Living
In North Yorkshire
In The North Of England ~ by Eric Hooton
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| Buckingham
Palace, the Tower Bridge, Stonehenge and Big Ben are some of the places
people think of when traveling to England becomes part of their vacation
plans. These are all wonderful places and well worth visiting; yet some
of the most beautiful and authentically “English” parts of England have
to be the Yorkshire Dales. This includes the East and West ridings, or
counties, of Yorkshire, and the largest county in England, the county of
North Yorkshire.
North Yorkshire
is situated about 4 hours north of London and around the same distance
from Edinburgh Scotland (pronounced “EDDIN-BURRAH”), making it an ideal
locale to explore much of England and Scotland within a day’s journey.
However, there is so much to see and do in and around North Yorkshire that
you could spend a month there and never leave the county!
My family and
I moved to North Yorkshire in August 2001 where I worked as a telecommunications
project manager at RAF Menwith Hill near the city of Harrogate. This heavily
flowered city is in the south-central part of North Yorkshire and is famous
as a spa center from the late 1800’s and early/mid 1900’s. There are still
a number of natural baths and springs in Harrogate where people from all
over the UK and Europe come to relax and seek relief through soaking in
the heated mineral-rich waters. We arrived right in the middle of the foot-and-mouth
epidemic of 2001; the sheep were spray painted with various colored letters
to indicate whether they had been checked or infected.. |
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The
countryside of Northern Yorkshire.
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(Farmhouse
#1 – 175 years old)
The second
farmhouse was just east of Nidd, a small village near Ripley just north
of Harrogate. This house was just over a 100 years old (young by English
standards!) and much roomier and warmer than the previous one. (The central
heating systems in England use a central boiler with heated water and radiators;
some work well, but most houses in the UK feel perpetually cold). Our second
home sat in the middle of a huge estate with sheep, pheasants and rabbits
running everywhere. The River Nidd ran just below our house where we would
ride our 4x4 up and hike along the river.
There were
several things about living in England that took some getting used to;
the first being driving on the “wrong” side of the road! After a few days
you get a little more comfortable, and within a few weeks you hardly think
about it. The first couple times to Europe or back to the States were a
bit tricky going back to the “right” side of the road.
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| Top photo
is of Castle Ripley. Bottom photo is of Castle Howard. |
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Another
thing about the driving in England is their manners; the English will stop
traffic completely to let you out of your driveway or a side road onto
the main roadway, but after that, watch out! English drivers are very fast
and aggressive once onto the actual road and have more than their share
of accidents because of impatience. We were given a variety of vivid and
descriptive hand gestures for not flying down the road at breakneck speed
with the rest of them!
The weather
in England was typically English the first year we were there; windy, cool
and with generous helpings of rain. The second year was dry and sunny and
continued that way until we left in early September. We certainly couldn’t
use the weather as an excuse to move back to the US!
North of Harrogate
just a couple miles is the village of Ripley. This village sprang up largely
to provide logistic support to Ripley Castle, which has belonged to the
Ingilby family for over 700 years. Ripley Castle has a rich history with
many noted English visitors, including King James I and Oliver Cromwell,
and has daily tours, which I would highly recommend.
There are now
only a few small shops in Ripley, along with the requisite pub and post
office, with the village and castle being surrounded by farmland and bordered
on the south by the River Nidd. Just down from the castle is the Boar’s
Head Restaurant and hotel; the restaurant is rated one of the highest in
all of England, which I would personally agree with, having held our corporate
Christmas dinner there in December 2002. The food and service was nothing
short of spectacular! |
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A quick point
about the food in England (or at least in North Yorkshire); in the US much
fun is poked at English cuisine and its dullness of selection and taste
(boiled meat, boiled vegetables, you get the idea…) I don’t know where
this stereotype stems from, but it certainly wasn’t North Yorkshire! Granted
many of the menus at the pub restaurants have similar menus, but the food
is hot and tasty and the plates hold massive helpings that only the hungriest
person could finish! Gammon steak (a thick slice of salted country ham)
with chips (French fries) and steamed vegetables were one of my favorites.
