Lady Spencer's Walk around Hardwick

It was sunny (which made a welcome change) and I decided to visit Hardwick Hall and followed Lady Spencer's walk.

Lady Spencer was the mother of Georgina Cavendish - wife of the fifth Duke of Devonshire.

She created this walk with her granddaughter while staying with her at Hardwick in the late 1700s

View of the Hall from the start of the Country Park

Views from the Country Park

The Five Row Ponds

These ponds date from before Bess's time at Hardwick.

The ponds were created to provide the estate with fresh fish and duck for the table. Fishing still continues today.

Famous dragonfly sculpture

Then back up to the Hall

... including the Old Hall

... and the vegetable patch in the Herb Garden

A great time in a great place

In and around Scarborough

I spent a couple of days seeing the sights of Scarborough - after my 17 mile walk along the Cinder Track, I was a tad tired and knew I would need a second visit to see all that I wanted to see

Scarborough was allegedly founded around 966 AD as Skarðaborg by Thorgils Skarthi, a Viking raider, but there is no archaeological evidence to support these claims. In the 4th century there had briefly been a Roman signal station on Scarborough headland. 

There is also evidence of much earlier Stone Age and Bronze Age settlements. However, any new settlement was soon burned to the ground by a rival band of Vikings under Tosti (Tostig Godwinson), Lord of Falsgrave, and Harald III of Norway. The destruction and massacre meant that very little remained to be recorded in the Domesday survey of 1085. Scarborough recovered under King Henry II, who built an Angevin stone castle on the headland, and granted the town charters in 1155 and 1163, permitting a market on the sands.

Scarborough lighthouse was destroyed by German naval bombardment on 16th December 1914 - it was rebuilt and opened on 23rd September 1931

Scarborough Castle - I will come back to this later

  

The Grand Hotel - built in 1863 it was designed around a theme of time. Seasons, months, weeks and days are symbolised in the 4 towers, 12 floors, 52 chimneys and originally 365 bedrooms – there are now 382 bedrooms.

The Central Tramway Company Scarborough Limited opened the Central Tramway in 1880 and started operating on 1 August 1881. The funicular was operated by steam - the steam house was situated away from the top station. Since drivers have no view of the cars, they use marks on the rope to indicate the car positions.

In 1910 the funicular was converted to electric drive. In 1932 the cars were replaced and the motor placed under the top station. Driving was done from a driving station at the top of the station with full view of the cars. The track is 71m long on a 1 in 2 gradient. The funicular is operated by two cars.

The grave of Anne Bronte lies in the old burial ground near St Mary's Church. Anne was a fine writer (as were her two sisters, Charlotte and Emily) and her two most famous publications were. “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” and “Agnes Grey”. She went to Scarborough from Haworth already dying of tuberculosis and, after only a few days there, she passed away on May 28th, 1849

Wilson’s Mariners Homes -a charity that exists to provide almshouses for "poor aged seafarers of good character, their wives/widows, or unmarried daughters being not less than 50 years of age who have resided in the Borough of Scarborough for not less than ten years."

Grade II listed building

The Windmill is an 18th Century Grade II listed building, built in 1784, and the last remaining windmills in Scarborough. It has been lovingly restored and refurbished now offers self catering and bed and breakfast accommodation. The Balcony Suite is for adventurous adults and the lower Suite, which is more spacious, also caters for 2 adults 

On my other visit to Scarborough I concentrated on Scarborough Castle - there was initially a heavy sea mist which somewhat spoilt the views

Scarborough Castle is a former medieval Royal fortress situated on a rocky promontory overlooking the North Sea and the town. 

The site encompasses the Iron Age settlement, Roman signal station, an Anglo-Scandinavian settlement and chapel, the 12th century enclosure castle and 18th century battery

Fortifications for a wooden castle were built in the 1130s, but the present stone castle dates from the 1150s. Over the centuries, several other structures were added, with medieval monarchs investing heavily in what was then an important fortress that guarded the Yorkshire coastline, Scarborough's port trade, and the north of England from Scottish or continental invasion. 

It was fortified and defended during various civil wars, sieges and conflicts, as kings fought with rival barons, faced rebellion and clashed with republican forces, though peace with Scotland and the conclusion of civil and continental wars in the 17th century led to its decline in importance.

Once occupied by garrisons and governors who often menaced the town, the castle has been a ruin since the sieges of the English Civil War, but attracts many visitors to climb the battlements, take in the views and enjoy the accompanying interactive exhibition and special events run by English Heritage - see link Scarborough Castle

Whitby and the Cleveland Way

I arrived in Whitby via the Cinder Track - see earlier blog. I spent an enjoyable time seeing the sights of Whitby before returning to Robin Hood's Bay along the coastal path - the Cleveland Way.

Whitby is at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a combined maritime, mineral and tourist heritage, and is home to the ruins of Whitby Abbey where Caedmon, the earliest English poet, lived. 

The fishing port emerged during the Middle Ages and developed important herring and whaling fleets, and was where Captain Cook learned seamanship

Tourism started in Whitby in Georgian times and developed with the coming of the railway in 1839. Tourist interest is enhanced by its location surrounded by the high ground of the North York Moors national park and heritage coastline and by association with the horror novel Dracula. Jet and alum were mined locally, and Whitby jet, which was mined by the Romans and Victorians became fashionable during the 19th century.

The earliest record of a permanent settlement is in 656, when Streonshal, was the place where Oswy, the Christian king of Northumbria, founded the first abbey, under the abbess, Hilda. The Synod of Whitby was held there in 664. In 867, the monastery was destroyed by Viking raiders, and was re-founded in 1078. It was in this period that the town gained its current name, Whitby, (from "white settlement" in Old Norse). 

Steam bus - one of the only such vehicles in regular service in UK

Reminded me of that famous old joke - what do the donkeys at Whitby get for lunch?

... half an hour!!

The abbey ruin at the top of the east cliff is the town's oldest and most prominent landmark 

Whitby's swing bridge was commissioned by Whitby Urban District Council in 1906 to carry the 'A' class road across the Esk. It was designed by Mr J Mitchell Moncrieff, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and constructed by engineers Heenan and Froude of Manchester (whose most iconic structure is Blackpool Tower). Total costs of the bridge are put at £22,582 14s 4d. It replaced Francis Pickernell's swing bridge which was in operation from 1835 until 1908.

The two leaves are moved by electric motors controlled by the bridgemen from positions on the bridge itself. The original roadway was paved with wooden blocks and the specification was that the bridge must “carry a traction engine weighing 15 tons’ The current bridge has spanned the river Esk longer than any of its predecessors and is a rare example, in the UK, of a twin leaf bridge carrying an ‘A’ class road, Whilst ship building on the Esk is now more limited, the need to maintain navigation to and from the upper harbour remains.

Captain Cook Memorial Museum

 Award winning Fish and Chip restaurant and takeaway

Looking back over Whitby from the Cleveland Way

Spectacular coastal scenery - the path was often at the cliff's edge - sometimes with no fence!

Seagulls resting

A holiday cottage with a difference

The field where the coast guard used to practise drills to rescue sailors from stricken ships.. Rockets with ropes attached were fired onto ships and, once secure, a Breeches Buoy used to transfer sailors to shore.

Back to Robin Hood's Bay