There and Back

Another beautiful spot we visited was Yorkshire Lavender, a 60-acre hillside farm featuring lavender gardens, specialist plant shop and a sculpture park. The patterns formed by the Lavender were just waiting to be photographed.  A great place to visit with it`s herbs and other plants. To cap it all, a great place to have a mid morning coffee and cake. What more could you want.  I know, more ruins! The ruins of Kirkham Priory are situated on the banks of the River Derwent, at Kirkham, North Yorkshire, England.  The Augustinian priory was founded in the 1120s by Walter l'Espec, lord of nearby Helmsley, who also built Rievaulx Abbey. Legend has it that Kirkham was founded in remembrance of l'Espec's only son who had died nearby as a consequence of his horse being startled by a boar. The area was later used to test the D-Day landing vehicles. The ruins are now Grade I listed and in the care of English Heritage.  The Gatehou...

Wharram Percy is a deserted village in a beautiful, secluded location in the Yorkshire Wolds. The village is the most extensively studied of all deserted medieval villages in England. Excavations at Wharram Percy took place every year between 1950 and 1990 and reveal the rich history of the village and why it was eventually deserted. The village was first settled in the Bronze Age, though the first dwellings of which we have records date from the Iron Age, when two houses were established. By the Roman period there were five farm sites here, and finds of Roman tiles and tesserae indicate the presence of a Roman villa nearby. There was further settlement in the Saxon period and a corn mill stood here by the 9th century. A small chapel stood on the site of the current church in the 10th century.  From the 12th century there were two manors at Wharram Percy, known to archaeologists as North Manor and South Manor, the latter owned by the powerful Percy family. The Percy's...

Hayley and Izobelle came to York with us, and we had a great day in the city, just wandering and taking in the sights and sounds. I like listening to, and photographing Buskers, So, when this melodic voice caught my ear, I made my way a few yard (with Izobelle) to see who it was. I must confess the powerful and very melodic voice seemed to come from a younger person (sorry Busker!). Izobelle was transfixed! So we dropped our coins in and took a photo.  These are the ruins of Pickering Castle, as are the two images below. Set in the attractive North York Moors-edge market town of Pickering, the castle began life as a simple wooden motte-and-bailey castle founded by William the Conqueror. It was converted to stone under Henry II; later additions included an outer entrance and curtain wall built on the orders of Edward II.  Some more ruins of Pickering Castle Home      Forward      Back

We were looking forward to our trip to Bempton Cliffs, which is a nature reserve, run by the RSPB. It is best known for its breeding seabirds, including northern gannet, Atlantic puffin, razorbill, common guillemot, black-legged kittiwake and fulmar.The hard chalk cliffs at Bempton are relatively resistant to erosion and offer lots of sheltered headlands and crevices for nesting birds. The cliffs run about 6 miles (10 km) from Flamborough Head north and are over 100 metres (330 ft) high at points.  Our visit to Bempton Cliffs was pure magic! There are good walkways along the top of the cliffs and several well fenced and protected observation points. We spent a great morning there and soaked up the magic of being so close to these wonderful birds. A `must` visit if in the area.  One of the many Gannets swooping past the cliff face.  I think you are getting too close..  Looking down on a Gannet swooping into it`s nest site.  ...

Scarborough was an interesting place, although not a place I would go to regularly. However, on a rather dull day, it was not the time to explore the town to any degree. I am sure in more sunny weather we would have had a better picture of it.. Below is the Grand Hotel, and grand is the right word. When the Grand Hotel was completed in 1867 it was one of the largest hotels in the world and one of the first giant purpose-built hotels in Europe. Four towers represent the seasons, 12 floors represent the months, 52 chimneys represent the weeks and originally 365 bedrooms represented the days of the year. A general view along the beach toward the harbour on a rather dull day. Some shots taken near, or in, the harbour area. Well, just rust I suppose! Scarborough Cliff Railway - a view from the bottom. There have been five such railways in Scarborough, two have closed. Well used, I would think, as the path up is very steep. Home    ...

A holiday for all the family together we thought, would be fun and a much deserved break for all. So, where to go? Finally (actually very quickly) we settled on Yorkshire, as this is an area known to one of them, but totally unknown to the other! We picked Wold Newton as this had a house to sleep 9 and was near Scarborough and Flamborough Headland, neither place had we visited before. On 22nd July we all set out to meet at Wold Newton and duly arrived safe and sound. The first exclamations were - What! no Wifi quickly followed by What! no mobile signal. The Wifi was solved but there is no 3g or4g signal in the area. Peace! The house was great and the village was a small, quaint Yorkshire one - good start. So following are a series of images I took over the week. The church, which looked interesting, is set in the heart of the village between Front and Back Street. It is a very attractive small church with nave, south porch, north aisle, chancel and small wooden bel...

Chantry Park was the venue for a motor show of Classic Cars and we decided to pay a visit. Not to sure why as it`s not our usual `cup of tea`. However it was a good couple of hours with the highlight for me being the Monster Truck display. Some History: In the 16th century Edmund Daundy, a local merchant and portman, donated the property to St. Lawrence Church, Ipswich for the purpose of founding a ‘Chantry’.  What is a Chantry?: A chantry was a form of trust fund established during the pre-Reformation medieval era in England for the purpose of employing one or more priests to sing a stipulated number of masses for the benefit of the soul of a specified deceased person, usually the donor who had established the chantry in his will, during a stipulated period of time immediately following his death. It was believed such masses would speed the deceased's soul through its undesirable and indeterminate period in Purgatory onwards to eternal rest in Heaven. Once the soul ...

Farnborough Air show, an event I have wanted to see for years!. For my 70th, Matthew & Vicky treated me to a day out at the world leading air show - what a treat. Matthew, Adam and I had a great day out, even having runway side, grandstand seats for the best view in the house. Even the journey there and back were pain free, with no long queues either way - bonus! So, to start, a static view of an old workhorse, the Tornado. The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing multirole combat aircraft, which was jointly developed and manufactured by Italy, the United Kingdom, and West Germany. There are three primary Tornado variants: the Tornado IDS (interdictor/strike) fighter-bomber, the suppression of enemy air defences Tornado ECR (electronic combat/reconnaissance) and the Tornado ADV (air defence variant)interceptor aircraft. It first flew on 14 August 1974 and was introduced into service in 1979–1980, and is expected to remain in service until 2...