Yorkshire Traveller

Yorkshire Traveller<">

Weather forecast for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

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Midi playing: How great thou art

Welcome to Yorkshire - the White Rose county

("Crystalline Rose" by courtesy of Ron Shaw)

Where I Live

Majestic mountains surround
Rolling hillsides, Bubbling streams
Cascading is the beauty to be found
Green meadows to sit by and dream of dreams

Alive is the spirit of days gone by
Filled within the cloister of abbey's
Serenity and peace
Monasteries here and there

Amongst the ruins in all it's splendour
Filled with songs of yesteryear
With cobblestone streets and quaint style
You are transported in time

Mediaeval dreams of Castle's in the sky
Eighteenth century is still alive
Stately the towns people are in their Grandeur
For these are our people noble and kind

Restoration and backbone support their dreams
It's beauty for all to see, come one and all
See where I live, sit and stay awhile in
Yorkshire, in a United Kingdom

~~~

~~ Copywright2001:Debbie Moore~~

This poem was lovingly created especially for the Yorkshire Traveller
by Debbie Moore who's beautiful pages of poetry can be viewed on this link.

Welcome to the Yorkshire traveller-----Recepcion al viajero de Yorkshire-----Bienvenue au voyageur de Yorkshire-----Wilkommen zum Yorkshirelaufstuck-----Benvenuto al viaggiatore del Yorkshire-----Boa vinda ao traveller de Yorkshire

WELCOME TO THE YORKSHIRE TRAVELLER

Although known as the "Land of the White Rose" Yorkshire is so much more. One county, but it encompasses varying and diverse landscapes. From sweeping, brooding reaches of moorland, to where the only sound is the call of the curlew in the wild skies above, to the pretty villages nestling within the lush valleys of the Yorkshire National Park, Yorkshire scenery is unforgettable.
"Tell a Yorkshireman how beautiful his county is and you will get no more than a shrug in reply. Like the Texan he already knows and believes implicity that this is God's own county. Grander, more dramatic and undeniably more spectacular than the puny hills of those not lucky enough to have been born in Yorkshire.

The Yorkshire Dales

All photographs highlighted in blue are with the kind permission of
Christine Airey

Broad, beautiful Yorkshire, the land of the White Rose. Once a kingdom in it's own right Yorkshire has never lost touch with its heritage or its identity. The County of Yorkshire is known to all true Yorkshire folk as "God's Own County", It is sometimes also referred to as "the Texas of Britain".

This is because it is the largest county in Britain. Stretching from the Pennines - the mountain chain known as the " Backbone of England" - in the west to the east coast and the North Sea. Yorkshire is a microcosm of Britain in its huge diversity of scenery. Mountains, wild moorland, limestone scars, rocks of millstone grit, bubbling streams that become foaming rivers, sprawling valleys and dales, rolling wolds - all are contained within its boundaries.

Yorkshire has more castles, magnificent ruined abbeys and monasteries and great stately homes than any other county of Britain - but, then, Yorkshire folk believe they have more of everything!

A Yorkshire person has a strong backbone: lean on it but do not try to bend it."

Hi! my name is Malcolm and I would like to welcome you to my Website.

It is my intention to make your visit as enjoyable as possible, and I hope that you will find the information and photographs to your liking.

Yorkshire, the largest county in the United Kingdom is divided into three "Ridings" (or Thridings, meaning "a third") North, East and West, and it is to these three ridings that I would like you to visit on my Website.

Helmsley

Helmsley is a very pretty market town on the northern bank of the River Rye, with lots of interesting shops and smaller streets off the main square, where there is a monument to Lord Feversham. To the west of the town stands Helmsley Castle, built by Robert de Roos, Lord of Helmsley from 1186 to 1227. The de Roos family owned the Castle right up until 1508. The Castle was under siege by parliamentary soldiers during the Civil War, and after three months of siege the garrison surrendered in 1644 to Sir Thomas Fairfax. The Castle was then blown up to prevent it from being used again. Helmsley has beautiful riverside walks, traditional tea rooms and genteel country pubs. A favourite haunt for walkers who gather at the market cross to begin their journey on England's longest long-distance footpath journey, The Cleveland Way, which continues for 108 miles around the North York Moors National Park.

Market Place, Pickering

Market Place, Pickering, North-Yorkshire

Pickering, a market town, has many historical buildings including castle ruins dating back to the 11th Century which were used by King Henry I to found the hunting grounds in Pickering forest. Between 1100 and 1400, almost every monarch spent some time in Pickering Castle to enjoy the pleasure of the chase- one exception was Richard II (d1399) who stayed as a prisoner on his way to Pontefract and death.

The castle was already badly dilapidated when the Civil War began, a process that was accelerated by the removal of the remaining lead, wood and iron to make good the defences of Scarborough Castle.

Pickering Castle

Pickering Castle.

Thatched cottage, Thornton-le-Dale

Thornton-le-Dale

2 miles east of Pickering

One of the most photographed cottages in Thornton-le-Dale, one of the prettiest villages in Yorkshire. Trout dart through the clear waters of Thornton Beck as it sparkles and chatters through the village on a great sweeping curve, like the flourish beneath a signature. It is much loved by the tourists for 'cute' little bridges that cross the streetside beck to enable folk to reach their cottages dryshod. In the upstream part of the village the lawns of graceful Georgian mansions slope down to the beck, and a footpath gives a close view of a beautiful thatched cottage with three dormer windows - the type that rise snugly into the thatch.

Village Square, Thornton-le-Dale

No Yorkshire village pilgrimage would be complete without a look at its hall, its almshouses of 1657, they were endowed by the Lumley family, Barons of Scarborough. Its much photographed thatched cottage beside the Dalby Beck and the church, which contains the effigy of a fourteenth-century lady, her head beneath a canopy.

