A visit to West Yorkshire (2023)

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Bramham

After our short stay in Northumberland we headed for our friends’ Valerie and Kenn in the pretty village of Bramham, West Yorkshire.

Village sign
Carr Beck
Carr Beck
Old milestone
Church Hill
All Saints’ Church

While there we made three visits which would normally merit a post each but in this retrospective catch-up I’m restricting myself to severely edited highlights.

Stillingfleet Lodge Gardens

Stillingfleet Lodge

Valerie volunteers at this garden in the summer so it was nice to see the place I had heard about. We admired the gardens:

Stillingfleet Lodge Gardens
Stillingfleet Lodge Gardens
Stillingfleet Lodge Gardens
Stillingfleet Lodge Gardens

Where you might have noticed that there were birds as well as flowers, some more feathery than others:

Stillingfleet Lodge Gardens
Stillingfleet Lodge Gardens
Stillingfleet Lodge Gardens
Stillingfleet Lodge Gardens

And I sat on benches with friends old and new! (Waves to Jude).

Valerie, Kenn, Anabel
Anabel and new friend

Temple Newsam

Temple Newsam

Temple Newsam is one of the great houses of England, perhaps most famous as the birthplace of Lord Darnley, ill-fated second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. For the last 100 years it has been owned by the City of Leeds and is now part of their museum service so it has aspects of both a stately home and an exhibition space.

Forever Spring by Diana Beltran Herrera
Garden
Old and new vases
Hall
Bedroom
Hall

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Family of Man by Barbara Hepworth

I have wanted to visit YSP for years. It didn’t disappoint and we came away with far too many photographs, just a few of which feature here. We started at the quirky temporary exhibition, Erwin Wurm: Trap of the Truth, which we enjoyed – both of us became part of the art. That’s my hand and foot sticking out of the caravan, and John followed the instructions on one of the stools.

Erwin Wurm
Erwin Wurm
Erwin Wurm
Erwin Wurm
Erwin Wurm

As well as the art, the park also provides a very pleasant walk as you can see. Unfortunately, I can no longer remember what most of the sculptures are so have chosen mostly general views.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Anabel and Valerie
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Sophie Ryder: Sitting (2007)
By Daniel Arsham

After our visit to Bramham we continued on to another friend’s in Derby. Our stop on the way was in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire – not part of any regular tourist trail but a place of significance to us. It will definitely get a post of its own.

England, UK , , , ,

63 Comments »

  1. Pingback: A visit to West Yorkshire (2023) – 1MZS – the magazine

  2. Hi Anabel – thank you for sharing with us … one day I’ll get up to that neck of the woods – and will include these three places to visit … I hadn’t realised the sculpture park had modern pieces too (stupid of me I suppose!), then Temple Newsam – what an interesting building and museum. Great – cheers Hilary

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  4. Pingback: This week’s small pleasures #438 – Thistles and Kiwis


  5. Nice visit to a beautiful place.

    We are back online after being away for a month…we are just getting started in processing the thousands of pictures we have taken so posts have started to trickle in slowly…(Suzanne)

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  7. Can’t beat a UK spring and summer. It is one of the wonders of the world. From bleak ground zero, plant life wise, in winter, to overflowing lush landscapes everywhere you look. Bob. BSS.

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  9. 2023! You have a serious backlog. You will have to sit at home and read books for a few months I fear.

    On a more serious note, I can’t believe that we have not visited the YSP despite numerous family holidays in Yorkshire. I will have to address this. It looks fantastic and right up my street. 🙂

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  11. Yay for West Yorkshire! Bramham looks such a pretty village. One we’ve driven past the turn off for numerous times, but never been to. Stillingfleet looks lovely. A friend does similar volunteer stuff down in Devon. We were at Temple Newsam for the Christmas lights, and are also overdue a return visit to the YSP. Successful trip, Anabel xx

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  12. North Yorkshire is a beautiful area and I would’ve loved visiting the sculpture park. Lovely photos from your other half. Especially the photo of the three of you sitting on the bench.

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  14. Beautiful scenes and art. What is s sticking out of the giant head in the last shot? Loved the photos of you with your bench buddies. What is the story behind the name Temple Newsam?

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    • There are metal bars – I might have known the significance at the time, but almost 2 years later it escapes me! Unless an actual temple is present, Temple in a name usually means the land was once owned by the Knights Templar. -am is possibly a contraction of -ham as in Birmingham etc, a settlement.

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  17. I used to zoom past the Bramham turnoff on my way up and down the A1, That was many years ago, before it got ‘M’d! To me it always meant the Horse Trails (three day event, not lawyers!). I didn’t realise there were lots of other interesting things to do there as well.

    Sigh.. the things I’ve missed!

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  22. We’re so overdue a return visit to YSP. It’s just slightly too far away for an impromptu outing. And Temple Newsam was quite a go-to place when the children were small. But more for its parkland and farm. Don’t you dare go to Yorkshire again without consulting us!

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  26. The gardens at Stillingfleet Lodge look lovely. If those stool hadn’t been quite so visible it would have looked like John was levitating – or was that the idea of them? Love the hand and foot in the caravan, that’s the sort of daft thing which would make me laugh, and the van up the wall is just ace😀

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