My Yorkshire Page

I shouldn't forget that I live on the edge of the beautiful Yorkshire Dales and while my heart is mostly in the Lake District, I have spent many happy hours in another of the loveliest parts of Britain.  And I'll try and get some more on here soon.

BARDEN BRIDGE, WHARFEDALE - Barden is a few miles north of Bolton Abbey on the river Wharfe.  The bridge was built in 1659 and is typical of the graceful stone bridges found in the Yorkshire Dales.  Here you will also find the ruin of Barden Tower, built in 1485 and originally the main hunting lodge of the Clifford family.

THE RIVER WHARFE AT KILNSEY - going further north in Wharfedale you find the impressive limestone outcrop of Kilnsey Crag - seen to the right of the bridge.  It is popular with rock climbers although it always amazes me how they can hang on as they climb the overhanging rock.  This photo is a favourite of mine as it's taken from where my Mother's ashes were scattered - one of her favourite places too.

MALHAM COVE, AIREDALE - The impressive limestone amphitheatre of Malham Cove in Airedale.  For spectacular limestone scenery with pretty becks and meadows then Malham is worth a visit - but not at weekends or holidays!  It's a very popular place and can be as crowded as Blackpool but go there on a Spring or Summer evening and it's perfect.  Then again, you can say that about most of the Dales.

THE LEEDS-LIVERPOOL CANAL - This photo was taken about 5 minutes walk from my house.  You wouldn't believe it was the same canal that goes through some of the main industrial areas of Lancashire and Yorkshire.  It has some very beautiful parts, this stretch being one of them.  While walking along the bank I've seen kingfishers, herons and also deer.  It's also good flat easy walking!

A QUIET CORNER IN THE PRETTY VILLAGE OF DENT - Dent is a very picturesque village with stone cottages and narrow cobbled streets.  It is famous for its 'terrible knitters' - a term which doesn't indicate the state of their knitting but the fast speed that they worked at.  A famous resident of Dent - and whose memorial of pink rough hewn Shap granite stands near the Norman church - Was the world famous geologist Adam Sedgwick.  There are many lovely walks in and around the village and it is also on the Coast to Coast route.

An autumn view of Bolton Priory in beautiful Wharfedale.  This beautiful ruin, founded in 1120, is often mistakenly called Bolton Abbey but this refers to the village and not the priory.  It has been a familiar haunt of artists featuring in pictures by J M W Turner and the gaunt ruin contrasts perfectly with the gentle background of meadows and moorland.  Situated on the banks of the beautiful river Wharfe, it is a very popular spot at all times of the year  I usually go there in the evening, when all the daytrippers have gone home, and sit and take in the peaceful rural scene.  Blissful

A VIEW OF HAWORTH - made famous by the literary Bronte family.  Haworth is situated on the edge of the Pennines in West Yorkshire and is a honey spot for tourists who come to see the moors and village which inspired such ovels as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.  The sisters weren't actually born in Haworth but in Thornton, Bradford and moved to Haworth with their parson father. Other attractions include the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway which is an authentic preserved steam railway and has been used as a setting for numerous period films and TV series, including The Railway Children (starring Jenny Agutter) and Yanks (starring Richard Gere and Vanessa Redgrave)

There are many public footpaths leading out of the village, and the area is popular with walkers.  Perhaps the most famous walk leads past Lower Laithe Reservoir to the pretty (but unspectacular) Bronte Falls, the Bronte Bridge, and the Bronte Stone Chair in which (it is said) the sisters took turns to sit and write their first stories. This path then leads out of the valley and up on the moors to Top Withens, a desolate ruin which was, supposedly, the setting for Heathcliff's farmstead in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.  Also nearby is Ponden Hall which is believed to be Thrushcross Grange in Wuthering Heights).

The village itself boasts many good tea rooms, souvenir and antiquarian bookshops, restaurants, pubs and hotels - including the Black Bull, where Branwell Bronte spent many an hour and sank into alcoholism and opium addiction.  Haworth makes an ideal base for exploring the main attractions of Bronte Country, yet is still close to the major cities of Bradford and Leeds.  

BRIMHAM ROCKS, NEAR PATELEY BRIDGE, NORTH YORKSHIRE - The picture shows one of the large stone formations found in this amazing National Trust area of Nidderdale.  This one, we have called The Begging Dog.  You can see why it is such a popular place for visitors and climbers too.  The curious rock outcrops are scattered over some 50 acres and offer a wide variety of strange and fantastic shapes.  You can make your own minds up what they suggest to you but all manner of things can be seen if you look, including hippos and dancing bears.  There is even a suggestion that they are connected with Druid worship and the Devil himself.

The sketch on the left is by the late Yorkshire Dales artist, Neil Wingate.  It is taken from a book,'Grassington and Wharfedale' - text by Linden Stafford and illustrations by Neil.  I had the honour of knowing Neil back in the 70s when I worked at the Devonshire Hotel in Grassington and Neil stored his paintings there.

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Page updated 1 March 2009