A penny for your thoughts...

Can you guess what this is?

It was up for auction at Tennants Auction rooms, on the same business park as yesterday's chocolatier. It is a Mini car covered in (old, pre-decimal) British pennies. Two 'Penny Minis' featured in promotional videos for the release of the Beatles' single Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever in the 1960s, though it isn't clear if this is one of the original cars used or a copy. We spotted it tucked away in a yard and unfortunately I could not get a clear picture of the whole vehicle  - but in a way the details are more fun, I think.  You can see the whole thing here though (and a pretty girl as an added bonus!)

Chocolate!

Also, and perhaps of more interest to this particular 'tourist', I visited Leyburn's chocolate maker: The Little Chocolate Shop. It's not very romantically situated, being on a small business park, but once inside you can watch the chocolate being made by hand - and then buy in the shop, of course.  There are three machines constantly circulating the liquid chocolate (dark, milk and white - shown here). The young man was creating some chocolate sheep (what else, in Wensleydale?!) The factory area is in a kind of central glass cube so it is easy to see what is going on (but limited sight-lines and lots of reflections from the glass make taking photos a challenge).

The Tea Pottery

There's always one, isn't there.....?

Back to the holidays: I visited a pottery in the town of Leyburn in Wensleydale - the Tea Pottery, to be precise. They make... you guessed... tea pots, in every shape imaginable. In theory they are useable for the nation's favourite brew but I imagine most are bought as decorative items by collectors.

My daughter has an Aga cooker in her new home, green, just like the teapot below (apart from the handle of course, haha.) She abhors kitsch though so I wasn't tempted to get her a gift.

Spectacolour

There is some spectacular colour in some of our autumn trees this year. As always, a blue sky sets the russets off nicely - pity we don't see too much of the blue at this time of year. I am not sure why the colours vary so much year on year but we must have had the right conditions for colour this year.

Perfect end to a perfect day

Driving home from my daughter's house after the birthday party, I was treated to this spectacular sunset. It was difficult not to get distracted from driving so in the end I pulled over and took a few photos. The road over the moors is narrow and twisty so it needs full concentration, especially when it is getting dark.

Not London

These are the views from the bottom of the garden at my daughter's new house. It couldn't be more different from London!

One

There are some more photos from my holiday to come but I'm interrupting the series, to celebrate that a whole year has passed since my second granddaughter was born. So much has happened in that time and I thank God that all's well. She is adorable (both of them are) - a happy, secure and easy-going little girl. They are settling into their new home in Yorkshire, although there is still plenty to do to get it all how they want it. My daughter found time to make this amazing cake for the birthday party. It's delightful to have them living nearer, so that it's now much easier for the whole family to get together.

I haven't managed a decent picture of either of the girls for ages. The one below was taken by their mum on a recent day out. I love my older granddaughter's expressions when she is looking at her sister - sort of loving and amused at the same time.

Estate houses

The village of Wensley, which gives its name to the dale, must have been more important in the past. Nowadays it is a quiet and unremarkable place. Until the 16th century it had a market, always a sign of significance since market charters were granted by the King. In 1653, however, it seems the village was devastated by the plague and the surviving villagers fled, so that it took nearly a century to recover. There is a private driveway out from the village across a beautifully landscaped estate, which I believe leads to Bolton Hall, a mansion built in 1678 and then rebuilt in 1902 after a fire. It is still lived in by Lord Bolton's family. They also own nearby Bolton Castle, which is open to the public. Some of the houses in the village are clearly 'estate houses' built for the estate's staff.

My paternal grandfather worked for the Duke of Portland on his Welbeck estate in Nottinghamshire so I grew up around 'estate houses' and can recognise their distinctiveness, even though they tend to have regional styles.

[Interestingly - and completely off topic! - the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was a guest of the Duke of Portland at Welbeck in 1913, almost a year prior to his assassination that precipitated WWI. He was almost killed at Welbeck in a hunting accident when a loader's gun accidentally fired - an accident that could have changed the course of history but, sadly, did not.]

Cottage garden

I loved everything about this quintessential cottage garden in front of a house in the village of Wensley. There are so many plants and colours crammed into the small space. Sweet peas entwined through the fence, delphiniums adding a touch of their distinctive blue and pretty hanging baskets too.

Treasure within

Holy Trinity Church, Wensley is a veritable treasure trove of interesting features inside. The octagonal font is dated 1662 and has an attractive, carved pineapple finial. (Pineapples are a symbol of welcome.)

In the chancel is a pretty three-bay arcade dating to the early 14th century (1300s).

The choir stalls have some lovely carved pew ends, dated 1527. I rather liked this dog with its bone.

As in many of our English churches, the stained glass is beautiful. This one is 'The Light of the World', reminiscent of the famous Holman Hunt painting and so I assume the window glass is Victorian.

There was some wonderful and vibrant tapestry work in the kneelers.

The nave has some box pews and holds the Scrope family pew, set high up over the rest of the congregation. It is comfortable with cushions and curtains, either so that the aristocrats need not see or be seen by the riff-raff or perhaps so they could snooze during long sermons, who knows? The Scropes were the Lords of Bolton and resided nearby in Bolton Castle (which is still owned by the family) - where Mary, Queen of Scots was housed for six months after she fled Scotland. The pew still holds prayer books and hymnals inscribed 'Lord Bolton'.

Holy Trinity Church, Wensley

The church in the village of Wensley in the Yorkshire Dales, built on the site of an 8th century Saxon church, dates back to the mid-13th century and is a Grade I listed building. The tower was added in 1719. It is a 'redundant Anglican church', rarely now used as a place of worship. Instead it is in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust, a charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk.

