Littlebeck

Down into Littlebeck

The lane into Littlebeck drops steeply off the moor, the last stretch on minor lanes into the valley bottom. It ends near a ford across Little Beck, a minor tributary of the Esk, where a handful of sandstone cottages stand a storey and a half tall under red clay pantiles. Hawthorn hedges and dry-stone walls hold the valley sides. One house breaks the pattern: Bracken Hill, with Gothic Revival bargeboards, finials and roof tiles patterned in red and black, as though someone had strong feelings about the alternative.

You come down here for the walking. The hamlet sits inside Little Beck Wood, a 26-hectare reserve of oak, ash, alder and cherry that the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust has held since 1970 and owned since 1986. In spring the ground fills with bluebells, wood anemones, primroses and early purple orchids; dippers and grey wagtails work the stream, nuthatches and treecreepers the trunks. The Coast to Coast path runs through the wood on its way to Robin Hood's Bay, and you may pass the occasional walker following it across the country.

The Wood and the Waterfall

Falling Foss, a thirty-foot waterfall, lies about a mile by riverside path from Littlebeck Village Hall. A published 3.4-mile circuit starts at the public car park near the falls; it passes through Littlebeck and Little Beck Wood, takes in open views over Eskdale and climbs around 210 metres. A longer 4.3-mile circuit starts at May Beck car park. Both walks pass the Hermitage, a small room hollowed from a single sandstone boulder and dated 1790 by an inscription above the entrance.

At Midge Hall beside the falls, the Falling Foss Tea Garden sets picnic tables among the trees rather than under a roof. It serves scones with jam and cream, homemade cakes, barista coffee, speciality teas and locally made dairy ice cream within earshot of the water. Midge Hall caught the eye of its future owners in 2006; when they bought it in 2008, the building had stood derelict for more than fifty years and lacked mains power, sewage and a phone line.

Setting Out

The village has no pub or shop. The village hall car park takes a suggested donation; from there the walk descends steeply to riverside paths that are uneven, often muddy and unsuitable for pushchairs or wheelchairs.

Paths, Practicalities and Alum

The history here is industrial as much as pastoral. The Littlebeck alum works operated on and off from about 1660 until 1809, one of the earliest inland alum quarries in the country. Making alum meant firing heaps of shale for as long as nine months, leaching them, boiling the liquor and setting the crystals with an alkali got from burnt kelp or urine. What survives is an alum house, steeping pits, trackways and spoil heaps under the trees.

The Gnomeman's Woodwork

Inside the Methodist church, completed in 1890, the woodwork is the work of Thomas Whittaker, the Littlebeck carver known as the Gnomeman, and includes a carved Last Supper. Sleights, down the valley with the nearest railway station on the Whitby line and buses on to Whitby and Grosmont, has the shops. Littlebeck keeps the water, the wood and the quiet.