After a visit to a distant cousin of Denise’s in the lovely Yorkshire town of Wetherby, we headed south to be ready to take the truck to Mansfield to PB Electrics for service on the Webasto Dual Top.  It was misbehaving and we had found a Webasto repair station with a special “Dual Top” certification.

Our next stop was near Bakewell, famous for its tarts. We spent the  weekend at a campground near the charming village of Youlegreave.  The internet was full of horror stories about the road to the campsite, narrow, people parked on both sides, steep, tight curves, a disgrace, should not have a campsite there, and the list went on. We drove it and decided that, for once, the internet had understated the challenge. I really have to admire the people who work their way in (and out) with huge caravans (trailers) pulled by tiny cars!

We rode our bikes back into Youlegreave up the impossible road. Youlgreave is a tiny village, with two pubs and a church and it was heaving with tourists and hordes of cyclists. (Don’t get behind a line of cyclists ordering £60 worth of drinks!) We sat in the sun and enjoyed watching the people – and the bus navigating the narrow street

The Youlgreave church was simply a find, way below the tourist radar. Wonderful commentary and information here: https://greatenglishchurches.co.uk/html/youlgreave.html Amazing that people study these churches in such detail.

We also found figures representing the Coronation still on display in the village square. 

After finishing our drinks at the local pub we cycled back to the camper.

We then headed into Bakewell for some useful shopping.  And some badness in the form of Bakewell tarts, both the original and the iced!  After pretty much skipping lunch we continued to Rose Cottage, a lovely restaurant in our BritStops book.  They did not think that they were members of BritStops but they let us stay anyway and we enjoyed a roast beet carvery dinner with Yorkshire Puddings.  It was Mother’s Day US style after all!

We found a campsite gem just outside of Mansfield, the Lurcher Farm Cottage.  Surrounded by fields, we found our way to the corner of a large field and settled in.  The owner proved to be exceptionally flexible as we came and went over the course of the next week or so.  Denise enjoyed the public footpaths that went by the campground, and we also had sunny days so managed some laundry.  The heating/hot water repair went smoothly and while waiting for a couple of items to be sorted out in the camper, we took ourselves to Lincoln for the weekend.

En route, we stopped to admire the airplanes at the Newark Air Museum. (http://www.newarkairmuseum.org)

We thoroughly enjoyed Lincoln.  Our campsite, surrounded by fields of horses, was close to a bike route, so we cycled into Lincoln on two consecutive days. 

Once for research and to find out how to lock up the bikes and once to actually see the town. 

Lincoln is an old Roman site (like every place else) founded on a hill overlooking a pool (Brayford Pool) in the River Witham. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln,_England)

In modern times, it is famous as one of the homes of the tank.

We were amazed how steep the cobbled streets were in the old part of the town.  In fact one of the streets is called Steep Street! 

But we made it to the top and thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the Cathedral and a brief visit to the Castle.  Our pizza lunch was excellent also! 

Lincoln Cathedral is the opposite of Youlgreave – it is on the main tourist route and well worth it. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Cathedral)

Lincoln had one shop that is unique in our experience. A shop dedicated to selling instruments and other odd items, mostly from airplanes.

Back in Mansfield, we dropped off the camper and headed to Nottingham by train for a day or two. 

Other than the usual Robin Hood associations, we knew nothing of Nottingham. One of he first things we learned is that Nottingham has a huge network of caves, dating back to the Middle Ages, at least. Over the years they were used as storerooms, Luddite meeting places (complete with alarms – pebbles dropped down a vent), tanneries, and, during WWII, bomb shelters. Many caves have been damaged or lost with the construction of building foundations and railway tunnels. We visited the City of Caves. (https://www.nationaljusticemuseum.org.uk/cityofcaves)

Caves explored, it was time for some horrible history – so we visited the sister Museum of Justice. Let’s just say that juristic procedure has improved since past times!

The actual court room wasn’t that different. But there were some interesting details. The defendant did not have representation, you were on your own – a bit of a challenge for the mostly illiterate young men (and a few women) on trial. The odds were stacked against you with everything from upper class judges to the fact that the defendant entered the court by a special stair that led directly from the dark cells below. So you would enter the court blinking in the glare.

Before Victorian times, imprisonment was not a common punishment. You were only held long enough for trial and execution or transportation. Still, the cells were bad enough and you had to wait for a magistrate to be available.

