17 September 2023 – Familiar Territory

Miles driven today = 50

Total Miles to date = 653

We are back on Lisa's old stomping grounds.  Although we have predominantly lived together down in Suffolk since 2009, Lisa still considers Hebden Bridge to be home and going forward our intention is to make it our primary location when we're not away travelling in the van.  Also, having spent a good deal of time around these parts over the last 16 years, I've got to know the roads around West Yorkshire pretty well, albeit not in our current 7.4 metre motorhome.  Stone walls can be pretty unforgiving after all.

From Ingleton we made our way this morning through Long Preston, Hellifield, Gargrave and around Skipton to Keighley where we picked up a bit of shopping and diesel at Sainsburys.  We also had the rather strange aural experience of a steam train coming from one direction and the call to prayers at the local mosque from the other.  Then it was on past Haworth, of Bronte sisters fame, and through Oxenhope before clambering over the moors to Lisa's place overlooking the Calder (aka Happy) Valley and the omnipresent Stoodley Pike, the first sight of which is always an indicator that we are nearly home.

We took the opportunity to inspect the progress made on the extension without builders being about and whilst we were pleased with the progress they have made we were equally very happy that we have had the option not to have been living there whilst the building work has been going on.  I've done the whole washing up in the bathtub for weeks on end thing before and it really isn't any fun.

We live very close to the deconsecrated Wainsgate Chapel, which has been converted into a community arts project.  Our next door neighbours Rob & Charlie are very heavily involved in the project and our friend Sally is also one of the resident artists.  Today they were having a Heritage Day to give people an idea of the history of the Chapel so we popped along to have a look and give them a bit of support, both morally and also financially by buying tea and huge slabs of cake.  We assumed the event would be taking place for most of the day and pitched up at 12:30 only to find the doors weren't actually opening until 2pm, so we had a spot of lunch in the van and headed back up there at the alloted opening time.

Somebody has gone into a huge amount of trouble in investigating a lot of the history behind the Chapel.  All around the building you could find QR codes taking you to the various heritage sections of the website I have linked above.  We have been to numerous music, art and dance events here in the past but today we learnt an awful lot more about the history of the place.

I've never seen the baptismal font before as it's usually covered over.  Back in the day when the Chapel was fully functioning this would be filled with spring water when baptisms took place.

Outside we had an exhibition of stone carving from local experts.  They were working with both sandstone and limestone and you could see the different results from the materials used.

Although the Chapel is still in need of a good deal of TLC the organ is in a remarkably good state of repair.  A very talented chap turned up to give us a recital.  He'd never played this particular organ before and had no idea what sort of nick it was in and, although a few of the pedals don't currently work, he was able to give us a fabulous rendition of several pieces,

Even out in the graveyard a few of the more notable occupants had QR codes next to their headstones so that we could read about their life stories.

There is a tiny campsite just up the hill from Lisa's house.  It's a Caravan & Motorhome Club "Certified Location" which basically means that you have to be a member of that particular club to book it.  We were members a good few years ago but only stayed on one of their sites once and found it so stuffy and regimented that we never renewed.  However, with the official Hebden Bridge site also belonging to the same club, we have bitten the bullet and rejoined so that we could have somewhere close by to stay in the motorhome while the building work progresses.  The Certified Location at Little Nook couldn't fit us in tonight but we are booked in tomorrow so for one night we are staying at the larger site.

I'm really not a fan of these places.  Despite the cheery welcome from the receptionist and the fact we can hear running water from the van I just get the impression that people come to these places to sit outside their caravans while they are waiting to die.

Calling it the Hebden Bridge Caravan site is something of a misnomer.  You can catch an hourly bus into Hebden but it is actually in Cragg Vale on the other side of Mytholmroyd.  Cragg Vale is famous for being the home of King David Hartley and his Cragg Vale Coiners, whose story was  recently televised in the BBC adaptation of Benjamin Myers' excellent book "The Gallows Pole".  Hartley's home and HQ for his coin clipping operation at Bell House is a relatively short but stiff uphill walk from the site through the woods to the edge of Erringden Moor.

Cragg Vale is also supposedly the longest continuously uphill section of road found anywhere in England, climbing for a solid 4 miles from Mytholmroyd to the Blackstone Edge Reservoir.  The course for the Tour De France came up here a few years ago when the first couple of stages took place in Yorkshire.

We took a walk up the road to the Robin Hood Inn which is a community run pub nowadays.  We've driven and walked past here many times in the past but never popped in.  It has a fearsome reputation for serving quality Sunday Roasts and was fully booked so we only stayed for a couple of drinks.  Where else can you get a pint of Timothy Taylor's Boltmaker and a half pint of cider for £5 in this day and age?  I bloody love Yorkshire I do!

18 September 2023 - Admin Day