Day 2 of my Yorks Alpha to Omega ride was watery. Countless reservoirs, linked by vertiginous Pennine lanes; canals; puddles; incessant drizzle. But plenty of variety, including a mystery sculpture, a comedy legend, Huddersfield’s most famous son, and Halifax’s remarkable Regency plaza mayor. With Abbeydale investigated yesterday, I could ride on through Sheffield centre and…
Category: Yorkshire Ridings
Yorks A to Z 1: Abbeydale
Yorkshire is a country in its own right. Sort of. So, with my international End to End collection on hold, I was happy enough to ride it from bottom to top. But this trip had a twist. I started in Abbeydale, down on the Derbyshire border south of Sheffield, and cycled the length of the…
Pocklington Canal: Shaken, but not stirred?
Yorkshire has several imposing canals, which often sound like other things. The mighty Leeds–Liverpool (grudge football fixture). The remarkable Huddersfield Narrow (prize rhubarb variety). The amazing Calder & Hebble (Perrier-award-winning female comedy duo). Not so Pocklington Canal, an isolated spur of water connecting the Derwent with the market town, a dozen miles east of York….
Brimham Rocks: Yes it does
After being delighted by Coldstones Cut just west of Pateley Bridge earlier in the day, I still had a few hours before my bus back home, so I headed east to Brimham Rocks. I passed through the village of Glasshouses. It put me in mind of the previous week when I’d cycled through Stone in…
Coldstones Cut: Yorkshire’s Machu Picchu
Mysterious sacred temple of an ancient civilisation; most perfectly preserved prehistoric hillfort in Britain; ancient stones aligned to tap the energy of ley lines that overlook vast panoramas… Coldstones Cut might look that way, but it’s none of these. It’s a hilltop artwork from 2010 that overlooks a dusty, noisy, working quarry – but it’s…
Barwick Green: Bow to the Archers
The Archers is set in a West Yorkshire village. Well, its theme tune is, anyway. And my trip to the place in question formed a lovely little half-day ride on this sunny morning. The BBC Radio 4 soap may take place in ‘Borsetshire’, somewhere round Worcestershire or Warwickshire, but the signature music is explicitly about…
Hornsea: Mere bagatelle
Hornsea Mere is Yorkshire’s biggest body of water. The great county is big on many things liquid – rivers, reservoirs, beer – but not naturally-occurring lakes. In fact, its four largest aren’t even lakes at all, at least not in name. At joint No. 4, Scarborough Mere and Gormire, each 6.5 hectares; at No. 3,…
Wentworth Woodhouse: 150 receps, 150 beds, lge gdn, needs tlc
From Britain’s biggest house to its smallest today: Wentworth Woodhouse, outside Rotherham (23,000m2) to the hermit’s cell, York (7m2). This gloriously sunny ride also featured a place called Jump, a road called No, red and yellow bikes and blue cones, and a southern French village adrift in South Yorkshire. With a windless, cloudless sunny day…
Wharram Percy: Just deserts at a DMV
I’d never seen Wharram Percy before I went today. I still haven’t. Nobody has. Because it’s not there any more. It’s Britain’s most famous DMV: deserted medieval village. A thriving little settlement in the 1300s, it was abandoned in the early 1500s when it became more profitable for the owners for sheep to live there…
Barkston Ash: Tree cheers for the centre of Yorkshire
Barkston Ash’s ash tree is the centre of Yorkshire. Sort of. The true geographical centre of Yorkshire – in other words, the place you could balance a Yorkshire-shaped jigsaw piece on top of say a cricket ball, though I’m not suggesting anyone try this – is in a field full of cows in the village…