Educating Yorkshire is set to return to Channel 4 for a brand new series, with Headteacher Matthew Burton and the students of Thornhill Community Academy back on screens once again.
Mr Burton teaching students in Educating Yorkshire in 2013(Image: Channel 4/PA)
Channel 4 has confirmed that one of British television’s most celebrated documentary series is making its return.
Educating Yorkshire has been given the green light for a brand new run, and fans will be thrilled.
More than a decade on from its debut, the Channel 4 show that captured the hearts of the nation is heading back to Thornhill Community Academy in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, where cameras will once again follow the staff and pupils navigating the highs and lows of school life.
Burton, who remains at the helm of Thornhill, will be front and centre once again in the new series.
After more than a decade off air, the show staged a remarkable comeback in 2025, earning a BAFTA nomination and pulling in a staggering 8.7 million viewers across linear and streaming platforms.
People were quick to praise the show’s comeback at the time, with one person commenting: “This is brilliant!!”
Another added: “Im so over the moon this is back absolutely brilliant. Ive watched Mr Burton and Mushy episodes over again . Its been too long – welcome back . No doubt there will be lots of laughs and tears – love it love it love it.”
Someone else wrote: “I can not wait for the new series of Educating Yorkshire.” While another commented: “Omggggg is he back!?!? That teacher is the reason I want to teach in the first place.”
Channel 4 revealed that the programme attracted 8.7 million viewers across linear and streaming platforms, proving a particular hit with younger audiences and securing a 28% share of 16-34s.
The show has clearly left a lasting impression, with three in ten viewers aged between 16 and 34 saying Educating Yorkshire had inspired them to consider pursuing a career in education or youth work.
Grace Reynolds, Exec Producer, commented: “The extraordinary teachers and staff help the students navigate some of the most important years of their lives.
“While headlines often focus on the challenges facing teenagers today, our experience making the series tells a different story. Spend time in Thornhill and you’ll find resilience, compassion, ambition and optimism. If it reminds us of anything, it’s that the future is in remarkably good hands.”
No broadcast date has yet been confirmed for the new series.
Educating Yorkshire is available to watch on Channel 4.
The Owen family are back on screens today as a repeat episode of Our Farm Next Door airs
Amanda Owen made a sad discovery about Anty John’s(Image: ITV)
Amanda Owen reflected on the future at Anty John’s after making a morbid discovery.
Amanda, who has described owning Anty John’s “as a dream come true”, has captivated viewers for years with her rugged rural life on the North Yorkshire Moors.
The farmer, author and TV personality rose to fame through the Channel 5 series Our Yorkshire Farm, which followed her life at Ravenseat Farm alongside her nine children — Raven, Reuben, Miles, Edith, Violet, Sidney, Annas, Clemmie and Nancy — and her then-husband Clive Owen.
Since her split from Clive in 2022, Amanda has embarked on a new chapter, taking on Anty Johns, a historic property that has become the subject of her latest Channel 5 series, Our Farm Next Door.
The show follows Amanda and her children as they restore and settle into their new home, and during a repeat airing on Sunday, it took a distinctly “morbid” turn.
Taking advantage of a day off from the demanding farm work that keeps her and her nine children busy, Amanda paid a visit to Derek at the County Records Office. There, the historian uncovered the diary of Anty Johns’ former owner, revealing that the man had breathed his last breath within the very walls of the property.
Eager to unearth the secrets of her new home’s past, Amanda made her wishes clear to the historian: “I guess what I am wanting to find out is who in this extensive family tree was actually residing in my house at Anty Johns.”
Turning his attention to Anthony Clarkson’s ancestry, Derek guided Amanda through the Clarksons’ family history, concluding with John, the last of the bloodline to live at Anty Johns, who died in 1900.
Fascinated by the records, including details of John Clarkson’s inquest, Amanda read aloud from the document: “The body of the man, aged about 81, is lying dead at Smithy Home (Anty Johns).”
She discovered John’s final moments: “Time of death 6am, 5th December 1900. At about 9am on Tuesday, the housekeeper, Anne, proposed to send for the doctor, but the deceased would not hear of it.”
Amanda went on, quoting: “And said, ‘I shall soon be better and about’. I know it’s kind of morbid, but it sort of humanises people when you hear about it.”
