Walking on the wall

This morning we were facetimed by our beautiful children who were all at our place having tea. It was so good to see them all together, having fun. Little Naomi looked a bit bemused by the experience but she is looking gorgeous. I felt quite homesick afterwards. I hadn't realised how much i was missing them all.

We said goodbye to Mike and Dott and headed north. I'm so lucky to have such good cousins as e Richards and Millwards.

First stop of the day was Fountains Abbey and Hall

This is Fountains Hall. The house was built by Stephen Proctor between 1598 and 1604, partly with stone from the abbey ruins. It is an example of late Elizabethan architecture.

The hall was renovated and modernised between 1928 and 1931, and the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth) often stayed there as guests of Lady Doris Vyner, wife of the Marquis of Ripon. During the Second World War, Fountains Hall and other estate buildings were used to house evacuees.

The Vyners lost a son and a daughter in WWII.

Fountains abbey as founded by a group of 13 Benedictine monks from St Mary's Abbey in York. They wanted to live a stricter lifestyle which caused conflict with the abbot there. But they had the support of Thurston the archbishop of York. Two days later on December 27 he led them to some waste ground in the valley of the River Skell west of Ripon. Here an abbey was established and a prior called Richard was appointed abbot. The abbey was named Fountains Abbey because of the springs of water that existed in the area.

The following year, the abbey adopted the Cistercian way of life and although they struggled in poverty during the early years, the retirement there of Hugh, the Dean of York in 1135, brought considerable wealth to the abbey.

Fountains Abbey lived in prosperity for much of its history and owned vast areas of land across western Yorkshire as far west as Pen-y-Ghent high in the Pennines. Much of the land around Ripon and in the lower Ure valley was in the possession of Fountains Abbey. Much of the prosperity at these abbeys was based on the trading of wool and lead, utilising two of the Yorkshire Dales' most abundant resources.

Days of prosperity came to an end with the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536 and the last abbot, Marmaduke Bradley was given a pension for his enforced retirement. His predecessor, William Thirsk, who had been the abbot of Fountains from 1526-1536 was not so lucky, he was executed by King Henry at Tyburn for plotting against the monarch, along with his friend Adam de Sedbergh, who was the last abbot of Jervaulx.

This is where the lay brothers who did all the manual work at the abbey slept. Amazing vaulted ceiling.

 

The tower was built in 15th century. The original commitment to simple living and austerity had obviously only lasted a short while as the abbey was the finest in a large area.

Incredible symmetry.

The may alter in the abbey church.

The other end of the church.

We could have stayed there the rest of the day but Hadrians Wall was calling. We found our way first to our accommodation which was a B &B right on the wall run by a man called Les who was a real character. We then went for a walk (although it was getting late) on one of the better portions of the wall from Steel Rigg. It was very good and gave you an idea of what the wall was like. We also saw one of the forts Milecastle 39.

The natural barrier on which this part of the wall is built on.

The stones in the wall are quite remarkable. They are all the same size and shape. They basically had made bricks out of stone. They had used no mortar but they had lasted extremely well. unless of course they had been taken by locals for building.

It was very cold along the wall.

One of the surrounding farms.

Milecastle 39 fort.

That wind is chilly!!

After the wall we went to a local pub for a very ordinary meal. Mental note- nachos means dry corn chips and shepherds pie is salty mince in gravy with mashed potato on top served with chips!!

Sunset from our accommodation