Category - Digest

Fountains Abbey – Yorkshire, England

One of the more expansive and well preserved ruins in Yorkshire, built by the Cistercians from the 12th to 14th centuries and, like the others, dissolved by Henry III in the mid 1500s.

I visited Fountains when I was here last year, but arrived late in the day and only managed to patrol the perimeter, so to speak. I never got inside.

This time I spent almost 10 hours on the property. I arrived shortly after the grounds opened, had a private tour (nobody else showed up) for about two hours, and then stayed well into the evening.

I didn’t know when I decided to spend the day at Fountains that Saturdays in the autumn they light the place up, offer picnics and barbecue, and then a choir performs in the vaulted chambers beneath beneath the refectory.

The “Elysian Singers” perform in the cellarium at Fountains Abbey

Jervaux Abbey in Yorkshire is off the beaten path… it’s on a privately owned estate, so it doesn’t show up in any of the English Heritage guides. I learned about it from chatting with the attendant in the visitor center at Kirkstall Abbey.

When I see paintings of these ruins from the “Romantic” period – late 18th, early 19th centuries – they are often depicted as lushly overgrown with foliage hanging from the walls and columns. But today, they are mostly well maintained, the foliage trimmed and cut back almost to the point of non-existence.

So Jervaux Abbey was something of a throwback to an earlier time… the owners apparently spend a whole lot of money trimming the foliage. So more than any other ruin I visited during this trip, Jervaux recalls the paintings of JMW Turner, who, I learned, sat on this very hill in 1816 (almost 200 years ago) and sketched this ruin for a Yorkshire visitor guide.

Not familiar with JMW Turner? You will be soon… there is a major feature film about him coming to the US later this fall… In the meantime, Google him…

Because nothing says “cozy English cafe” like three Chinese icons hanging on the wall above a warning about wet floors…

Cambridge Cafe, Cambridge St. – Harrogate, Yorkshire England

From the ramparts atop the keep at MIddleham Castle in Yorkshire, England. This was one of the prime seats of the Neville family, who fought with the Percy’s for control of The North and figured prominently in the Wars of the Roses. Richard III spent a lot of time here as a child.