Harewood House is the focal point of Harewood Village and an attractive destination for a trip out. Set above the lower reaches of the River Wharfe there are woods and views to suit most folk. Do not let this signpost from the garden put you off. The charms of the house, bird garden, planetarium and even the special visiting events shouldn’t stop you exploring a bit further afield on foot. The Leeds Country Way skirts parts of the Harewood Estate and Harrogate walks also promote walking trips around Harewood.
Walking the Harewood Village by the ‘Walking Englishman’ offers one route and a chatty photographic record of his trip. For a rainy blog on a similar theme try Yorkshire Walks.org Ordnance survey Pathfinder map 672 covers the area at 2½ inches to 1 mile and I find this scale is easy to navigate at the slow pace I walk. Eccup reservoir and Golden Acre Park are all within walking distance and Harewood was the base for the recent 20 mile charity walk in aid of Breast Cancer. Ebor Way from Ilkley to York passes through the Harewood Estate and the Dales Way Leeds Link is close by.
For a walk of a length to suit yourself I would just recommend strolling around the gardens and grounds at Harewood House. There is an entry fee but that is much lower than going around the house itself and it if free for members of the Royal Horticultural Society and other organisations probably have similar arrangements. The new Himilayan garden the ponds and the bird garden are all worth exploring in some detail, yet you are never far away from a cup of tea.
After selling over 80,000,000 books the Leeds born Barbara Taylor Bradford must certainly be a woman of real substance, even though she now spends most of her money living in the USA. It is 30 years since the 1200 page block buster ‘Woman of Substance’ was released in British book shops and there has been a prolific output of another 24 books, films and TV spinoffs. Not a bad output for a former cub reporter with the Yorkshire Post.
Marrying a Yank (at least he had a Yorkshire surname) Barbara kept her maiden name Taylor but added the alliterative Bradford. After 46 years marriage they still work together “I refer to him as the General,” she says, “and he calls me Napoleon!” Robert Bradford produces all of her mini-series and films, structures her contracts and spearheads all of the activities of ‘the industry that is Barbara Taylor Bradford’. The Napoleon reference is said to be linked to the expat Yorkshire traits of Barbara’s strong will and blunt straight talking, although I never saw Napoleon as a Yorkshire man.
Barbara’s 25th book is ‘Breaking the Rules’ and ia available from the 3rd September 2009
Parecvall Hall lies on a steep hillside near Appletreewick in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Built in 1582 as a farm house it is now a retreat leased to the Diocese of Bradford by the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. Extensively refurbished by Sir William Milner who bought the Parcevall Hall estate in 1927 he bequeathed the estate to the College of Guardians of the Shrine in 1960. Sir William was an architect and founder member and honorary director of the Northern Horticultural Society where he pioneered the establishment of Harlow Carr gardens, at Harrogate.
Not surprising with Sir Williams background and passion for plants that the grounds today are a wonderful Gardens for the public to visit. 24 acres of formal and woodland gardens command impressive views of Simon’s Seat and Wharfedale. These features and the many planted trees create a microclimate that helps special plants to survive and thrive 800 feet above sea level. The view of the herbaceous border as you approach the house is flanked by two orchards of fruit trees containing some special Yorkshire apple varieties. All the hedges are neat and well maintained a tribute to the current head gardener and his helpers.
The Alpine garden at the rear of the house houses acid loving and limestone loving plants in close harmony due to the rocky out crops in this part of the Skyreholme valley. I also noted that the numerous Hostas had not suffered any slug damage and the gardener put it down to the birds having a good feed.
They were not the only ones having a good feed. In addition to the bees above, the cafe down by the car park was doing a roaring trade.
Despite the ‘liquid sunshine’ during my visit these Helenium made up for any negative feelings and the whole trip was tranquil, educational and positive. If you are invited on a retreat then it will undoubtedly be an experience. If you enjoy walking there are many places to visit close by including Trollers Gill, Stump Cross caves and Simons Seat. However for just an afternoon garden visit I can recommend the Parcevall Hall Gardens between May and August.
The first Yorkshire folk were from the Palaeolithic era over 10,000 years B.C. These Fred Flintstone characters were able to cross from the continent as the glacial waters of the ice ages melted away and plant and animal life increased to feed the nomads. Evidence of inhabitation and exotic animal bones is found at Victoria Cave near Settle and Kirkdale Cave near Kirkbymoorside in the Vale of Pickering, North Yorkshire. These cave dwellers were restricted to roughly shaped flint and stone tools and no evidence of permanent settlement has been discovered.
Middle Stone Age Yorkshireman from the Mesolithic age visited via what is now the North Sea possibly from warmer Pyrenees or the Mediterranean about 7500 B.C. Evidence of a brushwood platform for Lake Dwelling remains were found at Star Carr in the Vale of Pickering and there was a camp at Marsden where many arrow shaft flints have been discovered. Flint axes have also been discovered in Calderdale, Blubberhouses, Glaisdale and Wharfedale and scattered on the Cleveland Hills and North Yorkshire Moors.
