Joe Cornish Gallery

Since I was passing near to Northallerton on my way to Mount Grace Priory, I decided to stop in the town and have a look around, as I've never visited before. It also gave me chance to explore the Joe Cornish Gallery. Joe Cornish is a well known landscape photographer who lives in North Yorkshire. I used to really like his work and still think it's good, though my tastes have expanded as I've become a more passionate photographer myself. It was interesting to look at some of his photos that I haven't previously seen, including a selection of iPhone photos.

There was also an exhibition in the gallery that I was keen to see: InnerVisible, abstractions of the natural landscape by Graham Cook. My own recent experimentations with abstracts have made me more interested in this kind of impressionistic work.

The gallery is an 18th century building called Register House, in the centre of Northallerton. In some ways it's a nice intimate setting, with a warren of small rooms over several floors, showing Joe's work and that of some other UK landscape photographers. It is also a café and that, for me, was where the problem lay. All the rooms were full of people eating and having coffee, meaning that to see many of the photos you had to stand and peer over people's heads. Not what I expected. It felt awkward to me and killed the enjoyment of being able to really study the works on display. I was astonished too to see how much £ the prints command! Proof that to make it as a photographer these days is more about exposure and getting your name known than about the actual quality of your work (beyond a certain point obviously).

Northallerton itself, the county town of North Yorkshire, is a typical Yorkshire market town with a wide main street. It had a large and busy market lining the road, which made it difficult to get a decent general photo. I gave up trying!

Mount Grace Priory - The Manor House

After the dissolution of the monastery, in 1539, Mount Grace was leased to various landowners, who were seemingly mainly interested in using the land for farming. In the 1600s, the ruined guesthouse was converted into a residence and then in 1900 it was bought by Sir Lowthian Bell, who extended and restored the house in the Arts and Crafts style, with William Morris wallpaper and furnishings. The Bell family continued to live there until 1953, when the house and the ruined abbey behind it were given to the National Trust in lieu of death duties.

The surrounding 13 acre Arts and Crafts garden, with its formal terraces, dells, lakes and orchards was rejuvenated last year, with borders redesigned by the award-winning gardener Chris Beardshaw. There were plenty of spring bulbs in flower and some blossom trees, but it is early in the year for gardens yet. A few more months should see it looking stunning.

The monk's cell

One of the monk's cells at Mount Grace priory has been rebuilt and furnished as it would have been when the monastery was in use in the 1400s. Carthusian monks lived as hermits, spending most of each day alone in their cells, in prayer, worship and work. Though their cells were simple they were not, apparently, spartan. They were actually quite spacious houses, with a sitting room, bedroom, latrine and a sanctuary used for prayer and writing. They had a piped water supply. Upstairs was a workroom. Some of the monks were weavers, others copied and illuminated manuscripts and some were bookbinders. Each cell had its own walled garden with a covered walkway, where the monk could walk and pray. Here, they grew herbs and plants but its main purpose was the spiritual and physical wellbeing of the monks, since meals and other necessities were delivered to them through a hatch in the wall. I have to say I found it fascinating to learn about. The way historical places are set out and explained these days is often really good.

Mount Grace Priory

It was the first day of Spring! After a week or two of rain and wind, it did actually feel quite spring-like and I felt I needed a day out to celebrate. I went to Mount Grace Priory, which lies on the edge of the North York Moors National Park near Northallerton, about 50 miles north-east of Saltaire. It is a ruined medieval Carthusian monastery, founded in 1398 and dissolved (as they all were) by Henry VIII in the 1500s.

Carthusian charterhouses were different from many of the other monasteries, which were strong and active communities. Here, the monks lived as hermits, in their own cells (small houses really), only coming together in the chapel for the nocturnal liturgies, and on Sundays and feast days. They were a silent order and strictly vegetarian.

The plan of the monastery, therefore (see model on left) was a church and individual cells arranged around a central cloistered courtyard. There were at least 17 monks and a small community of lay brothers who looked after them.

The site now belongs to the National Trust, and is administered by English Heritage. The church is ruined but some of the graceful archways and the tower still stand. 

Within the ruined sanctuary is a powerful, modern sculpture by Malcolm Brocklesby: The Madonna of the Cross. Here, 'the Madonna is portrayed not as a meek figure but as a determined young woman, who understands the wonder and importance of her calling and dedicates her child to the purpose of the Creator. The sculpture incorporates both nativity, crucifixion and resurrection - the three facets of Christianity that establish the atonement of mankind'.  

St Mary's Church, Farndale

St Mary's is a Grade II listed church, attractively situated just outside the hamlet of Church Houses in Farndale, in the North York Moors National Park. Built of sandstone, it dates back to 1831 with additions and renovations carried out between 1907 and 1914 by Temple Moore, one of Victorian England's greatest church architects (see www.templemooretrail).  (Aptly named for such a career, predominantly in the Yorkshire moors!) It is thought there may have been an older church or friary here. As in the surrounding dale, the churchyard in Spring is a vision of daffodils, whilst the church interior is graceful yet simple, with a fine stained glass east window depicting Christ's crucifixion. The window is very similar in style to those in my own church, St Peter's, Shipley, and I would guess is from the same maker.

Church Houses

Notwithstanding the Spring daffodil spectacular (see yesterday), the three mile circular route through Farndale between the hamlets of Low Mills and Church Houses (in my photo) would be a pleasant walk in any season.

The North York Moors National Park is a good two hour drive away from Saltaire on the way to the east coast, so it's not an area I have visited all that often and there is lots to explore. Maybe I'll have chance to get to know it a bit better now I have more free time. It is a high plateau of heather moorland, cut through by deep dales (valleys), carved by glacial meltwater and the various rivers that drain the moorland. The dales, all with different characters, contain woodlands, meadows and scattered small villages or hamlets.

Farndale, the valley of the River Dove, runs north to south in the southern limestone belt. Its nutrient-rich alkaline soils support ancient woodlands of sessile oak and fertile grasslands, harbouring a wide variety of wildflowers, insects, birds and other wildlife.

Hosts of daffodils

The freedom of retirement is giving me so many wonderful opportunities to tick things off my bucket list. I finally achieved my ambition to visit Farndale in the Spring as, along with a couple of friends who harboured a similar wish, we drove over there to see the famous daffodils. They are our native wild daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus), a petite and delicate flower that grows naturally on river banks and in damp meadows and woodland. No-one really knows why this obscure little dale, nestled in the heart of the North York Moors National Park, should hold such a spectacular carpet of daffodils. It's often said they were originally planted by medieval monks from nearby Rievaulx Abbey but no-one knows for sure. They have multiplied over the centuries, surviving threats from illegal picking, and now there are thousands of blooms along the banks of the River Dove. It's a breathtaking sight that is enjoyed by thousands of visitors every Spring.