Fountains Abbey

Klaus with K (license)

Of the three abbeys we visited — Hailes, Easby, and Fountains — Fountains Abbey was the biggest and best preserved. Fountains Abbey in its day must have been truly magnificent. The most obvious feature of the abbey is its 160-foot tall tower, which despite having been destroyed by Henry VIII, still towers over the valley. Approaching the abbey from the visitors’ center, the tower can be seen rising above the walls of the valley, and you don’t realize that you’re looking at just the very top of a tall tower until you walk the quarter mile to valley edge.

The tip of the iceberg:

The rest of the tower:

But big as the tower is, the abbey itself is massive. While some of the abbey has been reduced to foundations, as was most of Hailes, there are still substantial portions standing, including most of the church:

Can you imagine the size of the stained glass window that went in there?

But there was more — much more — to the abbey than the tower and church.

Cloister court:

Great cloister (there is a cross way down at the far end):

And in addition to the remains of the great abbey, for the price of admission (free to National Trust members), you get to walk the entire grounds of Studley Royal Park, a designated World Heritage Site. Personally, I’m not big into looking at plants, so gardens don’t really excite me, so I stayed with the kids while Melinda checked out the Studley Royal Water Garden.

Iain Gilmour (license)

Overall, Fountains Abbey was the biggest and best of all the abbeys we visited. While there is no reason to restrict yourself to visiting just one abbey, if you can only visit one, visit Fountains. We visited Hailes Abbey, in the Cotswolds, first, which is the poorest preserved of the abbeys we visited. However, we are glad we did, since its audio tour was probably the best (though Fountains was also very good). However, if we had visited Hailes Abbey after Fountains, we would have been sorely disappointed, so if you are visiting more than one abbey on your trip to Britain, visit Fountains Abbey last. We liked Fountains Abbey so much, we went back for a second visit.

Count this a definite recommendation for Fountains Abbey.

York

Founded by the Romans in AD 71, York has been an important city in northern England for almost 2000 years. Four Roman emperors [1] held court in York, and it was in York that Constantine the Great was proclaimed emperor in 306. In the post-Roman era, York was conquered by the Angles, then the Vikings, and finally the Normans, a thousand years ago. York’s main feature is its cathedral, York Minster, but there is also a lot of other things to see and do in York. We spent half a day in York, and covered:

1. The National Railway Museum
2. The Treasurer’s House
3. York Minster
4. A walking ghost tour of the city

Walking the streets of York definitely feels like an old, old city, and while most people think of English history only so far back as the Middle Ages, there are still some towers and columns that date back to the Roman period, and a more contemporary statue of the Roman emperor Constantine reminds you that York (Eboracum) was once a very important city in northern Brittania.
(Left) This tower formed the northwest corner of the Roman legionary fortress of Eboracum. The larger stonework at the top was added during the medieval period.
(Right) A Roman column in modern York serves as a reminder that this was once a Roman city. (Bottom) Statue commemorating Emperor Constantine

The National Railway Museum
England was an early adopter of rail technology, ushering in the Industrial Revolution in the early nineteenth centure, and York became a rail hub, so it is fitting that the National Railway Museum be situated in York.
The museum consists of a large collection of trains, most of which you cannot climb on or get in. After a few pictures of your kids with a few giant locomotives, you can walk through the rest fairly quickly. There are not that many interactive exhibits, and the ones there are (e.g., one on signaling a train on a circular track) are lame. One big area is just shelf after shelf of cataloged train-related items — oh look! a napkin from the 1932 London-to-Edinburgh dining car! Fascinating.
“Oh look! Another train!”

I have visited the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, and thought the Sacramento museum was better. If you’re ever in that part of California, it is worth seeing. However, in York, where there is so much else to do, you can safely skip the National Railway Museum. If you’re thinking that since it’s free, you may as well visit it anyway, parking is £9, which would be a deal for a whole day, but you can cover the whole museum in an hour, so £9/hr is a bit steep.
There is so much else to do in York, that I’d recommend sites other than the National Railway Museum.
The Treasurer’s House
The Treasurer’s House behind York Minster once housed the treasurers of York Minster. It ceased usage in that role five hundred years ago and fell into disrepair until Frank Green purchased it at the end of the nineteenth century and renovated it. Its claim to fame is that the royal family stayed in it once. It’s probably the smallest and least posh of all places the royal family ever stayed. It’s not that nice.