My wife’s favorite was the salmon, usually served with a creamy white sauce
that made the fish melt in your mouth. Other excellent dishes were the
traditional steak-and-kidney-pie and Sunday roast with Yorkshire pudding.
A meal of gammon steak would typically run about £6.75, or about
$11.00, with most other selections no more than $20 per person. Formal
restaurants are usually quite expensive; pubs are typically the best place
to find good food at a reasonable price.
As you travel
west from Harrogate towards the market town of Skipton (where you can buy
everything from socks to swords at the open air market each Saturday),
you will see the large geodesic domes at RAF Menwith Hill. Just north of
Menwith Hill is one of the best lodging facilities in the area, the Nidderdale
Cottages. My family and I stayed there in a converted blacksmith’s shop;
the rest are medium-sized apartments. Tim and Linda Savage are the proprietors
and are very friendly and helpful. Although they don’t serve breakfast,
you can drive north about ¾ of a mile to the Wellington Inn in the
village of Darley for excellent English pub food and more formal dinners.
The views of the valley from both the cottages and the Wellington Inn are
excellent!
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you are traveling west towards Skipton from Harrogate on the A59, you will
come to a roundabout with a sign for “Bolton Abbey”. Bolton Abbey is smaller
and not quite as famous as its nearby neighbor Fountains Abbey, but is
still interesting and very picturesque.
The abbey has
a portion still used for worship services; a sign outside the door says
“Please join us this Sunday where we have held Christian worship for over
800 years”. It is this type of living history which makes England the mother
lode for history buffs!
East of Harrogate
is the city of York. Although technically in the county of East Yorkshire,
York is only a 20 minute drive from Harrogate. York is the oldest continually
inhabited city in all of England, dating back to pre-Roman times. The city
has been invaded and conquered by the Vikings and the Scots, and has one
of the best-preserved medieval walls surrounding the city found anywhere
in England.
Christmas is
one of the best times to visit York, where they lavishly decorate the city
and have Dickensian-era carolers and spiced mead carts on almost every
corner. The Shambles is a street in York that has buildings dating back
to the 1500’s that are still used as shops and upstairs apartments.
Speaking of
shops, keep in mind that England does not yet have the 24-by-7 mentality
that many of our US stores have (24 hour Super Walmarts, etc). Almost every
store is open from 10:00 to 5:30. After 5:30 the downtown areas are mostly
deserted except for people heading for the bars or restaurants.
Grocery stores
are very similar to those in the US, although they usually have a much
larger alcohol section, basically a small liquor store within the grocery
section. Prices run about 40% higher for staples than similar items in
the US. |
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| Top photo
is of Bolton Abby. Bottom photo is of Clifford's Tower in the city of York:
inside the tower people were burned alive as heretics. |
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The most expensive
item of all however has to be the gasoline. The average price was 80 pence
per liter, which equates to about $5.00 a gallon! We were fortunate that
the base where I worked had tax-free gasoline, which brought the price
down to a much more reasonable $2.30 a gallon! I know gas has risen in
the US, but if you have ever been to the UK or Europe, you know that we
are blessed by very reasonable gas prices!.
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Harrogate's
Turkish baths
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Further east
and slightly north of York are the Yorkshire Moors, a beautiful area of
sparse, low-lying vegetation and abrupt cliffs surrounded by thick forests
at the bottom. It is a national park and arguably one of the finest ones
in all Britain. Further east still takes you to the coast of the English
channel and the town of Whitby, where Bram Stoker’s Dracula landed when
arriving in England.
We returned
from England to the Unites States in September 2003 and are now living
in Brentwood, TN. Living in England was much different than just visiting
and we missed the convenience and familiarity of the States. Still, from
the ancient abbeys to the flower gardens and baths of Harrogate, and from
the fishing villages of the east coast to the moors and farmlands, we found
North Yorkshire and the surrounding areas to be one of the prettiest areas
in all of England. The people can be both friendly and rude (often in the
same breath!), the houses small and cold, and the driving positively scary!
But if you like rolling hills with sheep and horses and the picture-postcard
villages with castles scattered throughout and history literally at every
turn, then the North Yorkshire area of central England should be high on
your list of places to visit. Given the right circumstances and open mind,
it can also be a great place to live.
To contact
Eric Click Here
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