Teddy Edward: North Yorkshire Road Trip

Hi all,

I'm calling this a road trip because we took the motorhome 'Down South', stopping in a few places and we travelled by road!

First stop was in County Durham where we stopped at one of our usual haunts, Barnard Castle. This time we were staying for a few days at the Caravan and Motorhome Club site, which is within walking distance of Barnard Castle. It was also in the middle of some great countryside with fantastic walks alongside the River Tees and down some country lanes:

View across the Pastoral Countryside

Mature Trees and Hedgerows

Moira on Lartington Lane near the caravan park

Although the fields are grazed by sheep, cattle and horses the area maintains a 'pastoral' feel of old countryside because it has kept some of its hedgerows and mature trees. Our first trip out was down to Barnard Castle itself, heading down Lartington Lane and through the woodlands beside Deepdale Beck. I didn't take any worthwhile photos on this walk as I had left my camera in the van.

Our next trip out was along the riverside walk heading towards the Scur Beck area, this time I remembered the camera:

Riverside walk towards Scur Beck

The River Tees (is that a Heron?)

Heron on the River Tees

It was a leisurely walk along a little lane free of traffic and it was a pleasant day, what more could we ask for. There were plenty of wildflowers to enjoy on the way:

Wood Anemone and Dog Violets (plus Dandelion)

Yellow (or Welsh) Poppies

Debateable whether the Poppies were wild or not, but they were nice. The lane crossed over Scur Beck (which was a pretty small stream) then continued up the hill towards a wooded area near to a former railway line:

Heading up the hill

Primrose at the Roadside

A flash of Yellow beside the Woodland

We had a look at the former railway line, which is now a pathway that leads towards the village of Lartington, but decided it would be easier to head back the way we came to get to the caravan park.

On the way back, whilst enjoying the view of a some trees on the horizon, I spotted a Buzzard soaring overhead:

Tree on the Hill

Buzzard soaring overhead

Not the best Buzzard photo I have taken

We had a pleasant walk and were quite happy to return to the Caravan Park for something to eat.

Later that evening I went out for a walk myself along some of the lanes near to the caravan park and was pleased to see some of the birds and other wildlife in that area:

Grazing Fields off Lartington Lane

A pair of Grey Partridge

Grey Partridge Feeding

It's nice to see Grey Partridge, more use to seeing the Red-legged Partridge, so I grabbed a video of them:

Another bird I had seen performing it's display flight over the caravan park was the Curlew, so I was glad to see it in one of the fields next to the Partridges:

Curlew in field off Lartington Lane

Curlew Feeding

Of course I got the obligatory video:

The Curlew wasn't the only creature in that field:

Curlew with Sheep

Cute Lambs

Protected by mum

I also enjoyed the wildflowers I saw on my walk, although some of them were a bit 'dubious' with regards to being native wildflowers:

Forget-me-not

Spanish Bluebells

I carried on exploring the various little lanes in the area, with lovely views across the fields:

Exploring the byeways

View across the fields

Some lovely big work horses

Real Bluebells

Grey Partridges having a rest

Down one of the little lanes I found another surprising creature:

Little lane near caravan park

What's that at the side of the road

It's a little White Rabbit watching me closely

I can see you!

It soon disappeared into the hedgerow, but unlike Alice I didn't follow it.

How Strange!

After a few days at Barnard Castle we headed south towards North Yorkshire, in particular to the Vale of Pickering. We were booked into a small caravan park in the village of Thornton-le-Dale, which is a couple of miles from the market town of Pickering.

Overbrook Caravan Park sits in the Maltongate area of Thornton-le-Dale and as the name suggests it is over the brook, or over Thornton Beck to be more precise.

Maltongate in Thorton-le-Dale

Thornton Beck

Thornton Beck is a stream/burn/small river that runs from the Dalby Hills and passes through Thornton-le-Dale. At the village centre the beck splits into two streams (one which previously fed a mill) with one stream running in front of the Maltongate houses and the other stream behind Maltongate.

