There has been a castle in Knaresborough for over 900 years. Over the centuries there have been significant periods of building and repair work as the castle was adapted to meet changing military requirements, fashions and historic events.

The early castle
We know very little about the castle’s origins but there may have been an Anglo-Saxon fortification in ‘Chednaresburg’. Burg is an Old English word for a defended enclosure, and could refer to a bank and ditch surrounding a settlement here.

The earliest castle was built by the Normans who recognised the superb natural defences of this rocky promontory high above the river Nidd. We find the first written evidence of a castle in Knaresborough in financial records called the Pipe Rolls dating from the reign of Henry I (1100-1135). These show that £11 was spent in 1129-1130 on strengthening the ‘King’ Works at Knaresborough’ by custodian Eustace Fitz-John.

Some years later, the castle played a part in one of the more infamous stories of the medieval period. In 1170 the Constable of Knaresborough Castle Hugh de Morville and his followers took refuge there after they had murdered Thomas Becket , Archbishop of Canterbury.

After breakfast our first port of call was Ripley where we enjoyed a stroll round the village. Although Mr C wasn’t particularly taken with it, I enjoyed the church which had some interesting historical features including the base of  a medieval cross known as ‘the weeping cross’ and which is thought to be a unique survival of a structure of this type.

The next village on our list was Pateley Bridge where we went for a brief walk along a pathway by the river Nidd to find the Pillars Past sculpture before exploring the town.

Before we left the area I suggested that we made a detour to view Coldstones Cut, a massive sculpture with viewing platforms looking over the nearby quarry and surrounding countryside.  The effort of climbing the short steep walk to get to the monument rewarded us both with a WOW moment!

We had walked up an appetite so we headed to Ripon for lunch which we enjoyed sitting on a bench in the gardens by the war memorial. After lunch we toured Ripon Cathedral which I had not been to before. Over 10,000 origami angels were suspended from the ceiling. I learned that it was a project called ‘A Wing and A Prayer’ which had been designed in the early days of lockdown to recognise the work done by keyworkers and those on the front line. I found the installation breathtaking.

Whilst there I was able to get the first stamp in my 2020 Year of Cathedrals Pilgrim Passport. At the beginning of 2020 it had planned to visit many Cathedrals this year. Maybe next year…

We weren’t ready to go back to the hotel so we detoured via Knaresborough. We walked through the town spotting the window murals known as the ‘Knaresborough windows’ ending up by the castle and war memorial which due to their elevated position treated us to spectacular views of the Victorian aqueduct and the gorge below. We returned to the car via the Bebra Gardens where I spotted a beautiful memorial bench.

Back at the hotel we had our last evening chill out before dinner in the restaurant. When we arrived at the restaurant we were told that our table wasn’t quite ready. I said that’s OK and suggested that a seat could be found for us and we would order a pre-dinner drink. There were no seats were available so with our agreement we were taken to an outside table to wait with our pre-dinner drink. Our drinks didn’t arrive a promptly as we expected and, after some time, we were seated in a back room away from the bar area and restaurant, not quite what we expected as hotel residents who had booked.

As time passed, we found ourselves alone in that area with two tables of loud non-residents. In normal circumstances we would have moved to a more ambient area but due to Covid-19 rules we stayed put rather than introducing more cleaning areas for the hotel staff. A lovely waitress that had been looking after us during our stay was a bit put out that we had been sidelined into a back room and made a point of coming to say goodbye to us before she clocked off for the evening. How special was that!

]]> http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/index.php/2020/10/08/harrogate-day-three/feed/ 4