TOCKWITH AND THE FAMILY

Now for a few days with family at Tockwith set amongst some of Yorkshires finest farmland. This area is pretty much level with the River Nidd running through, bushy hedgerows and some great trees all nearby. It is England’s trees that we miss most.

On the property was a giant of an oak tree which it was said was over 500 years old and I will say that it could tell a tale or two. According to local information underneath its branches there was a field hospital which had been set up to deal with some of the wounded from the battlefield of Marston Moor fought in 1644 which was just down the road. The Royalist Army were defeated with 4000 dead and The Parliamentarians under Cromwell losing a only a few hundred. I wonder if that old oak can remember the dying sounds of the wounded from an age that defied divine rule and split families. Religion or an individual’s concept of it has destroyed many lives. Maybe there is a poem there somewhere.

These few days went quickly with no time to write or email (the signal was poor) but that was not the object as it was an important time for us. We had days out at Ripon, Skipton with its castle still complete and a day spent between Pickering and Grosmont on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. We will do the Whitby end this week to get some more steam, smoke, nostalgia and photographs. Here, there was more beautiful scenery with sun instead of rain. My grandchildfren had their first experience of the power of steam and how it used to be. Another good day out.

At Tockwith we had the farmland birds with our first view of Tree Sparrows for a while, Yellow Hammer again, Greater Spotted Woodpeckers and on two occasions Greylag Geese flying overhead. Tawny and Barn owls live here but we only heard them. The star was the continual singing of the Song Thrush. Now we are at Boggle Hole we are surrounded by House Sparrows, Dunnock, Blackbirds with a pair of Greater-spotted Woodpeckers. It is good to be among farmland with its wildlilfe again.