Life . . . Reframed: Yorkshire - A Land of Contrasts

We’ve been in the Yorkshire area for a week - I’ve fallen in love with the countryside and the people I’ve met. Where we are staying is in the middle of flat-land farm country. We’re in a little village called Barmby on the Marsh - I suspect the population isn't much more than 300, if that. It’s surrounded by farms, and there isn’t a shop of any kind to be found. There is, of course, a pub. It’s one of those fancy gourmet food places, but very old and lots of atmosphere. Just as I was about to post this, I had an e-mail from my pal Jamie. She tells me these are known as 'gastro pubs'.

Our hosts' home in Barmby on the Marsh. It's a couple of hundred years old.

We’ve walked, driven and cycled around the area and everywhere we are met with waving hands. There are so many little towns within a 20 minute radius, and they range from new developments to very old with little cobbled streets, ancient churches and beautiful old cottages. Most towns have a butcher/baker where we can buy delicious pies, and at the other end of the spectrum, there is usually a “Bargain Booze” store where one can purchase . . . bargain booze.

Church in a tiny little Yorkshire village - lost the name!
There are headstones in the graveyard that date back
to the 1600s

Inside the church. Love the floor. I took
this one for my pal Kathy who makes the
most beautiful hand-painted floor mats.
This might be inspiration for a new one!

Glen is having trouble with doors here in
England - he's about 6' taller than some
of them!

Church interior shot - the details are so beautiful.
I can't imagine how many hours went into creating this.

When we ventured a little further out, we encountered the most beautiful rolling hills, complete with miles of ancient rock walls, sheep, cows, chickens, and hiking trails. About an hour and a half from here (mostly on small backroads), is the east coast of England. When I was a young girl, my dad used to bring us kids a little gift if he had been on a road trip. Probably the most favourite gift I ever received was a book by an author called Enid Blighton. Her stories were mostly of life in England, and especially the ‘seaside’. We arrived at a little town called Filey, and I was immediately transported back to those magical pages of my childhood. Everything was there. The promenade. The ‘fair’ type children's rides. The ice cream stands. The fish’n’chip stands. The beach that went on for miles and miles. The beautiful old hotels. And something I never read about . . . the “Beach Chalets”. These are little rooms about 6’ square which one can rent for a day (Ł15), a week (Ł55) or a year (Ł900). Basically they are changing rooms where you can store your beach stuff. Although, some people were sitting outside theirs just taking in the scenery. I think I was more amused by the title of ‘chalet’. A little different from a Whistler chalet, for example.

The promenade at Filey - right out of a storybook.

The beach at Filey - something like 6 miles of it. It seems to
be similar to the beach at Parksville - very shallow water
when the tide comes in, so just perfect for kids.

Beach "chalets" at Filey

One of the grand old hotels at the Filey seaside. I think this
one is now a seniors residence (I could be wrong though)

Two of the 'Mini Golf' holes at the Filey seaside. They call
it' Crazy Golf' here. Ł2.60 per person or Ł7.65 for a family
ticket.

Some of the fun and games available for kids at Filey

More beach 'chalets'. It was a cold windy day when we were
there, so none of them were in use.

We also visited Whitby, another seaside town, much larger than Filey and very old. The cliffs and the old monastery and abbey at the top of the cliffs are said to have been the inspiration for the Dracula story. It’s a lovely old town full of tiny alleyways, as well as the usual tourist ‘attractions’. Captain Cook is said to have apprenticed here, and all the boats he sailed were built in Whitby.

Whitby harbour - looking across at the monastery
on the hill - the inspiration for 'Dracula'. Zoom in
if you can.

The Whitby Monastery a little closer up

Whale jawbone at Whitby

Window details on an old building in Whitby. Zoom in
and look underneath each window. Unbelievable.

No visit to Whitby is complete without a plate of their
world famous fish 'n chips. I had my first taste of mushy
peas here, and I quite liked them!

Further down the coast was a magical place called Robin Hood’s Cove. It’s built on a very steep slope, and is a very old town. If you rent a place to stay here, be prepared to drag your suitcase through a number of very picturesque, teeny, tiny alleyways. The cliffs here are of sandstone, and over the past couple of hundred years, a number of homes have literally fallen into the ocean. There is work being done to ensure this doesn’t continue, but the North Sea is a powerful force. It’s said that smugglers would bring contraband into this small port, and there was a network of cellars that would carry it up the hill past the eyes of the authorities. There is a another even smaller place down the coast called Ravenscar - there’s a lovely hike between Ravenscar, Robin Hood’s Cove and Whitby - I’d come back to do that either walking or by cycle. I regret that we didn’t make time to do that while we were here.