Neolithic man 3000 B.C. were the first farmers in Yorkshire with both cereal crops and small animal husbanding. Large trees in the fertile valleys were too difficult to clear so much of the farming was done on the tops and valley sides. There are Neolithic sites at Flamborough Head, Hartendale and Beacon Hill. Most evidence comes from the long barrows the burial mounds from Sleights to Kilburn and around Folkton. By 2000 B.C. Duggleby Howe round mound shows evidence of inhumation (interment) and cremation.
Bronze age man probably arrived from the Rhinelands about 1800 B.C. and have been named ‘Beaker Folk’ after the pots they were buried with. Burial mounds at Grassington, Baildon Moor and West Tanfield display an interest in gold and amber and the picture below demonstrates the find at Kellythorpe.
( from geocities).
By the Iron Age around 500 B.C. the Celts and Parisi joined the Brigantes tribes bringing expertise in metal working and even chariot building. The British museum has an Iron tyre and nave hoop from the East Yorkshire Garton Station Iron Age cart burial. The tribal atmosphere led to the building of hill forts at Ingelton, Castleton Rigg, Boltb Scar and Dane’s Dyke amongst others. These were to fall to the Romans early in the next millennia.
So this quick gallop through 10,000 years of Yorkshire folk history establishes a background for the next 2009+ years. What we don’t know is how Yorkshire folk were fairing during the 4 Ice Ages before the Palaeolithic times.
Independent or Voluntary Hospices are registered charities financed mainly by charitable income not the NHS or government. In addition to inpatient care most hospices provide home care, day services and bereavement support.
At Saint Michael’s Hospice in North Yorkshire they believe ‘everyone in Harrogate, Ripon, Knaresborough, Wetherby, Pateley Bridge and the surrounding areas should be offered the choice of quality end of life care, regardless of the illness they are living with or the place from which they are receiving care.’ There is an in-patient and many other services that can be accessed through a GP referral. To help with fund raising they have 8 charity shops in Ripon, Harrogate, Otley and Knaresborough. Volunteers are always welcome to help with a range of activities.
There are many other hospices in Yorkshire that could benefit from your help or financial contribution towards support for the terminally ill. A list of just some Hospices includes:-
The founders of Ripon St Eata and St Wilfrid were fishers of men in the Middle Ages. The Cathedral, containing one of Europe’s oldest crypts, was founded on the ruins of St Wilfrid’s Abbey about 672 AD, the small crypt is Saxon is called St Wilfreds Needle. In 686 AD the diocese was combined with York and there was no Bishop of Ripon from then until 1836. The present building was begun by Archbishop Roger (1154-1181),with the transepts and portions of the choir still existing. The western front and towers are fine specimens of Early English and believed to be the work of Walter de Grey, Archbishop of York.
Ripon is said to have been made a royal borough by Alfred the Great, and in 937 AD, Athelstan is stated to have granted to the monastery sanctuary status, freedom from toll and taxes, and the privilege of holding a court. There was a ring of Sanctuary Crosses around the City and whilst only one original remains a facinating walk has reconstructed and linked others with replicas. Around 950 AD the monastery and town were destroyed by King Eadred during his expedition against the Danes and again by the Normans in 1069 AD but they were rebuilt by the archbishops of York.
Ripons hey-day was during the twelfth to sixteenth century before the woolen industry moved to Leeds, Bradford and the West Riding towns. Ripon was also famous for its school of carvers who made the Cathedral misericord and supplied choir stalls to other places of worship including 68 stalls for Beverly Minster in 1520.
The first Ripon fair was in 1100 AD and there is still a thriving Thursday market in the square. In the square is an obelisk built in 1780 which is surmounted by a horn. This symbolises the custom of a Wakeman or watchman blowing a horn at 9.00 pm daily as he took over the safety of the City for the night. The horn is still blown though the Wakeman was superseded by the first Mayor in 1604.
Ripon takes its name from Ripum or Ripa ‘on the banks’ and indeed there are the banks of three rivers the Ure, the Laver and the Skell meeting in Ripon.
White Roses are not the only flowers I grow, quite to the contrary but White Roses are the best for obvious reasons. A lot of so called white roses are in fact cream or faintly tinged with pink, even the variety called ‘White Rose of York’. Madame Hardy above or the singles Ruga rosa Alba or Henry Hudson would suit Yorkshire tastes better and Iceberg is a clear white winner.
A great Yorkshire gardener and rose fanatic Geoffrey Smith saddly died this year and I can’t find a rose dedicated to him. Alan Titchmarsh however has a ‘Shocking Pink ‘ rose to his name but the 10 suppliers I tracked down were all outside the county. Still Alan is one of our famous exports and is now an expat living in the south of England.
This white begonia was raised in Harrogate and similar blooms will be on show at the Harrogate Autumn Flower Show 18th-20th September 2009. Just a couple of unusual societies who will be present are the Streptocarpus and Hosta/Hemerocallis societies.
When God was handing out noses the Lancashire lad asked for a big red one because he thought he said roses – seems he ended
up with both.
