mutteringhousewife

Hands down easiest day walking. And we knew it would be, so we lingered in our magazine perfect not B&B until the host came and raised his eyebrows at us. Then we put on the boots and visited the Norman church, because apparently every village in these parts has one.

They’re all different, and they’ve also all had different things saved from the depredations of the Reformation. This one had its baptismal font and possibly one of the doors, and also the main structure and it was as delightful as they all have been. I can’t get enough of them.

The actual walking today felt like a bit of a rest today. Wainwright didn’t like this bit and yesterday, no views, no climbing, too much walking on the road. He has a point, but tomorrow will have a lot of climbing and I’m pleased to be injury free and feeling physically and mentally rested for it. There was also a lot of walking around fields, we’ve moved into cropping fields after the endless sheep and they don’t like you walking through them for some reason. When Wainwright was first mapping out and walking the route in this area he found that a lot of the public right-of-ways were neglected, obstructed, covered over. Being Wainwright he kept meticulous notes on the lot and sent reports to all of the local councils, who ended up opening them all back up again. We did get one Bull in Field sign, but apart from that it was smooth walking.

So not much to report in the way of countryside. Because the route was so flat and short we ended up in Ingolby Cross close to 2pm. The local pub wasn’t open, our accommodation wasn’t accepting check ins until 4pm. We had some refreshment at a local cafe, but needed something to occupy ourselves for a couple of hours. We decided to go for a walk.

There is a ruined priory in this area, but the way by car is back out the way we came and along the freeway for quite some time. What we did instead was to sneak along some forestry roads congested with pheasants on the hillside we’re going to start climbing tomorrow, climb over a couple of fences and get in the back way. I can’t tell you how much I love an ecclesiastical ruin. Mount Grace Priory was the home of some Carthusian monks back in the 1300s and 1400s, and, again, abandoned at the time of the Reformation. These dudes took a vow of silence and got shut into their cells where they wrote, spun, wove, did a spot of gardening, prayed – obviously. As the Commander said, so that’s what the autistic people got to do back in the day. I think he’s onto something.

Some lord at some time got hold of the place and rebuilt bits of it and at some point one of the monk’s cells was recreated as it would have been and it was marvellous. I get the leave it untouched idea, but there is so much of this, having a little section recreated gives you a very vivid picture of the original use of the place. The priory covered a big area, and the outlines of the walls are all there, as are bits of some interior walls, including the cell doors and the square holes that the food got pushed into so that the monk inside wouldn’t accidentally see anybody.

So we scrambled back out the back way, sneaked down some different forestry tracks still congested with pheasants and arrived at the Park House Country Guest House. I had to email them a few days ago to reassure them that we’d be eating here and didn’t have any allergies because Brett is an ex chef and would be cooking our dinner tonight, and it melted in the mouth. I have really loved the variety of places we’ve stayed at. This is a stone walled jumble of possibly ex farm buildings nestled in the foothills of the Cleveland Hills that we’ll be climbing tomorrow, and it’s just delightful.

It will be interesting to see how we cope with tomorrow’s climbing now that we’re all trained up. Stay tuned.