There are no audio tours available, but there are docents in every room. Unfortunately, they are volunteers who apparently have received no training in the history of the house. On a couple of occasions, we asked the room guide a question about the room we were in, only to have the room guide quickly scan one of the handouts, and then reply, “I don’t know.” Finally, we did find a knowledgeable docent — an orthodox priest — in Princess Victoria’s room, who was able to provide us some details and stories about the house.
When you visit York, you are going to visit York Minster, of course, and the Treasurer’s House is right behind it, so you may as well stop in. It is National Trust, so free to members. However, the house isn’t that good, so if you are pressed for time, you can skip it and not feel like you’ve missed out on anything.
York Minster
York Minster is a cathedral of the same caliber as Salisbury, which we visited earlier. York Minster is much older than Salisbury, but because of its tumultuous history (burnings, lootings, etc.), it has had to undergo major restorations over the last few centuries, so it actually appears much newer than Salisbury Cathedral. However, it is beautiful. Its interior is quite a bit larger than Salisbury’s, and the stained glass windows are beautiful. Unlike Salisbury, the interior of the cathedral is not littered by tombs; apparently, this is a result of the purges and systematic destruction wreaked by the Tudors and the English Reformation. Curiously, most of the chapels in the cathedral are military-related. There are many nooks and crannies to explore in York Minster, including the chapter house, all of which I recommend.

We attended the evening service at York Minster, since we had had such a good experience at Salisbury’s evensong the prior week. There was a visiting choir singing the service, and although they were good, we preferred the voices of the resident choristers at Salisbury. Still, it was an excellent service, and I recommend trying to time your visits to churches and cathedrals in England in order to make the evensong services. I believe most of them do do them every night.
It costs £20,000/day to keep York Minster up and running, so, unlike Salisbury Cathedral, York Minster charges and admission fee to tourists to keep the building up and restore those parts that need restoration: £10 per adult gets you basic admission, children under 16 free; to gain access to the tower, it’s another £5 per person, regardless of age. As worshippers, you can get in free, but I recommend donating at least the price admission if you attend worship, since you are a tourist, too, and it is the right thing to do.
If you do one thing in York, visit York Minster.
A walking ghost tour of the city

Apparently, York is known for its ghosts; everyone, it seems, has a ghost story. We walked a tour of York with a pleasant fellow who told us ghost stories of York. It wasn’t free, and it probably wasn’t worth the money, but it did get us to a few places like Clifford’s Tower and the Shambles. The former is the keep of what was once York Castle; the latter is an old street that still has shops operating on it.
Clifford’s Tower:

Summary
We probably should have budgeted more time for York, as there is much we missed. We had planned on returning the next day, but instead went to Fountains Abbey, which was well worth it. I recommend Yorkshire, and while in Yorkshire, plan on spending at least a day in York. There is some good shopping in York, too, and you might want to split between the shoppers and sightseers in your family, since there is much to keep the non-shoppers engaged in the meantime.

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1. Hadrian, Septimius Severus, Constantius I, and Constantine the Great  ↩
   

Middleham Castle

We visited Middleham Castle on July 6, the 531st anniversary of the coronation of King Richard III. Richard spent much of his boyhood growing up in Middleham Castle, and he rose to become King of England, the last king from the House of York. Richard was defeated and killed by Henry Tudor (Henry VII) at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. Richard III was villainized in the years following his death by his Tudor successors, who sought to legitimize their claim to the throne, and completely filleted (I am told) by Shakespeare in his play Richard III.

York, Yorkshire, and Middleham are Richard III country. They still consider him a great king, and I spoke to couple of local ladies who thought his body, which was discovered in 2012, should be returned to York to “lie finally at rest” among his people.

A statue of Richard III inside Middleham Castle. Not sure why he is missing his arms, but someone has placed a bouquet of white roses — the symbol of the House of York — at his feet:

You may recall the fanfare around the discovery of Richard III’s remains in Leicester in 2012. If you kept up with that story, you probably heard of a Richard III Society. These are the type of people I spoke to at Middleham on Sunday.

