The Picturesque Charm of Yorkshire

Marty snuck out early this morning while I chose to relax in our comfy room.  But, I could easily spy his fishing antics from the window.

He was very excited to have caught his very first British fish, even though it is barely the size of his hand. 

And this was before we even had breakfast!  Which, by the way, was excellent.  Simple food cooked to perfection.  You just can't ask for more than that, can you?

My schedule for today was relatively low key:  visit the Ribblehead Visitor center and the Wensleydale Creamery as they are both within easy driving distance of our B&,B and explore the Buttertubs Pass for a bit of added adventure.

Neil, the proprietor here, suggested that we make the drive to Dent as well, after visiting Ribblehead, so we added that to the list. 

So we headed towards the first visitor center.  Let me mention here that the roads are very narrow with either hedgerows or stone walls hugging both sides, so when an auto is coming in the opposite direction, someone has to give way....and sometimes that can be very tricky.  With the twists and turns, blind corners and steep hills that suddenly seem to come to a halt, it can be a bit nerve wracking for the passenger (me) in the car.  Probably because the hedgerows and stone walls are staring ME in the face, not the driver, who was actually having a blast zipping around while I was holding on for dear life.  

The main road to the visitor center was fairly open, and we were certainly surprised to come over a hill and see that both sides were lined with parked cars, making traveling a bit tight in two directions.  Suddenly there were roadsters zipping by in the opposite direction as well as other speedy cars, and I thought that perhaps some kind of event was happening.   Marty was going to park the car somewhere along this road following suit with everyone else, but I managed to convince him to continue on to the sign for the visitor center, and turn up the drive.  Sure enough, at the end of the drive stood the building and only one car parked in the lot.  That solved that problem. But, here is a photo of what we had passed on the road. 

Can you see the lines of cars?  When we asked at the center, we were told that this was pretty typical for a Saturday.  People come out to walk, parking their cars along the road.  I was grateful that we didn't have to  make an even longer trek!

The Ribblehead Visitor Center is in the train station lobby, and it is run by volunteers who are extremely eager to please.  Both the man and the woman tending the place were extremely entertaining and we both left chuckling at their humor.  

There were information boards inside, giving the history of the station.  One thing that caught my eye was this original ticket machine that still stands in place.  Today, everyone just purchases a ticket on the train, so it is entirely obsolete. 

The station has stood here since 1875 as part of the Midland Railway that connected London to Scotland.  Trains were running on this line, stopping at this station until 1970 when it became unstaffed and had no northbound platform.  The building fell into disrepair.  But the Settle & Carlisle Railway Trust saved the station, built a new northbound platform in 1993, and renovated it in 2000.

Next door is the station master's house, which you can actually rent to stay if you are interested.  I read in the museum that all of the station master houses were identical in structure, and as we drove around today, passing several stations, it was obvious that was the case as they all looked like this one. 

And here is what we came to see.  This is the view from the parking lot at the visitor center. 

The Ribblehead viaduct was built from stone from nearby quarries, using one and a half million bricks when it was constructed. The work began in 1869 and was finished in 1876.  However, the local bricks did not hold up to the freezing cold winters and they needed to be replaced in 40 years.  It was set to close due to expense of repair, but in 1989 work began to restore it to the amazing structure that it is today. 

It has 24 arches spanning 400 meters long and 32 meters high.  If you look closely, you can see Marty standing at the foot of the arches in the photo below. 

A memorial stone pays tribute to the first round of men who originally constructed the viaduct and the most recent group who reinforced the structure that you see today. 

We were actually lucky enough to see a train crossing over the viaduct when first arriving and it certainly does look impressive. 

We hiked down the path to get a closer look, and, as you can see, it was a bit windy today. 

Of course, we had to hike back up the hill to the visitor center lot to retrieve the car and we both decided to follow Neil's advice and head to Dent. 

There was a sign saying "Road Closed Ahead", but there was no sign of a closure, so we continued on, up and down the winding roads, and could see a second viaduct in the distance. What an amazing view!

We made it to the foot of the viaduct and guess what?  The road was closed. Well at least we had been prepared!  So, we turned around and I snapped this photo just beneath the structure.  

