Helmsley, Roseberry and Mount Grace Priory

What a sunrise we were greeted with today!. This the view from the kitchen window as we made an early morning cuppa.

If you were asked to imagine the perfect English market town, then it'd probably look a lot like Helmsley! There's the bustling market square, the dramatic castle ruins, the charming tea rooms, the inviting inns; all surrounded by mile after mile of the beautiful North York Moors. Indeed, the Cleveland Way and Ebor Way both begin from here.

We spent some of the morning here and had lunch in one of those tea rooms.

One of the first things which strikes you as you arrive at the town square is a statue of William Duncombe, 2nd Baron Feversham. He was an important figure in many ways, hence the honour of the statue.

Briefly: William Duncombe, 2nd Baron Feversham (14 January 1798 – 11 February 1867) was a British peer with a large estate in the North Riding of Yorkshire. He was prominent in the affairs of the Royal Agricultural Society and owner of a prize-winning herd of short-horn cattle. He served as a Tory Member of Parliament (MP) for the Riding from 1832 to 1841, after which he sat in the House of Lords, having succeeded to the title on the death of his father. From 1826 to 1831 he had sat as an Ultra-Tory MP. He was the first MP to support Richard Oastler's campaign for Factory Reform, and gave it unwavering support for the rest of his life; in 1847 he seconded the Second Reading in the Lords of the Factory Act of that year (the 'Ten-Hour Act').

History:

The first castle at Helmsley was probably built after 1120 by Walter Espec, the founder of Rievaulx Abbey and Kirkham Priory. The castle then passed into the hands of the Roos family, who held it from until 1508 and were responsible for building most of the surviving stonework.

The castle was only besieged once, during the Civil War. This three month siege, conducted by Sir Thomas Fairfax, ended in November 1644. The defences of the castle were then destroyed, but the mansion remained intact, and actually became the home of Fairfax's daughter Mary, and her husband George Villiers, Second Duke of Buckingham (1628-1687)

In 1689 the estate was purchased by Sir Charles Duncombe, a London goldsmith, from the Duke's trustees. After twenty years occupying the castle, he built Duncombe Park (1711-1713), and the castle went out of use.

Espec's castle would have been a wooden construction, and it was probably he who was responsible building the massive ditches and banks that surround the castle.

The first stone castle was built by Robert de Roos, lord of Helmsley from 1190 to 1227. This phase of the building included the stone walls surrounding the inner ward, the lower level of the great tower or keep, and the tower on the south west wall. The keep was later heightened, probably around 1300 and the original roof line is still visible on the inner wall of the keep. Finally the square turrets at the top of the keep were added during the fourteenth century. The D-shaped keep was probably designed as a compromise between the military desire for round turrets and the domestic need for space.

The barbican (the protected area between the inner and outer gates) was added during the mid to late thirteenth century, linking up with the probable wooden outer walls on the bank.

The domestic accommodation was modified during the Elizabethan period, when the south western tower and nearby buildings were remodeled by the Manners family. The south west range still retains its roof, as well as some of the Elizabethan plaster work.

This remarkably well-preserved 16th century, thatched cruck-framed house was once the local inn and very much the centre of Bilsdale life. It closed its doors for the last time in 1914 when the new Sun Inn was built next door and from then time has stood still. 

The North York Moors is the only area in the east of the country where fairly large numbers of cottages of cruck construction occur. Most have been altered in some way so looking after Spout House is very important. In 1982, the North York Moors National Park Authority took over its care and restored the building.

It has traditional flagged floors which are uneven in places. The steps to the upper floor are very steep. Doorways on the upper floor are low.

Don`t think I would have had a very comfortable sleep in this bed!

Loved the old range in the kitchen and the flagstone floor.

Then onto Roseberry Topping which is a distinctive hill in North Yorkshire, England. It is situated near Great Ayton and Newton under Roseberry. Its summit has a distinctive half-cone shape with a jagged cliff. Until 1912, the summit resembled a sugarloaf until a geological fault and possibly nearby alum and ironstone mining caused its collapse. The area immediately below the summit is still extensively pitted and scarred from the former mineworks.

