St. John's day trip to Yorkshire, summer 2011 (Part 3)

Our final destination was Skipton.

Over two and a half hours in Skipton sounded as if it might be a rather a long time but it wasn’t – there was so much to see and do!

There were many streets, alleyways, nooks and crannies to explore.

You could walk along the canal …

..... or through the woods.

There was the Town Hall and Museum to visit – this local hippo was a bit of a surprise!

You could go to the castle ....

..... or visit Holy Trinity Church with its lovely gardens.

However, the most popular pastimes were shopping – either in the shops or the market.







The most popular shop of all was J. Stanforth, The Celebrated Pork Pie Establishment!

Mmmmmmm!

Finally there were the pubs, cafés and Tea Shops for that, ever available, Yorkshire Tea and anything else that anyone fancied!

It had been an excellent, but tiring, day. Fortunately, in Skipton the weather was dry and the benches were plentiful.






At 4.30 p.m. it was time to board the coach for home! Everyone was tired but happy, and many a ZZZZ was pushed up en route!

Thank you very much Clive for organising such an interesting day!

St. John's day trip to Yorkshire, summer 2011 (Part 2)

We assembled on the Haworth platform at exactly 12.36 and didn't have to wait long before our train arrived from Oxenhope.

The train buffs amongst us could no doubt tell you every detail about both the engine and the carriages. All I know is that it was a lovely black steam engine so if you need to know more about it you'll have to ask Roy!

We found that we had a carriage reserved especially for our group and soon we were all seated in an open carriage.

An added bonus was Harry and his mentor who were volunteers with the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. All the way along the route they were able to indicate points of interest whith great good humour and enthusiasm.

Young Harry was well able to deal with Roy's technical questions and, for us less steam train literate travellers, he pointed out various land marks that appear in the 1970 film version of Edith Nesbit's story of "The Railway Children".

We were told that the KWVR is a standard gauge branch line which joins the national railway network at Keighley in the north east of England and runs 5-miles up the Worth Valley to Oxenhope.

Thus we passed through several beautifully restored stations, including this one (Oakwood) which was the location of the film 'The Railway Children'.

On arrival in Keighley we watched our engine shunt round - preparing to take the carriages back out to Oxenhope.

We then left the station and boarded the coach for Skipton.

St. John's day trip to Yorkshire, summer 2011 (Part1)

After a picturesque drive with, a short comfort break en route, our first scheduled stop was the beautiful village of Haworth.

Our lovely coach driver Dave, dropped us in Haworth station Car Park. Dave had a beautiful coach of which he was justly proud. He was a fantastic driver and confessed to having lived in Birkdale as a child and attended the St. John's Sunday School - an undisclosed number of years ago!

On leaving the coach, in Haworth Station car park, we walked up ....







....and up until we finally reached Haworth Main Street!




The village was beautiful.

Most people availed themselves of one of the many delightful pubs and cafés for at least a cup of tea! In Haworth the traditional Yorkshire weather was like the traditional Yorkshire tea - hot and wet!

Another much visited location was Rose & Co. Apothecary from which many a tin of Zam-Buk was brought back to the coach.

Other places of interest to visit were the Bronte Parsonage and the Bronte Memorial Chapel inside St Michael and All Angels (the Haworth parish church).

We had been told that "our train to Keighley leaves at 12.36" and been exhorted not to miss it as there wouldn't be another train for 2 hours!

Fortunately, the walk back to the station was down hill all the way; thus we all congregated at Haworth Station in good time to meet our train.