Newby Continued

This is the second post about our visit to Newby Hall & gardens last week. The walk back through the Newby estate along the drive splits up at one point, with a narrower lane leading towards the Church of Christ the Consoler. We took that lane to have a closer look at the church inside and out.

You can read the facts here on wikipedia if you like; I won't bore you with too many names and dates (also, I don't have all that much time, since today is only my 2nd day back at work after two weeks away).

Much about the decorative work and the architecture itself reminded us of St. Mary's on the Studley Royal/Fountains Abbey estate - hardly surprising, as the architect was the same: William Burges. Also, the reason for having the church built was the same: a young man was kidnapped and murdered by brigands in Greece. This church was commissioned in his memory by his mother, the one at Studley/Fountains by his sister.

There was nobody about when we arrived, and so my sister and I were able to explore at leisure. All was very still and peaceful on that Wednesday afternoon.

It was only a short walk from there into the village of Skelton-on-Ure and to the bus stop, where we had almost an hour's time until our bus arrived. There is no pub, no real shop or anything else to go to in Skelton, but we did walk up and down the main street to look at the (mostly) well kept houses and gardens, and at the (quite neglected looking) chapel of St. Helen, which was closed.

The rest of the time we spent sitting on the garden wall by the bus stop. Like in many villages in England nowadays, the phone booth contains no working phone anymore, but has been converted into a sort of mini library or book exchange. Here, it was called "Village Office" and held a notice board, leaflets and other information villagers might find useful, plus a shelf and box of books. I picked "James Herriot's Yorkshire" to pass the waiting time.

As before, the bus journey took only about 10 minutes, and we were back in Ripon with about half an hour to spare before we took off again: Our former landlady had invited us for the evening to her new house. 

We enjoyed that greatly - the company (Sue is lovely!), the meal and drinks, and we love her new house. She has furnished and decorated it very nicely, combining the "scandi" style of the house with some antique pieces, and we recognised much of the furniture from the old cottage. I'd move in there straight away and would hardly change a thing!