When is a natural woodland not a natural woodland? Answer: when it has been carefully designed, landscaped and dotted with follies. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a delight to explore; quite the contrary!
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Have you ever thought about how ropes are made? Or at least, how they were traditionally made? Historically there was great demand for ropes, especially wherever there were ships. And the ropes needed to be long. To make them required space to walk, as strands of the chosen fibre needed to be spread out and twisted together.
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The River Ure skirts the ancient city of Ripon on its eastern side. In the 1770s a canal was built, engineered by William Jessop, to link the river with the city centre. As canals go it was on the short side, just 2.3 miles long and with three locks.
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Early in the 8th century the then bishop of York, John, founded a monastery. When he died in 721 his body was buried in a chapel of the monastery’s Saxon church. In 1037 he was canonised and his monastery, and the town that had grown up around it, became a place of pilgrimage.