Recounting the history, she added: “So basically, we know in 1900, the last Clarkson died upstairs in a bedroom at Smithy Home.”
Searching for further family stories, Derek highlighted that Anthony’s marriage records would prove crucial. Anthony wed his first wife in 1818, and shortly after their marriage they welcomed four children and made Smithy Home their residence.
Anthony’s second wife’s death was recorded as Angina, a touching detail discovered amongst the documents. A diary penned by one of Anthony’s children, James, also provides glimpses into his father’s passing.
Our Farm Next Door: Amanda, Clive and Kids is available to watch on Channel 4.
Surrey were not in too bad a spot against Essex when they were 42-1 in the sixth over.
But the hosts slumped to 123 all out, with Matt Critchley the pick of the bowlers for Essex, taking 3-16 from four overs and only Josh Philippe (33) scoring more than 30.
Michael Pepper hit a fine unbeaten 71 for Essex, who made light work of the run chase, knocking it off inside 17 overs.
Defeat for Surrey means they finished second behind Hampshire and surrendered the opportunity of a home quarter-final.
Hilton Cartwright and Ben Mayes produced an excellent 112-run partnership in 10 overs to rescue already qualified Hampshire’s run chase and beat Sussex by four wickets.
Chasing 187, Cartwright hit 70 from just 31 balls and Mayes ended unbeaten on 55 as the Hawks recovered from 61-5 to seal victory off the penultimate ball of the match.
Dan Hughes had scored 55 and Charlie Tear finished 40 not out for Sussex but it was not enough as the Hove side finish bottom of the group with only three wins from their 12 games.
Victory for Hampshire guaranteed a home quarter-final.
Middlesex ended another disappointing campaign with a consolation 14-run victory in their dead rubber against Kent Spitfires at Canterbury.
Zafar Gohar grabbed 3-38, including the wicket of Zak Crawley (10), as the Spitfires fell short of their victory target after Ben Geddes had top-scored with 32 in the Middlesex effort of 172-6.
A CLOSED English pier is set to be knocked down for good – with plans to build an entirely new one instead.
Victoria Pier in Hull has been closed for four years after being deemed ‘structurally unsafe’.
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Victoria Pier has been in Hull for over 200 yearsCredit: CollectLocals have been asked to vote on a new design for Victoria PierCredit: Mason Clark Associates/Hull City Council
The historical structure, that stands over Humber Estuary, is instead set to be replaced with a new £1million pier.
The pier first opened in 1810, and later was known as Corporation Pier when it was used as a ferry terminal linking Hull and Lincolnshire.
It was renamed ‘Victoria Pier’ after Queen Victoria visited in 1854, but closed in June 2022 after deterioration and rotting, making it unsafe for people to stand on.
Now the plans are to knock it down and build a new one.
Things seem to be taking their toll on Amanda Owen as she admits to feeling rather ‘stressed’ during an episode of Our Farm Next Door
17:31, 19 Jun 2026Updated 17:32, 19 Jun 2026
Our Farm Next Door returns in trailer for new series
Our Farm Next Door star Amanda Owen appears to feel the heat as she makes a frank admission moments into the show.
In a repeat episode from series three of Our Farm Next Door: Amanda, Clive and Kids, which airs tonight (Friday 19 June), work continues on the farmhouse renovation as builder Richard starts plastering the interior walls and joiner Dan delivers and fits the custom-made doors.
As the project progresses, Amanda begins to feel the strain of the ambitious build, particularly when it comes to making key design choices for the kitchen, which proves to be one of the most challenging parts of the renovation.
Balancing modern practicality with strict historical preservation, Amanda expressed her confusion, admitting she was unsure where things would go.
When asked where she would like a certain socket to be placed, the mother of nine put her hands on her and said: “I don’t know, I’m beginning to start feeling really stressed about this.”
Talking directly to the camera, she then said: “I don’t want to start throwing impossible ideas around. I mean the whole project looked impossible from a start off so I think I’ve done well!”
Broadcast on Channel 4, the spin-off series from Our Yorkshire Farm sees the Owen family undertake the ambitious restoration of a long-abandoned farmhouse in the Yorkshire Dales. The project centres on a centuries-old property known locally as Anty John’s, which has fallen into disrepair after years of neglect.
