Horsing around

The first Saturday in September is traditionally the date for Keighley Agricultural Show. Compared with some, it's a relatively small affair but I really enjoy it and it's not far to go (and easy, on the bus).

Much of the day is taken up with equestrian classes - both show jumping, and the judging of different classes of horses. The horses are always turned out smartly and the judges do a thorough job of checking them over: musculature, coat, teeth, gait...

They start young! A tiny tot on a tiny Shetland pony:

There is a category for heavy horses too: Shires, Clydesdales, Percheron and Suffolk Punch. I'm not entirely sure which is which, though I think those in my photos are Shires and Clydesdales. These horses were originally bred as draught horses for heavy farm work, ploughing, logging, and pulling carts, wagons and, of course, barges along the canals. A few do still work but most are now bred for showing. 

I love these horses. My enthusiasm is either in my genes (my great grandfather was a horseman) and/or a memory from my childhood. My dad used to take me to watch my uncle competing, with a horse and a plough, in the ploughing matches that used to be held. 

Heavy horses are still used in certain areas. Kings College in Cambridge has had a wildflower meadow for several years now, which is traditionally harvested using two Shire horses called Cosmo and Bryn. That is so much better for the environment than using tractors. See HERE. 

Scenes of life in the past

The photographic exhibition I went to see in Pateley Bridge was displayed in one of the studios in the artisan community in the Maker's Yard, part of the original town workhouse. Also in the same building is the Nidderdale Museum, as well as the local police station. The museum has always been closed when I've visited before, so it was good to find it open and to have time to explore it. Not that a couple of hours was long enough. It's not a huge museum but there's so much stuff in there that it would take a week to pay attention to everything! 

I particularly liked the fact that the displays were arranged in themes and room-sets, which brings them to life. The mock-up of the cobbler's workshop is actually the contents of a small cottage in Carlton in Coverdale, where three generations of the Binks family (all called Christopher) worked between the 1820s and 1960s. They used to travel up and down the Dales, on foot and later on a bicycle, staying with relatives and taking orders for repairs and new boots and shoes. The third Christopher (see below) was born in 1891, retiring a few months before his death, aged 82, in 1973. The shop's contents remained just as he left them until they were acquired by the museum in 1975. I found all this rather wonderful and touching. 

This is the museum entrance. Most of the display rooms are upstairs. At the back, the Makers' Yard is split into a number of workshops and galleries on the ground floor. 

The museum had a village shop display, full of things you just don't see nowadays. 

There was a room dedicated to local farming, with items like the butter churner below and an explanation of how butter was made (and probably is still made) by hand on local farms.   

Then there were room sets of domestic life: a parlour packed full of knick-knacks, as was the fashion in Victorian England.

It had some lovely blue and white china, of which I am a devotee, as you know. Also, I really feel that every home should have a roaring fire, a Windsor chair and a contented cat. 

The kitchen had a wonderful old range - I do remember these in some homes in my childhood. They must have been more complicated to manage than the most gadget-strewn microwave! All those different ovens and warming drawers. None of my relatives had a tin bath but my grandparents certainly used one, in front of the fire, in their youth. The bath shown below is a hip/sitz bath. 

The coach-built pram was included in the room devoted to transport. This one is more ancient than the one I was trundled about in as a baby but similar coach-built prams were made in Yorkshire for years by Silver Cross. The company still exists in Skipton, designing top-of-the-range strollers and modern sleep systems, though I believe they are actually manufactured in China these days. 

Pillars Past

Whilst in Pateley Bridge I wanted to find the sculpture 'Pillars Past', which I'd read about. Deeply set among trees, along what used to be a railway line, it proved a little tricky to 'track down'! (Pateley Bridge is no longer served by rail. The single track branch line, opened in 1862 to carry freight and passengers, finally closed in 1964.) The sculpture is set on what used to be the locomotive turntable. 

The sculpture was designed and carved by local sculptor Joseph Hayton, as part of the ‘Way of the Roses’ public art trail. It consists of three two-metre tall figures emerging from rough sandstone pillars: a shepherd, a lead miner and a monk representing the agricultural, mining and monastic heritage of the area. It was installed in 2014. I liked it very much, although its position under trees means it has become a bit discoloured. 

On a previous trip to Pateley Bridge, I visited the sculptor's studio. Here he is, with models of the figures in the background.  

Flowers and doors

Given the heatwaves and drought we've had, it was lovely to see the colourful, carefully tended floral displays around Pateley Bridge. Fox's Head Well (originally called Souter Well) was moved to its present site on the High Street in the 1970s and now makes a very attractive plant trough... as did an old barrow in one of the courtyards. 

Yellow and blue are always a winning combination. 

Up the hill at the back of the High Street, leading up to the Parish Church, are some of the older public buildings. The Oddfellows Hall was built in 1859 for the Friendly Society that provided miners and quarrymen with insurance against sickness and accident, and was a popular venue for concerts. I'm not sure what it's used for now. Its grand entrance is, in my opinion, rather ruined by the ill-matching door! 