Passageway to various 'cottages' in Robin Hoods Bay

Pretty door in Robin Hoods Bay

Narrow passageway in Robin Hoods Bay
This would pretty much just fit a suitcase,
although it would do in the rolling wheels!

Robin Hoods Bay view from one of the
passageways

View from Ravenscar back to Robin Hoods Bay on the
far point. Whitby is around the corner. There is a beautiful
walking / cycling trail between the three towns that would
likely take the better part of a day. Very scenic.

And no visit to Yorkshire would be complete without a visit to the ancient city of York. Holy eye candy, batman! The cathedral. The walk on the wall around the city. The Shambles. The Castle Museum. The York Dungeon. There was so much more, but we could only see so much in a day. We saw the house where General Wolfe was born (all good Canadians should know who he is!) - it’s now a pub. Surprise, surprise. It was a spectacular day. The York Dungeon was interactive live theatre and a real treat. We experienced a plague doctor, a witch being burned at the stake, a court (I was declared immediately guilty, guilty, guilty for being from Vancouver), a torturer, a beheading, a pub with ghosts, and a hanging among other things. It was done as a ‘real life’ experience of life in medieval England. The Shambles is a funny little street - very narrow and typical of very old England. The castle dungeon was a dreadful place. If I lived in 14th century England, I wouldn’t want to be getting myself in trouble.

One of four entrances to York

Part of the wall around York

Yorkminster - stunning!

Walking the wall around York

Parts of the wall had a safety railing. Other parts had
none. One thing I've noticed about Britain is that many
places where Canada would have safety railings everywhere,
they don't seem to have the same standards. Maybe they
think their citizens are sensible enough to recognize where
they should be careful?

Poster in the York Castle. Not quite Shackell,
but close enough for me to take a picture :-)

Clifford's Tower in York - built by William the Conqueror

The Shambles

The Shambles street view. Very narrow!

The wall with Yorkminster in the background

I celebrated my “Freedom 55” birthday at Skipton Castle - a castle that dates back to the 1000’s. It was fun to see what a ‘castle’ was like in those days - yikes! Narrow stairways that one could trip on easily, 4’ thick walls, crossbow ‘holes’, crazy big fireplaces for cooking, ‘garderobes’ aka toilets that have a hole that drops down into the river below (yuck!), dungeons for prisoners (again, don’t want to go there!), and a room where it is said Mary Queen of Scots spent some time. I think I’ll take 21st century homes please and thank you.

The Wine and Beer Storage Cellar at Skipton. This shot is
for my brother-in-law David.

Wine storage table at Skipton Castle - also for David!

Inner courtyard at Skipton. Several doorways
lead out to this courtyard from the interior

Stairway to the Skipton Castle Dungeon. It was
cold and dark down there. Horrible.

The latch for the door has left a deep groove
in the stone wall.

Interior shot at Skipton.

Skipton Castle

Outside of Skipton Castle - built in 1090.

The entrance to the Castle grounds from a window
in the castle

Skipton Castle from the back. There is a sheer drop off
here down to the river - about 200 feet.

There was a beautiful hiking trail through the forest behind the castle that took about an hour to walk - it was easy to imagine Robin Hood and crew in here - steep hills down to a stream, miles of rock walls, big trees to climb and hide in. The only part of the day we didn’t enjoy too much was the long drive to get there, and driving through the fairly large urban centre of Leeds. Again, thank goodness for the GPS. We might be divorced by now if we were relying on paper maps :-)

Yorkshire hills - simply stunning.

Rock walls that go for miles

Rock wall close-up. So amazing when you think of the
time and labour involved to create them.

Our last day in Barmby we stayed close to home, walked around the local area farms, saw a peacock, and went for a drive to check out golf courses (Glen made it almost 3 weeks without visiting a golf course - not bad at all!). Our hosts Julie and Simon invited some neighbours over for a bbq, so we joined them in the backyard and had a really nice farewell evening. A couple of nights before this, Julie and I went out riding - she on her horse and me on Simon's bike. They are our first experience with the AirBnB program, and remarkable ambassadors for it. I can only hope that all our experiences with hosts will be as nice as this one has been. We’re looking forward to seeing them in Canada one day!