While talking to Faye in Hawes, Mum found out that her friend was a big fan of the BBC television series, All Creatures Great And Small, which was broadcast from 1978 to 1990 in the UK. It was based on six books by James Herriot, the pseudonym of Alf Wright, a Yorkshire vet, and a large part of its 90 episodes were filmed in and around Wensleydale and Swaledale.
Mum knew of several places associated with the series and, after a bit of thought, worked out a route that would show Faye at least some of them, together with some more lovely Dales scenery.
So, after a leisurely breakfast in Hawes, they headed back down Wensleydale, stopping first in the village of Askrigg.
Here Mum showed Faye the house on the main street which had been used as Skeldale House, home of the veterinary surgery in All Creatures Great and Small.
She also showed her The Crown Inn which had been used as The Drovers Arms in the series.
Then they dropped down into the valley to visit the famous Aysgarth Falls, another place that’s appeared on many Yorkshire calendars across the years. Mum had to admit that they weren’t quite the same as Niagara Falls in Faye’s native Canada, but Faye was kind enough to say she was impressed with them anyway.
After that they doubled back on themselves for a short distance before turning towards the village of Carperby,
where the real James Herriot spent his honeymoon at The Wheatsheaf pub – where the letter he wrote to his parents in Scotland, telling them about his wedding, is now in a frame on the wall of the bar.
From Carperby they followed the road to Redmire, then turned off to climb over the hills into Swaledale.
Just outside Redmire, they saw Castle Bolton which dates from 1379 when Sir Richard le Scrope, Lord Chancellor of England in the reign of King Richard II started building his home there.
Mum says there must have been many rich and famous visitors to the Bolton castle over the centuries, but perhaps the best known is Mary, Queen of Scots, who was imprisoned there for six months between July 1568 and January 1569 after she fled to England following her army’s defeat in Scotland.
Faye found this a bit confusing, however, and so they drove past the castle and carried on across several miles of open moorland, before dropping down into Swaledale at Grinton, with its lovely church of St Andrew, sometimes known as the Cathedral of the Dales because of its size and importance.
It also featured in an episode of All Creatures Great And Small in which Tristran Farnon went bell-ringing.
Another mile along the road brought them to Reeth, the biggest village in upper Swaledale.
From there Mum turned off to go up Arkengarthdale. They passed the village of Langthwaite which appeared in the opening shots of every episode in the series…
…and went near to the settlement of Booze.
As they were getting hungry, however, they were heading for the Tan Hill Inn which, at 1732 feet/528 metres above sea level, is the highest pub in the British Isles.
They stopped there for lunch and Faye was mystified to hear one of the local farmers say he was about to go back home and “shear his hoggs”. To her hoggs were pigs and she couldn’t understand why he needed to shear them as they didn’t grow fur or wool – then Mum explained that in Yorkshire hogg is another name for a sheep that’s about a year old and hasn’t yet been shorn.
With that sorted out and their meal finished, they dropped back down into the valley at Reeth, then on through Low Row…
Gunnerside…
and Muker…
where the wild flower meadows were in full bloom…
to take the Buttertubs road back to Hawes.
From Hawes they took a much quicker road across to Ribblehead, Horton-in-Ribblesdale and Settle.
There they joined the main road to Skipton and eventually back to the Old Vicarage in Morley, where they’d just nice time to tidy themselves up after their travels, before going out for some welcome fish and chips at a nearby restaurant.
That’s all for now, so take care – and look out for some more tales from me soon!
Follow my next blog: 151. MY MUM THE STORY-TELLER – PART FORTY-FOUR
24/06/2021
Wilf the bear-faced blogger 