Wednesday 17 July 2013

UK - North Yorkshire Moors Railway

UK – North Yorkshire Moors Railway

Running between Whitby and Pickering is the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, originally built by George Stephenson in the 1830s. It was nearly closed in the Beeching cuts to British Rail in the 1960s, but was saved after strong local protests. Since the 1970s it has operated mainly as a tourist railway, but is also used by locals in the winter when towns are snowed in.

The most well-known station on the line is at Goathland, a small village used as the location (renamed to Aidensfield) for the Heartbeat TV series. The station was also used as the Hogsmeade Station in the first Harry Potter film. Another tiny station, Levisham, also has TV credits, having been used in the original Brideshead Revisited TV series, All Creatures Great and Small, and a Sherlock Holmes film.

The NYMR has a famous steam locomotive, the Sir Nigel Gresley – an A4 Pacific class loco built in 1937 and named after the designer, the 100^th of its type made. It holds the post-war steam loco speed record of 112 miles per hour (about 180 Kph). The loco which pulled the train for our trip was the Eric Treacy, an LMS Class 5 (known as a “Black 5” by trainspotters) also built in 1937 in Newcastle and still going strong.

We travelled from Grosmont to Pickering, then back to Whitby at the line’s other end, then back to Grosmont. It was a great trip through very picturesque countryside, following the course of river valleys, completed with the inevitable steam train experience of coal soot in the hair.

Ready for departure from Grosmont

Old diesel loco at Grosmont

Goathland Station - used in Heartbeat and first Harry Potter movie

Goathland - sheep wander freely, keeping the verges mown

Goathland Station from the town

Goathland local store - the garage from Heartbeat, with
Ford Anglia police car

The Anglia and an old Norton

Old rail lamp on end of train

LMS Class 5 - No. 45428 the Eric Treacy

Loco moves to other end of train at Pickering

The Eric Treacy, ready to roll

Loco with steam up, ready to depart

Old carriages, with equally old customers

Old guard's van

Old baggage crane

Trainspotter with Isembard Kingdom Brunel shirt

Smokin' through the North Yorkshire countryside

Old viaduct, now part of a walking track

World's first passenger rail tunnel - the young design engineer
was castigated by the Directors for wasting money on the decorative castellations

Sign warning walkers to "Beware of Adders"!

Leaving the train at picturesque Grosmont station

UK - Whitby

UK – Whitby and its Abbey

Whitby, after Scarborough, is the major town in this part of the North Yorkshire coast. A very neat old town built around the harbour at the mouth of the Esk River. Tides are quite big here, around five metres, so the local harbours have boats on the mud at low tide.

The old Abbey ruin dominates the skyline above the town, and was Bram Stoker’s inspiration for Dracula. It looks innocent in daylight but is probably spooky on a stormy night. A major Anglo-Saxon church since AD 657, it was later made a Benedictine monastery by the Normans, before becoming a victim of Henry the VIII^th and the Dissolution, then further damaged by German naval shelling in WW1. Sitting at the top of a stairway of 199 steps up from the harbour below, it remains an imposing ruin.

Whitby is also famous for fish and chips – huge portions of delicious cod or haddock with fat chips, deep fried of course! There are some other local pub specialities which might also help account for the well-padded appearance of many Yorkshire folks. These include dishes (described as “starters”) such as “Giant Yorkshire Pudding filled with pork sausages and gravy”, or perhaps you might prefer a “Tower of Black Pudding with Onion Rings and gravy”. Tasty!

The local beers are excellent also – they include an old favourite heavy ale, Theakston’s Old Peculier (their spelling, not mine) and my current favourite, Thwaites’ Wainwright Golden Ale, a new discovery for me and named after the great walker and writer. There are numerous small breweries also producing a wide range of real ales, to help wash down those black puddings.

Is this the place for an Argument ???

Lollies

More lollies

Whitby looking down from the Abbey steps

Whitby from the bottom of the Abbey steps

Whitby Abbey ruins - the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula

Abbey view

Worn stone columns - Whitby Abbey

Abbey interior

Whitby flowers

Quaintly named village nearby

North Yorkshire Moors scenery

UK - Robin Hood's Bay Coastal Walk

UK – Robin Hood’s Bay Coastal Walk

There are many walks in the area of the town, so we decided on a coastal cliff walk of about 6 miles (10 Km). Despite the warm day, there was a strange sea mist which rolled in and out, occasionally burning off with the sun.

The walk left from the upper part of the town, travelling along a cliff path which goes all the way to Whitby, although we only went about halfway, then returned on the Cinder Track (old railway easement) which runs higher up on the ridge line. Being Sunday there were lots of people on the track and most seemed to end their walk enjoying a pint at one of the small pubs in town.

The coastal cliffs are high, making for good coastal views when the mist cleared. The farmland paddocks adjacent to the tracks are bounded by old dry stone walls, with lots of sheep of various types and colours, with a few cattle to round out the splendid bucolic scenery.

Start and end of walk - Upper Robin Hoods Bay

Coastal cliffs and stone walls

Looking South

Bug flies above cliffs

Hay fever country

Thistles are common along the track

High point of the northerly leg (the cliffs, not the old guy)

Track heads inland for bit

Heading back along the Cinder Track

Bucolic splendour

From the Cinder Track, looking down on the Coastal track

Now that's a good looking sheep !

Tuesday 16 July 2013

UK - Robin Hood's Bay

UK – Robin Hood’s Bay

This little town is in two parts – the upper level is newer and has several pubs and B&Bs, while the much older lower part of the town is down a steep hill to the bay at the bottom, with narrow winding streets and very old houses. It has a colourful history going back to the Romans and beyond.

Our accommodation is in a building owned by the National Trust. Formerly a Coastguard station, it is now run by the Trust as a shop downstairs with a holiday flat upstairs. This village is one end of the English Coast to Coast walk, with the pub over the road from us (the Bay Hotel) being the official end point. The pub has a Wainwright’s Bar honouring the great walker, although most of the present patrons don’t look like they could walk out of sight in a fog.

There are numerous walks in the area, as well as a preserved steam railway line, so lots to explore for the week we will be here. Today we took a short (3 mile) walk along the ridge top to nearby Boggle Hole, then back along the beach at low tide. Tides here are about 5 metres or more, so boats are left high and dry at low tide in the coastal bays.