The hill was perhaps held in special regard by the Vikings who settled in Cleveland during the early medieval period and gave the area many of its place names.

We decided to climb to the top, a not too strenuous task, but worth the view. A spur of the Cleveland Way National Trail runs up to the summit. The path has been a sight-seeing excursion route for centuries due to the views of the Cleveland area from the summit; as early as 1700, travellers were recommended to visit the peak to see "the most delightful prospect upon the valleys below to the hills above." 

And this is the view from the top.

A field vole spotted at the start of the climb

Mount Grace Priory, in the parish of East Harlsey, North Yorkshire, England, within the North York Moors National Park, is today the best preserved and most accessible of the ten medieval Carthusian houses (charterhouses) in England. Set in woodlands, it was founded in 1398 by Thomas Holland, 1st Duke of Surrey and it was the last monastery established in Yorkshire, and one of the few founded anywhere in Britain in the period between the Black Death (1349–50) and the Reformation. It was a fairly small establishment, with space for a prior and twenty-three monks.

Mount Grace Priory consisted of a church and two cloisters. The northern cloister had sixteen cells whilst the southern had five cells, Frater and Prior's house and the Chapter House. To the west stood the lay brothers' quarters and the guest house.

Unlike monks of other orders, who live in common, the Carthusians—to this day—live as hermits, each occupying his own cell (more like a small house), and coming together only for the nocturnal liturgical hours, and on Sundays and feast-days, in the chapel; the other hours are sung by each monk separately in his cell. Except for the singing of the liturgy and conversation "on grave subjects" during a weekly three-hour exercise walk, Carthusians are silent, and their diet is strictly vegetarian

Another interesting day with Graham and Jane, and so back to High Oak.

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High Oak in Yorkshire and onto Jervaulx Abbey

The holiday `cottage` we had chosen for this holiday was on a farm in Pickhill in North Yorkshire - one of the best we have stayed in. Great people, fabulous bungalow, great views.

View from the kitchen window

One of the aims for this holiday was to visit some of the historic ruins of Yorkshire, Jervaulx being fairly close to us, this was our first one to visit.

Jervaulx Abbey ruins in East Witton near the city of Ripon, was one of the great Cistercian abbeys of Yorkshire, England, dedicated to St. Mary in 1156. It is the country's largest privately owned Cistercian Abbey

The monastery was founded in 1156 as a daughter house of Byland Abbey. Apart from its historical significance and the beauty of the location, Jervaulx is known for its horticulture; over 180 varieties of wildflower grow in and on the abbey walls. 

Jervaulx was originally based at Fors, a few miles distant, but the land there proved to be poor for farming and the Cistercian monks moved to the current site. They were known for raising horses, and the abbey was the original home of Wensleydale cheese. 

The abbey was destroyed during Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries, and the last abbot of Jervaulx was imprisoned in the Tower of London, where his signature can be seen, carved into the wall of his cell.

The abbey buildings were dismantled, but a large amount of the fabric and furnishings at Jervaulx made their way into parish churches throughout the Yorkshire Dales. Thus you can find a carved screen at Spennithorne, the grave of abbot Robert Thorneton (d. 1533) at Middleham, a gilded rood screen at Aysgarth, and window glass at Bedale church.

A very well kept site in beautiful surroundings. Perhaps needs a spring visit to get the best from the multitudes of wild flowers.

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Caernarfon Castle - on our way to Yorkshire

Having spent a few days in Anglesey, we moved on to our next week in Yorkshire. On the way, we stopped at Caernarfon Castle and spent some time exploring.

The site of this great castle wasn’t chosen by accident. It had previously been the location of a Norman motte and bailey castle and before that a Roman fort stood nearby. The lure of water and easy access to the sea made the banks of the River Seiont an ideal spot for Edward’s monster in masonry. 

