New Royal Mail stamps feature mysterious Teesside landmark – can you spot it?

A mysterious Teesside landmark is set to feature on a new Royal Mail stamps to be released next month.

The North York Moors is one of 10 national parks pictured on the new stamps to mark 70 years since the formation of the first national park.

And the image of the national park on Teesside’s doorstep features a well-known landmark – Freebrough Hill.

The dome -shaped mound is found just south of Moorsholm on the moors road to Whitby, falling within the Lockwood ward of Redcar and Cleveland.

The 246m-high hill sticks out on the landscape and is used for grazing sheep.

There’s some wild theories about how the hill came to be formed ranging from a Roman burial ground to a resting place for Plague victims.

The consensus opinion is that the hill was actually formed by glacial erosion – with 19th Century excavations said to have confirmed this.

The stone it is made from is said to be the same as Roseberry Topping , with the softer ground around the hill eroding away when the glaciers receded, leaving Freebrough behind.

Steve Kay, a veteran independent councillor from Moorsholm, is well aware of the many stories told about the hill.

He said: “Freebrough Hill arouses our curiosity because its symmetrical, rounded shape makes it appear man-made.”

Cllr Kay claims the hill is “probably named after the Norse goddess, Freya” as nearby Roseberry Topping was known as “Odin’s Hill”.

Researching the subject, he found that many of the common legends probably derived from the 18th Century – explaining how Thomas Pennant declared Freebrough a “colossal burial mound”.

Another theory was that the hill “was one of the greatest Celtic remains Britain can glory in” and was modelled on Silbury in Wiltshire.

Other experts thought Freebrough was a druid place of worship, while others said it was a centre for legal disputes to be settled.

Cllr Kay acknowledged that geologists have found that Freebrough is a piece of hard rock “smoothed into its ‘unnatural’, distinctive shape by a glacier in the ice age”.

The new stamp collection include images of some of the UK’s most popular and visited landscapes, featuring the Peak District, the Lake District, Snowdonia, Dartmoor, North York Moors, The Broads, New Forest, South Downs, Pembrokeshire Coast and Loch Lomond and The Trossachs.

The collection covers a range of natural environments, from cold tundra to temperate rainforest, from gigantic sea cliffs to rolling chalk hills, from razor-sharp mountains to marshy wetlands.

They are described as places where people have lived, worked, worshipped, farmed and traded for centuries, in ways that have shaped – and been shaped by – the surrounding environment.

The National Parks were created after decades of public effort to open up the countryside to ordinary people, and were formed in the same post-war rebuilding effort as the NHS.

Next year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the UK’s first four National Parks – the Peak District, the Lake District, Dartmoor and Snowdonia.

In the late 19th century, the limited access ordinary people had to the countryside gave rise to the “right to roam” movement, and in 1932 the mass trespass on Kinder Scout in the Peak District galvanised public opinion after five protesters, including the leader Benny Rothman, were given prison sentences.

Royal Mail’s Philip Parker said: “Ten spectacular National Parks have been captured in stunning photographs that reflect their diversity and splendour.

“We are proud to be able to share the beauty of these parks on stamps at a time when so many of us have had our travel restricted.”
The stamps will be on sale from January 14.