Barns of England

Near Castle Bolton

It's been a few years since I've seen these barns, but there they were, just as we turned onto the road to Bolton Castle in North Yorkshire. There was something about the weathered wood and stone - and so near a real castle, that I found charming.

 Northeast of York

Much less charming, but possessing the redeeming factor of those darling sheep, was this barn near Sutton on the Forest. March has its perks: lambing season being the best.

 West of Leyburn

This just said, 'All Creatures Great and Small.' I expected the veterinarian 'James Herriot' to come walking out of that old stone byre any minute! This is one of my favorite pictures from North Yorkshire.

 In 'downtown' Hawes

I found it so odd that right in the middle of this town, just a short walk from the (Wallace and Gromit) Wensleydale Creamery, to find a barn and a horse pen - with a real horse and a border collie to boot!

Can you find the horse? 

...and here's the ever-watchful border collie

 West of Leyburn

Looking stark against the landscape, this barn caught my attention, along with that beautiful, lichen-covered drystone wall.

Near Dorstone

And then there are the barns that I'm not sure whether they have been standing for a couple hundred years or if they were built in 1990 and made to look old! These days, it's often hard for the casual observer to tell.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

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Hay-on-Wye, Sedbergh, Book Towns

It was a cold, bleak, and windy day in Hay-on-Wye

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I don't know if you can see the border between England and Wales on the map, but Hay-in-Wye lies just inside the Welsh border in the county of Powys (rhymes with Lois), Wales. Hay-on-Wye is world famous for its many bookstores. A person could spend days there and not exhaust its great supply of books. It seems that everyplace is a bookstore, including even the castle??

It was mid-March, so the bookstore was not stocked.

Photo Credit: Ian Haskins
The photo above must have been taken in high season. Look at the books! 
A castle AND a bookstore? What could be better! 

Photo Credit: VisitBritain.com
Trust between the Welsh and English has evidently improved since the 14th c.

In Sedbergh, Cumbria - another Book Town

From www.sedbergh.org.uk:

What is a Book Town?

Well, it's a town, usually small and usually rural, which has brought together a number of bookshops and other businesses based on writing, reading, publishing and so on. In practice many of the shops will concentrate on selling second-hand books. There are thousands of book enthusiasts whose great joy is to find an out-of-print volume to add to their collections; for them a Book Town is a treasure chest just waiting to be opened. Book Towns have spread around the world from the first one, which was founded by Hay-on-Wye bookdealer Richard Booth in 1961. There are now over twenty towns throughout the World describing themselves as Book Towns or Book Villages. 

The Sedbergh booktown project was started after the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak in order to encourage an increase in the number of visitors, whose enjoyment of the beautiful countryside around Sedbergh supports the functioning of vital town centre amenities. The company, Sedbergh Book Town, was set up in 2003 to develop a community of businesses involved in selling, writing, publishing and designing books and other publications. Sedbergh started with an excellent base to build upon as a Booktown, with a printer's finisher (book maker), writers and several book selling businesses already based in the town. Since then more bookshops have opened and, in May 2006, Sedbergh was officially recognised as England's Booktown when it was elected into the International Organisation of Book Towns. There are now three official Booktowns in the United Kingdom, Hay-on-Wye (where it all started) in Wales, Wigtown in Scotland and Sedbergh in England. 

And to think that when we were in Hawes, North Yorkshire, we were only 15 measly miles from Sedbergh and didn't even know about it. Oh well, there's always next time?

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The Pandy Inn & Bull's Head Free House

 The Pandy Inn, Dorstone

In 2012, because airfare is not coming down any time soon, I will be traveling back to England in photos alone, and reviewing some of my favorites with you. If you tire of seeing these photos, feel free to send airfare from MSP to LON. I'm not picky; either Heathrow or Gatwick will work for me. I will be happy to fly there and take additional photos of the enchanting English countryside, then return to Wisconsin and write blog posts to share with you. It would be a tough job, but I'd be willing to make the sacrifice. :-)

Think about it: This place has been a free house (a pub) since the 1100s!  What else happened in the 1100's? Well, for starters, William the Conqueror's son became King of England, the Crusaders captured Acre, Saint Bernard founded the Abbey of Clairvaux in France, and in the United States of America, we were...oh wait...

The twelfth century was a long time ago, but that doesn't mean the people were less intelligent than today or carrying clubs and grunting at their toothless women with straggly hair. Don't believe it. People were going places and doing things! And some of them were busy establishing this cool little pub in Herefordshire (above).

The village of Craswall is near the Welsh border (see map below).