The River Seiont is the great river that serves as a channel where many can enjoy paddling, a riverbank picnic and other family activities. Generally accessed from the town of Caernarfon, this river referred to locally as Afon Seiont and flows northward towards the Menai Strait 

Edward wasn’t one to miss on an opportunity to tighten his grip even further on the native population. The birth of his son, the first English Prince of Wales, in the castle in 1284, was a perfect device to stamp his supremacy. In 1969 the current Prince of Wales, HRH Prince Charles’s investiture took place here.

Most castles are happy with round towers, not Caernarfon! Polygonal towers were the order of the day, with the Eagle Tower being the most impressive of these. You will also note the colour-coded stones carefully arranged in bands. 

A brute of a fortress. Caernarfon Castle’s pumped-up appearance is unashamedly muscle-bound and intimidating. Picking a fight with this massive structure would have been a daunting prospect. By throwing his weight around in stone, King Edward I created what is surely one of the most impressive of Wales’s castles.

The Aber Suspension, Swing Bridge, is a pedestrian bridge across the River Seiont between the Watergate entrance to Caernarfon Castle and the Aber Foreshore. The current swing bridge was built in 1970.

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The Isle of Anglesey with Graham & Jane

Today was the start of a great holiday with Graham and Jane - from Australia where they now live, and starting with Anglesey.

Anglesey is an island in Wales, off the mainland's northwest coast. It's known for its beaches and ancient sites. The island is accessed by the 19th-century Menai Suspension Bridge and the Britannia Bridge, rebuilt in the 20th century. We were to stay in St Mary's Bay for our exploration of this corner of Wales, none of us had visited before. 

One of the first places we visited was South Stack Lighthouse, built on a small island off the north-west coast of Holyhead, Anglesey, Wales. It was built in 1809 to warn ships of the dangerous rocks below. 

Some history of Anglesey:

Historically, Anglesey has long been associated with the druids. In AD 60 the Roman general Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, determined to break the power of the druids, attacked the island using his amphibious Batavian contingent as a surprise vanguard assault and then destroying the shrine and the nemetons (sacred groves). News of Boudica's revolt reached him just after his victory, causing him to withdraw his army before consolidating his conquest. The island was finally brought into the Roman Empire by Gnaeus Julius Agricola, the Roman governor of Britain, in AD 78. During the Roman occupation, the area was notable for the mining of copper.

British Iron Age and Roman sites have been excavated and coins and ornaments discovered, especially by the 19th century antiquarian, William Owen Stanley. Following the Roman departure from Britain in the early 5th century, pirates from Ireland colonised Anglesey and the nearby Llŷn Peninsula. In response to this, Cunedda ap Edern, a Gododdin warlord from Scotland, came to the area and began to drive the Irish out. This was continued by his son Einion Yrth ap Cunedda and grandson Cadwallon Lawhir ap Einion; the last Irish invaders were finally defeated in battle in 470. 

As an island, Anglesey was in a good defensive position, and so Aberffraw became the site of the court, or Llys, of the Kingdom of Gwynedd. Apart from a devastating Danish raid in 853 it remained the capital until the 13th century, when improvements to the English navy made the location indefensible. Anglesey was also briefly the most southern possession of the Norwegian Empire.

After the Irish, the island was invaded by Vikings and by Saxons, and Normans, before falling to Edward I of England in the 13th century. 

At the start of our stay we were treated to this stunning sunset. 

However, the daytime scenes were also beautiful. 

Barclodiad y Gawres (Welsh for 'apronful of the giantess') is a Neolithic burial chamber between Rhosneigr and Aberffraw on the southern coast of the island of Anglesey in North Wales. It is an example of a cruciform passage grave, a notable feature being its decorated stones. Similar graves and marks exist across the Irish Sea in the Boyne Valley. 

Full excavations were performed in 1952–53, after which the chamber was re-roofed with concrete and covered with turf to resemble the original structure. During the excavations two cremated young male burials were found within the south-western side-chamber. The central area of the main chamber contained the remains of a fire on which had been poured a stew including wrasse, eel, frog, toad, grass-snake, mouse, shrew and hare, then covered with limpet shells and pebbles. 

