‘My Grand Day Out’
“You must be out of your brilliant mind.” 🎵 Furniture
“Hello Pateley, I’m seriously thinking of moving to the area and would love to know your thoughts.”
This was a post headline that I read in a Pateley based social media group last week, from a guy called Terry.
It got me thinking.
Could I put together a grand day out highlights tour of Pateley Bridge that would help to persuade people like Terry that this is THE area to move into.
With a bright and sunny forecast and a ‘Step Up’ challenge that was one day from completion, the last Friday in October seemed to be the ideal opportunity to stride out into Nidderdale.
Seventy-thousand steps later, as I soaked my creaking limbs in the bathtub, I reflected that you would be hard pressed to find somewhere better to live and a community that is more welcoming.
‘Pateley sure has Plenty’.
For the last two months, as our steps challenge has gathered momentum, I’ve upped my walking game.
Considerably.
Admittedly I have always been a keen walker, easily exceeding the daily recommended 10,000 steps, but now my daily average currently sits at around 23,000.
I’m not bragging.
I am fortunate.
I have long legs, reasonable fitness and I’m retired.
I also live in a stunningly beautiful area which, on a daily basis, ‘calls me out’ to be walked.
Plus, I’ve got Tip!
So all I have to do is get out of bed, get out there and start to walk.
It is easy.
It is also lots of other things: stimulating, sociable, uplifting.
Plus in a time when many are feeling the financial pinch, it is also quite affordable!
I have wondered for a while where does this 10,000 daily steps recommendation actually originate from?
It’s a bit like the ‘5 a day’ recommendation that relates to fruit and vegetable intake.
From nowhere it seems, if you believe the internet.
There’s a vague link to a Japanese company, but I guess all international movements probably start with a vague link somewhere.
“The 10,000-steps-a-day goal originated in Japan in 1965 as a marketing campaign for a commercial pedometer, rather than from medical or scientific research.”
I also suppose that us Brits do like round numbers and 10,000 has a nice rounded ring to it.
So, armed with that useless piece of information, my walking day started as usual, at about 06.00 when I slipped the lead onto Tip, my daughter Rosie’s border collie, and walked out of our gate into a very foggy Nidderdale landscape.
Within 10 minutes we were at one of my favourite local spots: an abandoned cattle byre in my newly christened ‘Sycamores Gap’.
Please note the plural!
Two of our neighbours farm this land and Steven, the elder of the twins, had used that term in a conversation I had with him and Malcolm, earlier in the week.
Good name!
It has stuck.
In an effort to keep the location of ‘Sycamores Gap’ top secret (there are two sycamore trees, not one, at this atmospheric place) and safe from chainsaw wielding thugs, I shall continue to keep its grid reference secret.
It is a simple, yet beautiful spot and if you time your walk well, you can often grab a spectacular sunrise or sunset photograph here.
As it happens, on Friday, it was very foggy so there was no sunrise.
But those two trees still oozed atmosphere as the drifting mists floated across the soggy moorland.
And the old cattle shed remains a beautiful, if rundown attraction, in its own right.
Two hours later, after my early morning walk with Tip had reached its conclusion, I returned home for my second breakfast, before finally setting off for my ‘Grand Day Out,’ just before 10.00.
I walked to my official start point at Yorke Follies high up above Pateley Bridge.
The air was damp and the slightest deviation off the path, was met with an inevitable result.
Wet legs!
Fortunately, I was wearing shorts!
Precipitation oozed from the tree branches above my head.
We have no water shortage in Yorkshire.
The Follies have an interesting history. There were three arches here until the storm of 1793 when the bigger, centre arch blew down.
The two remaining arches of the Follies are affectionally known in these parts as “Two Stoops”.
The Follies provide a brilliant start, midpoint or finish to any walk ‘on the Nidderdale tops’ and a useful visual reference point for the nine mile circular walk that I was about to embark on.
They never really disappeared from view.
