TELGEN VACATION REPORT

Yorkshire, August, 1998

This is an old castle keep known as Clifford's Tower, in the middle of the walled city of York. (Yes, that's David standing at the bottom.) York is the second oldest city in England, having been occupied by the Romans and Vikings at various times. The interesting feature of this city is the wall—well, the remnants of a wall—that still remains from the thirteenth century. You can still walk the wall, look through the boltholes, and imagine how defenders would have lined up their crossbows to shoot at oncoming enemies.

The most prominent building in the city is the York Minster, of course, which is Britain's largest medieval building. It was begun in 1220 and took some 250 years to complete. (David, of course, was astounded to learn that this huge building was built before there were things like bulldozers, front loaders, cranes, or other construction equipment. Or maybe he was less astounded than disappointed.)

Lucky David! Not only did we spend a day going through the Railway Museum, but that night we spent the evening in a special restaurant/B&B called the Sidings, where the rooms and dining areas were converted from old Pullman cars. As a bonus, the place was located alongside a busy railway, so not only did we eat and sleep in rail cars, we saw many trains pass by as we did so! Nearby this place, in the Yorkshire Dales, is a place called the Brimham Rocks. We had a splendid summer day for crawling up, in, and around these weathered rocks. The formations are completely natural, but seem to take unusual shapes—many are named things like "The Turtle," "The Eagle's Head," etc etc. David had a great time leading us around all the rocks.

Before lunching at Brimham, we spent the morning at this lovely site, Ripley Castle. Most of this building dates back to the 1500s, but the same family has held this land since the 1300s—over 26 generations! Although the grounds are lovely, the highlight for us was a tour of the castle itself. The guide had all sorts of interesting stories about it: there was a priest of the family who was martyred during Elizabethan times (and has since been beatified); a brother and sister of the family fought on the side of the Royalists against Oliver Cromwell, and the sister faced Cromwell with two pistols during the night his forces occupied the castle; a ghost (perhaps that of the priest) is also said to haunt one of the rooms; and, of course, there are the usual one or two eccentric ancestors in the closet, including one who ordered the local village to seal all their front doors so his horse wouldn't trip on anyone coming into the street. This is just the sort of place you think of when you think of visiting England—full of centuries of history, color, and artifacts.

Another historical place we visited was the Fountains Abbey, the largest monastic ruin in England. It was founded in 1132 by the Cistercian order, right next to a river. In the picture on the left, just behind Bill giving me the stinkeye (surprise! Smile, honey!), you can see part of the church and the outbuildings where the monks must have lived. Since Bill is standing on a hill, it's hard to judge the scale of the church from this picture, but it is just as tall as any of the other cathedrals of the time.

Just when we thought we couldn't see anything older, we spent the evening in Ripon (pronounced Ripp-in, not Rye-pon), a small town in the area. For such a relatively small town, you'd be surprised to find that it has one of the ten largest cathedrals in the country. It, too, was built around the twelfth century, but atop the ruins of a Saxon crypt that dates to about 675. When you enter the cathedral, you can see the usual carvings, monuments, and beautiful stained-glass windows, but you can also go down into the crypt. When you imagine it as it must have been before the invention of electric lighting, it's pretty atmospheric. Reputedly the saint who spread Christianity around the area (St. Wilfred, I believe), based his operations in Ripon and used the crypt for meditation.

I couldn't resist adding one last picture of Fountains Abbey. I just love the way the stairway looks, exposed to the open sky along with the rest of the church. I sometimes think many of these old buildings look better in ruins than they would if they were unworn—I'm just a sucker for atmosphere, I guess!

So that was our Yorkshire vacation! We only had three days, so we didn't get to see half of what we would have liked to in the area. But if you come to visit us some time, we can give you great recommendations for this area.

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Copyright © 1998 by Diane Telgen. All rights reserved.