We decided to head to the Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes, since that had been on the agenda.  Unfortunately, the place was buzzing with people.  We did choose to try a Wensleydale Cheese scone complete with the Wensleydale Butter and found a quiet spot in the corner to enjoy our treat. 

And this was the view from the cafe at the Creamery.

I'll admit that I was a bit disappointed as I had hoped for a better experience here, but with so many people, I really didn't want to stick round long. 

Marty did manage to spot Wallace 

We're not sure what happened to Gromit.  He must have been hiding somewhere. 

At this point, we decided to try a different approach to Dent, and we headed out on the roads, but this time, they were the narrow type mentioned earlier in the blog.  Narrow, windy, and changing drastically in elevation as we traveled up and down, never knowing what would be around the next corner. 

And, once again, we spotted yet another viaduct.

Dent proved to be quite charming.

At one point, a caravan of roadsters came rushing by...at least 20 open top small cars zooming around the village.  Actually, I found it quite amusing that the people were wearing thick knit caps on their heads, with scarves wrapped around their necks, all while the top of the car was open.  Guess there must be some excitement in that. 

We opted to take a peak in the Dent heritage center, and that was quite interesting in itself.  It was a combination tea room/ wool shop/ museum where one buys a ticket and is free to just walk around the place.  If you thought Mr. Straw's house was stressful, (from an earlier blog this week), then this would definitely cause anxiety.  It looked like they had taken stuff from just about anyone's family home in Dent and shoved into different rooms.  In all fairness, there were a lot of descriptions so that one would know what one was seeing.  

For instance, there was this cream separator.  

and a milk bottler

But this buggy in the corner had a moving mannequin that scared the bejeepers out of me at first. 

There were silly items like pig marionettes 

And scads of baking/cooking/ knitting/ weaving, etc items as well.  But those had a sign stating no photographs be taken, so I respected that,  and it's probably for the better because it would be too tempting to share some of it here. 

I was very surprised to learn that marble was once quarried here  in the mid 19th century. Some of it was exported to Russia for a fireplace that is in the Winter Palace of the Tsar.   

The Dent marble industry declined when Italian marble was available at much less cost so it is longer active.   I'm always amazed at the information in some of these little places. 

After walking through the town, we decided that it was time to try the Buttertubs pass, so we had to head back up and over the windy, hill, blind corner road to get to the bottom of the pass.  Marty was driving along when suddenly, zipping around the corner came the lead caravan driver mentioned earlier.  So, Marty had to back up the car and squeeze over to the left for the car to pass.  The driver gave him the thumbs up sign, as did the driver behind him, and the next one behind him, until ten of the cars had gone by.  We knew there were a lot more, but there seemed to be a lull.  So, Marty started forward, this time a bit more cautiously, as he knew there had to be more drivers that would suddenly pop around the corner.  

And, true to form, there were more, but they seemed to be breaking up in numbers.  They were obviously all out for a looped joy ride, and they did seem to be having a grand time.  We were nearly at the end of this road when the last, lone driver came along.  He seemed a bit perturbed.  Perhaps he was the loser of the race, who knows? 

We drove the Buttertubs pass, which did have some amazing views.  The road was actually wider than what we had been driving on, but it did get to some points where there were just shiny markers on the sides, with obvious steep drops down an embankment.  Luckily, we didn't encounter many people.  I don't have any photos as I was holding onto Marty's camera since he wanted to tape the experience, and he needed two hands to drive, since it's a manual transmission.   

The views were pretty amazing.  Let me know if you want to see the film. 

From here we crossed up and over the hill back to Askrigg then onto our B&B. Once again,  we traveled high in elevation.  Marty stopped so that I could take some photos of the views. 

Note the road in the distance waiting for our travels. 

There were sheep on the sides

and even on the road at times. 

Luckily we never had sheep and a car coming at us at the same time! 

We arrived back at the B&B before 6:00 and took a quick walk to see the small waterfalls just about a block away from us.  

These feed the river behind us where Marty was fishing. 

Then we headed to the Rose & Crown, just about a block away, for dinner. 

It's a local pub....with pub food....but it was fine for dinner.  We'd had enough driving of the narrow roads for one day! 

This was our last day in Yorkshire.  By this time tomorrow, we'll be in Scotland.  It should be yet another fun adventure. 

Hope you enjoyed today's scenic adventures.  Glad to have you following along.  

Until next time....

 

Back in the Yorkshire Dales!

 Let me share my morning breakfast view:

Pretty nice, isn't it?  Our room was through that door on the right.  To be honest, the room was the smallest one that we've stayed in so far on the trip, and we did have a heating issue where it felt like we were in a sauna. but that was soon remedied. and we adjusted to the tight space without issue. After all, it's variety that makes the adventure...don't you think?

As I mentioned yesterday, we are working our way back north so that we will be close to the airport the night before flying home.  But we still have a few days to enjoy this spectacular country.  

After breakfast, we drove about an hour north to Wentworth Castle Gardens.  The estate is huge and actually holds two different types of deer, but we didn't venture far enough to see them. 

We did take the upper walk through the gardens.  Many of the blooms have faded, but some were still popping some brilliant colors. 

There was a folly in the distance.

And the sun was shining brilliantly on the front of Wentworth Castle.  It is not part of the National Trust site.  It is actually listed as a college. So, we could enjoy the views, but not tour the interior, which was just fine with us. 

There are more gardens behind the castle and here is one that was still aglow with color.

Along the path, this fuchsia plant was certainly sporting colorful flowers.

It stood near an extremely large rhododendron.  I had Marty stand underneath so that I could show my mom the one in her backyard is not quite this high......although it might be close! 

We opted to continue the path to Stainsborough Castle, which is actually a folly that was built in 1727 by the Earl of Strafford.  Along the way we spotted this monument. 

It was built in memory of the Honorable Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.  In 1720, she brought the smallpox vaccine from Turkey to England, introducing it to the local population. In gratitude, the monument was built. This is believed to be one of the oldest monuments in the country dedicated to a non Royal. 

From this point, we could see the castle in the distance.                     

We were able to climb to the top of the tower.  I didn't bother counting steps, but there were certainly quite a number of them. 

The views from the top were beautiful. 

As we began to make our way back down, I spotted this dragon at the top of the railing. 

And at the bottom we spied the tail!  I had completely missed this on the way up!

Quite clever if you ask me. 

We walked our way around the perimeter

and made our way back to the entrance, finishing with the Lady Lucy's Walk,  an avenue lined with Lime Trees.

From here, we hopped back in the car and headed north once again, with Keighley as our destination.  The drive took us on the outskirts of Leeds, and would you believe that it took us an hour to drive just 19 miles once we exited the M1 highway?  

The traffic was intense, with roundabout after roundabout resulting in an extremely pokey drive for most of the route.  But once we were off the main road and headed to the parking lot for Cliffe castle, there was nary a car in site! 

We parked in the free lot for this unique museum, rounded the corner, and lo and behold!  There was a cafe with the perfect view of the castle!  So, we stopped in for a cuppa and scones. 

Rejuvenated, we walked down the path towards the museum.

which had a very clever dragon weathervane perched on top.

This castle museum sits in an oasis of green, with flower borders, and spraying fountains uniquely situated, added to the beauty of the surroundings. Honestly, one would never have guessed that such hidden tranquility existed when driving through the intense traffic to get here!  That was certainly a pleasant surprise! 

Once through the doors, we were greeted by a pleasant young girl who invited us to explore the interior on our own accord.  When I asked her if we needed a map to follow, she said that you really couldn't get lost as all of the rooms ended at the same interior hallway, but that wasn't exactly true.  There were sections like a maze and every time I turned a corner, something new and different was on display.  And some back tracking was entailed, but obviously we eventually found our way out. 

This building was built in the 1880s by a Victorian millionaire and textile manufacturer by the name of Henry Isaac Butterfield.  In the 1950's, Sir Bracewell Smith purchased the castle with the intent of making the land into a grand public park with the castle to be a free museum, and so it continues to be so. 

One first notes the grand staircase to the left 

and the large drawing room to the right.  As we gazed on the contents, we could hear the glorious sound of a piano echoing through the rooms.  The melodious sounds added to the experience as we walked from one of these grandiose rooms to another. 

You can't see them in the photo, but there were delicate  musical motifs adorning the ceiling in the middle as well as around the perimeter.  A large glass chandelier hung from the center. 

