Masham, Yorkshire - (2) The town

Masham is a small historic market town in the lower part of Wensleydale standing near the River Ure. It is pronounced "Massam" coming from the name Maessa's Ham which was a the Anglo Saxon homestead (Ham) of the man Maessa.

Although the Romans lived here, It was more noted for inhabitants in Saxon times and then later when the Viking raiders came in 900 AD. Apart from burning the town and starting again with their own identity, they did bring an industry to the town for which it is still famous today ... sheep farming.

The market place has a nice mixture of Georgian houses and was the scene for sheep trading. The first market charter was granted in 1250 AD and still continues today on a much smaller scale during September.
In modern times it is probably more famous as the centre of brewing with Theakstons and The Black Sheep Brewery within walking distance of each other.

We arrived back at the square from our walk and some of the group seemed a little exhausted due to the acceleration at the end. The walk leader, who had booked a meal at 6pm, seemed worried about the time constantly and wanted to squeeze a tea /coffee shop break in as well at 4.30pm !

The group split into two and I joined the half  that just wanted a seat until closing time and didn't include the walk leader !!! Apologies to him !

At 5pm it was time to leave the tea shop as it was closing and have a very quick 1 hour tour around the market square.

Four of us decided to have a look in the church yard and subsequently inside the church before we were also kicked out of there !! ... at closing time.

Despite the building having a small amount of Saxon stonework, St Mary's church is mainly of Norman architecture that had later 15th century work modifications.

We were reminded at this point that the church was closing and it was time to think about the next phase of the day..... or rather evening

My driver thought it best to go down the stairs to the car park, change out of the muddy boots and bring the car up to the square for a quick exit after the meal...

17 of the party were booked into The Bay Horse in the smallest room possible for dinner. Anyone wishing to leave the table to go to a certain smaller room had to disturb half of the diners in the process. The other problem was that although the food was cooked fresh, it was extremely slow trying to serve 17 people and the whole experience took two hours. On the other hand, we were thankful that the walk leader didn't choose the other Pub !!.....

Masham, Yorkshire - (1) The walk

Masham is a historic market town which lies in the lower parts of Wensleydale in North Yorkshire.

This is a story about a walk leader, a path that wasn't at times and my hungry stomach that was !!!

Following the Grassington walk ( 30th August post), I decided that it would be a good idea to join the Yorkshire walking group for a slightly nearer location. My friend who organised the Richmond day out and was team manager for the sandcastle competition in Scarborough suggested that we travel from Newcastle in one car. He managed to fill two cars to travel south for the walk .... what a great organiser.
The first thing that struck me about Masham was the benevolent good will gesture from the local council... is this too good to be true....

Once we had agreed on a car parking price .... after the shared petrol money was agreed, we headed for the meeting point in the market square. There were quite a few of us to "control" and I was suitably told told off by the walk leader as he thought I was wandering off to take photographs which included part of the walk, Now I know that I have you all on my side as you want to see a few photos of the town but as a teaser for a part two of Masham and payback time for the walk leader, I now present you with the next photo.....

The walk leader decided to stand on the steps of the market cross and proceed to gain our attention and restrain us from talking to people we hadn't seen for a few months. I wasn't sure if it was an entertainment act that involved singing, dancing or just selling something... hope it was nothing red !! As he had researched the walk previously, it was worrying to see him in this attire as the word MUD came into my head.

We set off across fields on our 9.5 mile  (15 km ) walk following a river for most of the first half.

Hackfall wood was bought by John Aislabie in 1731 for the price of £906. He had made a name for himself by landscaping an estate and creating brick follies at the nearby Fountains Abbey now owned by the National Trust. This was another opportunity for him to do something similar that got a mention in a travel guide written by William Wordsworth of all people. As the centuries passed, Hackfall became a little overgrown with some footpaths falling into disrepair by the 20th century and it was only during the 1980's that two preservation societies saved the area from obscurity.

The entrance to the wood seemed as if we were stepping back into Albion or Hobbit country from Lord of the Rings as we waited our fate following the pleasant apologetic sign but no less worrying one. We had walked quite a way by this point and were allowed a short break here but not enough for lunch.

I had enough time to photograph a sample of Hobbit country before we set off on one of the muddiest forest paths I have seen in a long time. We went deeper into the forest.....

Possibly.....The hunger was starting to set in badly and anything that I saw seemed appealing !!....

Eventually we were treated to ... not food, but a view of the river with Masham church in the distance

At long last we arrived at the designated lunch stop. This was designed and constructed by William Aislabie who was the son of John around 1767 and was intended as a banqueting hall. The building called the ruin at Mowbray point has a classic front with Gothic windows whereas on the other side, a ruined arch is the main feature overlooking a ravine where ....we enjoyed lunch.

The building is owned and maintained by an interesting building preservation society called The Landmark Trust who rent the building out as a holiday home. As it was a self catering facility, there was a time restriction where we could only walk in the garden between 11am and 3pm.  I wasn't allowed outside the garden gate so I have to rely for the first time on another source to demonstrate the full picture.....

www.bbc.co.uk/northyorkshire/landmark_trust_gallery

After lunch, we left the wood and the path developed into a lane if that's what you would like to call it...

.... and about an hour, our thoughts turned to afternoon tea as we passed Swinton Park Hotel, but as we had been experiencing some soft, brown, wet countryside underfoot, I thought that we might not be welcome......

www.swintonpark.com

Lastly, as we thought more about the food that we were going to have in Masham that evening, an animal of some unusual description decided that it was going to get there before us.......