The old courthouse has been converted to dwellings. One of the doorways has a carving of the scales of justice. I think the number and lettering was added much more recently.  

The former George and Dragon Inn has a date stone above the door: 1664. I think the archway would have been for coaches and carriages. 

I'm always intrigued by this little door (below) at the side of the 18th century Hawkridge House, just up from St Cuthbert's Parish Church. It's probably just a laundry room or store but I think it's really sweet. 

 

A day out

One of our camera club members was holding an exhibition of her photographs in Pateley Bridge, so I decided to have a day out, visiting the exhibition and exploring the town. It's a good hour or so's drive from here, up in Nidderdale, east of the Yorkshire Dales National Park and north of Harrogate.  

Artefacts have been found dating back to Neolithic times and the Bronze Age, suggesting there were settlements in the area even then. In the Middle Ages it was part of the monastic lands of Fountains and Byland Abbeys, extensively farmed, and it is still a predominantly agricultural area. Sandstone was quarried nearby, flax and cotton mills became important. Pateley Bridge was granted a market charter in 1320 and became a significant centre for the surrounding communities, the only market town in Nidderdale. 

The River Nidd flows through the town and along its banks there are parks and meadows.

The narrow High Street climbs sharply up from the river bridge.

There are lanes and alleys branching off the main street. Some, through archways, may originally have been coaching inns with stables at the rear. Now they provide attractive courtyards for cafés and shops. 

The row of properties in the picture below is said to be the oldest in the town, dating back to 1661. It holds 'the oldest sweet shop in England', established in 1827 and verified (Guinness World Records) as the longest continuously trading sweet shop in the world. 

On the opposite corner, Cocoa Joe's is a tiny, independent café business specialising in hot and cold chocolate drinks, 'like you have never experienced before'. Made from high quality, single origin solid chocolates from all over the world, each with a distinctive flavour profile, the choice was overwhelming - and the one I had, from Peru, was tasty, nuanced and so rich that it left me feeling rather overfull!   

Milner Field walk, part 2

As I said yesterday, there's little left of the once grand Milner Field mansion, former home of Titus Salt Junior. There are, however, two gatehouses remaining, one at the bottom of the carriage drive and one at the top. Both are still lived in, though I'm not sure how comfortable they must be. They echo the mansion's heavy, solid Victorian Gothic style and must be very dark inside. 

Down the lane, on the edge of the Milner Field estate, Milner Field Farm also still exists and that too has a small gatehouse (below).  The farm was the Home Farm for the estate, supplying its meat, dairy produce and vegetables. There are traces of a huge walled garden. The farm still has a dairy herd and sells milk. 

From the gateway, there's a nice view over the Aire valley. 

Just below the farm, I turned down a narrow track, which must have been used for decades and is worn into a holloway (a sunken lane).

The track has probably existed at least since the canal was built in the 1770s, and probably even before that. 

You can see Dowley Gap Locks across the field, and the track ends at the changeline bridge, which I always think is a pretty spot, despite its proximity to the sewage works (just visible in middle distance to the left, below). 

Form here it was easy walk back to Saltaire along the canal towpath, a very familiar route. 

A threshold

Milner Field walk, part 1

So, the 1st of September arrived... the threshold of a new season, as we tip over into meteorological autumn. It has looked like the approach of autumn for a week or two, as the dry weather seems to have speeded up the fruiting of hedgerows and yellowing of the foliage. September 1st was, however, a lovely day and still had a summery feel with a pleasantly warm temperature, despite a stiff breeze blowing. 

I decided on a brisk walk up to Milner Field, a route I haven't taken for a while. I bumped into two of my neighbours on the way - a couple of brief but friendly chats to start me off on the right foot (as they say!) 

I crossed the canal (above) at Hirst Wood swing bridge and was attracted by the two bursts of red: the boat and the lady's jacket (with matching walking sticks, how stylish).

Next, I crossed the river and walked round to the weir that once powered the adjacent mill. The river is still quite low, though we'd had a bit of rain in the past few days. The weir now has opportunistic shrubs growing in the middle! I don't suppose they'll hold on once the winter flow builds up. 

Then up the hill to follow the carriage drive that goes through the woods to Milner Field. In parts it is now barely wide enough to allow the horse-drawn carriages that once conveyed gentry (including, in 1882, the then Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII) up to Titus Salt Junior's mansion. Not that that bothers today's users, mostly dog-walkers. I passed one chap walking nine big dogs. Thankfully, apart from one (presumably his own pet), they were all on leads. It seemed a lot for one man to handle but apparently there is no legal limit to the number that can be walked. 

There are huge trees toppled over here too, as everywhere. 

The imposing Milner Field mansion was once somewhere in the woods to the right of my photo below. You can still find traces of it if you root around, though it was left empty from the late 1920s. No-one would then buy it, as it had a macabre reputation due to the series of tragedies and early deaths that beset all its previous owners. It was mostly demolished in the 1950s. Read about its history HERE.