Set high above Swaledale, the historic building holds a special place in the area’s heritage, and the Owen family is determined to bring it back to life.
Throughout the programme, viewers follow the extensive renovation as builders, family members and local tradespeople work to restore the structure while preserving its original character. From rebuilding walls and repairing roofs to installing modern amenities, the project proves to be both demanding and rewarding.
The show also explores the history of the property itself, with Amanda researching the people who once lived there and uncovering stories that shed light on life in the Dales across generations.
However, away from the building site, the programme continues to document life on the family’s nearby farm, Ravenseat. As ever, farming remains a full-time commitment, with the cameras capturing everything from lambing season to the day-to-day challenges of caring for livestock.
The show arrives as the Owen family enters a new phase, with their children taking on greater responsibilities and becoming more involved in both farming and the renovation project.
Our Farm Next Door: Amanda, Clive and Kids airs tonight at 8pm on More4.
A couple who were flying out of Manchester Airport were furious after realising a major downside to spending £150 each on seats with extra legroom – with the couple vowing ‘never again’
The couple were furious after realising they made a mistake when paying for extra legroom (stock)(Image: Nasir Kachroo/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
A passenger on a plane was furious after paying £150 for extra legroom on a flight, before realising one major downside. Being comfortable when travelling is one of the most important things for passengers.
Depending on where you are travelling to, you could be on a plane for up to 19 hours, so being somewhat comfortable is important if you’re planning to sleep while onboard. There are a number of ways people can ensure comfort on a flight including upgrading seats to extra legroom or buying a first-class ticket for the duration of the flight.
Upgrades, however, do come at a cost which can be thousands of pounds on top of the initial flight price – which can already be pricy enough.
But if you’re travelling on a smaller plane, the only upgrade available can be a seat with extra legroom, also known as exit row seats.
Sitting in this row means that you must both be physically and mentally able, and willing, to help cabin crew open the heavy exit door and assist them in the event of an evacuation.
They were initially happy with their seats, until the flight took of and the seatbelt signs were turned off, and they instantly realised the downside to paying extra money for their flight.
The couple said: “You pay £150 for extra legroom seats just to have people queuing for the toilet right in front of you. The British people see a queue and love to join it. There was a free toilet approx 10 rows back but here they are.”
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They shared a video on TikTok showing the situation, where a crowd of people were seen standing waiting for the toilet right in front of them.
The couple were unable to extend their legs and were forced to be sat the same as anyone else on the flight due to the amount of people in front of them.
Other people commented on the video to explain how they had also learned the hard way after purchasing seats with extra legroom.
One person said: “This always happens and exactly why I’d never choose those seats! Plus the smell.”
The couple replied: “Literally never again! we had the ones in the middle on the way to Mexico which weren’t as bad, but these seats were the worst!!”
Another person said: “I just leave my feet out and they have to move around them. I’ve never been stood on …yet.”
A third person said: “I did this when I had a cast on my leg and some pensioner stepped over my leg and tripped then had the cheek to look at me like it was my fault.”
Limestone stretches on all sides like an inland ocean – appropriately enough, since the shimmering white rock has its ancient origins in coral, shells and the skeletons of sea creatures. We advance carefully, stepping on clints (blocks of rock) and avoiding grykes (the deep fissures between them). It’s a warm, dry day and, even if it were not, limestone drains better than most types of terrain. For a long while, it’s broad, flat and hallucinatory and then, suddenly, the rocky sea collapses like a waterfall and we’re at the edge of a huge fault. The words Yorkshire Dales might evoke pretty villages and walled-in sheep fields, but this landscape is raw and wild, the kind of natural realm WH Auden celebrated in his poem In Praise of Limestone, and the kind that prompts geological speculation and inward ruminations. To cap it all, there are just three of us and nothing much and no one else all the way to the far horizons.