From the Follies car park I took the path down through the beautiful woodland of Skrikes wood, part owned by a local legend of a lady named Biddy Noakes.
Great name!
Fungal remnants remained.
But the eye candy in this walk was definitely the foliage.
Vibrant browns, golds, yellows, reds combined for that riot of colour that only a damp autumn in Britain can provide.
I’ve only met Biddy once, but she really struck me then, as a ‘force majeure’.
Seemingly, she has been ‘big’ on the local arts scene of Nidderdale for years.
Sadly she lost her husband Roy about 25 years ago.
He was born in the East End of London and enjoyed s successful career as an internationally renowned sculptor.
Biddy herself led the development of Coldstone Cut, a local viewpoint and beauty spot near Greenhow Hill, just above Pateley Bridge.
The Cut, as modelled by Tip earlier this year, was constructed with the support of the local limestone quarry that provides aggregates for many of the roads of the UK.
https://www.yorkshiretreasures.co.uk/blog/coldstones-cut-impossible-to-describe
Biddy seems to be an energetic and fascinatingly feisty lady, with a mischievous spirit.
I wonder if her intent was knowingly mischievous in the design and implementation of the ‘Cut’.
How she and the architect, got that penis shaped architectural design approved by the planning authorities, I have no idea?
Skrikes wood is a stunning natural woodland and is particularly vibrant and colourful in late autumn, with its carpet of gold coloured leaves.
It is actually the easiest decent to Pateley from Heyshaw Moor and its surrounds, with its abandoned Ice House and quarry and Brimham-type rock formations, there is plenty of visual splendour to witness, as you walk.
I progressed from one woodland to another, as I contoured around the valley floor, to Fishponds Wood, owned by our good friends Peter and Michelle Brambleby.
‘False Tooth Bridge’ connects the 2 woodlands.
The local story is that one of the workmen, renovating the bridge, lost his false teeth in the concrete.
Their position and perfect landing point in the concrete point to a more deliberate, rather than accidental act.
Nevertheless, we love a local ‘story’ in this country.
And it is a great story.!
As I entered Fishponds Wood, I met Sue and her horse Tom.
Sue lives near Biddy, above the woods, and is a keen horse rider.
She was out riding Tom (who measures 15 hands in height – quite high enough for this ‘equinophobe’ or hippophobe’).
I’m not actually that scared of horses!
But I’ve only ever ridden a horse once in my life and that was whilst on honeymoon back in 1989.
That trot was a disaster.
For the life of me, I could not get my ‘rhythmic bounce’ right!
By the end of that ‘experience’ my backside was on fire!
Sue was preparing Tom for a dressage competition the following weekend.
As we chatted, my familiarity with the term ‘Horsepower’ increased.
Tom seemed friendly enough, but Sue confirmed that he did possess some attitude.
At 19 years of age, he is probably in his prime (horses can live to 35 apparently).
His legs looked so powerful.
It was clear Sue was just as friendly as her horse.
In fact, ‘friendly feistiness’ seems to reside in this woodland.
Meeting Sue was good fun and our 10 minute chat was uplifting.
Hopefully ‘tbc’ over an afternoon cuppa.
Sue also indicated an interest in joining either or both of the local walking groups I help to coordinate.
Mondays every week, all over North and West Yorkshire, with the Yorkshire Wayfarers.
And Saturdays every month, with a fantastic group of friends from Nidderdale, Huddersfield, Bradford and Leeds.
If you are interested in ‘trying us out’ too, please let me know.
Recruitment to ‘being active’ never stops.
Onto Peter and Michelle, who bought the 28 acre Fishponds woodland with Peter’s pension pot about 10 years ago.
Michelle is a retired teacher, and together with Peter, a retired paediatrician and Director of Public Heath, they offer community-based art and woodland experiences for schools, charitable groups, armed forces veterans, asylum seekers and the wider Nidderdale community.
