Thursday in Littlethorpe

Littlethorpe is a small village just outside Ripon, across the bypass. A., my sister-in-law, lives there with her husband, an elderly cat and occasionally her daughter's dog. I have blogged about Littlethorpe before (for instance, last year), but this year it was the first (and only) time we actually went there.

Thursday (30 July) was our last day in Ripon before leaving on Friday morning. Knowing we were going to spend the following day entirely either sitting on trains or waiting at some station or other, we wanted to give our legs a good opportunity to stretch and decided on a walk to Littlethorpe.

J., our landlady, joined us, which was very nice. Her broken wrist stops her from driving and doing some jobs she normally does around the house, but not from walking. The weather was fine as before, at a very pleasant 22C and a breeze.

It isn't all that far from the cottage on Coltsgate Hill to Littlethorpe. The shortest way is across Ripon's centre and down to the canal; along there, one can reach Littlethorpe via a bridge over the canal.

To our surprise, we found the small church open - a first! There were a few ladies on church business, but they were just finishing, and we were welcome to have a look around. That was done quickly, as the church really is small. Because the ladies were still there, I didn't take pictures of the inside. You can find out more about the church (and the village) on the official website.

Our friend Neill had told us about the potteries at one end of Littlethorpe; at one time in the past, there were several of them, each specialising on a different type of product: One would make roof tiles, another one drain pipes, the next crockery, and so on. The clay was taken conveniently from a local clay pit, originally allowing for the pottery industry to start in this small village. Nowadays, there is only one left.

My sister and J. had never been this way, but I knew it from years back when I still came to Ripon on my own, staying with my mother-in-law first and later at my sister-in-law's in Littlethorpe.

The aptly named Pottery Lane took us past some very nice houses (you could almost call some of them mansions) set in beautiful gardens. There were few people about and only the occasional car.

Before leaving Littlethorpe completely behind, we turned back. At the church, we took a different road than the way we had come up from the canal, and I was pleased to find the former School House still as charming as ever (it has also featured a few times on my blog - I'd love to live in a house like this!).

Across the bypass, we reached Ripon's centre in time for lunch, around three hours after we'd set off in the morning. All three of us love Indian food, and so Realitea was the obvious choice. The food was once again delicious.

A rest at home was in order after that, followed (as usual) by coffee and tea on the bench in front of the house. This time, we also had cake - freshly baked at Realitea's, and fantastic!

After that, we both felt the need for yet another walk; this time a shorter one along the river Skell within the boundaries of Ripon. 

It was my turn to make our evening meal, and I used up what still was in the fridge; we couldn't take dairy products or other perishable food with us on the trip tomorrow. I made a batch of mash out of the remaining Jersey spuds, a leafy salad with avocado and cubes of cheese, and heated a pack of small pasties we'd bought for convenience a few days earlier but hadn't gotten round to eating.

This was our good-bye meal, eaten while watching an old episode of Vera. The only thing left to do that evening was to pack; my packing was done in about half an hour, including figuring out how to fit the five paperbacks I bought into my suitcase as well as the Emma Bridgwater mugs I had been given as a wedding present.