It’s my first decent yomp of the spring. I’ve come here with two walking pals on the egregiously under-promoted direct train that connects Rochdale and Manchester with the national park and Yorkshire’s Three Peaks. While the Leeds-Settle-Carlisle service – which recently celebrated its 150th birthday – is deservedly famous, the Yorkshire Dales Explorer, which started in June 2024, is much less celebrated. It’s also far less frequent. Trains travel between Leeds and Settle, continuing to Carlisle or Morecambe, 20 times a day Monday to Saturday, 11 times on Sundays. Trains between Manchester Victoria and Settle run on Saturdays only and just once in the morning each way and once in the late afternoon.
On the limestone escarpment on Moughton Scar above Austwick. Photograph: Chris Moss
We alight at Horton-in-Ribblesdale, the penultimate station before the terminus at Ribblehead, where rises the magnificent viaduct. Both stops are great for walkers, but ours takes us immediately into the heart of the Three Peaks. Pen-y-ghent is behind us as we leave the station, Ingleborough ahead and, to the north, on our far right, is Whernside. All have summits of about 700 metres and if you’re super fit, you can do them in one day – even between the two train services if you want a challenge. The men’s running record is 2hrs 46mins 3secs, set by Andy Peace, of Bingley Harriers, in 1996. Victoria Wilkinson, from the same club, set the women’s record, 3hrs 9mins 19secs, in 2017. It’s more than 23 miles (37km), and trained, fit walkers can manage it in 8-10 hours.
Ours is a less daunting mission: walking on a plateau between the peaks down to Settle, for a pub lunch. It’s still an adventure in the sense that there are very few marked footpaths on the OS app (OL2 is the Ordnance Survey printed map), but this is open access land and so you find your own route. We use cairns to navigate, climbing from the station platform at about 250 metres to the Moughton trig point at 427 metres, where we get a sweeping view of the Yorkshire Three Peaks and Bowland Fells to our south and west, and a chance for a cuppa. I hear my first skylarks of the season, but the air is also filled with the unmistakeable gurgling croak of ravens. Shake holes break up the limestone pavement and you have to be alert to these sudden depressions, but the only significant obstacle is getting down the scars, where the elevation suddenly drops tens of feet. At Long Scar we pause to plot a path and to take in the vertical edge, and in the middle distance, the Norber Erratics – 100-plus boulders transported long ago by glaciers and abandoned wantonly above the village of Austwick.
But the edge is enthralling. You can imagine this formation as an underwater cliff, aeons ago, though glaciation, weather and uplift have played their part in creating the static drama. It could be a rift in the Patagonian steppe or a Yorkshire-tinted section of Arizona’s Monument Valley. We sight an obelisk and head for that and soon find ourselves at the edge of another drop, Moughton Scar, where we descend again, passing a massive quarry; here the material hewed out of the strata is a tough gritstone called greywacke, the colour of cement.
The ‘magnificent’ Ribblehead viaduct. Photograph: Amazing Aerial/Alamy
It’s green and agricultural the rest of the way, and while we’re hitting the 10-mile stage of the walk, it’s fine to have wobbly legs now we’re off the tricky pavement. Wild garlic is bursting through, newborn lambs are dozing, and daffodils are sprouting around the tiny hamlet of Feizor, where there’s a teashop that used to be for walkers but now seems to pull in mainly car tourists.
We plough on, over two small rises, and finally on to the banks of the Ribble, which begins its long, meandering journey close to where we began. Settle is full of bikers, shoppers and sightseers, but there are also pints and late lunches in the pubs. We’re contented and have earned our pies. We can either get the late train back or hop on the number 11 minibus to Clitheroe. Those travelling from farther afield have the backup option of later trains to Leeds or Lancaster.
Ours was an ideal first long walk if you’re getting back into exercise after the wet winter. If you want to use the train to attempt the Three Peaks, I’d recommend splitting up the hikes over a weekend. Horton to Pen-y-ghent and then on to Ribblehead, 10 miles all told, is a nice day’s jaunt. You can do Whernside and Ingleborough on the following day, covering a similar distance, ending back at Horton. There’s a choice of campsites and a pub with rooms – the Station Inn – at Ribblehead.
The three hills have different qualities. Pen-y-ghent is a proper big lump, with a dramatically steep southern face that requires a short scramble. Ingleborough is a similar shape, but more haughty and spread out, almost mesa-like in its flat-topped appearance. Whernside is a long-elevated whale-back ridge, running north to south.
