About Me

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Delta, British Columbia, Canada
I took very early retirement from teaching in '06 and did some traveling in Europe and the UK before settling down to do some private tutoring. As a voracious reader, I have many books waiting in line for me to read. Tell me I shouldn't read something, and I will. I'm a happy, optimistic person and I love to travel and through that believe that life can be a continuous learning experience. I'm looking forward to traveling more some day. I enjoy walking, cycling, water aerobics & and sports like tennis, volleyball, and fastpitch/baseball. I'm just getting into photography as a hobby and I'm enjoying learning all the bits and bobs of my digital camera. My family is everything to me and I'm delighted to be the mother of two girls and the Gramma of a boy and a girl. I may be a Gramma, but I'm at heart just a girl who wants to have fun.

Monday, November 07, 2016

R is for ROSEDALE in the North York Moors

One of the most fascinating places I visited last summer was the village and surrounding area of Rosedale, found in the North York Moors.  Now a peaceful, rural dale in the heart of the National Park, in the 19th century, Rosedale was part of industrial Yorkshire, with its ironstone mines, kilns and even a moorland railway. There's a fabulous 7½-mile circuit you can walk from pretty Rosedale Abbey village through rolling valley farmland and back into Rosedale. Along the way, you pass the old railway tracks and the impressive ruins of the old iron mines. 

We first went into Rosedale Abbey where services are still held.  There was a lovely tapestry hanging inside, old wooden pews, and a beautiful altar.  Then we wandered the village itself, with its row houses beautifully decorated with climbing roses and other exquisite gardens.  Entering what we thought was a china shop, we discovered Mr. Gillies Jones working on his stunning glassworks! He uses buildings built in 1827 that were used by village blacksmiths.  We had a lovely time admiring his absolutely stunning works but I was disappointed that I couldn't buy anything - because of the fragility of his pieces (and the cost was quite dear!).  To see his website click here.

After lunching at "Graze on the Green", we took a tootle around the countryside to see the moors full of sheep and the old iron mine entrances.  They really are quite impressive! We also saw farmyards with outbuildings, the old railway line, which was an impressive feat of engineering, built in the 1860s and winding 14 miles over the moors, across difficult terrain. 

From 1855 until 1926 the entire area rang with the sound of the Victorian industrial age. The valley was transformed with the opening of the ironstone mines, especially because of the building of giant roasting kilns, where the miners roasted the iron ore to reduce its weight for transportation and remove impurities. Vast quantities of ore were tipped into the kilns from the railway line above, mixed with coal and then set alight. A huge workforce was needed and the population of Rosedale increased rapidly to nearly 3000 people – more than ten times what it is today. Terraced houses in the dale were built for the miners, while the railwaymen occupied homes closer to the mines – you can still see their ruined remains.

Now you know a bit about the village and area of Rosedale, I'd like to present a short musical slideshow so you can actually "see" some of it.  Hope you enjoy it.  And with that, a resounding thanks to Mrs. Nesbit, Roger, and the team at ABC Wednesday for their unending work in keeping ABCW one of the longest running and most popular meme on the internet today.

Note:  all photographs were taken by me except for the ones of Gillies Jones and his studio and glassworks. Please see his website here.
Click to play this Smilebox slideshow

13 comments:

ellen b said...

I see why it was one of your favorite spots to explore. Fun video. The roses are so gorgeous against the stone walls. I'd love to be taking tea at the Graze on the Green! Great choice for the letter R, Leslie!

photowannabe said...

What a lovely place.
I think I would love to visit there too.
You always take the prettiest photos.

MelodyK said...

Wonderful Leslie, I totally can imagine that it took you all over

Maybe someday I can write about it too, hope to be able to visit it someday

Have a wonderful ABC-day / - week
♫ M e l ☺ d y ♫ (abc-w-team)
http://melodymusic.nl/a-b-c-wednesday-19r/

Photo Cache said...

Well done!


http://kilelong.blogspot.com

Amit Agarwal said...

Terrific Rosedale! Thank you for taking me along this virtual trip, Leslie:)

Hildred said...

Great post, Leslie. My visits to Yorkshire have been very much airforce oriented, involving Squadron Reunions, so have never had the opportunity to visit the small places or the moors. Smilebox is lovely...

Roger Owen Green said...

Very neat
I used to go to college in New Paltz, and the next town over was Rosendale.

Trubes said...

I enjoyed reading all of this lesley.
We had a holiday not to far from the abbey,
It was a very cold winter at Easter time (March).
We stayed on a farm at lambing time, 'the girls'
helped out and got to feed some new born lambs.
it really is a beautiful part of Yorkshire, I
loved the picture of the pink roses rambling
around the yorkshire ston wall,
Excellent photography too! Thanks for sharing
your trip with us,
Love Di xxx
ABCW team.

Joy said...

A most enjoyable trip to North Yorkshire from the comfort of my armchair.
In answer to your question yes there are usually boat trips at some points on canals, not often through locks though I think . There is one from Liverpool that goes to the ship canal that I've always fancied but it's a full day out.. Other places do afternoon tea on a canal boat and such like. The boat on the Lancaster canal does a fish and chip supper trip, English cuisine at its best:)

Gattina said...

What a beautiful place ! I had seen the North York Moors in "Escape to the country" I love these series because they show so very well the landscapes and important buildings.
The slideshow is very pretty, loved the work of this artist !

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

We have a long Rosebank road and Rosebank area in Auckland New Zealand.

Arnoldo L. Romero, MLA said...

Wow! Everything is so quaint and beautiful. Blessings!

Unknown said...

very nice
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