It is a stunning historic woodland with ancestral links to the monks of Fountains Abbey.
They attract a lot of woodland volunteers.
They always love to get more though.
So let me know if you are interested and I’ll hook you all up.
Centuries ago, the abbot of Fountains Abbey would send monks to Fishponds so he could observe the meat free tradition of ‘Fish Friday’, with a freshwater catch for his dinner.
At the centre of the woodland is the pond with a circular firepit and barbecue area not far away from it.
A private therapeutic group were using it so I didn’t disturb them.
Huge piles of stacked logs (you can purchase seasoned logs from Peter at a very good rate) and hand made play dens and wooden sculptures predominate and herald your approach to a six sided study barn which easily holds up to 40 people.
The woodburner in that barn is also six sided. Six sided for a reason!
Peter and Michelle are passionate advocates for a radically different type of NHS.
Theirs is the ‘Natural Health Service’ and this novel idea is founded on their theory that there are 6 ways to encourage human wellbeing. –
Be connected.
Be active.
Be observant.
Be creative.
Seek to learn.
Try to make a contribution.
The best ideas are often the simplest!
I try to do all of those things and my life is all the richer when I do so.
A vibrant Japanese Maple was still in its full autumn glory near the pond!
Stunning!
It is typical of Peter and his willingness to engage, that just three days later, as I led my Monday walking group of 26 ‘Yorkshire Wayfarers’ through Fishponds wood, he downed his tools to tell us more about his vision for Fishponds and why his ‘NHS philosophy’ matters.
He and Michelle are two of the humblest but most inspiring people you could ever meet.
They have ‘local hero’ status in Pateley Bridge and Nicky and I count ourselves very fortunate to have them as good friends.
I exited Fishponds from its northernmost gate and ambled gently down hill towards Pateley,
Walking down the centuries-old ‘Monks Steps’ with their uniquely curved tops, it was clear that all those years of foot traffic have worn a curve into the stone.
Living history: I love it!
I was in Pateley Bridge within 5 minutes.
Kelly and her daughter River, stopped to say “Hello”.
River is a cheeky one. Full of fun. Feisty for sure!
They make them feisty in these parts.
Kelly is one of the team at the superb Sunflowers nursery, which my granddaughter attends.
Such a lovely team of staff!
She comes home ‘mucky from doing,’ every single day.
And we just love that!
Having joined the local leisure centre only the week before, I sought rejuvenation in its lovely, modern swimming pool.
Every time I swim there I receive a fantastic welcome from the lovely staff.
I take my two-year-old granddaughter swimming there, every Thursday afternoon, although I seem to be one of only a handful of people who goes swimming there regularly.
For a town of just over 2000 residents Pateley really punches.
Its modern pool is evidence of this.
Warm and welcoming to.
The showers are blissfully hot!
I left Halifax, in West Yorkshire, (100,000+ inhabitants) in 2020 when I retired as Headteacher of a local special school.
By then, the town had already lost its pool.
At the time of writing, six years on, it still hasn’t been replaced.
As a former swimming teacher and passionate advocate of people keeping fit, it seems so wrong that Halifax remains without a swimming pool.
A town of that size!
Swimming is an essential life skill and something that every child should have an opportunity to learn.
Hundreds of local children across Calderdale are still missing out on this important opportunity.
Such a terrible legacy for them.
Pateley is so fortunate,
Our Nidderdale based community just need to use it: so we don’t lose it.
A swim at Pateley costs £6 for an adult and £1.10 for my granddaughter.
I actually pay a monthly fee of £30 to swim more frequently.
Amazing value, especially when you consider other sporting comparisons.
Just last week, I paid £34 for a ticket to see Bristol City (my team) beat Bolton Wanderers at the unfortunately named ‘Toughsheet Stadium’.
It really was ‘toughsheet’ (💩) for Bolton, as City scored twice in the last 10 minutes to win 3-2.