The time was when if someone said they were in t’club it was not unusual to ask ‘Christmas, Pudding or Workingmen’s?’ Who would have answered the Book Club but that would be more appropriate for Milly Johnsons ‘literary’ offering. From what I know I doubt Milly would want to be termed a Chick for her lit or other reasons, nor may she want to be a Lass but that will have to do.
From the Inside Flap of The Yorkshire Pudding Club
‘Three South Yorkshire friends, all on the cusp of 40, fall pregnant at the same time following a visit to an ancient fertility symbol.
For Helen, it’s a dream come true, although her husband is not as thrilled about it as she had hoped. Not only wrestling with painful ghosts of the past, Helen has to deal with the fact that her outwardly perfect marriage is crumbling before her eyes.
For Janey, it is an unmitigated disaster as she has just been offered the career break of a life-time. And she has no idea either how it could possibly have happened, seeing as she and her ecstatic husband George were always so careful over contraception.
For Elizabeth, it is mind-numbing, because she knows people like her shouldn’t have children. Damaged by her dysfunctional childhood and emotionally lost, she not only has to contend with carrying a child she doubts she can ever love, but she also has to deal with the return to her life of a man whose love she must deny herself.
Heart-warming, up-lifting, tear-jerking and lovely, The Yorkshire Pudding Club is the story of how three women find themselves empowered by unexpected pregnancy. How it revitalises one woman’s tired marriage, strengthens another’s belief in herself and brings love and warmth to a cold and empty life.’
Milly Johnson is a half Barnsley, half Glaswegian writer of greetings cards, novels and shopping lists featuring gin and buns. A self confessed ‘ disciple of the clutter-clearing experience she says ‘It’s magical, energizing and you really do feel lifted and light after shifting rubbish from your house.’ Mmm I am clearing out a lot of books but I don’t have any ‘Chick Lit’ and dare not ditch my wife’s copy of The Yorkshire Pudding Club.
The follow up book and the 5th published by Milly is called ‘A Summer Fling’ and features some of the same characters.
The glens of Scotland and the Moors of Yorkshire are currently covered with purple flowering heather. This picture was taken yesterday above Dick Hudsons on Ilkley Moor. The route is part of the Dales Way Bradford Link and the Leeds Link also traverses Ilkley moor to get to the start of the Dales Way proper. According to the Yorkshire Dales National Parks Authority ‘The dry heaths of the National Park are usually dominated by heather particularly on intensively managed grouse moors.’
There is an interesting and amusing History of Heather on Gardener’s tips
Types of Heather
Bell heather also known as Erica cinerea has dark pink or purple flowers and generally flowers first in late July.
Cross leaved heath has leaves arranged in crosses of four on its stems. It has pale pink flowers and can often be found in boggy areas.
Ling Calluna vulgaris is the most common type of heather found on the North York Moors. It has very tiny pink flowers and generally flowers in mid to late August
Uses of Heather.
The Moorland Association, whose members manage about 90% of England’s heather moorland host thousands of bee hives. Pollen from heather makes excellent honey and the scent is excellent.
Red grouse eat young heather shoots but they like to shelter and build their nests in taller, older heather. Gamekeepers therefore have to make sure there are some patches of young heather and some patches of old heather on the moors if they want to have enough grouse to shoot.
Local people used to use heather to make a type of broom called a besom to sweep their cottage floors.
Heather is available in many varieties and they contribute to ornamental or specialist gardens.
White Heather is said to be lucky but count yourself lucky if you can walk through a purple flowering moorland Yorkshire landscape.
This photo shows two of the twelve Apostle Stones, 1260 feet above sea level, on Ilkley moor looking towards Yeadon and the airport. The planes were flying higher than the horseflies but not by all that much. There is a specialist web site for Stone Circle visitors here and a more comprehensive article by David Raven. For comments about heather on the uplands 15,000 years ago look at The Moorland Association site
This weekend we had a nostalgic trip by steam train with the Railway Touring Company. Joining at Shipley the 12 coaches had already picked up passengers at York and Leeds so engine no. 45231 had a full head of steam. We were just along for the ride and food but there were many ‘Steam Engine Buffs’ chatting away about times gone by and preservation activities they had been involved with.
After a ‘Full English Breakfast’ about 10 minutes out of Skipton the train ran out of water and ground to a halt 2 miles short of its water refueling stop at Hellifield. Consternation in the cab was no doubt allayed when the fire brigade came to the rescue running hoses across fields into the river Aire at Coniston Cold and pumping water into the tender. I have never traveled on a train that was one and half hours late yet most people were in a good mood about the delay. For our part it gave us time for a ploghmans lunch and drink on the train as we crossed Ribblehead viaduct through Dent station and on to Carlisle.
Firemen from the brigade, not the train, putting their pump into the river at Coniston Cold 18th August 2009. The engine driver had thoughtfully stopped by the bridge when he realised the problem. During the less eventful return journey to Shipley we enjoyed our third on board meal, a full 4 course dinner, and got to our station at 8.45 pm after a full day out.
The engine 45231 called ‘The Sherwood Forester’ is also used on the York to Scarborough summer private hire specials and if the trip is half as good as York to Carlise one then you would do well to treat yourself. The operator is Railway Touring Co.
