Thorlby (ash piles and gas lamps)

For some reason we’ve felt worn out over the last day or so but don’t really understand why as we don’t feel like we’ve done a great deal over the last few weeks.  Friday saw us pottering around Gargrave and Skipton and seeing my parents.  We went for a walk along the canal in Gargrave which was really strange as there were no boats there; the canal closure must be having quite an impact on local retail businesses.  Most holiday makers (whether boaters, walkers, campers or caravanners etc.) must spend a few nights visiting pubs and restaurants rather than preparing meals on board, in tents, or in their B&Bs.

We received yet more emails from CRT on Friday informing us of yet more closures due to the water shortages.  By the end of next week all the Leeds & Liverpool canal locks will be closed from Leeds to Wigan, that’s nearly 100 miles and 100 locks.  Ironically, the final stretch into Liverpool that has been closed for several months due to the breech at Melling that we just avoided, is reopening soon.  So, any boats in that area will soon be able to get into Liverpool and those that are still stuck there (like Dave & Barbara) will be expected to leave.

The locks have been ashed up to help prevent water leakage and every lock has piles of ash by each lock gate so the lockies can keep adding more ash as required.

One of the piles of ash at Eshton lock in Gargrave

The ash certainly seems to do the trick – no leaking gates here

We are on a long pound so have 20 lock-free miles to travel backwards and forwards from Gargrave to Burnley until the canal reopens.  Mind you, most hire and private boaters won’t be happy as they would rather be travelling further than that and going through locks too.  Hopefully, by the time we come back from holiday at the end of October everything will have reopened.

Saturday saw us setting off for Horton in Ribblesdale to climb up Pen y Ghent.  Although we have been up several times before, Karen wanted to climb the three Yorkshire peaks in one year; this one was the last of the three.

Our goal for the morning – up the steep side and down the gentle side

We have never taken a dog up Pen y Ghent before as we have always been worried about the steep side which involves a fair amount of rock scrambling.  When I went up with Steve recently I had a good recce and decided that we could take Buddy up.  As it was, he bounded up as if it were flat!

We made it to the top in just over an hour and had an early picnic lunch admiring the views.

At the trig point on the summit

As it was a Saturday there were plenty of walkers out and many of them were climbing all three peaks over the weekend.  The other two peaks are Ingleborough and Whernside; Whernside being the highest in Yorkshire.

Looking over to Ingleborough…

...and Whernside

We don’t think Whernside is as impressive as the other two even though it is the highest.  On the way down, we took a small detour to have a look at Hull pot.  When Steve and I did the walk a couple of weeks ago, I put some pictures of Hull pot in the blog entry so haven’t included any this time.

We spent the afternoon driving around the dales looking for Victorian post boxes and were richly rewarded in several of the hamlets in Wensleydale.  We found another nine in total so were pleasantly pleased.  When we arrived in Marsett it was like going back in time; it was just a collection of farms around a green that was being grazed by sheep and cattle.  We imagined that any children would be home schooled, if at all. I should have taken a picture as it was so idyllic but have included this one from the web, sans cattle and sheep though 😉

You can just make out a VR box in the barn on the right 😊

I was taking a picture of another box in Burtersett when a guy came across the road from his house to talk with me.  It turned out he was an artist and he explained that the previous week the road through the village had been closed for resurfacing, so all cars had to be left outside the village.  The village hall has a series of photographs from pre-car days, so the artist took the opportunity to take photographs of the same views.  He found the pictures were essentially identical and the only difference was a row of eight quarrymens’ cottages, built in 1910, were missing in some of the pictures in the village hall.  That must have been a fantastic day not to have seen any cars in the village.

On Sunday morning we went over to Kearnsey which is near Ingleton.  Local sheepdog trials were being held there and, as Karen had never been before, we made sure we took the opportunity.  We had planned on going to the trials at Hawes on the Saturday, but they had been cancelled due to the lack of rain and when the Gargrave trials were on, Karen was in Scotland, so only Buddy and I went on our own.

It took a while to find the farm where they were being held – we had expected to see posters pinned to trees etc., but none had been put up.  We finally found the farm and the only signage was a small post pointing into the yard with the letters, ‘SDT’ painted on it! 

We were the only non-farmers/shepherds at the trials but were warmly welcomed and had some good chats with some of the competitors.

This lady and her dog were on a run when we arrived and had just finished the drive at the end of the gather

We were lucky to see the National Champion and captain of the National team, Sergio Perello Galdon (yes, he really is Spanish!).  He is a roving shepherd who was brought up on a Spanish island but now lives locally,

Each contestant had 10 minutes to complete their run and none of the ones we watched actually completed the course which has various stages and ends with what is called a, ‘single’.  This is where one of the sheep has to be separated from the other two.  Nearly all the contestants had timed out during the penultimate stage, called the, ‘pen’ where the sheep have to be driven into a small gated enclosure.

One of the competitors nearly making the pen

The female judge was sitting in a van and, when one run had finished, shouted out that she needed a wee so there would be a break.  Someone retorted, ‘Why not tell everybody’ 😊.   She drove to the edge of the field, crouched down between her van and the wall and then returned to loud applause!

We ate our picnic lunch whilst watching the runs and then had a leisurely drive home off the main road and found a few more VR boxes.  I only mention this as we found our very first Victorian lamp box.  Many modern boxes are of this style and we had almost come to the point that we believed none were made in the Victorian era.  The one we came across wasn’t attached to a lamp post as would be expected but was set in a wall like a wall box.

Rare Victorian lamp box in Thickrash Brow just south of Bentham

Thinking about it, mains electricity wasn’t supplied until the late 1800s, so lamp boxes wouldn’t have been invented for telegraph poles.  Gas street lighting appeared during the 1800s and large cities like London had gas street lighting before Victorian times, so the lamp box would have been ideal.  What I don’t understand is why there was a lamp box in such a remote location as Thickrash Brow as gas lighting would not have been heard of there.

In 10 days, we’re off to Norway to see Matthew for a few days immediately following by our two-month European road trip which will mark the end of our life in Yorkshire until our return at the end of October.  It feels like we still have so much we want to do up here and it’s getting to the stage where many things will have to wait until we return.