Wigtwizzle - Norman Smith's Travel Blog.: castle

Note to self...don't visit Ripon on either a Thursday or a Friday. Thursday is Market day so you will never get a parking place in any car park and Friday is well...just Friday! This was my second aborted attempt at spending a few hours with Sal in Ripon. The last time we came ended with the same result which was down to the fact that it was a Thursday and market day.

Fortunately Ripley Castle is only a ten minute drive away and, at this time of year, the Castle gardens are open to the public free of charge so we plumped for going there instead. Its history is one of political, military and religious shenanigans, of plague and persecution, of renaissance, enlightenment and industrial revolution.

Some interesting facts about the Castle and the Ingilbys -

Henry Ingilby collected taxes for Edward III and helped the king to finance the construction of Windsor Castle.
His brother Thomas the king from being gored by a wild boar whilst on a hunting expedition and was knighted for his courage and was given the boar's head symbol as his crest.
Sir William Ingilby held high office and served Henry VIII, Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I through some of their darkest days.
Sir William Ingilby supported Charles I during the Civil War, and was made Baronet Ingilby in 1642. He fought at Marston Moor in 1644, when the King's forces were totally routed, making his escape to Ripley and hiding in a priest hole while Oliver Cromwell billeted himself there for the night.
James I stayed at the castle in 1603. By 1605 the Ingilbys were plotting to kill him
Nine of the eleven known conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot were close relations or associates of the Ingilby Family.

The place never lets us down, the weather is usually nice, there is a lovely coffee shop there, a couple of local craft shops and the Castle and Gardens. We started off with the obligatory coffee and then headed in to the craft shop which houses the entrance to the gardens. Its one of those shops which is popular for browsing round but its very rare that you see someone actually buy anything, probably due to its prices.

Once in the gardens or should I call it the deer park, we decided upon walking the full circle of the lake and then come back via the woodland to the more formal house gardens and hothouse. We got some nice reflections of the Castle as we rounded the lake and the light, as we walked through the woodland was more or less perfect so we both took some nice photographs. But it was whilst walking back through the woodland that I came across the enormous pink dinosaur which unfortunately was literally looking rather deflated. I've no idea what it had been used for but the poor thing looked well and truly on its way to extinction!

It was in to the Castle gardens which, at this time of year, were lacking in colour and looking a bit sorrowful but they had still managed to cultivate a very healthy looking vegetable patch which I presume is in everyday use for the castle and coffee shop. Finally we went in the hothouse which served its purpose by warming us both up before we made our way back to the car.

A visit to The Smiths Arms at Beckwithshaw ended our day out perfectly.

Ripley Village

Ripley Castle Lake

Castle Grounds

Ripley Castle Lake

Castle Gardens

Sal in the Castle Gardens.

Folly in the Castle Gardens

Massive Pine Tree

The Hot House

Autumn Leaf

Found it!

Another blog from my recent holiday with Sal. The forecast wasn't too good so we didn't fancy travelling very far. Greystoke is only a couple of miles down the road and has a lovely looking cafe for the post walk nibbles, so it fit the bill perfectly. There are no public footpaths around the estate but there are permitted footpaths which the owners and the local council have made easy to follow by numbering each noticeable feature. To go with that, there is also an online map with comprehensive detail so it is more or less impossible to get lost.

However not long in to the walk we did go slightly astray for which I blame my guide but we did realise it pretty quickly. The walk itself is about eight miles if you do the full circuit but the drizzle started and was blowing directly in to our faces so we decided to cut it short at the point where we reached open moorland which, if truth be known was only a couple of miles in to the walk.

Just before we did our about turn we passed a woodland full of pheasants (which the estate uses to shoot for so-called pleasure). We startled them and they startled us as well. About fifty of them flew from their cover and amusingly started running up a track to get away from us. It reminded me of a scene from a Benny Hill show, all that was missing was the music! I'm sorry but I just can't understand what pleasure anyone would get out of shooting a live animal just for the fun of it. People who do that really appall me and, as far as I'm concerned, it can't be justified in any way shape or form.

The return walk wasn't too bad as the wind was now behind us and the drizzle finally eased off as we approached the Castle. Its a shame you can't visit the Castle's grounds because, looking on the Internet, there appears to be some nice gardens and lakes surrounding it but it is a private dwelling though. I suppose people are entitled to have their privacy and a least they have allowed and maintained permitted footpaths for the general public to use.

We ended our afternoon with a coffee and a piece of cake each at the C2C Cycle Cafe on the edge of the village.The Cycle Cafe consists of a pretty walled Tea Garden with gazebos, along with a rustic barn for shelter if the weather is inclement. During quiet periods only the barn is open and this is operated purely on a self service basis with drinks and cakes to hand. I suppose they rely on the honesty of their customers for payment and let's face it, you would have to be a pretty mean spirited individual not to pay. It is another cafe which is run by local people and their baking is divine. Sal had a piece of tiffin and I had one of the scrummiest slices of lemon drizzle cakes that I've ever had. The baking is definitely up to what I would call "Women's Institute standard" which, in my book, is bloody good!

This is another walk for us to do on a fine day: a day when we can take our time and do the complete 8 mile circuit.

To end the blog, here is a brief history of the castle -

In 1069, Llyulph de Greystoke, after whom Ullswater is named, was re-granted his lands by the Normans, following their successful conquest. The wooden tower he had built at Greystoke, which was surrounded by a high fence or pale (pele), was replaced with a stone-built tower.

In 1346, King Edward III gave permission for the building to be castellated and the castle proper was created.

Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk and Earl Marshal of England, sent north in the early 1520s to solve the Scottish problem, met and subsequently married Lady Anne Dacre. She had inherited the castle and lands on the death of her husband and her marriage gained for the Howard family a considerable part of what was the county of Cumberland.

The castle became one of the border chain of fortifications which replaced Hadrian’s Wall as a barrier against the Scots.

The castle was held for the King during the civil war and after the war, in 1660, was destroyed by Cromwell as a result. The castle was later rebuilt and enlarged into a modern farm.

In 1868, a maid left a lighted candle in a cupboard full of linen and the consequent fire destroyed large parts of the castle. It was rebuilt by Henry Howard.

The estate was commandeered by the army in 1939 and the land became a tank-drivers’ training ground. The castle itself later became a prisoner of war camp, largely for Poles who had been fighting for the Germans, the prisoners providing labour to run local farms whose men-folk were away fighting.

Post-war, the long process of restoration and modernisation was initiated which has continued ever since. Fourteen generations of the Howard family have lived in the castle thus far.