An autumn walk along the Swale

Before we get too far into the winter season, I must show you some photos of a river walk, not along Tweed this time, but along the Swale in Yorkshire.  When I lived in Yorkshire for a few years my house was about 100 yards from the upper reaches of the river Swale, but this walk was further downstream, from Easby Abbey up to Richmond and back – a round trip.  http://where2walk.co.uk/yorkshire_dales/walks_through_history/easby-abbey-from-richmond/

It was a beautiful day as we drove up from CB’s house to Easby, on my last visit.  As we came down through Abbey wood, there were the ruins of the 12th century Easby Abbey, a sizeable group of buildings, destroyed in the 16th century after the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII.

We parked in the Abbey car park and began our walk along a little lane, leaving it further on, to walk down a field, past St Agatha’s House then  through the gate onto the riverside path through the trees.

Buster, the collie dog, came with us, and he had fun chasing the sticks we threw for him, while we walked and talked along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

The trees were beautiful, beginning to turn to autumn browns and yellows, a bit behind the trees further north at home.

 

 

 

 

There has been a fair amount of erosion along the path nearer to Richmond and we found these exposed tree roots, hanging on to the banking.

Soon we were approaching Richmond and could see the old  church of St Mary’s ahead.  When I was little, and we were staying with Richmond friends of my mother’s, Dad often used to take time to travel into Darlington by train to make calls to certain booksellers who sold some of his firm’s publications, such as ready reckoners, contour road books, and even a couple of astronomy books.  I was eventually allowed to walk with Dad from where we stayed, down through St Mary’s churchyard and on to the station, to wave goodbye to him as he left on the train for the day in some “shadowy big town far away”.  Well, if you were going by train it had to be far away.

The train doesn’t run between Darlington and Richmond any more, the line closing in 1969 and the station with listed building status became a garden centre.  A swimming pool was built in one of the railway buildings and nowadays the Station is a sort of an Arts Centre, with two cinemas, a restaurant, various rather lovely retail outlets, a brewery, a cheese maker’s, a heritage centre and art gallery.

Before we reached the station though we still had a bit to walk, under the old Station Bridge  (We are looking back at the bridge here, at the side which was washed away by storms some years ago.  It’s repaired now and looking as good as ever).and up to where the Gas works used to be, past the falls and on a bit further to visit some friends who live beside the Swale.

After a pleasant visit with Mike and Ruth, we came back to the Falls, and made our way to the Station, having crossed the bridge,  where the next section of our walk was along the old railway bed.

Dad would have had some nice views from the train all those years ago. We saw Easby Abbey with Easby Hall behind it across the river but had to walk further along to another bridge then double back to where we had parked the car. 

I think Easby Hall is a guest house or Boutique hotel these days. Nice looking building. 

 

So there we were!  Back in the car it was only a short drive back home again.  I’m enjoying being able to walk greater distances than recently!  I wonder where the next walk will be!

Talk again soon.