Anyway, to commemorate Richard’s coronation, the castle had an interactive play for children to learn about Richard III. My daughter, Melissa, was chosen to play Richard III, while Paul played Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick. Both of my children, were therefore killed in battle, though one of them did — briefly but heroically — wear the English crown.

The Earl of Warwick, makes a deal with Richard’s brother, George:

The Battle of Barnet rages, Warwick leading the Lancastrians against the Yorkists:

Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, lies slain at the end of the Battle of Barnet, a decisive victory for the House of York:

Richard III is crowned King of England:

Poor Richard III lies dead after the Battle of Bosworth Field:

I must admit, I knew very little about Richard III until this visit and the play, but it turns out he was quite an interesting man, and not a bad king, though I think one of the enduring mysteries of this era is what Richard did with the Princes in the Tower.

Anyway, Middleham Castle is worth a visit if you are in Yorkshire. It is a prototypical rectangular castle with its keep in the middle. This is a major historical spot of English history; I’d place it on par with Kenilworth Castle. The castle complex is not as large as Kenilworth, but it is as well preserved, and a climb up to the top of the keep does present decent views.

View from the keep:

As with other castles, the kids will have a ball exploring.

But the main reason to visit Middleham is to get a sense of the history here. If you’re coming to York and Yorkshire, you must learn some about the War of the Roses (which I didn’t) and come to Middleham. If you are staying in York, you can make a day trip out to Middleham, and either continue on to Richmond Castle and Easby Abbey, or hit Fountains Abbey on the way or way back. If you stay in North Yorkshire, as we did, Middleham is a very short drive and a no-brainer. If you can time it right, visiting on July 6 is a propitious day to visit Middleham.

Richmond Castle

Richmond has been a military town since its founding in 1071, and today is home to Catterick Garrison, the largest British Army base in the world. Towering over the town is the 100-foot high keep of Richmond Castle, visible for miles around. Although the castle fell out of use in the latter part of the 14th century, it’s use as a military post was resurrected when military barracks were built within its walls in 1855, and the castle found use during World War I as a base for the Non-Combatant Corps and a prison for conscientious objectors. Today, it is a tourist site managed by English Heritage.

The distinguishing feature of Richmond Castle is its well-preserved and restored castle keep, 100 feet high with walls 11 feet thick. You can climb all the way to the top of the keep and look down over the castle walls and the River Swale on one side, and the town of Richmond on the other. Your kids will enjoy the climb and the view from the top, and will you. It is not a large castle, and you won’t be there long enough for the kids to get bored. Besides the keep, there are the remains of the chapel and several towers, which our kids thoroughly explored. You will find your kids move faster than you through ruins, but they will also make sure they explore every nook and cranny.

Apparently, there should also have been a display on the WWI prison there and the “Richmond 16,” who were imprisoned as conscientious objectors and sentenced to death (commuted to 10 years’ hard labor), but the display was closed when we were there.

Do I recommend Richmond Castle for visiting families? Yes, if you’re in the area. Middleham Castle, just 30 minutes away, is larger and more historic; if you’re pressed for time, visit Middleham instead. However, visiting Richmond Castle puts you in line of sight to Easby Abbey, so visiting Richmond allows you to knock out both of those in half a day, still giving you time to visit another site.

Easby Abbey

A church has stood at the site of St. Agatha’s church in Easby since at least the 700’s, as the remains of an Anglo-Saxon cross have been found in the church, which dates it to prior to the Viking period of the 9th century. In 1152, Easby Abbey was established around the church, and although the abbey was was dissolved in 1536 (and stripped bare by Henry’s minions), the church remains in active operation to this day.

Our apartment in Easby Hall overlooks St. Agatha’s church and the ruins of Easby Abbey. Easby Abbey is better preserved than Hailes Abbey, which we visited last week. Easby Abbey is completely unstaffed, so you just park and explore on your own. The church, too, is open for tourists, and on Sundays, you can even attend a service there. We were lucky enough to run into a local who was biking by, whom we discovered had majored in theology and happened to know an awful lot about the church and the abbey.

Surrounding St. Agatha’s church is a graveyard containing at least 2000 bodies. Some of these date back to the Anglo-Saxon period, though we would not have noticed the Anglo-Saxon markings on the stones had it not been for our guide. Inside the church is the original lead-lined baptismal dating back to the Norman period, still in use to this day. Also, in recent years, several of the frescoes, which were covered up during the Reformation, have been discovered and restored. The Anglo-Saxon cross, which was discovered in the church, resides in a museum, but the church has a replica of the cross on display.