I can see the Three Peaks from my kitchen window, 22 miles away as the raven flies. The day before our hike, it had rained at home. But it had snowed on the top of the peaks, making them look out of place. They bear the full brunt of cold westerlies and are higher than anything nearby, and consequently create a micro-season of their own. Bear that in mind if you’re aiming to bag them on your next weekend outing.
The beautiful town will see a total transformation with the multi-million pound regeneration project — and work is expected to kick off in full force at the end of May.
The northern town will undergo a massive transformation(Image: Shutterstock / Clare Louise Jackson)
A northern town that’s home to a famous 950-year-old historic abbey is all set for a massive £32million regeneration this May.
The North Yorkshire town already has a ton going for it — a majestic abbey, artisanal shops, cute cafes, countless craft beer joints, and picturesque green trails along the River Ouse. Now, it’s set to see a total transformation with the multi-million pound regeneration project.
Selby in North Yorkshire will be undergoing massive change by the end of May, with the long-awaited Selby Station Gateway project finally kicking off in the latter half of the month according to latest updates.
Spearheaded by North Yorkshire Council with support from Department for Transport, York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, Network Rail, Active Travel England, and Trans-Pennine Express, the £32million regeneration project is a joint effort aimed at boosting investment and encouraging sustainable travel in the town.
The project is being funded by the larger government-back Transforming Cities Fund, which was set up in a bid to encourage people to walk or cycle seamlessly between railway stations and town centres.
The multi-million pound regeneration will see the national civil engineering and highways contractor, Galliford Try Ltd, commence demolition work at the end of this month to make space for a brand-new car park and improved walking and cycling routes.
Demolition work of unused buildings around the site will start with James William House on Cowie Drive, followed by the former Railway Social Club and Selby Business Centre.
North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for highways and transport, local councillor Malcolm Taylor, said of the project: “It represents a major investment to enhance the area and improve routes leading to the railway station, and we are confident that the project will act as a catalyst for further investment for Selby.”
Taylor added: “I’m pleased to announce that after many months of development, and through close working with partners and the community, we are ready to begin the scheme. We will keep the public updated when details of further phases come forward.”
The station will also become equipped with new accessible platform access, a completely remodelled bus station and a brand-new plaza which will connect it to the neighbouring Selby Park.
Over the next year, the first phase of the regeneration scheme is expected to deliver:
New accessible platform access to the rear of the station building
A brand-new station car park.
A completely remodelled bus station.
Major improvements to local walkways and cycleways.
This phase, which comprises the removal of existing unused buildings, is expected to take roughly 12 months to complete. While the initial timelines had completion set for autumn 2028, the unexpected delays have made it difficult to pinpoint exactly when work is expected to finish.
The first public consultation on the regeneration project’s plans was held back in 2019, with work touted to commence in October last year, however those plans were delayed and postponed due to bats living on parts of the site. Plans were then put in place for the project to kick off in March 2026, however it was met with delays once again.
With this £32million regeneration project, the town of Selby hopes to boost its appeal to both visitors as well as residents.
I was 10 when I first read “All Creatures Great and Small,” devouring each subsequent book that Alf Wight, under the pen name James Herriot, wrote about life as a veterinarian in his beloved Yorkshire Dales. I was a bit older when I encountered Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” which opens in the seaside town of Whitby, where cliffs overlook the sea in which the ill-fated ship Demeter meets its end. In my teens, I discovered the wild moors and ancient halls of “Jane Eyre” and “Wuthering Heights.” More recently, I have been entranced by the work of Sally Wainwright, whose string of critically acclaimed series — ”Last Tango in Halifax,” “Happy Valley,” “Gentleman Jack” and “Riot Women” — have made her the modern bard of Yorkshire, England.
So when a friend, planning a visit to her daughter at Durham University, proposed I join her for a side trip of our own, I jumped at the chance to travel to a land I knew only through the eyes of others.
The Dales of James Herriot
In mid-April, I joined my friend Nancy in York, a city often mentioned in Yorkshire-based literature. On a sunny Saturday, we took a train to Thirsk, where Herriot, alongside Donald and Brian Sinclair (known in the books as Siegfried and Tristan Farnon) lived and worked in “Skeldale House,” now the World of James Herriot museum.
