Geriatric OE

The weekly musing of a couple of Kiwis on their geriatric OE in The UK






Thursday, 25 October 2012

Settle and Skipton

I was sooo disappointed with last nights dinner.
Why so? Well, on the menu it said apple crumble for dessert, and I love a good apple crumble. But by the time we got to dessert time, it was all gone. Never mind.
And the entertainment last night was bingo again, so we spent the evening chatting with out mates again.

So there we were on the bus, oops I mean coach, again at . 0930, bright eyed and bushy tailed. On the way to our first stop of the day we drove through several small country villages called Rimmington and Gisburn, and no I haven't spelled it incorrectly, it really is Gisburn. Past fields populated with black faced sheep, shades of the kids animated programme called Shaun the Sheep. We also spotted some highland cattle all orange and shaggy.
The country town of Settle was our first stop, and a bit chilly it was too. We were well rugged up though, and enjoyed our walk around. First heading for the church we had seen on the way in. The blackened exterior hid a modern makeover, and though I do think things need to move with the times, we do prefer our churches untouched. With only an hour in this little town, and feeling bit chilly around the ears, we ended our visit here in the Singing Kettle teashop with a Latte and a piece of fruitcake.
The run through more rolling countryside through towns like Giggleswick, Hellifeild, Thoby, Earby, Fouridge and Ramsbottom had us wondering about the origin of the names. Unfortunately the answer will have to wait until we get back to London and so, called normality.

Next stop was Skipton, another town built out of the grey local stone which with today overcast sky made it appear rather monochromatic, but not as cold as is was earlier but then it wasn't as windy either. As usual we made for the closest church, but the doors were locked. The Churchyard had been cleared of stones, which had been arranged around the perimeter wall. We walked around them reading the names and dates. So many of them with several children in the same family, dieting at different times. It must have been terribly hard to lose just one child, let alone three or four or even five.
Somewhere in town we'd heard that there was a castle, but we knew there was a canal running through Skipton and it didn't take us long to locate it and begin our walk along the banks.

 It is a fully functioning canal and there were quite a lot of colourfully decorated longboats moored along the banks. These old waterways operated like our modern motorways and it is amazing to think that they were dug by basic manpower, just muscle and shovel. The autumn-clad canal sides made for a very pretty walk that we both enjoyed, and it was good to stretch the legs after sitting in the coach. 

As the coach was manoeuvrings its way through the tiny streets to where it was parked I'd spotted a sign pointing to the Craven Museum. Now this is the family name one of my cousins who has fairly recectly begun to search her family tree. What I didn't realise is that Craven is the name of an area, not a family name. 

However that didn't deter us from visiting. It was exciting, well for me at least (The Man thought it was a bit ho-hum) that on display in the museum is one of the very few Shakespearian First Folios on public display. I wont bore you with any details, but if you are interested I'm sure Mr Google will be able to help you out.
After all that we just had time to call into a local store and buy ourselves a sandwich to eat on the drive back tot eh hotel.
The journey has been nice and quiet because one of the pair of Indian ladies behind us decided not to come on the excursion today.
Tomorrow we have to be up a tad earlier than we have been as the driver wants all the cases loaded by 0830.

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