St. Agatha’s church, surrounded by graves dating back over 1000 years:

Baptismal from Norman period and replica of remains of Anglo-Saxon cross found on-site:

Frescoes uncovered inside St. Agatha’s church:

The abbey itself is quite large. Our guide explained to us that the commissioners pulled down the roofs when they closed the monastery to prevent it from being used or reinhabited by the canons who resided there. Our kids enjoyed running around and exploring the ruins. Unlike Hailes, which had just a few walls and arches still standing, Easby Abbey had much more significant remains standing, which gave a better sense of the size and scale of the abbey.

If you’re visiting North Yorkshire and swinging by the historical sites like Middleham or Richmond Castles, you will be very close to Easby Abbey (you can see Richmond Castle from Easby Abbey, and vice versa), so it’s worth a stop and look round. Admission is free, and you can park in St. Agatha church’s parking lot. The kids will be able to run around and explore on their own, and if they look hard enough, they will discover a rather large, dark, enclosed ground-level chamber with terrific acoustics. We decided that that chamber must have been used by the monks to practice their monkish chants.

Kenilworth Castle

Begun by Henry I in 1120, Kenilworth Castle became one of the most important castles in England.

Kenilworth Castle’s keep:

King John (the antagonist in the “Robin Hood” story, and the king who signed the Magna Carta) significantly strengthened the defenses and flooded the surrounding countryside to make one of the largest man-made water defenses in Europe. The castle, so strengthened, held out for six months against a siege by John’s son, Henry III, in 1266; this is believed to be the longest siege in English history.

The view from one of the towers across the outer wall. The countryside beyond the wall was completely flooded into a great lake to prevent attackers from undermining the wall:

• It was here in Kenilworth Castle that Edward II was forced to abdicate in 1327.
• It was in here in Kenilworth Castle that King Henry V received the famous “tennis balls” insult from the French King in 1414, which launched an English invasion of France and resulted in France almost completely being conquered by England. (Spoiler alert: Joan of Arc comes along and saves the day.)

In the 16th century, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, lavished a fortune on the castle to convert it into a palace fit for a queen, and it became one of Queen Elizabeth’s favorite places to visit. Sir Walter Scott wrote a novel about this period called Kenilworth. It appears that Leicester was hoping to marry Elizabeth. There is also a Tudor garden, originally built by Leicester for Elizabeth, if you’re into that sort of thing. I am not, and your kids might not be either, but if you are, at least your kids can explore on their own (our rule is that they can explore on their own, but they have to stay together) rather than annoying you with their boredom while you walk the gardens.

Even into the 17th century, Kenilworth Castle was formidable enough that Parliamentary forces slighted the keep to prevent it from being used as a Royalist stronghold.

This wall of the keep was pulled down by Roundheads during the English Civil War. It is notable because the cross-section shows just how thick the walls of the keep were:

While most of the castle crumbled to ruins around it, the gatehouse at least remained inhabited well into the 20th century.

We almost skipped Kenilworth, but since it was on our path from Broadway to Richmond, decided to stop in. We are glad we did. The kids spent hours wandering around and playing in the ruins. Like Hailes Abbey and Stonehenge, an audio guide is available so each member of your family can proceed around the castle at his or her own pace. It is English Heritage, so admission is free to members. There are vast lawns and picnic tables if you bring your lunch, or you can order from the café inside the walls.

I recommend Kenilworth Castle for any families visiting England. You can easily spend a few hours walking the grounds and the ruins, and it is safe enough (it is walled, after all) for your kids to explore on their own.

Broadway Tower

On our way out of Broadway on Friday, we finally made it up to Broadway Tower. I had wanted to walk up to it every day since we arrived, but everyone always had better ideas (or it was about to rain).

Broadway Tower is a folly, meaning it was never a real defensive tower. However, the views from the top are remarkable. They say on a clear day, you can see into Wales. I don’t know if it was considered a “clear day” when I was there, and I wouldn’t recognize the Welsh border in the distance, anyway, but here is the view from the top of the hill:

If you’re in Broadway, I recommend you walk to the tower. I didn’t, but I wish I had. Do it for the walk and the view, though, not so much for the tower at the top. The view and the tower look nice, but the tower being a folly, you can better spend your time at real historical sites. If you don’t think you can persuade your kids to hike up a mountain, you can drive by it on your way to Snowshill Manor.