The exaggerated ticket prices highlight the terrific value offered by Pateley Pool and its excellent facilities.
Suitably refreshed, I walked back along the River Nidd, past its very popular static and touring camping/caravan site and then its beautiful children’s play area, bowling green and bandstand into Pateley town centre itself.
Currently this town (more of a village in size I suggest), offers a one High Street experience to the uninitiated.
It actually has an up and coming second street which leads up to the lovely parish church of St Cuthberts run by its superb vicar, Daryll.
Another reminder to the uninitiated: Pateley has lots more on offer, if you choose to look and wander and ask.
The High Street is ‘Typical Yorkshire Dales’, with around 20 shops.
It actually has pretty much everything you need if you are staying in the area for a few days.
(Incidentally, if you are, you might want to bear in mind that we run an Airbnb based at the end of our property) https://www.rosieandthefarm.co.uk
Back to Pateley:
At the bottom of the High Street there’s a Petrol station and two supermarkets,
It also has two well-regarded butchers (one at the top and the other at the bottom of the High Street), a bakery, art galleries, several lovely coffee shops, (Wildish is our favourite, with its outstanding coffee), eateries aplenty, including the lovely Wildings and a Pancake House.
A brilliant Chinese Take Away is located just over the other side of the bridge, plus an Indian restaurant under new management from last year.
An award winning Fish and Chip shop and Italian restaurant offer an even wider choice of eateries: something for every palate.
The Crown pub offers more traditional pub grub at decent prices and runs a popular Wednesday night, community Pub Quiz.
There is an excellent outdoor gear shop selling all the major brands, including my ‘forever go-to’ label: Mountain Equipment.
Tim the proprietor, is extremely knowledgeable and friendly and his prices are good.
You get a very competitive service there which you can never truly replicate (IMHO) through a faceless online retailer.
Pateley has at least five highlights at the top of its fairly steep High Street.
A brilliant charity shop run by the well regarded Nidderdale Plus, a local charity that really helps people (the elderly especially) to connect in this rural community.
Kendall’s Butchers (our favourite) which offers superb quality local produce.
England’s oldest sweet shop, that nostalgically reminds adults of a certain age of their childhood ‘weigh out and wrap in brown paper’, sweetie experiences.
George’s, is a quirky gift and vintage shop where you can find the weird and wonderful of yesteryear: all at a very reasonable price.
Lorna and George (he is our plumber) have run this successful business for over four years.
Nearly every visitor to Pateley, heads there for a mooch.
Three doors further up is Coco Joe’s, a superb ‘Hot Chocolaterie’ or Cocoa House.
Our friends Heather and Charles run this lovely shop and I made a beeline for it, especially as I knew I was going to be walking another 30+ miles.
So I nipped in for a quick cup of high end hot chocolate.
On a cool autumnal day, that cocoa infusion hit my spot, plus I had the pleasure of meeting Steve and Sophie who were running the shop as Charles and Heather were on a trip away.
My welcome was superb and it was lovely to chat to them both.
Sophie is a final year student at Exeter University (that’s a looooong journey) and already looks to be a ‘mover and shaker’. Watch out London! She heads that way for her Masters year after her finals in 2027.
Steve was very friendly and a very easy communicator.
Coco Joe’s is a lovely stop off with lovely staff.
The hot chocolate in my veins helped to propel me up the steep ‘ginnel’ or ‘snicket’ that takes you onto the Panorama Walk that eventually leads to the world renowned Brimham Rocks, now owned by The National Trust?
When is an alleyway a ginnel or a snicket?
That question provoked fierce debate just three days later, amongst the Wayfarers walking group.
In simple terms, the answer seems to depend on where you come from!
On that theme, we have a lovely Kate Lycett print titled ‘Ginnels and Snickets’ hanging in our kitchen at home.
Kate is a talented, Hebden Bridge based landscape artist.
Maybe I should ask her?
