A visit to Yorkshire and the Humber (encompassing North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, East Riding, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire) is to discover stone walls and villages, caves, fells, babbling becks and sheep in two national parks – the North Yorkshire Moors and the Yorkshire Dales – ruined abbeys, seaside resorts, cliffs, castles and cathedrals and a heritage shaped by being at the heart of Danish territory. Its cities include Leeds, now a bustling financial centre and retail mecca with a proud Victorian past, and York, famous for its medieval minster and one of Britain’s tourist magnets. Visit Ripon, with its cathedral and old workhouse, Whitby for fish and chips, Dracula and Captain Cook, or Haworth, home of the Brontes.
In a field opposite the Crooked Billet pub near the village of Saxton, in North Yorkshire, stands the tiny chapel of St Mary’s, Lead. Cross the field over Cock Beck, which was said to run red with blood after the nearby Battle of Towton in 1461, and you are stepping through a vanished hamlet to […]
St Mary’s Chapel, Lead Read More »
Yorkshire and the Humber
The guy behind me, approaching the rather unwelcoming gatehouse, grumbled, somewhat disparagingly, “Well, it’s just a ruin.” He was evidently a reluctant visitor to Helmsley Castle, poor soul. He was half-right – Helmsley Castle is a ruin – and Britain does have more than a few wrecked castles. Maybe our fellow-traveller was merely out-ruined, couldn’t
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Yorkshire and the Humber
There are so many things to see and do in York and I’d never felt a burning desire to visit the Treasurers’ House. Big mistake – put it on your list immediately. For one thing, it is an outstanding house; for another, it is the location for one of Britain’s most intriguing ghost stories. Plus
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Yorkshire and the Humber
This is the story of England’s first known poet. Once upon a time, many many years ago, there was a good herdsman who lived on a cliff top called Streaneshalch. The herdsman’s name was Caedmon; he was no spring chicken and was actually quite shy. Nearby on the cliff top was a great Abbey, ruled
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Yorkshire and the Humber
The Yorkshire coastal town of Whitby is celebrated for its fish and chips, the semi-precious gemstone, jet, its associations with the explorer Captain Cook, Dracula – and its abbey. It is less well-known as the place where the timing of Easter was decided. “When is Easter this year?” I hear you say; I’m very glad
Whitby Abbey and the Easter problem Read More »
Yorkshire and the Humber
Whernside, one of the Yorkshire Dales’ Three Peaks, is often thought to be relatively uninteresting walking country compared with its partners, Ingleborough and Pen-y-Ghent. This is unfair. Whernside can be bleak, but there is plenty to see. If you stick to the popular path, the going is easier than on either of the other two
Time to go for a walk. So here’s Pen-y-Ghent, one of the Three Peaks of the Yorkshire Dales. To get the full set, you need to conquer Ingleborough and Whernside too. Some folk hike scramble or totter up all of ‘em in a single day, a distance of about 24.5 miles; it’s a challenge. Before
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Yorkshire and the Humber
Though undeniably a ruin, and built about 800 years ago, Yorkshire’s Middleham Castle is a place where the past doesn’t seem that far away. I am sure this is some kind of subliminal sensation due to the personalities associated with Middleham, particularly Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick, known to history as Warwick the Kingmaker,
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Yorkshire and the Humber
My female reader of a certain age may recall the scene in the film, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), in which Kevin Costner in the title role bathes naked under a waterfall. He is surprised by the fragrant Maid Marion, played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and the rest is inevitable. With all due respect
The local gardening group, ‘Pals with Trowels’ (I like to imagine they have an inner committee known as the Pollen Eight), organised a visit to Harlow Carr. If you are a keen gardener, especially in Britain, and more particularly in the North of England, you will know that Harlow Carr is a public garden near
There was trouble at St Mary’s Abbey in York. Some of the monks felt that monastic practices had strayed too far from the original values set out by the blessed St Benedict. In 1132, influenced by a band of Cistercians passing through the city, thirteen of St Mary’s monks rebelled. However, Archbishop Thurston sympathised with
Fountains in Yorkshire Read More »
Yorkshire and the Humber
Here is Clifford’s Tower, probably the most significant remaining part of the medieval castle of York. Once at the centre of government for the north of England, Clifford’s Tower was looking a little worse for wear when I last visited. Since then, English Heritage has installed a roof deck, giving wonderful views over York’s skyline