This can be clearly seen at the ford to Bottons Lane in Maltongate which crosses both streams of the Thornton Beck:

Ford across Thornton Beck at Maltongate

Looking down Thornton Beck

Ford across Thornton Beck from Bottons Lane

There is a pleasant brook-side walk which takes you down towards the village centre, passing by a waterfall, the playing fields, tree carvings and the village pond:

Walk alongside Thornton Beck

Playing Fields and Sports Pavillion

Tree Carvings beside the Village Pond

This avoids walking along the roadside to reach the Village centre, although the roadside walk down Maltongate is not unpleasant:

Lovely House with Wildflower Garden on Maltongate

Not too shabby!

Back at the Caravan Park the bridge over Thornton Beck proved to be a great place to look for wildlife that lives by the brook. In particular my favourite bird the Dipper, which we regularly spotted diving for invertebrates under the water:

Dipper about to dive underwater for food

Once it comes out of the water it eats any food it has caught then has a good preen, in the next video you can see the nictitating membrane (or third eyelid) which allows a Dipper to see underwater (a bit like swimming goggles):

After preening the Dipper was happy to sit on the rock dipping and drying in the sunshine:

Dipper on Thornton Beck

Dashing Dipper

Enough about Dippers.

Whilst staying at Overbrook Caravan Park we had several trips out, sometimes in the bus to Pickering and Helmsley and sometimes in the van, such as the day we took a trip to several places in the Vale of Pickering, ending up in Eden Camp near Malton.

The Eden Camp is a former WW2 Prisoner of War Camp which use to house Italian and German POWs. It has now been converted to a museum dedicated to WW2 history, with most of the exhibits displayed in the former POW huts:

Reporting for duty

Former POW Huts

Just waiting for my train

The huts hold many different displays covering many aspects of WW2, for example one is like the interior of a U-Boat, one has a wartime street, one has the London Blitz, one shows an operations HQ, etc. Here are some examples of the displays, but you don't get the full effect without the sound and lighting, it was very well done, even scary at times.

First up surviving the blitz:

Wartime Street

The Blitz

Air Raid Shelter

A City Farm

Everybody has to muck-in

Air Raid Precautions Warden

Rag and Bone Man

Preparing to fight back

Operations Room

Mapping what's happening

Listen very carefully, I will say this only once!

Anti-aircraft Gun

V1 Rocket (Doodlebug)

As well as the displays in the huts there is a huge warehouse full of tanks, armoured cars and other military vehicles from WW2 and other conflicts:

Big Blue Sherman Tank

Scorpion Tank

M16 Half Track and Sherman Tank

Abbot Self-propelled Gun

T34-85 Tank

Motorbike and Sidecar

Fox Armoured Car and Scimitar Armoured Vehicle

Half Track

It is a very impressive museum and well worth a visit if you are ever in that area.

The next day we stayed local with a walk around the lanes of Thornton-le-Dale. We started with a quick look over the bridge at the caravan park, expecting to see the resident Dipper on its rock in Thornton Beck. It was not there? instead we had a Grey Wagtail:

Grey Wagtail at Thornton Beck

Colourful Grey Wagtail

The name doesn't do it justice, always nice to see this colourful, frisky little bird.

On with our walk; we crossed the bridge down by the ford and headed along Bottons Lane, which took us past the fields adjacent to the Caravan Park:

Overbrook Caravan Park across the field

Heading down Bottons Lane

Can you spot Vannie?

Halfway along this track I heard a bird calling and thought I recognised it as a Whitethroat, then it flew off. Managed to catch a fuzzy photo and it looks pretty much like a Whitethroat to me:

Whitethroat on Bottons Lane

We carried on along Bottons Lane heading towards Longlands Lane, at the bottom of the hill I spotted what looked like a Brown Hare in the field ahead of us:

Heading up to Longlands Lane

Brown Hare in the Field

It definitely was a Brown Hare, we could see that the further we got up the hill:

Brown Hare

Brown Hare Close-up

By the time we had reached the top of the hill the Hare had disappeared.

