Yorkshire's Best Guides

27/12/2024

Great drone shot of Ribblehead Viaduct in the Yorkshire Dales

26/12/2024

Eating Wensleydale cheese with Christmas cake? This is where it all began! Cistercian monks first made Wensleydale cheese at Jervaulx around 1150. Over time farmer's wives made it too and it became a mainstay of the Dales diet. Jervaulx Abbey feels like an enchanted place, and is one of the largest privately owned Cistercian Abbeys in England. The lovely Burdon family work hard to maintain the site with its abundant wild flowers. They don't receive any government funding for the upkeep of this treasured historic monument in its stunning setting so don't forget to pay your contribution in the Honesty Box.

The extensive abbey ruins are a wonderful place for a family gathering. Children love to play hide and seek in the beautiful Abbey ruins, while their parents chat and don't try quite as hard as they could to find them. Wandering in and out of the ruins you can gradually work out what was once where, and admire the beautiful archways and window spaces. The pastoral landscape setting is tranquil and beautiful.

The french-sounding name comes from the times when Jervaulx was one of the great Cistercian abbeys of England, built in the 12th century. Its name means 'Ure valley' or 'Yoredale', the old name for Wensleydale. The monks were rich and powerful, largely from trading sheep and wool which was an important commodity in the middle ages. They bred and trained horses, a trade still carried on in nearby Middleham. The first Wensleydale Cheese was made by the monks, originally using sheep's milk. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Jervaulx was pillaged but substantial ruins remain.

During the summer months, across the road from the abbey are the tea rooms where the Burdon sisters create award-winning cakes. On my last visit, I was pleased to see that the large model of the abbey is still there.

You can also enhance your visit by going to nearby for lovely Brymor Ice Cream.

24/12/2024

24/12/2024

Ever wondered at signs mentioning the 'West Ridings' or stones at the edge of bridges with a WR marking on them? The story goes back a long way… over 1100 years when Yorkshire’s boundaries were established.

Yorkshire was divided into three ridings, the North, East and West Ridings, plus York. 'Ridings' is from an old Norse word meaning a third (probably ‘thridding’). Each of these areas were then divided into administrative units known as 'wapentakes'. Parts of the Yorkshire Dales were previously in the West Riding (and North Riding higher up in the Dales and over towards the North York Moors), until 1974 when the boundaries changes and the county of North Yorkshire was created.

Many of the old road signs like the one in this photo remain, literally a sign of former times! Another related curiosity you might spot are marker stones fixed at the side of roads by bridges (such as in Kettlewell and Grassington), often bearing the initials W.R. (for West Ridings). Bridges were essential to travellers but not everyone wanted to pay for their upkeep. The marker stones at the side of the bridge show that West Riding council had liability for maintaining it.

Do you have a favourite sign? Or perhaps spotted some of the bridge markers?

24/12/2024

Wishing everyone who has engaged this year with Real Yorkshire Tours a great Christmas - from overseas guests, tour operators, visitor attractions, hotels, other guides and partners as well as everyone following on FB or instagram.

Hope you like the picture of Reeth in Swaledale in the snow from Fremlington Edge.

Tim

24/12/2024

Final tour for 2024 done! A walking tour of York’s City Walls for a lovely family (mine 😜). Thank you for all the support and here’s to a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year x

23/12/2024

I love this wall! There are over 5000 miles of dry stone walls in the Yorkshire Dales, one of the Yorkshire Dales' most distinctive features, and are some of the oldest man-made landscape features.

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 enclosures 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. 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.

22/12/2024

22/12/2024

22/12/2024

I wonder how many people still know what this is? At this time of year we tell people to be good or Santa won't come. At one time we'd threaten to make a 'laughing stock' out of someone. There are still quite a few village stocks around. A law was passed in 1350 called the Stature of Labourers to order that every village and town in England should have village stocks. The last recorded use was in Rugby in 1865. ​

They were used for minor miscreants, such as vagabonds who'd drunk too much . Victims were kept in the stocks for at least a few hours. Stocks were often on village greens in full view of passers-by, so part of the punishment was the humiliation as people made "laughing stocks" of them, sometimes even throwing rotten vegetables.

The basic construction of stocks was broadly similar - moveable planks with holes cut out for the legs, occasionally two tiers to include holes for the arms as well. A boulder or stool was sometimes added for the victim to sit on.

​When I was researching their history I discovered that their use has never been expressly abolished so in theory we could bring them back into use...

You can still see wooden stocks in several villages around the Yorkshire dales. I've spotted these in Bainbridge Kettlewell and Kirkby Malham. Being made of wood, some have long since rotted or been moved away from the village green to a less obvious spot. I like that each village had their own different style.
Was the tiny settlement of Kirkby Malham a particularly unruly place as their stocks seem to have space for 3 people?

Where have you spotted any?

21/12/2024

On the shortest day of the year, perhaps it's a good time to marvel at this curious place on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, known as the "Stonehenge of the North", possibly over 5000 5000 years old. It's close to Nosterfield, a few miles from Masham.

The Thorborough Henges consist of three circular mounds, ditches and banks, and are likely to be the world's only triple henge complex. Each is over 200 metres in diameter. The site is thought to be one of the largest ritual religious sites in Britain.
For many years only locals really knew about them, but English Heritage has recently taken over the site, and there are now a few interpretation panels to explain more about their possible origin and use.

The structure is apparently in alignment with Orion's Belt in the night sky, something they have in common with Egypt's Great Pyramids. Some believe the Thornborough Henges were built even before the pyramids. If so, what made man so many miles apart decide to build these great works in line with Orion, although some say it's just a coincidence.

Was this where our forefathers celebrated the Winter Solstice?