While you awaited your fate, you did get to go to the exercise yard where you could spend time carving your details into the wall.

Soon enough, it might be your turn to “dance on air.” In the yard, if you were ordinary, or out on the front steps (see image above) if you were special. Executions were nowhere near as common as you might think, and thus the drew a crowd. And, it is recorded, pickpockets. One crowd was so large and unruly that some twenty people were killed. (!!)

We also took the bus to Roddington to the Framework Knitters Museum.  Knitting in wool and then cotton on these framework machines, developed in 1587, was a cottage industry and the whole history was quite amazing.  We toured a couple of cottages and watched a demonstration on one of the machines.

Imagine the racket of twenty of the machines jammed into a tiny space. Hearing loss was common among the men (no women) who were knitters. Individual knitters rented their machines and were paid piecework.

We spent the Coronation in what is perhaps the most beautiful campground we have ever visited – looked like a country club! (https://www.thornbrookbarn.co.uk) Everything you could ever want, save a laundromat! But that is coming.

We had a nice walk into the village of Ingleton, admiring the country road signs, new and old and visiting the local pub. Sadly, they were not doing anything for the Coronation.

Since nothing was happening at the pub, Fred walked to an amazing, eclectic farm/country store for a bottle of bubbly and we sat down to enjoy the pageant.(https://www.country-harvest.co.uk) And we went back for more goodies before leaving. They have a pork pie, topped with turkey and stuffing, that is amazing!

OK, historians gotta comment. It is amazing how almost every element of the ceremony had, at least at one time, a very serious, life or death meaning. Some examples:

— Charles is always referred to at the “unquestioned” monarch.

— The Stone of Destiny was brought back from Scotland so that he could sit on it.

— His son, William, the Prince of Wales, pledged personal fealty. The rest of the nobles did it by acclamation, but in the old days they would have done it each and every one, personally.

Today, it can all seem anachronistic, or merely a show for the tourists, but over the years, bloody wars were fought over these very details.

We moved on to a town named “Settle” which turned out to be a lovely market town with an excellent Booths supermarket. We camped in a field belonging to farmer Jack, who was busy lambing and calving but happy to welcome campers!  The weather continued to be pretty miserable with lots of rainstorms and lots of cloudy days.  It took ages to dry our towels each day.  Fortunately, the Webasto continues to work at least in the morning for an hour or so, so the camper warms up and we can shower.  

We visited Atkinson Vos as planned and they reviewed the truck.  (https://www.unimogs.co.uk) They were able to fix the radiator hose that was in bad shape on the spot, but we await the full pricing and projected work from them and a future date for completion.

Dinner that night was at the Golden Lion in Settle.

Settle has an interesting war memorial. Pretty standard, until you look at the World War II side and find the names of to US aviators lost in the area. A reminder that the weather was just as bad back then as it is today. (http://settlelibrary.org.uk/talks-two-us-airmen/)

See also: https://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/planes/dales/ag509.html and https://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/planes/dales/bx195.html

Our next stop was Skipton as we were desperate to find a laundromat. (Language lesson: they are called launderettes.) After an online search, it turned out to be a machine out in the open in the parking lot, attached to a Morrissons supermarket, but it worked and given the inclement weather it made laundry easier than draping half dry clothes around the camper!  Clean clothes in hand, we retired to the Town End Farm Shop for tea and, as they are part of BritStops, the night. (https://townendfarmshop.co.uk/town-end-tea-room/)

Returning to Skipton we visited the Castle, an amended Norman motte and bailey.  Rebuilt in the 1300’s with four meter thick walls and a sloping skirt or sloped wall, the source of the word outskirts, it was a serious military position, largely aimed at preventing raids by the Scots.

Skipton was never taken by the Scots, but it fell to Cromwell in 1645, after a three year (!!) siege during the Civil War. It had ample water, but the parliamentary artillery could fire down from a higher position and, most important of all, there was no relief coming from Royalist forces. The keep walls were too thick to be slighted, so the roof was removed. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skipton_Castle)

Now we come to the most interesting part of the story. In 1590, Anne Clifford was born in Skipton Castle. Her life story is simply amazing and she actually did some of the things so beloved by modern writers of anachronistic historical romances. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Anne_Clifford) Most importantly, for us, at least, she restored her family home after the siege and thus assured that there would be a Skipton Castle for us to visit.

The inner courtyard has a tree planted in 1659 by Lady Anne Clifford which is still healthy and thriving.

