Moon thoughts

Strictly speaking, this is about something as far from Kirby Misperton as you can get, but it's my blog so I can do what I want!

Forty years ago today (because I was too little to stay up the night before) I saw men walking on the moon, and it was amazing.

To celebrate, therefore, I thought I would share with you a picture of an early morning moon in the village from 2003, against the old ash tree that was felled to build some new houses. It seemed appropriate somehow.

There and Back Again

Recently we had a bit of a drive around and the journey brought home yet again how great a place Yorkshire is to live. As we did not stop en route I can't share pictures, but I'll take you along the way with us.

Firstly we had to go up to Northallerton to the County Records Office - a little bit of local research on both the village and our own house. We took the scenic route - avoiding Sutton Bank as we needed to pick up diesel. However, it meant we enjoyed a drive via York and then up the A19 instead, which has its own views and which we usually miss when heading up north. We didn't miss seeing the White Horse though!

The White Horse at Kilburn is not a neolithic entity like its cousin in Uffington. It is a Victorian creation (or Folly) which is maintained today by a dedicated group of people, and achieved brief notoriety when it was defaced, along with Uffington, as part of the protest against the Bill outlawing hunting.

Northallerton itself is another town similar to our own Malton, but seat of the North Yorkshire County Council. The Records Office presents a humble face to the public, but I am assured by staff that there is in fact a genuine Tardis behind the public building, and certainly the collection housed there must take up considerably more space than the frontage would indicate. We had a good day and found some great records, both photographic and written; I was particularly taken with the Servants' Wages Book (although it turned out this related to a different hall owned by the same family as owned the Hall at Kirby Misperton). The other treasure was the School Log Book from the 1870s up to 1916. I am definitely going to go back to get more on that!

The following day we drove from Northallerton to Lancaster - from White Rose to Red Rose country. But my goodness, I always forget how far west Yorkshire goes! We drove along the A684 through the Dales, past endless dry stone walls and boulder-strewn streams, fields dotted with sheep, and the Settle-Carlisle railway viaduct at Ribblehead.

Lancaster, whatever its historic rivalry with York, is a lovely old city with a 1960s university, a mirror image in fact of York itself. Coming home we took the alternative but equally lovely route via the A59 all the way to York, including a detour through Knaresborough by mistake. Mea culpa!

That allowed us to look at the chequered houses though, as we drove past them and Mother Shipton's Cave. I shall have to write about Mother S. another day I think...but here are some of the houses from a visit a few years ago.

The best bit of this trip, though, was collecting my son.