We headed along Longlands Lane towards Peaslands Lane, enjoying the views from the top of the hill:

View from Longlands Lane

View from Peaslands Lane

Halfway along Peaslands Lane we came across a pair of Song Thrushes looking for food at the edge of the track:

Song Thrush on Peaslands Lane

They seemed oblivious to our presence, until we got right alongside them:

We carried on along Peaslands Lane until we found a path that took us back down towards the duck pond at the village centre. The views from this pathway were quite good as well:

Lovely view down the Vale of Pickering

View across the fields

Magnificent Mature Tree

Surprising there wasn't just Sheep and cattle in the field there was also a Little Egret:

Little Egret in field at Thornton-le Dale

Little Egret Close-up

Whilst watching the Little Egret I noticed there was another critter not far from it, a Rabbit, but not a white one:

Bonus Rabbit.

We reached the Duck Pond near the centre of the village and decided it was time for a bite of lunch

Village Duck Pond at Thorton-le-Dale

We had lunch in Balderson's Cafe and Bakery, and very nice it was, after which we continued our walk with a stroll along Priestmans Lane. This took us along the side of Thornton Beck again, but this time on the north side of the village:

Priestmans Lane and Thornton Beck

Following the beck downstream lead us to a lovely lane with a thatched cottage:

Lovely Cottages beside Thornton Beck

Moira at the Thatched Cottage

Apparently this cottage is the most photographed building in Yorkshire (York Minster might dispute that) so we headed to the bridge over the beck to get the best vantage point for the obligatory photo:

Bridge over Thornton Beck

Thatched Cottage in Thornton-le-Dale

It is very pretty though!

For those of you in the know, it would be wrong of me to visit Thornton-le-Dale without mentioning (arguably) one of their most famous institutions. I am of course referring to Mathewson's Classic Car Auctions; a family business that has been operating out of their Thornton-le Dale showroom since 1970. More recently the business and the family has been featured in the TV program 'Bangers and Cash' for more than 10 years.

The original showroom is now a shop for motoring memorabilia and has a motoring museum at the rear, the main business has now moved to an industrial estate just outside Pickering. They still hold monthly auctions for the sale of classic cars, motorbikes and other vehicles together with larger items of motoring memorabilia. As luck would have it we were there on the week before the auction, which is the viewing week.

So before we headed back up North we took a trip to Pickering to look at some classic cars (or bangers depending on your taste). There were hundreds of vehicles to see, spread over three large warehouses and here are just a few of the cars that caught our attention:

There were a few Minis:

Two Blue Minis

Another Blue Mini

A White Mini Countryman

A Red Mini

A Mini Rolls Royce

There was a handful of Ford Escorts:

Mark 1 Ford Escort

Another Mark 1 Ford Escort

A Yucky Broon Ford Escort

A Mark 4 Ford Escort

There were plenty of other Fords including:

A Ford Anglia Van

Ford Anglia behind you!

Mark 1 Ford Granada

1960s Ford Consul

Mark 2 Ford Cortina

Mark 3 Ford Cortina

Not to be outdone there were a few Vauxhalls:

Vauxhall Firenza

Vauxhall Nova

Vauxhall Chevette HS2300

And more that a sprinkling of Triumphs:

Triumph Dolomite

Triumph TR6

Another TR6

Triumph Stag

Some tasty Austin/Rovers?

Austin Maestro

Rover 216

Austin 1400GT

And to round it off a mixed bag of odds and sods:

Massey Ferguson and Ford Tractors

Some American Chrome

Citroen Xantia

Peugeot 205

AEC Lorry (from Balerno)

Union Jag

Renault Twingo Gordini

Old Grey Fergie

That's it for the cars you will be glad to know, but there were a lot, lot more and motorbikes!

That's about that for North Yorkshire as well, however we had one more place to visit on our way home. We stopped at Moffat Caravan Park for an overnight stay, where enjoyed a walk around the town park and a stroll alongside the River Annan: