Bridge Cottage

27/08/2024

Middle House Askrigg is good too

James Herriot, lions, race-horses, clockmakers and an imprisoned queen: at first glance, Askrigg is a small village set on a hill, lined with tall houses with a tiny cobbled market area and cross. Many visitors pass through it on their way to gorgeous Swaledale. Pause for a while to enjoy delicious cakes at The Bake-Well, Market Place & discover some other surprising gems.

You might find that Askrigg already looks familiar: probably thanks to its fame as a key location for the BBC's James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small, using one of the houses as Skeldale House and the King's Arms as the Drovers'. You can see photos from the filming in the pub. The King's Arms was built as a coaching inn by John Pratt, a renowned racehorse breeder who kept his hunters and hounds in the yard behind the pub. The buildings behind the pub now belong to a holiday company, but you can still walk through and see the semi-circular enclosure.

'Askrigg' is thought to mean the 'ridge where ash trees grow', and is mentioned as 'Ascric' in the Domesday book. It's thought that Cistercian monks from Jervaulx Abbey grazed their sheep here. Elizabeth 1st granted a market charter in 1587. The fine houses either side of the road mainly date back to the 18th and 19th century when Askrigg was part of the then lucrative textile industry. The market cross dates back to 1830. Askrigg was also celebrated as a centre for clock-making, starting with John Ogden in 1680, and continuing through the centuries. Other well-known clockmakers were Mark Metcalfe, James Pratt and Christopher Caygill. You can see some examples of Askrigg clocks in the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes. Over 60 years ago Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby told the history of Askrigg in their celebrated book, 'Yorkshire Village'.

Some interesting features to look out for:
- The market cross, pump and iron bull ring set into the cobbles.
- Lovely little bridge at the top of the village
- The lions - look up! - I'd love to know the story of these but can't find out anything about them
- The Parish Church of St. Oswalds dates from 1446. Pevsner declaimed the nave ceiling to be the "finest in the North Riding". The font is thought to date from before the 15th century.
- Nearby Nappa Hall was the home of the Metcalfe family. It's believed Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisoned there for a short time, probably before going to Castle Bolton

23/08/2024

My dad and his friend Ken, there would have been a good tale to tell!

Without doubt my favourite ever Swaledale photograph.
We were walking towards Gunnerside, came round the corner and saw these gentleman chatting away.
I still wonder what tales were being told.

19/08/2024

18/08/2024

Ever peered down into one of these enormous curious crevices? Their name is also the name of a famous windy and scenic road linking Hawes and Upper Swaledale.

Known as the Buttertubs these limestone sink holes were said to be used by farmers and traders who wanted to store their cheese and butter produce between markets. The dairy goods were apparently put into large wooden buckets and then lowered down into the cooler depths of the 'butter tubs'.

The Buttertubs Pass is one of the Yorkshire Dales' most iconic roads: twisting, turning, rising and suddenly dipping for just over 5 miles between Hawes and Thwaite. It's not a long journey but is one you want take slowly, so you can enjoy the views, and of course avoid ending up in one of the steep valleys below.

Jeremy Clarkson declared it, "England’s only truly spectacular road”. The Buttertubs pass is best experienced on a sunny or clear day so you can view the surrounding scenery in all its majesty but even on a windswept misty day there's something very special about this route. There are several places to stop and pull off the road so you can enjoy the views of Lovely Seat and Great Shunner Fell. At its highest point it's 1,726 feet above sea level.

There's a seat by the road just before the switch-backs that take you down from Wensleydale into Swaledale - a lovely spot to watch the curlews and marvel at the Swaledale hay meadows far below.

Thanks to Simon Middleton for this great photo.

14/08/2024

New work hitting the shelves in the gallery today from a productive morning on the moors of Swaledale.

13/08/2024

National Park Rangers have begun laying a nearly two-mile long flagstone path across peatland in Birkdale, as part of works to make Alfred Wainwright’s ‘Coast to Coast’ route a National Trail. Read more 👇

https://www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/major-work-on-coast-to-coast-trail/

📸 Andrew F**g & Charlotte Mudd |

08/08/2024

Sign up to receive fortnightly insider tips and get our free little e-book, packed with ideas for ways to enjoy the Yorkshire Dales - the Yorkshire Dales Guide to Health & Happiness. https://www.yorkshiretreasures.co.uk/happy Pls do share and spread the smiles!

08/08/2024

07/08/2024

Lovely photo of Thwaite taken from Kisdon Hill and looking towards Great Shunner Fell in the clouds!

Thwaite from the Pennine Way with a rainbow and a sprig or two of heather.
www.walkingmanphotography.co.uk

06/08/2024

They went through Thwaite too 🤩

Ageless scene as the shepherd takes his Swaledale ewes return to their "heft" up on the moors, where countless generations of this flock have lived.
Yorkshire Dales National Park Swaledale Sheep Breeders Association

06/08/2024

The lovely Thwaite with Angram in the distance 🤩

Evening sun raking upper Swaledale.

03/08/2024

There's a building on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales that's even older than the Kingdom of England: an intriguing Anglo-Saxon crypt, dating from 672AD. It’s the oldest structure of any cathedral in England still in use today, at Ripon Cathedral. The misericords are thought to have inspired the Adventures of Alice in Wonderland.

Ripon has been welcoming visitors since 672 when Saint Wilfrid laid those foundations. At the heart of Yorkshire’s smallest city (with a wonderful green frame) is the cobbled market square. It was described by Defoe as ‘the finest and most beautiful square… of its kind in England'.

You’ll immediately notice the strikingly tall Obelisk, one of many legacies left by John Aislabie. His other important contributions to the local area include Studley Royal Water Gardens, and the folly-filled woods at Hackfall.

The Obelisk is the starting point for Ripon’s famous nightly tradition: setting of the watch by the Ripon Hornblower every night at 9.00 pm.

Just off the square you’ll find three fascinating Ripon Museums museums that tell the story of less fortunate times, prisoners and poverty. Discover what it was like to be truly poor at the Workhouse Museum and Garden. Learn about crime and punishment at the Prison & Police Museum, where children can dress up or be a detective. You can even stand in the dock at the Courthouse and imagine waiting for a guilty or innocent verdict.

Nearby Fountains Abbey & Studley Royal, National Trust are stunningly beautiful and historically very significant (hence their UNESCO World Heritage Status). You can still experience the peace and tranquillity that attracted the original monks, almost 900 years ago.

Photo thanks to Visit Ripon

31/07/2024

Like to cycle in a style that's more Famous Five style than Olympics, preferably without the exertion of steep hills? There are some gentler options in the Yorkshire Dales.

The Swale Trail – you need a mountain or gravel bike for this 12 mile route (24 miles there and back) which follows the valley bottom between Reeth and Keld, three quarters off-road. It’s a superb route, although not without some short steeper sections and there’s one longer climb, albeit on a quiet road as you get nearer to Keld. It’s all relative though as the trail does flatten out much of Swaledale’s hillier challenges and the views are just as good. There’s plenty of interest along the way, whether it’s knowing that the 1st stretch from Reeth follows the ancient Co**se Way, where families would carry coffins along the valley to Grinton Church; or passing long abandoned lead mining settlements. There are plenty of options for re-fuelling at cafes and pubs along the way including the Dales Bike Centre’s very lovely cakery at Fremington once you’ve completed the return journey.

Malham Tarn – gravel and grassy tracks, with only one bit of quiet road to ride on, makes this a great little journey. It might only be a 4.5-mile circular but with a nature reserve, an old smelt mill chimney, an historic house where the likes of Charles Darwin and John Ruskin once stayed, and the panoramic views of the tarn itself, it packs a punch in the interest stakes. Plus you can start the route at the Malham Moor car park rather than having to struggle up the roads that lead in and out of Malham itself.

Lower Wharfedale loop – take the quiet back road between Bolton Abbey and Grassington and snake your way up following the River Wharfe. It’s not without a few climbs but they are short and (whisper) easy enough to walk up before hopping back on at the top. Take your time and saunter through villages like Appletreewick and Burnsall before reaching Grassington where there are plenty of welcoming places for a refuelling. I prefer to return the same way but you can loop back on the, albeit busier road back to Bolton Abbey.

It’s worth looking at the websites Cycle the Dales, the Dales Bike Centre and Stage1 Cycles for more inspiration.

Thanks to Amanda Brown for the words and photo

26/07/2024

Lots of lovely shows to visit in the

25/07/2024

Interesting stuff!

Does this win the prize for seemingly most random dry stone wall? The walls are one of the Yorkshire Dales' most distinctive features, and are some of the oldest man-made landscape features. It's believed there are over 5000 miles (8000 km) of dry stone walls in the Yorkshire Dales. Not all of them are in tip-top condition but most are well maintained.

One of the first questions any visitor asks is "why are they there"? The very first dry stones walls were probably created centuries ago when early farmers were clearing the land for cultivation. Some walls are really thicker than might seem necessary, just because they were built in very stony areas. Most walls are built to mark field boundaries or mark land ownership, and limit movement by sheep and cows.

Tom Lord of Lower Winskill Farm, Langcliffe has over seven miles of dry-stone walls on his farm, some of which date back to the 13th century and are believed to have been built to deter wolves! When on a tour of his farm farm in Wensleydale, Adrian Thornton-Berry showed me some very straight walls rising up the hill near Swinithwaite and said they were built around 200 years ago by French prisoners of war taken from Napoleaon's army. Nearby are some large block foundations to a wall that dates back to the times of the Knights Templar. There's plenty of hidden history in those miles and miles of walls!

