Woodward Farm House Bed & Breakfast

29/10/2026

Fabulously brilliant Remembrance Postbox Topper in Kirkbymoorside ❤️

29/10/2026

29/10/2026

29/10/2026

I thought my aunt & uncle were bonkers when they said they loved to wander around small old country churches. Fast forward a couple of decades... and... I can't resist peeking into ancient small churches. There's something very reassuring about their long-standing structures, some dating back almost 1000 years, with such a strong sense of peace, and permanence.

I'm usually drawn by a simple structure in a lovely location, then become intrigued by some details I spot, which lead me to research the local area, and then to get side-tracked into reading more and mulling on the origin of names, or trying to decipher some of the 'churchy' language...

How about 'three-trefoiled ogee light with reticulated tracery within a two-centred, double-chamfered arch'?! ...

Once you dig a little deeper some of the simplest places turn out to be full of amazing history. This is St. Michael and All Angels by Downholme in Swaledale.

In the adjoining field you can see lynchets and remains of ridge-and-furrow farming system. The village itself (why isn't it next to the church), is surrounded by signs of medieval farming, a former possibly Iron Age hill fort, evidence of lead-mining and a lime kiln, as well as a great pub and a story about an underground tunnel leading to Ellerton Abbey. I was interested to read that In 1841, the village population was around 110 with many working at the lime kiln. There was a school, 2 shoemakers, 4 wheelwrights and 2 butchers in the village at that time.

Ever feel drawn into visiting these beautiful places?

26/10/2026

🥾 THE LITTLE BRIDGE THAT CROSSES NO RIVER

🌉 In the middle of Sinnington's village green stands a small stone arch that seems to span nothing at all. It's known locally as 'The Small Bridge', and it's one of the village's best-loved curiosities.

🐎 It was built to carry packhorses across floodwater from the nearby River Seven. Historic England describes it as a flood bridge, set on a raised causeway over what is now a dry ditch. Once the old flood channel silted up, large stones were spread over the approaches, flattening the hump you'd expect on a packhorse bridge.

📜 Its age is a little uncertain. A sign nearby dates it to at least 1616, while the official listing puts it at around 1769, partly rebuilt in 1794 and restored in 1966. It may also have formed part of an old track towards Pickering, giving travellers a dry crossing over the marshy riverside.

https://www.paulbeal.com/appleton-le-moors

25/10/2026

Ever been 'on tenter hooks', 'had the wool pulled over your eyes' or 'got down to brass tacks'? We’re still using many expressions connected to sheep, wool and textiles in our every day speech, even if we don’t always realise it. Textiles were such an important part of the economy, it’s not surprising that countless sayings relate to the woollen industry.

Spindles were used for spinning wool, usually with a small round weight or stone fixed to the bottom. This was called a “whorl” and made the yarn tension more constant but sometimes took a while to get right. Nowadays we use the expression 'give it a whirl/whorl' to mean 'have a go'.

Spinning was traditionally done by women. Some one who was bad at spinning wasn’t expected to make a good wife, leading to the term 'spinster', meaning an unmarried woman whose only task was to spin.

After cloth was washed it was stretched out on frames and left to dry. It was held in place 'on tenter hooks' to prevent it losing its shape or flying away.

Factory or machine-made clothes or textiles were seen as less special, more ordinary than handmade clothes. These clothes were the 'run of the mill'.

We often describe some one as 'dyed in the wool', meaning someone whose views won't change. This saying originally came from when raw wool was dyed before it was processed or combed, and it was said to hold its colour longer.

'Getting down to brass tacks' means focusing on the detail. It relates to fabric being measured between two brass tacks set into the cutting counter.

When wool was spun on to a reel or “weasel”, it made a sound when a certain length of yarn was reached – as in 'pop goes the weasel' in the nursery rhyme.

White wool can be dyed many colours but wool from black sheep can only be spun into black wool, so you don’t want too many black sheep in your flock, hence the expression 'black sheep of the family'.

Judges were said to have the 'wool pulled over their eyes'. This apparently came from judges wearing wool wigs that slipped over their eyes so they became blind to the facts of the case.

24/10/2026

💫🔭 The further north you are and the darker your sky, the better your chances of witnessing the magic of the Aurora.

We’ve been incredibly lucky over the last year, with several spectacular displays dancing above the North York Moors. The latest appearance lit up the skies just last Sunday with phenomenal photos taken at iconic locations ✨

Any guesses where this stunning photo was taken?🔥

Discover more ways to experience the dark skies at our Dark Skies Fringe Festival (23 October to 1 November). See the full list of events by following the link in the comments.

📸 Gav Garner

24/10/2026

This can be walked direct from the Woodward Farm House

🥾 SINNINGTON: WHERE A FUTURE QUEEN ONCE LIVED

👑 Before she became Henry VIII's sixth wife, Catherine Parr lived here in Sinnington. From 1534 to 1543 she was Lady Latimer, the second wife of John Neville, 3rd Baron Latimer, whose family held the manor. Her brother William Parr held the manor at nearby Nunnington.

🏡 This peaceful village sits just off the A170 between Kirkbymoorside and Pickering, and it's where I begin my Appleton-le-Moors walk. There's a small car park beside the village hall, right in front of the maypole.

📜 Sinnington appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 under spellings such as Sevenicton. Before the Norman Conquest the manor belonged to a man named Torbrand, and afterwards it passed to the Norman baron Berenger de Toni. The name probably means "settlement associated with the River Seven", the river that still runs through the green.

🌾 Farming has always been the mainstay of village life, and the population has stayed at around 300 for centuries.

https://www.paulbeal.com/appleton-le-moors

23/10/2026

21/10/2026

Autumn colours