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| *****SWAAG_ID***** | 731 | | Date Entered | 24/06/2013 | | Updated on | 24/06/2013 | | Recorded by | Will Swales | | Category | Geological Record | | Record Type | Geological HER | | Site Access | Public Access Land | | Record Date | 20/06/2013 | | Location | Grinton Gill | | Civil Parish | Grinton | | Brit. National Grid | SE 043 977 | | Altitude | 260m | | Geology | Carboniferous sandstone feature | | Record Name | John Moss's Chair | | Record Description | John Moss’s Chair is a name marked on the OS Explorer map just west of Grinton Gill, but the map gives to no clue to what it is or exactly where it is. Fortunately the OS 25-inch map of 1912 is more specific and marks its location very precisely, deep in the cut of Grinton Gill.
It can be reached easily via the bridleway that runs westwards from Grinton Lodge Youth Hostel and then, where it crosses the gill, by following the unmarked footpath downstream on the east side of the water. After less than 100 metres, a rather obvious, large rock outcrop becomes clearly visible on the opposite side of the gill. The front elevation is about three metres square, and it seems to have four legs. It looks like a giant’s chair. Thanks to John Russell for pointing out that the rock is carboniferous sandstone.
But who was John Moss? The name goes back to before 1857 when John Moss’s Chair was marked on the first OS map published in that year. The OS surveyors gathered their information from local people. What did they say? Was he a mythical giant who people once believed lived in the gill or on the moor above? Or was the rock named as a joke, after a local man who was very big?
See also Nanny Ward's Well at Record 732
| | Image 1 ID | 4485 Click image to enlarge | | Image 1 Description | John Moss's Chair - a natural rock feature that looks like a giant's chair |  | | Image 2 ID | 4486 Click image to enlarge | | Image 2 Description | The view from atop John Moss's Chair looking down Grinton Gill |  |
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