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photo from The Bull's Head

Photo from Bull's Head, a 17th century pub

Famous old drovers inn in the superb country of the Black Mountains south of Hay on Wye. Now a pub restaurant concentrating on serving good food. Open Friday, Saturday and Sunday lunch. 'The Bull's Head pub in Craswall is one of the best rural pubs in the UK with great food.' Owen Sheers, The Daily Telegraph. - from Facebook






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Point A represents Craswall. Point B represents Dorstone. Now you can see why it took us twice as long to get anywhere in England than what we had planned. At home, if the place we wanted to visit was 60 miles away, we'd figure that it would take about an hour. In England, we would have to figure at least two hours. But I'm not complaining. The journey by car through the English countryside was always worth it!

These aren't the only pubs in Herefordshire, of course, but they're the only ones we visited. We had  lunch on a Sunday at the Bull's Head and dinner one night at The Pandy Inn with friends. There are lots of other places to see, such as cathedrals, castles, and ancient burial sites  - and, of course, the beautiful Golden Valley!

P.S. I'm hoping to keep Fridays as a Travel Blog day. Sometimes England, sometimes Wisconsin, etc. We'll see how it goes.


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The Round Church, Cambridge England

The Round Church, Cambridge, England
a.k.a. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The round part of the church was built in about 1130 by the ‘fraternity of the Holy Sepulchre’. They were evidently influenced by the round church in Jerusalem called the Church of the Holy Sepulchre built by the Roman Emperor Constantine in the 4th ct. Since they were Normans, recently arrived from France in 1066, they used the Norman or Romanesque style: hence the thick pillars and rounded arches. (Read the rest of the article from Christian Heritage here...)

Look at those massive columns!

(or are they pillars?)

Baptismal Font

A series of arches

The domed ceiling

I also came upon this interesting bit of information. The following letter was written by Ranald Macaulay, son-in-law of the late Francis Schaeffer: (copied from their website)

THE  L'ABRI-CAMBRIDGE CONNECTION 

'Although there isn’t an official L’Abri branch in Cambridge there is a strong connection. In fact English L’Abri has two parts, the residential work in Hampshire and my personal contribution to the work of Christian Heritage in Cambridge. In other words, I continue as a L’Abri worker but work in Cambridge.

The Cambridge bit happened like this.  When in 1996 Susan and I felt it was time to make way for younger workers at the branch in Hampshire, we came back to Cambridge where we’d spent a sabbatical in 1988-89.  But we hadn’t a clue about what might open up.  In the event, the ancient Round Church right in the heart of the city, which you can see above, fell vacant in 1998.  Its amazing design and heritage attracts about 180,000 visitors each year!  Built by 1130, that’s about 80 years before the university began, it was modeled on the church in Jerusalem where Jesus was buried and rose from the dead. But no one seemed to know what to do with it.

So, this was what opened up – the ROUND CHURCH!  To take care of it appropriately, a charitable organization called ‘CHRISTIAN HERITAGE’ was formed and this became officially responsible for the building in January 2001. Our first project was to make a 23 minute video called ‘Saints & Scholars’. This is on view all day every day; so people can sit down with headsets and get an impression of how significant, indeed essential, Christianity was in the formation of the West.  We also have a schedule of guided tours around the colleges...'(Read More from Christian Heritage UK)

P.S. My first introduction to Susan Schaeffer Macaulay was through her books 'How to Be Your Own Selfish Pig' and 'For the Children's Sake,' and later her lectures at homeschooling conferences (which I listened to via audio tape). Of course, her father, Francis Schaeffer the great theologian has been a  help to and influence on so many of us!

When we were visiting the The Round Church, we were thrilled so see and hear such a very Christian message being disseminated from The Round Church to the residents and visitors of Cambridge. But I did not know until I was gathering information from the Christian Heritage website for this post, that  Ranald and Susan Schaeffer Macaulay were involved in this ministry.


P.P.S. Photos are mine.



Have a great weekend, everyone!

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Muker, Pronounced 'MEW-ker'

I plan to be back visiting your blogs next week. Until then, I'm taking a break with the family, enjoying the grandkids, too much good food, and the unseasonably warm weather here in NW Wisconsin!  I posted the following earlier, but thought you wouldn't mind seeing that cute little sheep again:

You may have noticed the annoying little munching sound when you visited this blog in early 2011. If you had scrolled down to find the source of the racket, you would have seen 'Muker,' my (virtual) pet sheep. I've had his sound turned off since then because evidently he was annoying to some people. Can you believe it??!

Muker is named after the sheep pictured here, who was one of those indescribably cute sheep grazing in the Askrigg Common, an area of the Yorkshire Dales. It's a beautifully bleak and harsh area one finds when driving from Askrigg to Gunnerside, LowRow, and Muker (from whence comes the name of my sheep.)

Here are a few more pics of Muker. There's just something about those little Yorkshire villages that is so appealing to me and makes me want to go back. It seems to be this time of year every year when I want to make plans to go to England. And, believe it or not, I particularly long to go back to the Askrigg Common and look up those lovely sheep.

Alas, airfare keeps me looking at photos instead.