Directly across from the small drawing room stands The Paris Exhibition Clock. It dates from 1867 and is one of the original furnishings of this castle. It was interesting to see the pendulum swinging in a complete circle rather than back and forth. 

And just outside the small drawing room stands this sentry. 

Next to the music room is the small drawing room.  It features the same type of chandelier. On the table in the back is a rare Malachite crucifix, although it 's difficult to spot here. 

There was yet another sitting room adjacent.

And, just next to this was a room with a grand piano, which was the origin of the beautiful sounds we heard while walking through.  The young man who was playing said that this was the only way that he could practice, as he does not own a piano, so they let him play in the museum.  How nice is that? 

This same room featured a Malachite Chimney, made in 1840, in Russia for a Russian Prince.  It was sold at auction in 1880 and purchased by Henry Isaac Butterfield, the original owner of the castle, to add to his collection.  It is strictly decorative as heat would cause the malachite to break off of the metal frame. 

Opposite the rooms stands the grand staircase with the beautiful stained glass window. In 1870, Henry Butterfield commissioned the window to be made the Powell Brothers.  The center window features a portrait of Henry with his wife Marie Louise and their son, Frederick, adorned in Elizabethan garb to match the medieval style of the Castle. 

At the top of the window is Raphael's Madonna and Child, reflecting Mrs. Butterfield's Catholic faith. 

Climbing up the stairs, you can see various painting hanging on the walls.

There is an upstairs room devoted to stained glass windows that have been saved from destruction.  This set, featuring the story of Tristram and La Belle Isoude, were commissioned in 1862 and were installed in the Dunlop house.  In 1903, upon the death of the owner, the panels were removed because they were considered to be "old fashioned."  They were purchased by the Bradford Art Gallery in 1917 and they are now preserved here in Cliffe Castle. 

This is the central window from St. James Church in Brighouse. It was closed in 1970 and the windows removed.

And these are two World War I memorial windows that are preserved here.

It's a shame that these brilliant windows have been removed from their original place, but how wonderful that they have been preserved in this museum for the visitor to enjoy. 

On the upstairs floor there were several rooms devoted to the history of Keighley, filled with items reflecting change over time here.  It would have taken well over an hour, or more, to peruse all of the information carefully presented. 

The rear of the downstairs floor is a full fledged museum, with items ranging from the ice age, to minerals, to animals, to development of tools to industry in the area.  I liken it to a miniature version of the Carnegie Library Museum in Oakland, PA, only without the dinosaurs.  Just about every and any subject was covered somewhere.  Here are just a few items that caught my interest. 

A hearth and bellows

an 18th century sundial . It came from the Fleece Hotel in Keighley.

A mid 19th century cast iron water pump with a carbon filter. 

A clothes wringer (my grandma had one of these although not nearly as elaborate).

 A hedgehog.  In case you hadn't realized, they are common to this area.  (and this one is not alive)

And a WWI memorial plaque. The families of all who had a loved one killed in the war received one.  The names of over 900 men are listed in the borough hall. 

And, finally, these collectibles that always bring a smile to my face.  They seem to be quite common in England and we've seen similar ones adorning mantle pieces in most places that we've toured. 

This museum was filled with countless items of interest and we could have easily spent several hours there had we the time.  (and you'r probably thinking "thank goodness they didn't" because that would make this blog even longer!)  But it closed at 4:00, so we headed out on our way once again.  Stopping in Kinnerdell for a couple of photos.

We are in the Yorkshire Dales, which is featured in the PBS series "All Creatures Great and Small", and driving through the countryside looks exactly like the scenes in the series.  It's like stepping back in time.  The one difference, though, is the occasional camper van which you certainly would not have seen in the late 1930's! 

We are staying at  The Low Mill B&B.  This is a converted mill with just two bedrooms to let. One enters a space that is a common room where the original mill works still stand. As you can see, some other items that would not be in a mill are on display there as well. 

There are some other quirky items scattered about as well.

How's that for fun?

And here's the view from our room.

I'm pretty sure Marty has already heard the fish calling his name.  He came up empty handed at the last place.  We'll have to wait and how this one works out for him. 

I'll be sure to keep you posted!

Until next time...