Then on to our next adventure Llanddwyn Island (Ynys Llanddwyn) which is a magical place. Located at the far end of a pleasant beach near Newborough Warren (above), this narrow finger of land is an ideal picnic site during fine weather, but also an exhilarating place when the winter winds blow. Its rolling dunes, large rock outcrops and mixture of historic buildings makes it an ideal place for an afternoon of exploration. 

Llanddwyn is not quite an island. It remains attached to the mainland at all but the highest tides. It provides excellent views of Snowdonia and the Lleyn Peninsula and is part of the Newborough Warren National Nature Reserve. 

The magical story of Llanddwyn Island (Ynys Llanddwyn)

The name Llanddwyn means "The church of St. Dwynwen". She is the Welsh patron saint of lovers, making her the Welsh equivalent of St. Valentine. Her feast day, 25 January, is often celebrated by the Welsh with cards and flowers, just as is 14 February for St. Valentine.

Dwynwen lived during the 5th century AD and was one of 24 daughters of St. Brychan, a Welsh prince of Brycheiniog (Brecon). She fell in love with a young man named Maelon, but rejected his advances. This, depending on which story you read, was either because she wished to remain chaste and become a nun or because her father wished her to marry another. She prayed to be released from the unhappy love and dreamed that she was given a potion to do this. However, the potion turned Maelon to ice. She then prayed that she be granted three wishes: 1) that Maelon be revived, 2) that all true lovers find happiness, and 3) that she should never again wish to be married. She then retreated to the solitude of Llanddwyn Island to follow the life of a hermit.

Dwynwen became known as the patron saint of lovers and pilgrimages were made to her holy well on the island. It was said that the faithfulness of a lover could be divined through the movements of some eels that lived in the well. This was done by the woman first scattering breadcrumbs on the surface, then laying her handkerchief on the surface. If the eel disturbed it then her lover would be faithful.

Visitors would leave offerings at her shrine, and so popular was this place of pilgrimage that it became the richest in the area during Tudor times. This funded a substantial chapel that was built in the 16th century on the site of Dwynwen's original chapel. The ruins of this can still be seen today.

The Celtic cross, erected at the end of the 19th Century, is a form of Christian cross featuring a nimbus or ring that emerged in Ireland and Britain in the Early Middle Ages. The poignant inscriptions on the cross reads: “they lie around did living tread, this sacred ground now silent – dead“. In English on one side, and Welsh on another. Apparently F G Wynn erected this cross to commemorate Llanddwyn Church, which at that time was largely ruined and overgrown. 

As well as its mystical associations with Dwynwen, Llanddwyn was, until fairly recent times, important for its lifeboats and for the pilots that helped guide ships into the Menai Strait. 

The small cannon that stands outside the cottages was used to summon the lifeboat crew (way before mobile phones and beepers). 

Tŵr Mawr lighthouse (meaning "great tower" in Welsh), on Ynys Llanddwyn on Anglesey, Wales, marks the western entrance to the Menai Strait. The 1873 tower is tapered in a style characteristic of Anglesey windmills. It is 33 feet (10 m) high and 18 feet (5.5 m) in diameter. It may have been constructed by an Anglesey stone mason, and it is possible that the tower itself was originally used as a windmill. 

The lantern and fittings cost £250 7s 6d, including the adaptation of an "earlier tower". The north-east door is flanked by small windows, and the two floors above also have small windows, but the top does not. The conical roof is slated and has a flagpole. The present lantern window is about 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) by 2 feet (0.61 m). The optic, silver-plated reflector and Fresnel lens are dated 1861 and were used into the 1970s. The lantern was originally lit by six Argand lamps with reflectors. 

A smaller, conical tower, with a domed top, can be found to the south-east, and may be an earlier structure. The walls are 6 feet 8 inches (2.03 m) in radius and 3 feet (0.91 m) thick, with a door to the north-west, and show signs of cracking to the rubble-filled walls on the west. 

Neither tower is shown on the chart of Lewis Morris, dated 1800, but they both appear on the Ordnance Survey 1818-1823 2 inches/mile map. They both probably originated as unlit markers. The cottages nearby have been used as craft workshops, and the local community here once serviced pilot-boats and lifeboats. 