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The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols

King's College Chapel, Cambridge

This Christmas Eve morning, we'll once again be listening to the live performance of The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College, Cambridge, England.  (And actually, tonight we're going to be meeting our son and daughter-in-law in Minneapolis for a performance of The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, so we'll get to hear it twice!)

www.telegraph.co.uk

As of December 12, we are able to print out the program booklet that accompanies this year's Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. I love to do that, for then I can follow along while listening to the performance. It's not like we have to have the printed word in order to understand what they're saying, but you've heard the saying, 'two nations divided by a common language.' :-)

And what are the Nine Lessons? They take us from Creation to mankind's fall into sin and hopelessness, to the birth of our Savior and the Redemption of his people.

Remember: Listen to the LIVE broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio, KSJN, 99.5 FM, 9 AM Christmas Eve Day. (That's 3 PM Christmas Eve in Cambridge, England.)

...♪Once in Royal David's City♫...

choir boys 

getting drenched on the way to the chapel

Listening to The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is a tradition here. I hope you'll make it a tradition at your house too!


P.S. I wrote a post about The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols last year also, with a video clip of some of the music. You might enjoy it!

Have a very merry Christmas!

St. Paul's Cathedral Choir

St. Paul's Cathedral Choir

 I hope you will be as blessed by these words and this music as much as I am. Praise God for music, which, like all things, He created to bring glory to Himself!

St. Paul's Cathedral Choir
For the Beauty of the Earth, arr. by John Rutter
Source: YouTube, of course.

For the Beauty of the Earth -

by Folliott S. Pierpoint, 1864

 For the beauty of the earth,

For the glory of the skies,

For the love which from our birth

Over and around us lies;

Lord of all, to Thee we raise

This our hymn of grateful praise.

 For the wonder of each hour

Of the day and of the night,

Hill and vale and tree and flower,

Sun and moon, and stars of light;

Lord of all, to Thee we raise

This our hymn of grateful praise.

For the joy of ear and eye,
For the heart and mind's delight;
For the mystic harmony,
Linking sense to sound and sight;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.

 For the joy of human love,

Brother, sister, parent, child;

Friends on earth and friends above;

For all gentle thoughts and mild;

Lord of all, to Thee we raise

This our hymn of grateful praise.

 For Thy Church that evermore

Lifteth holy hands above,

Offering up on every shore

Her pure sacrifice of love;

Lord of all, to Thee we raise

This our hymn of grateful praise.

 For Thyself, best gift divine,

To our race so freely given,

For that great, great love of Thine,

Peace on earth, and joy in heaven:

Lord of all, to Thee we raise

This our hymn of grateful praise.

Folliot Sandford Pierpoint, author of "For the Beauty of the Earth" was born in 1835 in Bath, England. He graduated from Queen's College, Cambridge University in 1857. He spent many years at Somersetshire College as a classics master. After retiring he lived in various places in the West Country. - from Songs and Hymns website.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Arthur's Stone Nr. Dorstone, Herefordshire

 Arthur's Stone

Just four miles from the Welsh border, between the B4348 and the B4352, on a beautiful hill near Dorstone in Herefordshire, stands Arthur's Stone. We were privileged to have friends who live nearby take us there (just a short drive from their house).

 Arthur's Stone, another view

 From Authur's Stone, a view of the Golden Valley

From the nearby sign, above:

'Arthur's Stone is a multi-chambered tomb of the neolithic period dating from between about 3700 and 2700 BC. (This is conjecture, and may not have been quite that long ago.)*

Neolithic people were the first inhabitants of Britain to farm the land and make pottery, but they had not yet discovered the use of metal. (Although there had been others who had worked with metals prior to that time, so it's possible that those skills had simply not yet migrated to Britain.)* They lived in small communities, perhaps numbering no more than 25-100 people.

One of their settlements has been discovered on Dorstone Hill, just to the southeast of here, where flint tools, stone axes and pottery have been found.

Chambered tombs were used to bury the dead from such communities. They were communal burial vaults often used over several generations. A tomb might contain the remains of anything from one or two to more than a hundred individuals - accompanied by simple grave goods such as pots, stone beads and flint arrowheads.

The tombs were important to their builders. With only very simple tools the raising of the massive roof slab, Arthur's Stone was a considerable feat.

The mound which once covered the tomb has now largely eroded away, and many of the stones were removed in the 19th century. The great roof stone has partly collapsed.

According to folklore, Arthur's Stone marks the spot of one of King Arthur's battles, but this legend dates from thousands of years after the real builders of the tomb had been forgotten.'

but long before Clive Owen became King Arthur (I did like him much better as a blind detective.)

Photo Credit

***

*Italicized comments are mine and are not copied from the sign near Arthur's Stone.

That area of England seems untouched by the hustle and bustle of London, far away from the crowds and noise. It's a beautiful part of England to which I'd love to return!

I hope you all are having a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

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