Wensleydale flora

A selection of plants found in Wensley:
a teasel seed head, some variation of a convolvulus and a cranesbill of some kind. I don't think any of these were 'wild' flowers as they were growing in a little cultivated garden in the village, set aside for quiet contemplation.

Candle rainbows

I just love this photo. The dipped candles seem to be made in every colour under the sun and many with lovely patterns and markings too. As well as the dipped candles they make chunky pillar candles, scented ones, marbled ones and cast ones - cupcakes, sheep, toadstools - you name it! A feast for the senses.

I have pretty much given up burning candles at home on account of the damage the smoke causes, over time, to the decor. White Rose Candles say theirs are such high quality they don't smoke... so I was tempted but not entirely convinced.

The candlemaker

The candlemaker, White Rose Candles, has been in the old watermill in Wensley since 1978. It's a family-run business, producing high-quality beeswax and paraffin wax candles using a mixture of traditional and modern dipping and casting techniques. Some of the equipment, like the dipping machine above, was designed and made by Mick White (shown) and verges on the eccentric, the pulley mechanism apparently made out of bicycle wheels. The whole place seemed like a glorious muddle to the untrained eye. It obviously works though, producing some exquisite and colourful candles - from church candles to cupcakes! - available to buy in the shop and online.

Workshop in the woods

Wensleydale is the next of the Yorkshire Dales north from Wharfedale, a scenic drive over the fells and into a valley with a very different character.  It is unusual in that the dale doesn't take its name from the river flowing through it, which is the River Ure. Nor is it named after one of its principal towns, which are Hawes and Leyburn. There is a small, quiet village called Wensley though and I visited to see its church and its candlemaker. The candlemaker's workshop and gallery is situated in an old watermill, along a woodland path. Behind it there's a waterfall, making the whole area scenic and worth a visit.

Posforth Gill and the Valley of Desolation

I spent absolutely ages trying to find this waterfall!  Happily, it was worth the effort. The Bolton Abbey estate covers a large area with varied scenery. There is a walk - known as the Valley of Desolation - which I'd never done before. It follows a little stream (Posforth Gill) up the valley and eventually on to Barden Fell and the hill known as Simon's Seat. The Gill flows over this lip in a rather attractive waterfall. Whatever desolation there once was (caused apparently by a huge storm in 1826) has long since been repaired by Mother Nature.

To find the falls, you had to take a steep path down to the left off the main footpath but I missed the turn and went on upwards, nearly making it onto Simon's Seat, before I realised my error. Never mind, it was a good walk and good to get the exercise. I do a lot of walking but mostly along fairly flat paths (like the canal towpath) so striding up a hill for a change is good for my heart and lungs!

The Priory Church

The Priory Church of St Mary and St Cuthbert at Bolton Abbey is a thriving church in the (newly formed) Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales. One of it's loveliest features, in my view, is the painted wall (Victorian), which replaces what would have been the rood screen separating the nave from the now ruined chancel which lies beyond the wall. It has plants and symbols with a biblical and Christian meaning: lilies, barley, olives, roses and palms among them. I like it but apparently Queen Mary did not (!) and it was covered for some time with a tapestry.

There are also some lovely Pugin stained glass windows from the 19th century set into the 13th century lancet windows. Augustus Pugin was the architect of much of the Palace of Westminster in London (our Houses of Parliament).

Hey diddle diddle

The mist was still hanging over the hills by the time I arrived at Bolton Abbey, a very popular beauty spot in Wharfedale, on an estate owned by the Duke of Devonshire. The river meanders around the partially ruined Augustinian Priory, stripped of its assets during the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539, by order of Henry VIII. The nave survives as a church to this day, because it was successfully argued by Prior Moone, the last Prior, that it was a place of worship for the local community. Interestingly, the nursery rhyme "Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle" is reputed to be about a dispute Prior Moone had with a local farmer over a cow. For that story, see here (and scroll down the page).

Pointing heavenwards

I was staying, as I have done before, at Scargill House: an international Christian community, holiday, retreat and conference centre. It's in Upper Wharfedale, just outside the village of Kettlewell. The iconic chapel's roof made a bold statement, looming out of the mist. On a better day, the views from inside the chapel through those huge, clear windows are awesome. It's a wonderful place in which to worship.  For more information about the Scargill Movement - and more photos - click the Scargill House label below and also look at their website.

My very first post about the Centre, back in 2009, described how it had been forced to close and a rescue plan was taking shape. The news on that is tremendous. Much practical work has been done to bring the buildings back into good repair and many of the bedrooms have been completely updated to lovely, ensuite rooms. There is a growing and lively community of families, couples and single people at its heart. Many of them are young people, from all over the world, who come for a year or so to serve, learn, develop skills and enjoy community alongside a core of more mature leaders who tend to stay for a few years. The community therefore constantly changes, which must be challenging but also makes it exciting and vibrant. It's a great success story, a lovely place reborn and reinvigorated with a compelling vision to see lives transformed by the love of God in Jesus Christ and to offer hospitality to all.

Misty and moisty

My holiday week didn't get off to a great start weather-wise, as the first morning saw heavy fog that took a while to lift. Even then, the light was dull and flat and the sky an unappealing flat grey. Never mind, a bit of mist makes for an atmospheric woodland walk. There are flashes where the leaves are beginning to change colour but so far most of the trees are still green. There is a decidedly autumnal feel to the air though.