A Dales village in winter

I had a mooch around Kettlewell in the rain and hail. The Dales villages have a very different character in winter than in summer. There are few, if any, tourists (though the conference and retreat centre at Scargill House does bring visitors to Kettlewell). There isn't the summer buzz but the quiet has its own charm.

Kettlewell still has a traditional red telephone box (probably quite necessary, as cellphone coverage is very patchy) and it adds a touch of brightness to the centre of the village. The photos above and below show the views along Kettlewell Beck, up and down stream, as it flows down to join the River Wharfe.

At the top of the village, the old maypole sits in a little garden and the road leads up to St Mary's church, which is set back on the right.

Kettlewell Beck was fast-flowing but not overfull or doing anything nasty.

It was dull enough to take a few slow-shutter speed photos of the churning water, even without a filter.

Wellingore

The area of Lincolnshire where my sister lives could not be more different from my own Yorkshire home area. I love exploring its fields and villages. The buildings are an interesting mix. Some are made of the local limestone, some are mellowed old brick, mostly with lovely terracotta pantile roofs. Many of them have pretty little gable windows in the roof. There is a lot of new building, though some of the houses are so skilfully blended in that you can't really tell their age. In fact, nearby, there is one whole village that has been built quite recently and it really looks like it's been there for centuries. Nowadays, there are a lot of modern executive developments too, which are generally a bit less imaginative.

I found this medieval stepped cross in the village of Wellingore (below). It would originally have had a cross head on the shaft but many of them were destroyed by iconoclasts in the 16th and 17th centuries. It may have acted as a boundary marker or a market cross. They are sometimes called butter crosses.

There is also a windmill in Wellingore, though its sails and cap were lost and the tower is now part of a private house. The base is 18th century and the upper layers were added in the 1850s. It was defunct by 1945. Windmills were common in the area at one time. Before she moved to a bungalow, my sister lived for many years in a mill house, though the adjacent windmill had long since been demolished.

Nevern

Wales: Nevern, a few miles from Cardigan and over the border into Pembrokeshire, is a pretty village nestled around the river of the same name. The area has been occupied at least since neolithic times, about 4000 years ago. We followed the footpath up the hill to where, in the 1100s, a Norman castle stood, one of the earliest stone castles in Wales. It was destroyed in 1195. The site has been extensively excavated and there is little to see (or photograph) there now except for the mound (motte) where the keep stood and the flat courtyard area that was the bailey. It was fascinating though, and a lovely walk through bluebell woods to get there. 

There was plenty of interest to photograph around the church, where this old mounting block still stands, handily placed to allow you to dismount from your horse (or carriage perhaps) as you arrived at church. 

Behind the church there is an old clapper bridge over a stream.

A bimble round Burley 1: the village

Easter was sunny and very warm - summery rather than springlike - and glorious for everyone on holiday to enjoy. I decided one of the places I'd explore was the village of Burley in Wharfedale. I usually dash past on my way to Ilkley or further afield. Burley, though, is a settlement worthy of exploration, vastly improved by a bypass opened in 1995, that now takes much of the traffic away from the village centre. It started out as a small agricultural community and there are some buildings dating back to the 1600/1700s. The datestone pictured below, though worn, appears to say 1613.

The cottage below has 1785 on its sundial.

Then came a time of growth during the Industrial Revolution when a large cotton mill opened, so there are many 18th and 19th century houses and public buildings. The building below is Burley Grange, originally built in 1840 as a private residence and used by Bradford Council and Bradford College more recently. I think it is back in private ownership again now.

St Mary's Church (top photo) is Victorian and was built on the site of a 17th century chapel.

Nowadays, with good rail links to Leeds and Bradford, Burley in Wharfedale continues to grow as a dormitory village and, like nearby Ilkley, is also popular with retirees. There are some beautiful houses, and many of the oldest have been sympathetically renovated. Someone (below) is using a rescued Victorian postbox as their mailbox. It does warn people not to use it as a public box!

The Malt Shovel Hotel (below) was originally a coaching inn, sited next to the church, and was rebuilt in 1880, serving as a pub and restaurant for many years. It was split and converted into private homes in about 2012, after the business went into administration. Burley does have a few remaining pubs though, and a sprinkling of nice, independent shops. What makes it a particularly pleasant place is the abundance of green spaces, parks and watermeadows in and surrounding the village. 

I meant to take a photo of Burley House, built in the18th century in the neo-classical style by Thomas Maude, a poet and local landowner. In the 20th century it became a private school and then variously a restaurant, hotel and business headquarters. It has recently been redeveloped, turning it back into private housing, incorporating the original house, stables and mews with some new builds. I say meant to... I got seduced by the magnificent copper beech tree just coming into leaf in the adjacent meadow. 

A fine day for a walk

I took my car to the garage in Silsden for its annual service and first MOT. (It passed!) Since I had several hours to kill and it was a glorious, though chilly, day, I went for a long walk along the canal. (Ten miles!)  Silsden is a small town up the Aire valley on the way to Skipton. It is expanding fast as new properties are being built and some of the old mills are being converted to housing. As I walked west out of the town, I noticed there's a new estate growing up on both sides of the canal. From here, Silsden Boats hires out its canal cruisers. At this time of year, out of season, the canal is lined with all their narrowboats. 

