Journeys End

Our Yorkshire journey is now almost complete and I thank you for visiting, I hope that
you have enjoyed your journey and that you will one day soon visit Yorkshire and
see for yourself how beautiful this county is.
I will keep adding to this site so don't be too long in making another visit.

Oh! by the way, my Guestbook is at the very bottom of this page and I would be
grateful it you would take the time to sign/view my Guestbook, thanks again.

Now let's proceed..... 

Middleham.....................View from Middleham Castle

Middleham is linked to Leyburn by an iron girder bridge built by public subscription
in 1850, replacing an earlier suspension bridge which collapsed in 1831 after 2 years use.
The impressive ruins of Middleham Castle date from 1170, and three centuries
later became home for the future Richard III.
The Castle keep is the original and despite it being made untenable after Richard's
defeat on Bosworth Field in 1485, the castle ruins are in a fine state of preservation,
a true memorial to the medieval stonemasons who built it.

Pinkers Pond, Middleham. 

Bolton Castle.

Castle Bolton village saw excitement for over a year during the Civil War and it is
nice to think that little has happened to it since then.
Bolton Castle dominates the western end of this unspoilt village.
It was built in 1379 at a cost of #12,000 for the first Lord Scrope,
a Chancellor of England.
The ill fated Mary, Queen of Scots was lodged here from July 1567 to January 1569
on her slow journey south and eventual execution.
Mary was twenty-six years old, well educated and had a lively personality.
She lived well with a retinue of forty servants, many of whom had to live in the village.
She had her rooms in the south-west tower, which you can see today,
and went hunting regularly in the surrounding forests.
For Mary it was the beginning of nineteen years of captivity
in various places under Elizabeth before she was beheaded.
Seventy-five years later, during the Civil War, the castle was a royalist stronghold
and under siege, but following defeat in November 1645
it was partly destroyed to render it unusable.
Colonel Chaytor held the castle for the Crown against the troops of Oliver Cromwell
until forced by starvation to surrender.

Reeth.

In Saxon times Reeth was only a settlement on the forest edge, but by the time of the
Norman Conquest it had grown sufficiently in importance to be noted in the Domesday Book.
Later it became a centre for hand-knitting and the local lead industry was controlled from
here, but it was always a market town for the local farming community.
It's eighteenth-century houses and hotel clustered around the triangular
village green make it one of the honeypots of the Dales.

Richmond North-Yorkshire.

Swaledale's capital , Richmond, with it's cobbled ways and attractive town houses,
is the northern gateway to the Dales.
The castle commanded all access in and out of Swaledale manned by troops
whose twentieth-century counterparts train at nearby Catterick Garrison.

Richmond Castle

Earl Alan Rufus built his massive castle soon after the Norman Conquest and roofed
it with Swaledale lead. As Richmond grew in importance it became the focal point
for the commercial and agricultural interest of the Dales and also the surrounding
area; there has been a market since 1155.
The town incidentally is far older than it's Surrey namesake.

River Swale with Richmond Castle in the background

River Swale at Richmond.

Marske-in-Swaledale although strictly in the side dale of Marske Beck, is idyllic, purely agricultural and surrounded by wooded hills beneath wild moors. The hall was home and birthplace of the Hutton family who provided two Archbishops of York, one of whom,
Matthew, became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1757. Marske's church has Norman
origins, with additions in the thirteenth and seventeenth centureis.
On a high rocky crag above the Swale stands a memorial stone
erected in 1606 by Robert Wallace.
It commemorates his survival after his horse fell from the crag in fog.
Willance broke a leg and only saved himself by cutting open the head
horse's belly and thrusting his leg inside to keep it warm.

Vale of Pickering

Before the Ice Ages, the waters of the Vale of Pickering
drained directly eastward into the sea.
After the arrival of the ice, however, this exit was blocked, creating a vast meltwater lake,
covering an area of over 160 square miles.
At its western end, near Ampleforth, the water was trapped by the
Vale of York glacier. It finally escaped by cutting its way through the hills
south of Malton, and in the process created the gorges near Kirkham.
All the streams that now flow through the rich, alluvial plain of the Vale of Pickering
merge with the River Derwent, a tributary of the River Ouse.
The Derwent's eastern exit into the North Sea was similarly blocked during the Ice Ages.
In consequence, it carved a new route south through Forge Valley
and west across the Vale of Pickering.

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Castle Howard

In a dramatic setting between two lakes with extensive gardens and impressive fountains,
this magnificent 18th Century Palace was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh in 1699.
Undoubtedly the finest private residence in Yorkshire, it was built
for Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle, whose descendants still live here.

Castle Howard

With its painted and gilded dome reaching 80ft into the Yorkshire sky, this impressive
house has collections of antique furniture, porcelain and sculpture, whilst its fabulous
collection of paintings is dominated by the famous Holbein portraits of Henry V111
and the Duke of Norfolk.

John Smith's Brewery, Tadcaster.

Tadcaster's name is synonymous with brewing and honest Yorkshire Ale - and it is
evident here, Breweries dominate this pleasant market town.
Tadcaster, as its name implies, was a Roman encampment,
an outpost of the station of York.
There are still traces of the camp to be seen and from time to time coins,
horseshoes and pottery shards have been found.
There was also a castle here in the Middle Ages, it is said to have been demoslished
in the 18th century to provide stone for the handsome seven-arched
bridge across the River Wharfe.

Saint Joseph's R.C. Church, Tadcaster.

(photograph reproduced with the kind
permission of Canon John Murphy)

Saint Joseph's celebrated its 100th Anniversary in 1998 and the Pastoral care of
420 families has been entrusted to Monsignor Murphy who welcomes tremendous
support from a host of parishioners, many of whom are employed
in the Tadcaster Breweries, the British Library at Boston Spa, whilst others
commute to Leeds, York or Harrogate

This is such a beautiful little Church and I felt as though I just wanted to
include it in my Website.

Thank you for completing the Yorkshire Traveller tour with me, I have enjoyed your visit and
I hope you will leave with the intention of visiting Yorkshire one day,
and of being able to visit much more of Yorkshire than I have been able to show you.

There are various links below than will enable you to take in more detail of the
places you have visited.

If you have enjoyed your visit and would like to show appreciation I would be most
grateful if you would visit the Hunger Site below

Please visit the Hunger Site whereupon you can, at no cost to yourself, and with the
help of generous Corporate Sponsors, donate food the the poor and hungry.