I broke off that path after 500 metres to cut up to the old Parish Church of St. Marys where the gravestone of a local lady, aptly named Mary, resides.
The grave recognises that Mary lived for 120 years.
Being relatively competitive, I now have my sights on beating her.
I also found solace in the fact that if I do, it would mean that at the age of 61, I can now count myself as just about ‘middle aged!’
Therefore applying simple mathematic logic, I’ve only lived just over half of my life!
As Gandalf says in ‘The Lord of the Rings’:
“That is a very reassuring thought!”
I have lots that I still want to pack into my life.
So I’ll keep you posted on my progress with that ‘122 years lived’ target.
The roof of the church has long gone, but it remains a place of beauty, peace and quiet reflection.
That eulogy could equally apply to Pateley Bridge itself.
The town is in a time warp: quaint and attractive.
You could do far worse than book that short break here and you can then see for yourself, if I’m correct.
Unspoilt, unheard of and stunningly unusual.
‘Pateley Punches’ for sure.
The town also has an increasingly vibrant art centre basd at the Old Workhouse.
The Pateley Makers’ Yard, provides a base for a group of talented artists to work here, with regular open studio events organised throughout the year.
You can purchase superbly crafted jewellery, joinery, stone sculptures and paintings there.
Watch this space!
In my view, ‘The Makers’ Yard’ is going to explode in popularity in years to come and at long last, the local council is finally doing the right thing in rebuilding two prominent buildings at its entrance.
These were destroyed in a fire four years ago.
The interesting Nidderdale Museum also shares this building, offering fascinating insights into the lives and challenges of the local community over the years: a community where agriculture and lead mining have been such core components of life.
Now my path took a steep turn and for eight minutes I avoided looking up as I contoured up to the balcony track (an old railway line) that fed the substantial quarries that used to mine this hillside.
The views are spectacular and the path leads all the way to Silver Hill, an iconic local viewpoint where you can see right up the Nidd Valley to Great and Little Whernside, some 12 miles to the north.
The benches that border Silver Hill are frequently seen in ITV’s adaptation of the James Herriot story, ‘All Creatures Great and Small’.
Locals often take their fish and chips from Pateley and drive up here to eat them.
Tasty chips with a tasty panoramic.
More evidence of the ‘Pateley Punches’?
I carried on down the minor road that drops into Wath.
The old Methodist chapel is still a functioning place of worship.
It is beautiful building: tiny, but quite a tardis inside and so lovely in its simplicity.
The bible on the lecturn fascinated me.
A ‘primitive’ Methodist chapel with a bible endorsed by the Catholic pope at the time of its publication in 1958: Pope Pius X11.
From the chapel, I walked down to Wath hamlet and resisted the siren call of a pint in the Sportsman’s Arms, which was packed on this sunny autumnal day.
I took the riverside path that borders the Nidd back to Pateley.
My energy levels were still great, so I chose the old railway line out of Pateley towards the beautiful village of Glasshouses, passing the old train turntable and sculptures of Pateley produced by local stone mason Joe Hayton, referenced earlier.
Joe’s superb sculptures depict the local Nidderdale links to farming, mining and monasteries.
Joe’s dad, John, another friendly local, was the model for one of them.
At Glasshouses, I followed the upper path that eventually enters Guisecliffe Woods, owned by Beverley and Nick.
When I had heard that they had, like Peter and Michelle, bought a woodland once they entered retirement, I had wondered ‘Why on earth?’
Now I totally get it.
These woodlands are all stunning,
They offer peace, tranquility, restoration and joy.
They are good for the body, spirit and soul.
The simple act of a ‘walk in the woods’, through lush Yorkshire woodland is good for you!
I was grateful for the community investment made by Nick and Beverley, Peter and Michelle, Biddy and Ron.
Local people ‘putting their money where their mouth’s are’ land allowing us to use them for free and gratis.