Lambing season in North Yorkshire.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
The city sprawl quickly gave way to stone-walled fields full of dazzling yellow rape and spring-green grass dotted with sheep and frolicking lambs. April is lambing season, the perfect time to visit Herriot Country. “All young animals are appealing,” he wrote, “but the lamb has been given an unfair share of charm.”
Situated between the North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales national parks, Thirsk (known as Darrowby in the Herriot books) is a market town, organized around a great open plaza in which stands a clock tower that on this day was decorated with rather splendid floral creations by the Thirsk Yarnbombers, in celebration of its 10th anniversary.
Even so, it looks much as it must have when Herriot lived here — modern businesses housed in medieval and Georgian buildings. Surely the Ritz Cinema is the theater Herriot describes as he begins his courtship of Helen Alderson; a blue circle marker proudly declares its date of establishment as a picture house, 1912.
The entrance to the World of James Herriot in Thirsk, North Yorkshire.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
The World of James Herriot museum is a sudden splash of crimson and white signage on an otherwise ordinary, albeit charming, street; at the far end stands St. Mary’s Church, where Herriot married his actual wife, Joan Anderson. When we visited the church later that afternoon, they were cleaning up from a community tea and I spoke with a woman who remembered Herriot and especially his son Jim and daughter Rosie, who were the town vet and doctor, respectively, for many years.
The museum, on the first floor, is a re-creation of “Skeldale House,” down to the pint pot in which Siegfried kept the petty cash and the old central telephone. There’s a display documenting the evolution of the books — originally printed in the UK, beginning in 1972, under different names, until a struggling St. Martin’s Press published two of them with the title “All Creatures Great and Small” and helped turn Herriot into a franchise.
The old central telephone at the World of James Herriot museum in Thirsk.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
Various outbuildings now house a small screening room, where clips from a documentary on Herriot’s life play, as well as a re-creation of the TV studio and set on which the 1978 television series was filmed. The set from the current PBS series, which began in 2020, is in another part of the museum, which also includes an extensive exhibit of historic veterinarian instruments.
As we wandered through the town and the museum, Herriot the man came to life as lyrically as his fiction. A country vet, whose career began before the age of antibiotics and many now-commonplace vaccines, wrote, beginning at age 50, a series of semi-autobiographical novels that would become international bestsellers and launch several films and two series, one of which was filming 35 miles away in Grassington.
He never left the Dales, or stopped being a vet; during his lifetime, fans would line the street outside his practice, waiting for autographs and photos. Twenty years after his death, Thirsk remains both an ordinary Yorkshire town (the only Herriot memorabilia advertised is in the museum gift shop) and an enduring tourist destination. (If you go, may I recommend lunch/tea at Upstairs, Downstairs, where I got a life-changing Yorkshire rarebit with bacon and fried egg as well as a sack of the local sweet, cinder toffee.)
Grassington, North Yorkshire, becomes a film set for “All Creatures Great and Small.”
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
Deeper in the Dales, Nancy and I rented a “glamping pod” in Malhamdale. On our way, we stopped in Grassington, where the town was being transformed into Darrowby with period-and-place-appropriate signs, advertisements and community announcements. “Open as usual but dressed for filming” read a sign in the window of the Stripey Badger Bookshop, Coffee Shop and Kitchen.
Filming would take place in two days’ time, so we returned then to see the square come alive with extras in period clothing. Within the crowd of fellow onlookers, controlled by lovely but firm crew members, we watched as a scene between Siegfried (Samuel West) and Tristan (Callum Woodhouse) was filmed outside the Drovers Arms.
A breathtaking view and unique fractured “pavement” at Malham Cove.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
We had chosen Malhamdale because its limestone topography is considered the most stunning of the Dales. And that it most certainly is.
From the village of Malham we hiked to Malham Cove, which rose in near miraculous silver splendor among the sylvan greenery, and then ascended the nearly 500 steps to its top. There, a breathtaking view and unique fractured “pavement” has been used in countless films, including “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” and the 1992 “Wuthering Heights.” We followed the trail to the Gordale Scar, a glorious gorge and waterfall that is also a favorite filming spot, and thence to Janet’s Foss, a woodland waterfall and pool, beside a cave where the queen of the fairies is said to live.
