National Trust, English Heritage, museums etc.
22 August: we’re heading north, and need a lunch break. Instead of motorway services, we take the Appleby road at Tebay, then the A66 to Temple Sowerby, for Acorn Bank gardens – and a light lunch, well away from the M6. Acorn Bank was home to poet Dorothy Una Ratcliffe, whose name is familiar to me – though I’ve no idea why.
Too warm for anything very energetic… A wander around Attingham Park, focusing on the colour in the walled garden.
Beside the Severn in Shropshire: a brief visit to Buildwas abbey, and a stroll along the river bank near Cressage.
This Elizabethan manor house in the Wenlock Edge’s Hope Dale, is a National Trust property – and a youth hostel. The steel-framed bunk beds may look incongruous in these timber-framed rooms, but it must be a great place to stay. We’re just passing, however – an hour is sufficient to explore the rambling and disorientating building, truly a 3D maze. Outside the house, Hope Dale is unbelievably quiet, and very green.
Wilderhope Manor YHA
Wilderhope Manor NT
The river Skell is perhaps best known (if at all) for flowing through the valley of Fountains Abbey and the Studley Royal water gardens (a world heritage site, on account of the latter). It rises on the moors east of Nidderdale, and joins the Ure on the eastern edge of the city of Ripon (which is half the size of Beverley, the third-smallest city in England). We’ll start at the latter, for lunch down by the cathedral, followed by a visit to the restored canal basin. The canal, which takes its feed water from the Skell, closed in 1956 – forty years later, it had been re-connected to the inland waterways network.
It’s only a short drive to Fountains. The ruins need little introduction – the abbey is one of the largest and best-preserved of its kind, and particularly photogenic, even on a dull grey afternoon. There’s plenty to explore, and afterwards we walk the length of the water gardens, a very pleasant stroll which is concluded by fine views as we approach the abbey once more. Little more needs to be said – visit the NT site (below) for more.
Tuesday am: We’re in Yorkshire for a few days – Wensleydale today, starting with the magnificent ruins of Middleham castle. It’s more colourful than we’d imagined – there are masses of pinky-purple flowers all over the stonework (“erinus alpinus”, also know as alpine balsam and fairy foxglove. I didn’t know that at the time…). This castle has an amazing assortment of dark nooks and crannies, making for a fascinating exploration. Afterwards, lunch at a small cafe across the road, where, sitting outside, we watch local life pass by – including numerous racehorses heading for, or returning from, the gallops nearby.
Middleham Castle English Heritage
Day 4 of the “Cambrian Coast Express” tour. Flying Scotsman is hauling the train (as I write) between Crewe and Paddington, via Hereford and the Severn Tunnel. We went out to Stokesay to see it, with the castle providing a (scaffolded) backdrop. Inevitably, a little cloud obscured the sun over the railway line, while the castle basked in full sunshine. I don’t think 60103 was feeling very well – a few minutes down at Stokesay, it has just arrived at Bristol Parkway (Realtime Trains!) around 30 minutes late. The photo says it all – no visible smoke or steam (it was around 25c – another warm one), thought the diesel at the back seemed to be working hard…
Update: The train left Parkway on time (it had been scheduled for a lengthy stop) and arrived at Paddington on time. I wonder what the problem was?
We arrived at the Croft Castle car park at midday, to find it almost full, but once we were beyond the immediate surroundings of the house, we saw few other people. One or two were making their way up to Croft Ambrey, but we had the woodlands almost to ourselves when we chose a more roundabout route to the hill fort. Bircher Common is quiet too – just us and a few sheep. It’s very pleasant on a day like this – warm sunshine and a cooling breeze – on these Herefordshire hills.
View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=344730&Y=266330&A=Y&Z=120
Mostly concentrating on the minor details at Blists Hill this afternoon – the place is over-run with coach-loads of school-children…
The contrast could hardly be greater – this morning I was driving through busy Birmingham; this afternoon we were wandering on Wenlock Edge. Everything seems to be in flower now, and the early purple orchids should be in bloom.
