I look forward to hearing what you got up to when you've consulted your travel diary 
Hi Pen,
I looked back through our 2006 and 2010 diaries when we visited Yorkshire. A lot of it is family in-jokes and it would take a lot of editing to sort the wheat from the chaff. But two bits of interest which can be presented with little editing are about the Y
ork Minster and the
Danby Moors Centre.
2006 DanbyWe called into the Moors Centre at Danby for coffee and cake and were astonished to find the car park was full and there were lots of walkers and people sitting around having lunch. However, this was nothing to Goathland, “Aidensfield” in the TV show “Heartbeat”, which was teeming with bikies and people of all ages. The Moors steam train was there and this also explained some of the people. Even on what should have been isolated sections we would come across cars parked on the roadside and people just sitting in their director's chairs with a small table, sitting and eating or reading.
The Centre has an audio-visual about the Moors and the associated Coast purportedly narrated by
Nell, a border collie. The subject matter was interesting but the hardest thing was tearing ourselves away from Nell to continue the journey. There was a coaster that took my eye “
You can allus tell a Yorkshire man, but tha’ can’t tell him much”. I thought you could probably leave York out of that and still be right.
We stopped at Whitby briefly to look at the ruined abbey. Henry VIII certainly made a lasting impression. We also went up Oliver’s Mount in Scarborough – this is a great lookout.
I don’t think I will take any more pictures of ruined abbeys or castles. I hesitate to say if you have seen one you have seen them all. But I will say if you have seen 10, the degree of originality in the 11th is fairly limited.
2010 DanbyThe road we took through the moors ran along a ridge between two large valleys and it was worthwhile stopping at a lookout to see the views. At Danby we called into the Moors Centre which has a good display. Last time we were there D was entranced by a video featuring and narrated by Nell the sheepdog – this wasn’t being shown while we were there but as D had told A about it and was concerned that he might be disappointed, he bought him a DVD of all Nell’s films. So far we have only seen “Nell’s View of the North” -40mins.
2006 York MinsterYork Minster is a spectacular site to visit both in terms of its enormous size and its 2000-year-long history. Why it is called a Minster and not a Cathedral is something I shall have to research. June rates it behind Salisbury and Canterbury Cathedrals as a church in use. I was willing to give it equal status as a CAMP, perhaps because I enjoyed our audio tour of the Undercroft so much. The tour takes you through several chambers, explaining its history as a Roman fort, a Saxon cathedral, a Norman cathedral, and the current Minster including the restoration work needed when it was discovered in 1967 that the building would shortly collapse under its own weight. The Undercroft archaeological digs have uncovered portions of all the previous structures including a stream that still runs apparently when it rains. It was stagnant today but the blue algae on the sides showed how high it gets when it is running. The building has survived 3 huge fires, the reformation, threat of collapse and a visit by Jack.
It rates.
The Chapter House is an interesting part of the Minster in its own right. In use since 1286, the Octagonal room is unusual in not having a central column to support its great vaulted roof which is spectacularly painted. But is has one very unusual feature which was pointed out to us by a scholarly-looking gentleman who shuffled up to us while we were admiring the roof. Around the walls are 44 seats and each seat has around it what the official program describes as
a riot of funny faces, animals, and mythical beasts, around 80% are original carvings from 1270-1280 and George Peter White carved the remainder during the 1845 Beckworth Restoration.” The program does not say that the reason the 20% had to be recarved was that there were destroyed by Henry VIII’s vandals because they had a religious significance. The program also does not point out, as the scholarly gentleman did, that the vandals MISSED ONE. Sure enough, among the hideous carvings is a beautiful carving of the Madonna suckling the baby Jesus. This would be one of the very few pre-Reformation religious carvings to exist today.
2010 York MinsterIn 2006, I said I must research why York Cathedral is referred to as York Minster. I have finally done it. A 'Minster' is different from a cathedral in that it was originally founded as a missionary church from which priests set out to convert the people of the surrounding area to Christianity. A Cathedral is a church which is the seat of a bishop. The brochure we were given points out that not all minsters are cathedrals and not all cathedrals are minsters but that York Minster/Cathedral is both. A tour group came in while we were looking around the Chapter House and I eavesdropped again. The carvings are thought to be a privilege given to the masons who built the chapter house to put their own images or that of their monkeys or whatever. Apparently it was very common in those times for artisans to have a monkey as pet. There was no mention of any images having to be redone. So perhaps we had been the victim of an urban myth in 2006 but it was a good story in any case. The Puritans did whitewash paintings and murals and smashed statues which were “Graven images” so the story had an element of logic.
2022 The OpenFoxtel is broadcasting live from 3.00 pm local time to after 6. am the following morning continuously without an ad, So you can see why I might be a bit distracted.
