Geography
The village is situated 217 miles (349 km) from London. It is 16 miles (26 km) from the county town of Northallerton. The closest settlements are Kirby Hill, Dalton and Gayles. Other local villages are Newsham, East Layton, West Layton, Gilling West and Hartforth.
Ravensworth is 119 metres above sea level. The village is situated on a slight knoll to the south of the Holme Beck (sometimes known in the past as Ravensworth Beck or Gilling Beck), a minor tributary of the River Swale in an area known as the Holme valley or Holmedale. According to The Independent the village is "good walking country...surrounded by open countryside overlooked by hills and moorland." Holme Beck attracts kingfishers, dippers and grey herons. The marshland around the castle is home to moorhen, coots, heron, oyster catchers, curlews and wintering duck such as teal and goldeneye. The ruins attract mallards, snipe and tawny owls.
The soil is loam and the subsoil is Yoredale Series. Most of the land around the village is arable farmland, but animals such as horses and cows are reared as well. Sheep graze on the more rugged sides of the valley. Crops grown include wheat, barley and oil seed rape. The houses are generally built of sandstone and have distinctive "Yorkshire" roofs, a mix of soft red pantiles and slate. The village is described as "picturesque". The old Roman road of Dere Street formerly skirted the north eastern outskirts of the parish and provides much of the northern boundary of the parish.
Usually the Pennines protect the North-East from rainfall, which tends to come from the west. Weather data is collected on a minute by minute basis by a Met Office weather station at Ravensworth Nurseries. On 2 December 2010, a temperature of -20.0 degrees Celsius was reported for Ravensworth by the Met Office; this was the first time -20.0 had been recorded in England since January 1987. In September 2012, Ravensworth made national news when MeteoGroup reported that the village had received the largest amount of rainfall in the country, 130.8 mm, (5.16 inches) between 1 am on the 23rd and 8 am on the 25th, which was thrice the average total for the month.
| Climate data for closest available data source to Ravensworth | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 7 (45) |
8 (46) |
10 (50) |
12 (54) |
16 (61) |
18 (64) |
21 (70) |
21 (70) |
18 (64) |
14 (57) |
10 (50) |
7 (45) |
13.5 (56.3) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 1 (34) |
0 (32) |
1 (34) |
2 (36) |
5 (41) |
7 (45) |
10 (50) |
10 (50) |
7 (45) |
4 (39) |
2 (36) |
0 (32) |
4.1 (39.5) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 54 (2.13) |
45 (1.77) |
40 (1.57) |
56 (2.2) |
43 (1.69) |
64 (2.52) |
50 (1.97) |
65 (2.56) |
47 (1.85) |
64 (2.52) |
58 (2.28) |
59 (2.32) |
645 (25.38) |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 63 | 113 | 115 | 240 | 248 | 240 | 248 | 217 | 150 | 155 | 90 | 93 | 1,972 |
Read more about this topic: Ravensworth
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