Pickering is also the starting location for the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, where you can take a trip on a Steam Train to several stations situated in beautiful Newtondale, finally stopping at Grosmont, and passing through Goathland, the home of the television series 'Heartbeat'.

North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

The North Yorkshire Moors Railway was given financial backing to enable George Stephenson to build a rail link from Pickering to Whitby, and in 1836 at a cost of £130,000 it was completed making this track one of the oldest pieces of railway engineering in the world. One horse, or two if required on the steepest hills, were used, but in 1845 the railway tycoon George Huson acquired the line for £80,000 and quickly introduced steam locomotives. Many rural train lines were closed in England in the 1960's under the Beeching Plan and the 130 years old Whitby to Pickering line was to be one of it's victims. After a public outcry and a wave of public support for the Yorkshire Moors Railway Preservation Society, British Rail agreed to sell the first stretch of track to the Society in 1968. Today this stretch of the track, and in my opinion the prettiest, brings visitors in abundance to sample the nostalgia of steam railways, were the passengers felt that the magnificent locomotive pulling the carriages along it's route was alive.

Goathland

7 miles south-west of Whitby

Sheep graze on the coarse grasses where the moors come right among the greystone houses of this straggling village. A series of huge greens - more like heathland than conventional village greens - breaks the village up into pockets of houses, hotels, shops and tidy terraces of mixed styles of architecture. Goathland has had so much room to grow, that the economical use of space, so frequently associated with the English village, is completely lacking.

The whole area is fine walking country, and a network of footpaths fans out from the village on the the moors.

There are several waterfalls, the nearest just beyond the village to the west. To the south-west is a stretch of Wade's Way, a preserved Roman Road.

The television series "Heartbeat" is filmed at Goathland and the surrounding area and the village is a mecca for fans of this popular T.V. programme, and you will not be disappointed, there are a number of souvenir shops that relate to the cast members and there is lots to please the visitor.

Remember to take a folding chair with you, so you can just sit and view the breathtaking Yorkshire scenery at it's very best, and just to listen to .....silence, occasionally interrupted by a birds song or a sheep's bleat.

Rapers Farm

Offering Bed and Breakfast, Rapers Farm, a grade II listed English Heritage building is set in idyllic surroundings with picturesque views of Newtondale, the farm is situated 10 miles north of Pickering, 4 miles from the village of Levisham.

The ideal base for the Dales visitor

This is one village you just do not want to miss on your visit to Yorkshire, it's beautiful.

Eden Camp, Malton, North-Yorkshire

This is no ordinary museum, reconstructed from a Prisoner-of War camp that was originally built in 1942, Eden Camp re-creates history by using movement, lighting, sound and smell, even smoke from smoke machines, to transport you back in time and make you feel that you are there, taking part in history

There is so much to see and do that you will need 3 to 4 hours to enjoy your visit.

Rosedale.

Rosedale in the North Yorkshire Moors is typical of the scenery around this beautiful part of Yorkshire and you have the added interest of the Abbeys in Yorkshire. Bolton, Jervaulx and Rievaulx and the incomparable Fountains Abbey built by the Cistercian monks and the adjoining landscape gardens of Studley Royal.

Fountains Abbey

Fountains Abbey Cloisters

Today, in their setting of an eighteenth-century landscaped park, its ruins are probably the most beautiful and certainly the most extensive, of any Cistercian foundation in Britain. Tranquil and serene it may be today, but Fountains had its share of troubles. The thirteen monks from the Benedictine abbey of St Mary's in York found their chosen site (a thorn filled barren wilderness), and at first lived under an elm tree, and amongst the surrounding rocks.

Fountains Abbey

After 15 years work, in 1147 someone maliciously set fire to the abbey and with the exception of the church everything had to be rebuilt. By 1478 records show that the church was in a bad state of repair and work began on the great tower. The worst time for Fountains history was during the reign of Henry VIII. In 1536, Abbot William Thirsk was executed for taking part in the Pilgrimage of Grace and his successor, Marmaduke Bradley no doubt a king's man, meekly surrendered the abbey to its ultimate fate on 26 November 1539.

Studley Royal ornamental gardens.

The riverside below Fountains Abbey opens out into ornamental gardens and ponds full of exotic geese and visiting water birds. Created in the 1720s by John Aislabie as a deer park near his house, of which only the stable block remains. The park is part of an estate sold to Sir Richard Gresham in 1540 following the dissolution of Fountains Abbey. A short stroll (one and a half hours, 2 miles) which takes in the glories of the abbey and the beauty of Studley starts at the abbey car park and follows the River Skell past Fountains Hall to the abbey.

Water Gardens, Studley Royal

It continues down stream past Half Moon Pond and through the ornamental gardens of the park to follow the canal to the lake with its numerous geese and ducks both wild and tame. In the late summer and early autumn, the abbey ruins are floodlit.

St-Marys Church, Studley Royal park.

Within this county are the lavish stately homes, amongst them with its Baroque splendour is Castle Howard, near Malton. Made famous by the television series "Brideshead Revisted" and Nostell Priory near Wakefield, palatial Harewood House near Leeds and the more intimate but no less beautiful are the region's many smaller historic homes. They reach back through time from Edwardian Lotherton Hall near Leeds to the Elizabethan warmth of Burton Agnes Hall on the Wolds near to the holiday resort of Bridlington.

Shibden Hall near Halifax is the Yorkshire Folk Museum and contains many medieval memories.