All Creatures Great and Small was staple viewing when I was growing up. The original BBC series recounting the trials and tribulations of James Herriot, a vet in the Yorkshire Dales, ran for 12 years between 1978 and 1990. While the characters became much beloved household names, it was the setting in the glorious Yorkshire Dales that was the real star. Twenty years after the original, the series has been revived.
Unaware of this, I arrived in the beautiful Dales village of Grassington for a walk on the nearby fells only to find it transformed into the set for Darrowby, the fictional village of the original books on which the TV series are based. The books are set in the 1930s and the entire village had been given a pre-war makeover for filming. It took me a moment to realise I hadn’t been teleported back in time.
Grassington makes the perfect 1930s film set, its centre has hardly any modern buildings and is filled with 18th and 19th century stone houses, has a grand town hall, and a cobbled square that presumably features on biscuit tin lids. It feels like the sort of place for which bunting was invented, and it hardly needs the extra fame from a popular TV series. Even in April it was busy with day trippers.
Filming was finished and the fake frontages of shops were being dismantled, returning Darrowby back into Grassington again. I decided to go for a walk along the River Wharfe and come back later when village life had resumed a more normal rhythm. One of the most popular spots near the village is Linton Falls, a picturesque set of waterfalls. After heavy rain the River Wharfe becomes a torrent, thundering over the falls.
A pedestrian suspension bridge crosses the falls, but to reach the bridge you first have to walk down a narrow, winding footpath with high walls known as the Snake Walk. It must be one of the most photographed sites in the Dales – with good reason – but in the 19th century it was simply a route used by millworkers walking from the village to Linton Mill. The views from the top of the path over Linton are wonderful.
Just outside the hamlet of Linton is the beautiful St. Michael’s Church, the oldest part of which dates to the 12th century. That though was probably built on top of an earlier Anglo-Saxon site. The churchyard is very attractive. Nearby are Linton Stepping Stones which cross the River Wharfe. The stepping stones are quite challenging, especially as one of them has ‘slipped’ and created a larger than hoped for gap.
Some walkers I met at the stepping stones decided not to risk it. I didn’t want to take the long route so set off across – there have been stepping stones here for hundreds of years. The river moves fast and I wouldn’t do this in bad weather, or if the water was flowing even more powerfully. Once across, the walk on the bank of the River Wharfe is gorgeous. Above the river noise I could hear a woodpecker.
I soon arrived at Hebden Suspension Bridge, a bridge too narrow for anything more than one way traffic at any time. The bridge was built in 1885 in response to the drowning of a local man the previous year while using the nearby stepping stones – dangerous things stepping stones. The bridge was designed and built by the local blacksmith, a man called Thomas Bell, and is still going strong today.
I headed into Hebden (not to be confused with Hebden Bridge) stoping at the Old School Tea Rooms before returning to explore Grassington. Things had calmed down with the film crews leaving, and it was possible to take a leisurely stroll down the main street past a range of independent shops and several good pubs. Historically, farming was the major industry in the Dales, but Grassington grew wealthy from industry.
Lead mining began in the fells around the village in the 16th century and continued for five hundred years. Grassington Folk Museum tells the story of the industrial past of the village alongside history of rural life in this part of Wharfedale. My plan though, was to hike to Grassington Moor and visit the remains of the mining sites that once flourished there for myself.