Janet’s Foss, a woodland waterfall and pool.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
After just three days in the Dales, I clearly understood why no amount of money or fame had convinced Herriot and his family to leave.
Dracula town
Windswept Whitby sits on the east coast of Yorkshire, with its back to the North York Moors National Park and its face to the North Sea. It climbs either side of a valley created by the River Esk, as it joins the port where whalers once launched and Captain Cook first commandeered the HMS Endeavour.
On the west side, the street along the harbor is chockablock with venues catering to tourists and daytrippers come to enjoy the pier and small beaches. Families rent crab pots and put their catch in plastic buckets held by delighted children. Atop the cliffs behind, Georgian homes, hotels and guest houses stand in gracious testament to Whitby’s Victorian history as a popular spa town, as it was when Stoker visited in 1890. He stayed in a West Cliff guest house, gazing, as everyone must do, across the harbor where the remains of the 13th century Whitby Abbey dominate the East Cliff.
The harbor at Whitby, North Yorkshire.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
Even under a beaming sun, the ruins, aproned by the graveyard of the nearby Norman church of St. Mary’s, carve a formidable black silhouette against the sky. Beneath are the roofs and cobbled streets of the medieval Old Town, where ancient pubs stand among jewelers specializing in local jet. To reach the abbey, visitors must climb the town’s famous 199 steps that rise along the cliff.
“It is a most noble ruin,” Mina Harker writes in her journal in early chapters of “Dracula.” “Between it and the town there is another church, the parish one, round which is a big graveyard, all full of tombstones. This is to my mind the nicest spot in Whitby, for it lies right over the town, and has a full view of the harbor.”
Here Mina and her friend Lucy Westenra sit among the graves, sketching and talking, later, watching clouds gather for the storm that would bring the Demeter, and Count Dracula, to Whitby. Here too Mina would see, from the West Cliff, her sleepwalking friend half reclining on “our favorite seat” and for a moment “it seemed to me as though something dark stood behind the seat where the white figure shone, and bent over it.”
The remains of Whitby Abbey.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
We visited on a sunny day, and the wind blew hard as we traced Mina and Lucy’s steps through the tombs and along the path past the Abbey toward Robin Hood’s Bay. With its glorious views and picturesque harbor, Whitby is the antithesis of gothic horror. Still, it was here that Stoker, researching another novel, first read of Vlad the Impaler, otherwise known as Dracula, and no doubt heard of the wreck of the Russian ship Dmitry, which had run aground beneath East Cliff five years before his visit.
And so the godfather of modern horror was born.
Brontë Country
It is difficult to imagine a fictional tale more gothic, inspirational and remarkable than that of three brilliant sisters who lived in relative isolation on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors, secretly battling their socially conscripted futures by writing poems and novels that they dared not publish under their own names.
The Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, North Yorkshire.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
Two of those novels — ”Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë and “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë, are still considered masterworks, influencing subsequent generations and endlessly adapted for film and television. (In the ultimate Yorkshire crossover, Wainwright wrote the breathtaking two-part Brontë biopic “To Walk Invisible,” which everyone should see.)
The Brontë Parsonage Museum, and the town of Haworth which it overlooks, is very much a tourist attraction. An information annex, gift shop and public restroom have been added behind it, but once you enter the small garden that stands between the parsonage’s front door and St. Michael and All Angels’ Church, you are in another world.
In 1820, Patrick Brontë, recently appointed incumbent of St. Michael, moved his wife, Maria, and their six children into the parsonage where they all lived for the rest of their natural (albeit in most cases, short) lives. Maria died in 1821; the two older children, Maria and Elizabeth, died four years later after being sent to a typhoid-plagued school Charlotte would pillory as Lowood in “Jane Eyre.”
The museum is meticulously restored to reflect the years that the surviving children — Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell, the only son — were young adults. The dining room table, where the sisters wrote, is strewn with manuscripts, quill pens and tea cups; a bonnet and shawl bedeck a chair in the small kitchen. Patrick had his own study but it is difficult to imagine three women being able to write separate works, never mind classics, in such close quarters. Ironically, only Branwell’s room, papered with sketches and poems, looks like an artist’s refuge.
