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  • Day 117

    Day 117: Studley Royal Park

    June 12, 2017 in England ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Time to leave York and head into the north-east. We left our house a bit earlier than usual, at around 9am, and drove northwards towards our first stop, the UNESCO world heritage site at Studley Royal Park (actually pronounced stood-ly).

    This is actually a two-fold site, as it also incorporates the ruins of Fountains Abbey, and it's quite an interesting story albeit a slightly long one. The abbey was set up in the 1180s by Cistercian monks, who lived a primitive life but became very wealthy due to their talent (??) for sheep farming. They sold their wool as far away as Venice and Belgium, and at the time of the Reformation it was found to be England's wealthiest monastery.

    Obviously, due to the reforms everything now belonged to Henry VIII, so all the valuables were carted off and the monks evicted from Britain. The large, impressive monastery became a ruined shell, but in the Georgian era (late 18th century), Romanticists and nature-lovers began exploring the countryside again, and the ruins became quite an attraction. A disgraced politician owned the plot of land next door to the ruins, and so constructed an elaborate water garden for visitors to enjoy while maximising views of the site. So both halves are UNESCO listed.

    We spent a couple of hours wandering around each, though I must confess we were actually a bit disappointed. Although Fountains Abbey was impressive, it was probably less so than Tintern Abbey which we'd visited in Wales a couple of weeks earlier. And although Studley park was also quite nice, the water features at Blenheim Palace and Versailles were far more impressive. It was good to see the way landscaping had been done to maximise views over the fence, as it were.

    Done with the site, we hopped back in the car and drove northwards to our accommodation, a small shepherd's hut on a farm just outside the town of Consett, 25 minutes southwest of Newcastle. It was quite a small space, roughly the size of a caravan, but very modern and well equipped. Drove across the moor to a nearby pub for dinner, where we had great and hearty meals.
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