If you see very large stones being used as the base of the wall, that's often an indication of a wall that may date back to medieval times. Straight walls and fields that seem more uniform may date back from the Enclose period of the late 18th and early 19th century.

Dry stone walls are 'dry' because they are made without mortar, simply relying on their complex structure to stay up. They take time to build. Whenever I write about this, there's an argument about how long. Some say 6 metres of wall a day, others 8. A good dry stone waller never picks up a piece of stone twice but is able to look at a pile of walling stone and pick up the right size and shape of stone every time. A well built wall should easily last for more than 100 years, with minimal maintenance.

The foundation course usually consists of larger stones, upon which two wall faces are built, forming a cavity which is filled will smaller stones. Walls are finished or capped with large stones laid at an angle or on edge. Through stones bind the two wall faces together. If you look at walls in different parts of the Dales, you'll notice small differences in their construction. If you compare the Dales dry stone walls to those in Devon and Cornwall and you'll notice a very different style.

You can see demonstrations of dry stone walling at agricultural shows through out the Dales during the Summer months, and learn more about thurles, batter and smoots, cripple holes, sheep creeps & throughs.

20/07/2024

Buttertubs Pass

1. A high road crossing the moorland between Wensleydale and Swaledale 🌄
2. A place farmers would lower butter in, so as to to keep it cool while en-route to market 🧈
3. One of the world's best cycling routes 🚲

https://www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/places/buttertubs_pass/

07/07/2024

23/06/2024

Your theories on this curious landmark? It's Nine Standards Rigg, a curious and distinctive landmark overlooking Kirkby Stephen on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, a welcome sight for walkers on Wainwright's Coast to Coast route.

The drystone cairns stand in a row, 2 – 4 metres tall. They’re very much part of the landscape but do seem to vary over time – some say they can find only 7 of these tall ‘standards’, others claim to find 11! Their height varies with the weather and efforts to rebuild them.

No one is quite sure of their purpose or origin. There are stories of them marking burial sites, of being beacons for weary walkers, of boundary markers between Westmorland and Swaledale. Some think they were built by a Roman army to look like troops from a distance. Another story says they were to deter invading Scottish armies. Dr. Stephen Walker has made a valiant attempt to delve into every possible archive and manuscript, finding mentions that date back to 1538. At one stage they were known as “standers”. An Old Welsh document apparently mentions a defeat of invading Saxons in the hills north of York at a place called “toothed mountain” which seems apt.

Whatever their origin, they attract visitors who climb the hill to see the Nine Standards and admire the sweeping views below.

Thanks to Valerie Hunter for this photo. If you have others, please do share them!

13/06/2024

The lovely Keld and its fabulous community spirit 🤩🤩🤩

09/06/2024

Fabulous 🤩🤩🤩

07/06/2024

360 degree vista

07/06/2024

Where would we be without tractors? They're work-horses, ancient and modern, used as transport, haulage and even a focus for leisure time tinkering?

I've often thought that if tractors carried a list of the jobs they do on their rear, bad tempered motorists travelling behind them on narrow country lanes would feel very differently.

Is there any other vehicle that inspires such incredible love and loyalty as the humble tractor? Obviously much of this is due to the tractor's many essential roles in farming but it feels like more than just that.

Toddlers can go into raptures of joy just to spot a tractor toy, and are beside themselves when they see the real thing. For some that attraction never goes away. Look at the line up of tractors at one of our Dales country shows, and you'll see the pride and love for even (or maybe especially?) the oldest, most basic models, They've been fettled and polished, absorbing countless hours of care.

This weekend Tractor Fest takes place at Newby Hall & Gardens where you'll be able to see hundreds of tractors and machines, as well as a slightly strange sight commemorating D-Day - a life-size knitted (yes, that's right) tank created by a committed team of volunteers. More tractors can be seen at Masham Steam Engine and Fair Organ Rally on 20th and 21st July.

You can also see some lovely line ups at our agricultural shows through out the summer.

04/06/2024

Fabulous photo of Muker and

Buttercup season in Muker taken on Saturday morning.
There's something so therapeutic about waiting for the sun to illuminate a scene watching the clouds meander down the valley.

03/06/2024

The lovely Thwaite in

Thwaite, Swaledale in the Yorkshire Dales 🇬🇧

Nestled in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales, this charming village showcases the timeless beauty of England's rolling hills and lush green pastures

📸 Photo: Bob Radlinski

03/06/2024

An excellent story and the fabulous Campbells make for a great day out in Leyburn 🤩

28/05/2024

And some bookshops too!

24/05/2024

Not too far to post a letter for Bridge Cottage - it is on the gable end! 🤩

23/05/2024

An excellent project and useful for years to come

20/05/2024