Michael and I thought that Jeremy's spending the summer in Darlington gave us a very nice excuse to take a few days' vacation in the Yorkshire Dales, because of course good parenting "required" us to check on him.
Taking the convenient Perugia-Stansted flight, we landed around one and then lingered around at the airport until three because airports are so great. Just kidding! I waited while Michael fumed in his immigration line, then we eventually made it out to the rental car plaza, at which point Michael got to show off his driving-on-the-left skills for about, oh, 5 hours. We eventually made it to our B&B in Kettlewell, where we got a warm welcome, dinner in a local pub, wandering around the village, and bed.
The next day was when our holiday really started. Obviously, an English breakfast was the start of the day, and then we decided to drive to Skipton. We had read that there were some lovely woods to provide a bit of a walk, as well as a great castle to visit. Sounded like the perfect combination!
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| In the woods at Skipton; I loved the reflections in the water |
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| Sheep! |
It worked out to be just as nice as we'd hoped. The forest was pleasantly cool (England's suffering from a heat wave, but their highs are lower than Italy's "unseasonably cool" highs are at the moment), and we enjoyed seeing some tiny birds fluttering about and looking for insects on the forest floor. We ended up following the canal (turns out that there was local limestone quarrying, so a canal was a very practical way to transport this material for conversion to lime at its destination) well down into the center of town. At this point, we meandered about town for a while, enjoying the shops and generally killing time: we wanted to have an early lunch before going into the castle, because we wanted to avoid hunger pangs that might cut a visit short.
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| View of Skipton Castle from path |
And guess what! We found not one but TWO wool shops. So, yes, we contributed to the local economy as I purchased our "souvenirs."
Then off to the castle! It was really lovely to see this intact structure that was over 1000 years old in some places, as well as to wonder at the very claustrophobic living conditions "enjoyed" by the people of the place throughout its history. Obviously, when you have a rather cold climate, body warmth can do wonders in a draughty castle, but still!
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| The castle withstood a three-year siege |
It turns out that the castle's heirs died out in 1956, at which time it was bought by a local goldsmith...who turned out to have a very Italian name. We enquired further, and were told that this person's forebear came from Italy in a very direct response to the Napoleonic wars: having had his ancestral lands robbed by Napoleon, he had the very clear desire to join the English forces to kill Napoleon himself. He arrived in England just in time for the news of Napoleon's capture, and was therefore constrained to make a living for himself and his family there in Skipton. Clearly, he knew what he was about and managed to create a large patrimony for his descendants, who then built upon his base and eventually ended up owning the local castle!
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| A bridge over the canal |
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| Yes, there was a wool shop here. Yes, I bought some wool |
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| The castle! |
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| The original doorway, dating to 960 |
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| The original courtyard |
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The bread oven.
Wood was burned inside the ovens until
the masonry was hot enough, then removed.
The bread was placed in the ovens at that point
and burning wood placed in the front of the oven
to provide continuing warmth and protect against cold drafts. |
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| "Desormais" is inserted into the tower; it's the family motto ("Henceforth") |
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This is a charcoal-fired stove in the "modern" kitchen (dating to 1600s),
prized for the clean-burning technology |
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| Opening into the main yard |
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| Michael and I had a delicious tea here! The garden was really pretty. |
We weren't quite ready to go back to Kettlewell for the evening, so we drove further north and found a darling tea room. After tea, we went for a walk on the local footpaths to a town called Hubberholme (because it seemed an irresistible target with a name like that!) and then a little beyond so we could enjoy the countryside some more. Then it was time to head back, where we had a lovely dinner in a really wonderful pub in Kettlewell. Before dinner, though, we went into the churchyard. We'd discovered it our first night, and it was such an interesting mix of overgrown wilderness and lovely herbaceous border areas that I had to go back to take photos. The grave markers weren't terribly old, dating back to the late 1800s at the earliest that we could distinguish, but it's probably because of the "tend it or lose it" policy of many European cemeteries.
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| I love the stacked stone. A few cheat with mortar, but they're mostly dry-stacked. |
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| The hare in the middle was having a grand time in the hay |
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This sheep was too lazy to stand on all four legs.
When we first saw him, he was grazing with
his back legs extended and resting on his front knees. |
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| Cows! |
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| Hubberholme! |
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| Gate carving detail for church in Kettlewell |
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| Church in Kettlewell. I loved the carved gate. |
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| Some of the wilder areas |
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| We thought this a very unusual way of marking graves |
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| About half of the cemetery was like this...very "gardeny" |
A little stroll, and time to get ready for our next day.
Love,
Alexandra
The next day was when our holiday really started. Obviously, an English breakfast was the start of the day, and then we decided to drive to Skipton. We had read that there were some lovely woods to provide a bit of a walk, as well as a great castle to visit. Sounded like the perfect combination!
Taking the convenient Perugia-Stansted flight, we landed around one and then lingered around at the airport until three because airports are so great. Just kidding! I waited while Michael fumed in his immigration line, then we eventually made it out to the rental car plaza, at which point Michael got to show off his driving-on-the-left skills for about, oh, 5 hours. We eventually made it to our B&B in Kettlewell, where we got a warm welcome, dinner in a local pub, wandering around the village, and bed.
It turns out that the castle's heirs died out in 1956, at which time it was bought by a local goldsmith...who turned out to have a very Italian name. We enquired further, and were told that this person's forebear came from Italy in a very direct response to the Napoleonic wars: having had his ancestral lands robbed by Napoleon, he had the very clear desire to join the English forces to kill Napoleon himself. He arrived in England just in time for the news of Napoleon's capture, and was therefore constrained to make a living for himself and his family there in Skipton. Clearly, he knew what he was about and managed to create a large patrimony for his descendants, who then built upon his base and eventually ended up owning the local castle!
We weren't quite ready to go back to Kettlewell for the evening, so we drove further north and found a darling tea room. After tea, we went for a walk on the local footpaths to a town called Hubberholme (because it seemed an irresistible target with a name like that!) and then a little beyond so we could enjoy the countryside some more. Then it was time to head back, where we had a lovely dinner in a really wonderful pub in Kettlewell. Before dinner, though, we went into the churchyard. We'd discovered it our first night, and it was such an interesting mix of overgrown wilderness and lovely herbaceous border areas that I had to go back to take photos. The grave markers weren't terribly old, dating back to the late 1800s at the earliest that we could distinguish, but it's probably because of the "tend it or lose it" policy of many European cemeteries.
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