Gallivanting Geismom: Gallivanting through the Yorkshire Moors

Today's adventure found us heading west through the Yorkshire Moors to a property called Mount Grace Priory. It took us about an hour to get there but the ride was very scenic along the way. One just has to watch for the occasional sheep who might step onto the road at less than desirable time. But no mishaps today...thank goodness!

Mount Grace Priory is a National Trust property that is run by English Heritage. Due to the dissolution of Catholic churches under Henry VIII's orders, most of these stand as ruins, and this one is no exception.

What is slightly different here, is that there was a manor house associated with the property and that is what one sees when walking from the parking lot to the entrance.

Mount Grace Priory was established in 1398 for the Carthusian Monks, a silent order. The grounds featured a large church with a perimeter of cells where the monks lived. Each monk was assigned his own cell where he spent 20 hours a day, leaving only to attend mass in the church. Meals were bought to him and passed through a hatch in the door.

When this was first explained to us by the greeter, I envisioned a man in a hassock, huddled in a small stone cell. We were quite surprised to learn that the cells were actually relatively large houses with a main room, separate bed room and separate chapel, as well as an upstairs for working. One of the cells was recreated according to the literature that described the living conditions here.

Here is the front door

It opened into a fairly large living area connected to a bedroom

as well as a room strictly for prayer.

There were two large windows that looked out onto the garden in the back.

The upstairs room was reached via staircase in the main room.

You can see how bright the room is even on a dreary day with no sun.

We learned that the monks had a sophisticated water system that actually involved a toilet that flushed and that featured a wooden seat as well as a cubby in the wall for a candle, should one be needed.

Certainly not the stark life that I had expected, especially considering the time period! I'd say that this could be called the Carthusian Hilton! What do you think?

All the monks were ordered to leave the grounds upon the dissolution order, and in 1540, Sir James Strangeways bought the property simply for the land. He was a farmer and wanted to use it grow crops. The Church and the surrounding buildings were left to fall into ruin.

Thomas Lascelles purchased the site in 1653 and it stayed in his family until 1744 when it was sold to the Mauleverers of Arncliffe.

Lascelles converted the manor guest houses and used stones from the ruins to make the improvements.

The properties were passed to William Brown who owned Mount Grace until 1899. He was very interested in the ruins and encouraged their excavation. His efforts uncovered the most complete Carthusian priory remaining in England.

In 1899, the house and grounds were sold to Sir Lowthian Bell who was a wealthy industrialist. He extended the manor house and used an "arts and crafts" style to decorated the interior. Although I 've heard the term used for describing gardens, I can't say that I've heard it associated with interior decorating.

What I can say is that the two rooms on display are simply furnished. Here's a view from what should be the dining area into the sitting area.

Note the thickness of the walls.

And this is the adjacent room.

Upstairs there was some more living spaces, but they basically held information placards. I could spy the church from the top floor window.

From here we headed out to the front gardens which were added to the property in the 1980s.

Aren't they stunning?

And how cute are these miniature crocuses growing on the grass?

It doesn't seem the right time of the year for crocuses but perhaps things are different here!

As you can see, Marty and I certainly enjoyed this tranquil morning with no crowds!

From here we headed back east with Ormsbey Hall as our destination. This is a National Trust property that we were eager to visit.

But first, we wasted no time heading to the cafe for our afternoon cream tea. Once again, it did not disappoint. Timing was key as I'm fairly certain that we got the last two fruit scones.

We enjoyed our treat sitting outside, near the gardens, listening to the peeling of nearby church bells. We had thought that, perhaps, there had been a wedding, and the bells were ringing out in celebration, but it was determined that it was actually practice bell ringing for a wedding event in the near future. They rang for at least half and hour!

Whatever the reason for the bell ringing, it certainly added to the experience. We loved it!

These photos don't capture the true beauty of the gardens, but they give you an idea.

Fully refreshed, we made our way inside the house where we were greeted by a National Trust guide who was quite excited to give us a rundown on the house in which we were standing.

The estate was purchased by the Pennyman family in 1599 and included vast properties that have since been reduced to a few hundred acres over time. The National Trust has an agreement that no new buildings can be built on the owned property.

The present house was built in the 1740's and some of the rooms maintain the bold Palladian decorations from that time period

as well as the New classical plasterwork ceilings that were commissioned in the 1770's.

The last owner of the property was James Beaumont Pennyman and his wife, Ruth Knight.

The Pennyman family were avid book lovers, and this collection is considered to be the most diverse in the National Trust. Subjects include religious publications, biographies, rearming, politics, plays and works of poetry. The collection is spread through various rooms in the house.

Ruth was a lover of the arts and you will find many books devoted to that subject. She also loved music and purchased this lovely grand piano for the house.

The house holds many items original to the family. This is primarily a result of the agreement that was made when the house was granted to the National Trust after Jim's death in 1961. It was agreed that Ruth would continue to live in the house until her death, which was in 1983. Jim and Ruth never had any children, so the vast majority of the houses' possessions stayed with the house, making this an extremely unique collection. Here are a few items of interest:

Jim over saw the farming on the land and would keep the rents from his tenants in this safe.

There were several guest bedrooms, each different in size.

This bed was used for convalescing military men.

And here you see a Butler's mirror. It's designed so that the butler can see everyone in the room to determine if someone needed a refill on their drinks. How unique is that?

Even the upstairs door frames were adorned with plaster work.

We finished the tour about 3:30 and decided to drive to Saltburn by the Sea. I had seen a documentary about this village and thought it would be interesting to check it out ourselves. We arrived around 4:00 and immediately set off to see the tram, as it was only running until 5:00.

We hopped on the car to make the trip down.

All of the tram operators are volunteers and every one of them was extremely friendly. That made the experience even better!

The operator explained the dynamics behind using a clever system of balancing water tanks in order to for the cars to go down and, thereby, the other go up. This Saltburn Tram system is the oldest funicular in England. Although, to be quite frank, I don't know how many of these there are in England.

Once at the bottom, we walked out onto the pier where it seemed we had gone back in time.

The brightly colored bathing houses added to that phenomenon.

And the views were brilliant!

We headed back up the hill and once at the top, the friendly operator was more than obliging to let Marty pose for a photo. In fact, Marty handed him the phone and asked him to take it!

I'm sure it made both of their days!

Marty took one last photo before heading back to Robin Hood's Bay.

We had about an hour before our dinner reservation, so we managed to maneuver our way down into the village to get a peek of what Robin Hood's Bay's busy streets had to offer.