My route took me through the village of Kildwick and on to Bradley, another old village that has expanded with lots of new houses. I'd never actually been there before, as it sits off the main road up a lane that really only leads to the village, so one tends just to whizz past in the car. Here again, the textile mill that led to Bradley's original growth in the 19th century from an agricultural hamlet, has been converted to apartments. 

There seemed to be few amenities in the village apart from a chapel, a village shop and a cricket field but it seemed a nice little place. 

There was a small park, nicely cared for, beside the canal so that was a good place to stop for a rest before I retraced my steps to collect my car.

Burnsall

The village of Burnsall sits a few miles up the Wharfe valley from Barden Bridge (see yesterday). It's a very popular place and can get packed with visitors in summer. You hardly ever see it without cars parked along the road, even though there is a fair-sized car park nearby. It too has a distinctive old bridge and the river here is shallow, making a popular spot for families to picnic and bathe. It is also a centre for walking, with the Dales Way long-distance path passing through the village.

It has a good pub, The Red Lion, which dates back to the 16th century and reputedly has a ghost in the cellar who likes to turn off the beer taps!

It also has a chapel, a church, cafés and an ice cream shop - not bad for a village with only about 100 inhabitants. I had a lovely cup of tea from one of the cafés, sitting outside enjoying the warm sunshine. There were families picnicking on the river bank! (In February!) In fact it was so summery that I bought myself a tub of ice cream too.

Many of the local place names (Thorpe, Cracoe, Skyreholme) are derived from Norse and that, plus the discovery of carved stones now kept in the church, tells us that the area was settled by the Vikings over a thousand years ago. St Wilfrid's parish church itself dates back in parts to Norman times though much of it is built in the Perpendicular style (c1380-1520).

Another notable building in Burnsall is the school (below), still used as a primary school. It was founded in 1602 by William Craven, of nearby Appletreewick, who went on to become a Lord Mayor of London. 

Lincolnshire villages

Our Lincolnshire walk took us through the villages of Navenby and Wellingore, which have a core of old, traditional houses as well as lots of newer builds. The beautiful house in my photo above is the Manor House on the Green, in Wellingore. It is a Grade II listed Georgian (early 18th century) house built in the local limestone with a pantile roof. The Green has an old water pump, as do some of the streets in the village, which is now a conservation area.

There is no shortage of attractive old buildings, mostly built of limestone but with a few built of mellow old bricks. It's all very pleasing.

Some of the street names are interestingly evocative of earlier times: Blacksmith's Lane and the oddly named Egg Shell Alley.

Wiltshire: Lacock

When I set off to visit Lacock Abbey (see yesterday), I had no idea the village of Lacock itself, also owned by the National Trust, would be so pretty. It's a sizeable place, though plagued - like Saltaire and so many of our beauty spots - with cars parked everywhere. These old streets weren't built with cars in mind and have few garages or off-road parking. I spent a while exploring. It was like wandering around a film set - and indeed, Lacock has featured in many films and TV series, notably 'Downton Abbey' and the BBC's versions of 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Cranford'.

Most of the existing buildings are 18th century or earlier, made of stone or half-timbered with stone roof tiles. The village is laid out in a grid of streets, as a planned medieval estate village. The village's wealth came from the wool trade and outwardly little has changed for 200 years. It is, however (like Saltaire) a living, breathing village. The NT rents the buildings to private tenants and there are shops, cafés, galleries, pubs and an interesting 14th century church, St Cyriac's.

There is a wonderful tithe barn and the old village lock-up (bottom) where they held people overnight for minor misdemeanours.

Somerset: Selworthy

Right, a few more pictures from the return leg of my 'grand tour' of the south west:

As I left Lee Abbey Devon, I had time to visit the little village of Selworthy, in the care of the National Trust and situated near Minehead, in Somerset. It's chocolate-box pretty, especially on a hot, sunny day. The village forms part of the Holnicote estate and much of it was built in 1828 by Sir Thomas Acland as a 'model village' to provide housing for the aged and infirm of the estate. The limewashed cottages are mostly thatched, and it is quaint how the thatch is shaped around the windows and doors like a neat haircut. Some of the cottages are grouped around a green and one of them (below) is now a tea-shop. They have wonderful views across the valley to Dunkery Beacon, the highest point on Exmoor.

The whitewashed 15th century church of All Saints is quite pretty too, and has an unusual wooden balcony above the porch. Stairs originally led to a chamber - a parvise - over the porch, which was remodelled in 1804 to become a private pew for the lord of the manor and his family.

Devon: Porlock Weir

We spent a day down at the pretty coastal village of Porlock Weir, a few miles along the coast from Lee Abbey. Our brief was to seek to capture the essence of the place. There has been a port here for over 1000 years, though many of the cottages, some of them still with thatched roofs, date from the 17th century. The harbour is tidal (and again, the tide was out!) and mainly now used for leisure craft. The bay is relatively sheltered and there is a tale told of how, in January 1899, the Lynmouth lifeboat was unable to put out to sea due to a storm. It was hauled by men and 20 horses over the very steep hills to Porlock Weir, where it was successfully launched and rescued 13 sailors.

I found it hard to know whether to concentrate on the shingle beach: all soft blues, greys and pinks, or the more colourful area around the harbour. In the end, I tried to cover both!