St. Michael and All Angels’ Church in the town of Haworth.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
Unlike his three sisters, Branwell, his artistic career stunted by alcoholism and an opium addiction, never published. He died of tuberculosis in 1848 at 31.
If any place should be haunted, it is the Brontë parsonage. Shortly after Branwell’s funeral (and just a year after “Wuthering Heights” was published), 30-year-old Emily also died of tuberculosis, expiring on the sofa that stands beside the dining room table. A few months later, after the publication of her second novel, “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall,” Anne, 29, succumbed to the disease in nearby Scarborough, just south of Whitby.
Charlotte, who wrote two more novels after “Jane Eyre,” was the only sister to be celebrated during her lifetime. She married and then died at the parsonage in 1855 at 38 of complications from her first pregnancy. Only Patrick lived to old age — 84 — dying in 1861 in the home where he had served for 41 years.
The Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, North Yorkshire.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
But it is not a sad house; instead visitors are left to wonder at the genius, resolution and audacity that roiled the quiet rooms and halls where the sisters secretly wrote and sent out their manuscripts, all initially under the the names of Currer (Charlotte), Ellis (Emily) and Acton (Anne) Bell.
The steeply descending main street of Haworth is filled with tea shops, pubs and stores clearly dedicated to pleasing Brontë pilgrims, but its basic form, including the original stationery store where the sisters once bought their paper, remains the same.
As do the moors that stretch behind the parsonage. On a walk to the Brontë Waterfall (more like a small but still lovely rill) and Top Withens, the ruin of a 16th century farmhouse believed to have inspired “Wuthering Heights,” the wild silence and sweeping vistas are even more transporting than the parsonage. One imagines not the ghost of Cathy or Heathcliff, but a trio of women, very much alive and striding through the heather, their minds alight with the stories they would tell, set among similar terrain.
Wainwright’s Way
Our final accommodation on this literary sojourn was Holdsworth House, a manor hotel near Halifax where screenwriter Wainwright and her casts often stay during filming, and where Alan (Derek Jacobi) and Celia (Anne Reid) were married in “Last Tango in Halifax.”
Holdsworth House, a manor hotel near Halifax.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
With creaking floors, fireplaces, a first-class restaurant, mullioned windows and a lovely garden, Holdsworth House would be glorious even without its famous connections (including a 1964 stay by the Beatles). Plans for at least two weddings were being discussed by staff during our sojourn.
On our way there, we stopped in Heptonstall, a tiny town above Hebden Bridge, where Sylvia Plath is buried in the St. Thomas A’ Becket churchyard. Her husband, Ted Hughes, was born in the nearby town of Mytholmroyd and though they were estranged at the time of her death, he was her next of kin and chose the site, and the stone, on which the poet is identified as Sylvia Plath Hughes above an epitaph that reads: “Even amidst fierce flames, the golden lotus can be planted.”
Heptonstall, a tiny town above Hebden Bridge, where Sylvia Plath is buried in the St. Thomas A’ Becket churchyard.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
There are no signs directing visitors to Plath’s resting place; we relied on Apple Maps and my memory of a brief glimpse of it in Wainwright’s “Happy Valley” (Becky, the daughter of main character Catherine Cawood [Sarah Lancashire], is buried nearby). Looking for the piles of pens that once adorned Plath’s grave didn’t help; it is now blanketed in planted flowers. A few pens have been left on the headstone, which has been replaced at least once; generations of fans have attempted to obliterate “Hughes.”
Down the hill in Hebden Bridge, Wainwright’s world comes miraculously to life — the canals with their longboats, on which Catherine battled Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton); the Albert pub which proudly announces on a placard that it is the Duke of Wellington in “Riot Women”; even the public car park where Alan had his car stolen while meeting Celia for the first time in “Last Tango.”
The canal at Hebden Bridge.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
While driving around Hebden Bridge and towns surrounding nearby Halifax, I more than once imagined I was Catherine Cawood and marveled at Wainwright’s loyalty to this land, its cities, towns, farms and moors. Her series are inevitably female-centric and like the Brontës, who wrote 200 years and a few miles away, her work excavates the drama of daily life and the tension between good and evil that sings below any surface.
