East Riding of Yorkshire.

After reading a very good review of Blue Rose Holiday Park just south of the wee village of Brandesburton and north of Leven it was decided to give the area the once over. The adult only campsite was excellent, well organised, and well laid out and has good clean warm facilities and is highly recommended.

Blue Rose Camp Site.

Brandesburton has a post office, a small supermarket some restaurants and most importantly a fish and chip restaurant/take-away. The name of the village is an old English word meaning the fortified farmstead of Brandr that is reputed to be a Scandinavian name.

St Mary's Church.

The Church of St Mary’s had a major restoration in the later part of the 19th century and this is probably the building we see today although from its appearance the church has been kept in good repair ever since. There may have been an earlier religious building on the site according to the Doomsday survey in 1086. As this looks to be a moneyed area I would imagine that the plate on a Sunday would be quite heavy and help towards the upkeep.

 

Medieval Cross.

On the village green you will find a medieval cross, which a wee information board informs the inquisitive visitor that this marked the site of a weekly Thursday market and a annual fair held on the 3rd May each year. This 14th century cross is alleged to be the best preserved medieval village cross in the East Riding of Yorkshire. In the 19th century the village stocks stood against the cross and it was also a regular meeting place for the local hunt that in my opinion was the ideal people to put in the stocks, but that another story. Restoration work we see on the base of the cross took place on November 2011 by the Parish Council.

Beverley Minster

Poppy Display inside Minster.

Thankfully there are cycle paths that allowed us to travel the eight miles from the campsite to Beverley. The roads leading to the town are very busy; full of non-stop traffic and the town itself is also very hectic.  As well as the normal market town shops there some very nice Georgian and Victorian buildings most of which surround the Beverley Minster. A minster is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as ‘a large or important church, typically one of Cathedral status in the north of England that was built as part of a monastery’. Our visit to this grand building was cut short as the afternoon we visited a funeral was to take place, the poor departed must of had a lots of friends and family as the body of the Kirk was very busy. Apparently this is the third religious building to be built on the site. The latest reincarnation was started in 1220 and is reputed to a grand example of English church architecture, although an imposing building both internally and externally I have visited much grander church property.

 

Dominican Friary.

Just across from the minster is the beautifully restored 14th century Dominican friary that houses the local YHA.

St Mary's Parish Church Beverley.

Equally as nice looking as the minster, but on a much smaller scale, is the Parish Church of St Mary’s the opposite end of town. Continuous building took place over a 400-year period between 1120 and 1530. The building contains many interesting features including a carvings of a rabbit dressed as a pilgrim, which is said to have inspired Lewis Carroll’s White Rabbit.

Cafe Velo.

Opposite St Mary’s is the Cafe Velo a specialist cyclist coffee shop and restaurant where you can hang your bike on the wall while having your coffee and cake.

St Michaels Church Catwick.

Another recommended bike ride that can be enjoyed on mainly back roads is in the opposite direction via Bewholme, a wee village with rather unusual looking church built in 1900, to Atwick, an area said to be haunted by a headless horseman who better stay away from the cliffs at the shore line because of some very dangerous looking erosion. After Atwick turn south on the B1242 for 2 miles to the sea side resort of Hornsea which like many other seaside towns came to prominence due to the introduction of the railway which lasted 100 years until closure in 1964. The town has a very nice sea front promenade, which seemed very busy even for November.

The wee village of Atwick.

The dangerous cliffs - not a place i would want to park our Motorhome!

The very nice sea front at Hornsea.

The East Riding of Yorkshire has some very flat and uninteresting countryside, nearly all is arable farmland and beasts are rarely seen, mind you the aroma of pigs is quite strong so there must be a specialist farms in the area - but we have been spoilt by our wonderful countryside north of the border.