The inscriptions on the plain cross, one on each side, read: “Dwynwen“; “in the sixtieth year of Queen Victoria 1897“; “in memory of St Dwynwen Jan 25th 1465“; and, “erected by the Hon F G Wynn owner of the isle“. And that was at the start of 20 Century. 

Known as the Heritage Gate on Llanddwyn Island. The island as a whole is definitely a magical place and we had a great day here.

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More images of our granddaughter Izobelle

It is amazing how a baby changes so much in such a short time. Izobelle, despite being an early delivery, is smiling and appears to recognise people already.

All smiles from Izobelle.

Watching the world and wondering, no doubt.

Shall I sleep or not?

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Ickworth House, Bury St Edmunds

You can trace Ickworth’s origins back to the Domesday book when it was merely one of hundreds of assets belonging to the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds. Its association with the Hervey family began three centuries later in 1432, when Thomas Hervey acquired the land by marriage. Through success and scandal, Ickworth was the family’s home for the next 500 years. Thomas’ descendants set about transforming the ancient deer-park into an aristocratic paradise.

The modest medieval hall became a turreted Tudor mansion. In 1701 the 1st Earl demolished the mansion and developed plans for an even grander abode. He also renovated the church, where all Ickworth owners have been laid to rest. Residents of the tiny hamlet of Ickworth were rehoused in neighbouring Horringer, and their former dwellings demolished to make way for pasture. The next generation of Herveys made even more of an impact on the landscape.

Aptly, construction began on the Earl-Bishop’s ‘stupendous monument of folly’, the Rotunda you see today, in the middle of the reign of infamous ‘Mad’ King George III. Society held its breath as the building began to take shape. Nothing like it had ever been seen in this country before and even now it’s unique. Irish architects, the Sandy’s brothers brought Italian designs to life, but their illustrious client never saw his dream become reality. The House took 47 years to complete. In 1829, the family moved into the East Wing of their (nearly finished) palatial new home. Surrounded by beauty, both inside and outside, the Herveys enjoyed Ickworth until well into the 20th century.

The entrance facade and iconic portico. The central rotunda is 105 ft. high - which is huge by my thinking!

The interior of the property contains many valuable painting and has arguably the best collections in Britain of fine Georgian silver. Not that I know anything about silver!

As the glory days of the country house came to an end in the post-war period, so did the Hervey’s tenure at Ickworth. In 1956, the 4th Marquess presented the house and estate to the Treasury in lieu of death duties. The Treasury passed Ickworth to the National Trust and now it belongs to everyone. Ickworth has continued to evolve in exciting new ways under its latest ownership.

In 2002, the East Wing was opened as a luxury hotel. The West Wing, (previously only an empty shell), was completed in 2005 and houses an inviting visitor centre, restaurant, shop, and function rooms. The Ickworth Lives project, begun in 2009, saw the servants’ domain in the Rotunda basement restored to its former glory, offering a doorway into a forgotten way of life. Once, footmen and maids scurried up and down backstairs, corridors and basements, performing their duties unseen. Now the work of a dedicated team of staff and volunteers is clearly on show, keeping this stunning place open for the enjoyment of everyone and conserving it for future generations.

All information courtesy of National Trust.

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The Olympic flame arrives in Ipswich

This was the year when the Olympics came to London. Probably the only time I shall ever see all the excitement that surrounds this global event - was when the flame came to Ipswich! It was due into town in the evening and great excitement was in the air. I was there!

As the crowds gathered, the anticipation heightened until this familiar vehicle appeared, heralding the approach of - something at least!

Police escorts, always a feature of these events, paved the way.

The entourage continues.

The crowd gathering. Who were the two lads I wondered?

Everyman and his dog was there. The dog had put his best wheels on (Poor thing)

And then THE Flame appeared!!. Do you know - I haven't a clue who the torch bearer was! That was it for the evening. All over. But tomorrow I shall return to see the flame leave Christchurch Mansion.

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