Rievaulx

I backblipped yesterday’s bit of history … sorry, can’t do links properly on the iPad. https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/3211634375397476618

Today’s was rather more grandiose. As we are at a bit of a loose end, not being able to visit S’s mum, we decided to have a day out. Normally when we are here we barely leave the house as the point is to spend time with S’s mum. So we haven’t really seen the sights around here for years.

We started off in the village of Wass, a small but picturesque and posh village near Thirsk. We parked next to the church. We’re not normally wild about churches, but this one looked interestingly domestic, so we went inside. Looking at it we became convinced that it was either a barn or a domestic building repurposed as a church. It was very cosy inside, and we spent a while using our archaeological skills to try and analyse the building and any modifications. A low attached building looked suspiciously like a pig shed. Look at the extra … do those look like church windows to you?

Anyway. Google being no help on this topic, we headed to the village pub for our lunch. Arriving at midday, the only customers were us and one other couple, but within 20 minutes the place had filled up with cashmere-clad Ladies Who Lunch, and a few husbands. Deservedly so, our meal was absolutely delicious. Perfectly cooked roast lamb with a blueberry and mint sauce for me, and proper smoked haddock and leeks in a cheese sauce for S, both served with dauphinois potatoes. I succumbed to a passion fruit Eton mess for pudding, and S helped me eat it.

From there we proceeded to our goal for the day, Rievaulx Abbey. We were both sure we must have been there before, but on our arrival we realised we couldn’t have been, because we’d have remembered it. It’s huge. Just the church is on a Notre Dame scale. At its height there were 140 monks and 500 lay brothers, but by the time of the dissolution of the monasteries there were only a handful left. It was sold to an aristocrat who trashed the place and sold as much as he could for scrap. The sun did briefly peep out from behind thick clouds, so I did my best to take photos that capture the majesty. Will process them properly when I’m back home.

From there we returned home along wibbly wobbly Yorkshire roads amid beautiful scenery, with a detour via the huge Tesco in Coulby Newham to buy cheese, crackers, grapes, and wine — that’s supper sorted.