that still sits at the centre of Kildale.

This is a linear estate village in the largest dale on the western edge of the North York Moors. The centre sits in a dip and feels enclosed, until you climb out of it and the dale opens in every direction. The buildings are limestone and sandstone with pantile roofs, sash windows and low walls; the National Park describes the whole as having a "peaceful, open feel," which is about right. The railway and the church stand apart from the rest, reached across a bridge over the line.

Kildale has its own station, unstaffed, on the Esk Valley line between Middlesbrough and Whitby. There is a shelter, step-free access to the platform and five parking spaces, and nothing in the way of refreshment, so bring a flask. There are two bus services: a school service for permit holders, and the DR19, which runs Fridays only and must be booked, linking the village with Stokesley, Easby, Battersby, Ingleby Greenhow and Great Broughton. Stokesley, about six miles off by the A173 and Station Road, is where you go for supplies.

Inside St Cuthbert’s

The church is dedicated to Saints Gregory and Cuthbert, though it's often called St Cuthbert's. Fowler Jones of York rebuilt it in 1868 on an older site, in the Decorated style, with a two-stage west tower and a four-bay nave. When the old church came down, its foundations gave up well-preserved skeletons, bronze objects and iron weapons of Danish character — swords, daggers and a battleaxe. Four medieval grave covers now stand in the porch, one carved with a cross and a sword.

Inside there are two fonts, one probably twelfth-century and one probably sixteenth. The east window is Kempe's, from 1898; a window in the south wall, added in 1992, marks a thousand years of Christianity in Kildale and sets village people and village scenes into its glass. The oak altar rail is the work of Robert Thompson, the Mouseman of Kilburn, and carries his carved mouse somewhere along its length. Couples married here find the gates of the railway bridge tied shut with string, and have to cut it before they can leave.

Walking Through Moorland History

Walking is why most people come. The Cleveland Way passes through: south to Clay Bank it is 9.3 miles over Urra Moor, at 454 metres the highest ground on the moors, and across the remote Bloworth Crossing on the bed of the old ironstone railway. North from the village the path climbs Easby Moor to Captain Cook's Monument, with Roseberry Topping beyond. If you want less, a circular from Kildale up to the monument and back runs a little over four kilometres — worth checking against a current map before you set off.

A mine chimney still stands among shafts and earthworks, visible from the footpath, though the workings themselves are fenced off. Drift mining began in 1865; a company sank two shafts intended to reach 220 feet, ran out of money in 1868, and a second attempt folded into receivership in 1874. The shaft mine never produced any ore. The miners' cottages at Leven Vale were pulled down by village volunteers in 1927, and the stone went by horse and cart to build the village hall, which opened in 1929 and can still be hired.

Childale, the Estate and the Way Out

The Domesday surveyors recorded the place as Childale: nine households, land for three ploughs, and a value that had risen from sixteen shillings before the Conquest to twenty afterwards, a gain in a region that had mostly been laid waste. Ligulf held it before 1066; Orm held it after.

Kildale Hall, enlarged over the years by Anthony Salvin among others, is a private house and stays one. What's left to you is the flask you brought and the walk up to the monument — and, if your timing is very good, a wedding party at the bridge, working at a knot with a borrowed pair of scissors.