Blenheim Palace

In the early 1700’s, France and the Holy Roman Empire disagreed over who would succeed Charles II to the Spanish throne. England did not have a suitable candidate of its own, but it still felt obliged to get involved in The War of Spanish Succession. I suppose if you can’t be king, you may as well play kingmaker. England fought for the Habsburg candidate — his name isn’t relevant, because he never does become king. A few years into the war, alliance forces under the command of the Duke of Marlborough defeated the French at Blenheim. It was not a conclusive victory — the war itself would drag on another 10 years, and in the end, the French candidate would be secure as King Philip V of Spain — but it was a good enough job Marlborough had done that day that Queen Anne awarded him crown lands at Woodstock and enough money to build a magnificent palace on it. Thus was born Blenheim Palace, the only nonroyal palace in the realm.

The Duke of Marlborough still lives at Blenheim, so Blenheim Palace is the nicest residence I have ever been to. It is truly magnificent and should be included on your itinerary. The grounds themselves, carved out, crafted, and landscaped by Capability Brown are considered to have some of the finest views in all of Europe. What used to be just a little stream running through the grounds was dammed up and used to produce magnificent ponds and islands.

And I think everybody should reward themselves with a 134-ft high column every time you do a good job at work. Marlborough’s “Column of Victory”:

The exterior of the palace is nice. It is made of that sandstone that so much around these parts (including the village of Broadway) is made of, which gives it an orange hue. Having recently power washed my driveway at home, however, I really think the current duke would be thrilled to get a power washer. I’m sure he’s never done a bit of work in his life, but I think the thrill he would get by seeing some of his walls or statues get clean would entice him to power wash the entire exterior of the palace. Himself.

Statues lining the roof of Blenheim:

While the exterior has its statues and columns and details that make it seem beautiful and expensive, the interior is really something else. Ancient and modern statues and busts of Roman emperors and gods, paintings of the family, a whole series of room-sized tapestries illustrating the victory at Blenheim, a dining room table and solid silver centerpiece that weighs over 100 pounds and which Consuelo Vanderbilt liked to call her cache mari because it conveniently hid her detested husband (the 9th Duke of Marlborough) from view across the table. Their library has a larger than life statue of Queen Anne at one end and a set of organ pipes at the other that would make any church jealous. Oh, and their private little chapel? Let me just say they must be a very religious family, for they spared no expense on that.

Larger than life Queen Anne statue in the library:

A view down the library to the organ at the other end:

Just a little organ:

The family chapel, in case you didn’t make it up in time for church:

Blenheim Palace is a full day’s outing for the family. The kids will grow bored with the guided tour of the inside, but we still did it, since the parents wanted to learn more. There was an exhibition on Winston Churchill, who was born in the palace, which thoroughly bored the kids, but we told them if they were good, we would spend some time in the “Pleasure Garden” at the end of our stay. If you had multiple days, you could spend one of them roaming around the vast estate, but you’ll probably be more short of time than money, so there is a golf cart tour around estate for £2.50 per person. I’m on the fence as to whether it was worth it; it did save us time and allow us to take in more of the beautiful estate, but the walk also would have been nice.

At the end, when your kids have let you walk around the palace, take them to the “Pleasure Gardens” to run around. You can walk it, or there is a train that can take you there every half hour for 50p per person. We walked there and took the train back. The walk is nothing special, so if you time it right, use the train for 50p. At the “Pleasure Garden,” there is a really good hedge maze which the kids will run in and find their way through much faster than you. There is a bar, so adults can walk the maze with a glass of chardonnay in their hands. There are big chess and checkers boards, and playground equipment, along with a pretty decent playground set behind the “Pleasure Gardens.” While we were there, Wimbledon was going on, so the Palace had set up a big screen outside so guests could keep up with the tournament.

All in all, I recommend Blenheim Palace for traveling families. It may not be the most kid-friendly destination, but the kids will appreciate some of it, and they will enjoy the “Pleasure Gardens.”