And today, Skipton Castle is owned by the Fattorini family, and that, too, is a history to be savored! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Fattorini_Ltd)

We loved the pastures, full of sheep, in both the Derbyshire Peaks and Yorkshire Dales.  The views have been magnificent!  The stone walls dividing the pastures could have been in place, repaired, for hundreds of years.  Less fun are the narrow country lanes but we manage as long as there is a chance of passing the cars or buses one meets! 

We then headed north to visit a friend from our Botswana days.  At her suggestion, we visited Haddon House, another fabulous medieval house, which had retained its “pristine medievalism” because it had been shut up for 200 years (its lord got an upgrade and moved to a bigger house) and it was only reopened in the early 20th century! 

So while Hardwick Hall reflected the heights of Elizabethan, rennaissance, sophistication, Haddon Hall took you back to an earlier, more rough edged time. The kitchen, for example was more of a true medieval kitchen with fewer mod cons. 

The family is actually still in residence now, but in a modernized section! Absolutely amazing. It was the middle of the week, so we had a very pleasant visit and a lovely lunch. 

The first mentions of a house/fort at Haddon date from around 1150. Around 1195, the owner was granted permission by John of Mortain (Later, King John. Yes, THAT John.) to build a low and un-crenellated wall around the buildings – hardly a serious fort. The building grew in fits and starts until 1703, when the owner was elevated in title and moved to Belvoir Castle. (Better view!) The site was then basically abandoned until the early 20th Century when the ninth Duke and Duchess of Rutland began a restoration program. Close to a time capsule.

Haddon Hall has a small museum of things found over the renovations, mostly lost behind the paneling. The laundry tally falls into the category of never-seen-one-of-those-before. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/rII5wHuCQtSrVujRwwZFJg)

The Earl’s Apartment, One of the upstairs bedrooms preserves royal graffiti from over the centuries. Some of it dating way back, and some of it VERY modern!

The Hall has been owned by two families. Their crests are in the left photo and the Order of the Garter is in the right photo. The colored glass still glows on a sunny day. The diamond shaped panes are each set at a different angle to maximize the sparkle.

After leaving the south coast, we fought the joys of the M-25 and M-1 on a Bank Holiday weekend. For those who may not be familiar, the M-25 is to London what I-495 is to Washington, D.C. – a ring road.

Only, on a Bank Holiday Weekend, it is simply a multi-hour parking lot. Think lots and lots of clutch pumping. Finally, we were able to join the M-1, the UK’s main north/south axis (think I-95) and start north. This may be a good time to introduce some essential Anglicisms – “tail back” and “queue,” both words usually pronounced with a wide range of select obscenities! That was the bad news. The good news is that UK motorways are excellent with some very nice features.

First, most on ramps are two lanes wide and join at two points on the road. This smooths out the traffic flow immensely.

Secondly, most British drivers are simply more courteous than their American counterparts. For example, regular drivers, not just truckers, routinely move out of the slow lane to let you merge – especially nice if you are driving a heavy and underpowered truck.

Finally, passing on the left, or slow side (Same as passing on the right in the US.) is almost always illegal, so again, with a slower vehicle, you are much, much less likely to get “trapped” in a faster lane should, for example, you move over to allow an HGV (heavy goods vehicle, or “artic” – articulated lorry or, in ‘murican, a semi) to merge. And speaking of HGV’s some are double trailers and some are double height, and lots are foreign; a wild new world. (We will return to this theme later.)

After some hours, we reached our first UK campground, the White Mills Marina just south of Northampton.  (https://www.whitemillsmarina.co.uk) A lovely spot to gather ourselves together, take walks along the towpath beside the River Nene and make a shopping trip to complete our supplies.

The marina was an interesting insight into the parallel world of river boat travel with lots and lots of narrow and wide boats. Some are floating hotels, some are day trippers for tourists, some are rentals, and lots are simply people full timing, just like their cousins in RV’s. And the marinas offer all of the same amenities as an RV campground. White Mills is simply nicer than most.

We first discovered this world when, some years ago, we took a short trip on the “Wessex Rose.” She has new owners, but looks to be as lovely as ever. (https://www.wessexrose.co.uk) Geek note: The Wessex Rose is a “wide” boat. Some of the hotels are two narrow boats, a powered boat with day facilities which tows a second boat which contains the sleeping accommodations. At night, the two tie up side by side.

On to the halls!