I took a new path back up to Yorke Follies
They certainly provide a beautiful location for sunrise and sunset photographs as well as an eye catching focal and view point for the whole area of Nidderdale.
My walk for this blog, was nearly over, though ‘my walk for the day’ was only at the half way point.
Regular readers of my blogs will know that for the last two months I have been actively involved in a teps challenge with the football community I play with every Sunday night in Leeds.
I came second in September with a total of 650,000 steps in the month, but losing out in a highly contentious manner to a late entry competitor named Alex.
I hoped to go one better in October but found myself on the day of my walk, languishing to the ‘walking machine’ that is Viso.
He plays football every week, like me.
Usually as a left, full back.
He is a decent footballer, possessing a surprisingly good Cruyff turn.
You, like me, would probably not anticipate him being a walking superstar.
Viso walked an amazing average of 25,000+ steps every day in October.
On that Friday I was 60,000 steps behind him.
I had reasoned that if I could get 80,000 steps in I might still have a chance of winning.
So whilst my walk for this blog’s purposes was at an end, it was only just at the half way point for my 80K goal.
I managed to squeeze another 30,000 steps out of my legs, to reach the respectable total of 70,000 steps (44 miles) walked across the day. Still short of my target though.
As I uploaded my daily score I wondered ‘could I?’
And secretly hoped I could!
Could I really have got near to Viso?
The daily scores uploaded!
Nooooooo!🫣
Disappointingly, I hadn’t!
Viso had walked over 32,000 steps on the same day meaning that I had to accept the inevitable!
Viso had beaten me fair and square.
It didn’t really matter.
I’d made him sweat a bit as he became aware of my intentions.
Leading up to the end of the month, we had swapped some banter and if I’m being honest, Viso deserved the win anyway.
Truth be told, I never mind losing, especially to people I like.
But I certainly enjoy the chase and the banter!
And in deference to my love of history, I’m always taken in by heroic failures.
Things like Scott’s race to the Antarctic or ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’
Or more recently, the ‘Oh so nearly’ escapades of the England men’s football team. 🫣
Not that my steps challenge really compares with any of them!🤪
As for me and the steps challenge?
There’s always November!
Third time lucky perhaps?
I finally strolled back past the sunset on ‘Sycamores Gap’ to home.
Even a normal wooden stock gate, looked amazing in that sunset!
As I walked through my own garden gate I remembered the slightly irritating BBC promotional ‘advert’ fronted by Romesh Ranganathan, the TV and radio ‘poster boy’ personality who seems to present so many BBC radio and television programmes.
Romesh isn’t particularly irritating himself, but his advert definitely is. This is the one where he asks:
‘What has the BBC ever done for me?
I changed his wording as I reflected on my day.
‘What has Pateley Bridge ever done for me?’
The answer is simple.
“P L E N T Y”
‘Pateley really has got Plenty’.
And……
‘Pateley Punches’ for sure.
I’d put Pateley Bridge on your ‘to visit list’ if I were you.
As for Terry, who asked the question: it’s simply a ‘Nike’ moment Terry….
I really don’t think he will be disappointed.
Thanks for the read
Martin x
Massive thanks to my Derbyshire based Editor in Chief, Sarah Cross. Sarah is slowly losing the will to live as she supports me as I try to achieve my ultimate goal: a typo free blog. Her attention to detail is futile as I keep posting the unedited version!
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All of my photographs remain ‘seen as ‘scene’!’ I really want you to see what I saw when I pressed my shutter: not a touched up version of a non reality.
Martin Moorman is a 61 year old retired Headteacher who lives with his wife Nicky, daughter Rosie and her family in North Yorkshire, UK.
Martin and Nicky have 3 grown up children, Rosie, Harry and Jake, all happily married too.
They are now grandparents too with a beautiful and feisty granddaughter aged 2 and a 2 week old grandson.
In his spare time Martin loves walking, photography, blogging, football, renovating, cooking and chatting to anyone who will listen!
