Best foot forward on the tourist trail (From Gazette & Herald)

Best foot forward on the tourist trail

EASTER weekend, hopefully with improved weather, is widely regarded as the first opportunity of the year to explore and enjoy the wonderful countryside and sights which surround us.

Throughout this region we are particularly fortunate in having such a wide range of attractions and, with our increased leisure time, there is no doubt this coming weekend will experience a massive increase in traffic on the roads with crowds in all the popular places.

That is not surprising because we can boast of stately homes, museums, churches, abbeys both ruined and living, dales and moors, rivers and waterfalls, coastal areas with their wonderful resorts, cliffs and beaches, historic cities, market towns, villages, woodlands, forests, open fields, zoos and National Park visitor centres.

In addition, there are accessible commercial premises such as glass manufacturers, breweries, cheese makers, farm stores, the studios of crafts people and many more. It would be difficult to find elsewhere such a broad and fascinating variety of places in such a compact area.

In spite of this, it is one of those peculiarities of human nature that we tend not to visit places of interest which are close to our homes, no matter how famous and spectacular they might be. Having been born and lived in the vicinity of any major attraction, we tend to accept it as normal rather than exceptional.

In recent months, I can recall a resident of Durham city who had never been inside the cathedral, another living in Wensleydale who had never ventured to Aysgarth Falls and a Thirsk gentleman who had never visited the top of Sutton Bank or seen the White Horse of Kilburn. I've known York residents who have never walked around the city walls or been inside the Minster, and I've known others who have never been tempted to visit ruined abbeys near their homes or to walk through local woodlands.

I can plead guilty to this kind of behaviour. As a child, I never visited Whitby Abbey or the Museum in Pannett Park even though I went to school in the town and lived nearby; furthermore, I didn't appreciate the magic, lore and beauty of the North York Moors in which I had been born and lived, nor did I appreciate the history and wildlife which were part of those moors. Now, of course, I can fully appreciate the unique quality of the moors but that interest has developed and intensified over the years, not merely by passing through the moors but by discovering more about them. And the more I learn, the more there is still to learn.

That process of discovery is a continuing one. It was only as I grew older and wanted to find out more about the locality, that I built myself a bicycle out of scrap pieces, climbed aboard and set off to discover the things which were around me. And I am still going out and discovering places and matters of interest. Like so many of us, however, I tend to use a car and there is no doubt the flexibility of one's own transport is a huge incentive to visit new places. This is especially the case when taking children or elderly relatives.

Nonetheless, one of the finest means of exploration is to go on foot, and this Easter, with all its threats of crowds and traffic, might persuade some of us to leave the car at home and explore our own locality on foot.

Some years ago, when our four children were younger and money was in short supply, we spent a week's holiday at home but pretended to be tourists as we set off to explore our own patch of England. Equipped with haversacks, picnics and walking boots, we planned daily walks and found ourselves discovering so much about our district. Walking in the countryside allowed us to see, at close quarters, wildlife in all its forms, to take time to examine villages and churches, and even to sit by a quiet river to watch a kingfisher at work or the fish rising to take flies. By setting off in the car, we would never have discovered so much of interest very close to our home.

Whilst enjoying our Easter break, however, we should not overlook the real reason for this holiday. The word holiday comes from holy day, for this is Christianity's greatest festival, forever reminding us of the cruel crucifixion of Christ on Good Friday and his ressurection on Easter Sunday. Not surprisingly, churches around the world will be celebrating, bells will be ringing and on Sunday congregations will swell, if only for this one special day in the year.

I hope all readers have a very happy Easter and that many of us will begin to explore our own precious part of England with the eyes, ears and interest of a first-time visitor.

With that thought, I am reminded of an elderly lady who was taken on her first car trip to the Buttertubs between Wensleydale and Swaledale. As she gazed down into Wensleydale, she said, "I never knew the world was such a big place."

Following my notes about Ilkley on March 15, a reader has taken me to task for saying the railway never went further than Ilkley. My source was the Handbook for Travellers in Yorkshire, published in 1874, which says "The railway does not go beyond Ilkley."

Clearly, it was extended later and I have a map dated 1938 which shows it reaching Skipton and beyond. It seems the extension was used by the LMS, whilst the original line to Ilkley was jointly used by the LNER and LMS. In 1960, however, the Beeching Axe removed that extension, and now, as it was in the beginning, the railway line does not extend beyond Ilkley.

For readers unfamiliar with railway abbreviations, LNER was the London and North-Eastern Railway, and LMS was the London, Midland and Scottish railway.

Updated: 15:49 Wednesday, April 12, 2006