Driving in England 2

I lost a bet with my wife. A few days ago, she told me the Tour de France was going on in Yorkshire while we are there. I told her that was not possible, since the Tour de France took place in France. So now I owe her a bottle of wine.

Yes, the Tour de France does start in Yorkshire this year, so on Friday, the day before the race started, we were stuck in traffic with a million other people. It was extremely slow going, and we arrived in Richmond a good 3 hours later than we should have.

It’s been years since I’ve navigated stop-and-go traffic in a stick-shift, and that clutch sure does get a lot of action. However, my main complaint about British drivers in heavy traffic is that they are immature. As a foreigner in England, it is to be expected that once or twice you’ll find yourself in the wrong lane. When we did, if I signaled and tried to merge into the lane I needed, the car behind me already in that lane would accelerate to prevent me from merging. I always think this is funny, because (1) on a road with a million other cars, one car is not going to significantly change your arrival time, and (2) because when this happens the logical next step is to move forward one car and try to merge in front of it, so the car that refused to let you in is still no better off than he would have been if he’d just let me in.

Anyway, some people said the M1 motorway is typically bad on a Friday afternoon, so adding in the Tour de France traffic just made it horrendous. My recommendation, if you’re driving up to The North, don’t do it on a Friday, and definitely don’t do it on the Friday before the start of the Tour de France if that start is happening in Yorkshire.

Melton Mowbray county fair

On Sunday, we visited Melton Mowbray for their annual county fair. Melton Mowbray is smack-dab in the middle of England, just under 2 hours drive from our base in Broadway. When we finally got there, it had just started to rain, and the thermometer was down around 15˚C/60˚F. I was in shorts and short sleeves. As we ate our lunch in the car, we watched more intrepid Englishmen and women get out of their cars, bundle up, and off to the fair.

Well, we decided that, in this weather, we weren’t going to enjoy the fair, so we decided to head off and see if there was anything else worth seeing in the area. As we were headed out of town, one of us needed to go to the bathroom, so we stopped in at a park with public facilities. After we parked, we discovered that we had found the one free parking spot near the county fair, so we thought we really ought to pay it a visit, seeing as it is right here.

Admission was £10 for the whole family, and just as we arrived, a show of falconry was on display. Looking skyward, we could watch the falcon dive and swoop, and eventually come to land next to its trainer. I remembered a bit of trivia about the falcon being the fastest animal in the world, and my son was suddenly able to fill in the details about it being the Peregrine Falcon.

There were some bagpipers and then we joined in some Victorian dancing with a Victorian dance troupe. A welshman also demonstrated his champion sheepdogs, herding ducks around the field. Walking the stalls, we got some free samples of locally made liquors, and ended up liking a brandy so much, we bought a small bottle for enjoyment later. We also met and talked to members of the Knights of Nottingham, a group of riders who would be putting on a jousting show at 4.

Trying out Victorian dance:

There was a beautiful church in Melton Mowbray, which first caught our attention when we looked skyward for the falcon during the falconry display; it had a beautiful bell tower (as so many churches here do). So while waiting until 4 for the jousting, we walked over to it to check it out. The church was very welcoming, offering us drinks and a tour, which we accepted. As a visitor to England, you don’t have to go to Melton Mowbray to see their church, but you should go to one or two old churches as you travel around England, and St. Mary’s in Melton Mowbray is one of the best. St. Mary’s dates to prior to the Norman conquest, but the current building was built in 1170 and includes many tombs and crypts, including that of a crusader. Although not a cathedral, it was built in the cathedral style, one of only 5 parish churches in England to do so. The church member who showed us around explained that the church had applied in recent years to be elevated to cathedral status, but its application was denied.

Finally at 4, the kids were treated to a jousting display by the Knights of Nottingham. The Knights put on a show, including sword and axe fighting, with a comedic element, but certainly the best part was the mounted fighters. I ride just once or twice a year, so seeing expert riders ride around prone “casualties” on the battlefield without stepping on them was impressive. Their display of horsemanship against unmounted fighters was also impressive, but of course, we all wanted to see the knights make jousting passes with their lances, which they obliged. It was all acting, of course, but it was still great fun!

All in all, I am very glad we made the fair, because the whole family had a great time. And Melinda enjoyed the brandy we had bought that same evening back in our cottage in Broadway.