A Visit to Thirsk & Snowfall

Yesterday we decided to pay a visit to Thirsk. When we set off it was quite dull and grey, and by the time we were driving from Dick Hudsons towards Menston it was distinctly foggy! I'd said that if it got any worse we would turn back. Fortunately as we dropped down into Otley the fog had more or less disappeared, but it was still quite grey.

We headed past Rudding Park where I had been playing a wedding only a fortnight ago, and on to the A1. Then on to the A167/A19. By the time we got to Thirsk it was time for something to eat, but sometime previously Dot had decided to bank all her collection of 1p, 2p and 5p coins, so our first port of call was at the Nat West Bank in Thirsk!

You can see the bank to the left of the Market Square Clock Tower

Thirsk Market Square Clock Tower

We called for a meal at the York Tea Rooms, which is the building with the old style gas lamp on the upper floor (to the left on the following photo).

Thirsk is an interesting place, being a long established market town, and having a fair claim to fame with some of its previous inhabitants.

You will no doubt have heard of James Herriot (Alf Wight in real life) the vet who wrote a very successful series of books about the Dales characters he came across during his life as a vet. His surgery is situated in Kirkgate, and is now The World of James Herriot Museum.

I would be surprised if you knew that Nicholas Rhea (real name Peter Walker) is based in Thirsk. He is the ex policeman who wrote many of the Heartbeat books (which became a television series) as well as the amusing series of books about his life and experiences as a country "bobby". He is a prolific writer and uses six psuedonyms!

Did you know that way back in 1755 Thomas Lord was born in Kirkgate. He was the founder of Lord's Cricket Ground in London!

You could possibly have heard of Bill Foggitt the weather forecaster who had weather records going back many years, and used his own country methods to forecast the weather. He was often more accurate than the official weather forecasters!

One of Thirsk's other claims to fame - The Ritz Cinema, now nearly 100 years old!

I would imagine that if you visited Thirsk today you would most likely see it looking like this:

It certainly wasn't a surprise to have snow this morning. It had been forcast on the TV weather last night, and I had also seen it forecast on the BBC weather forecast on the internet.

Snow falling this morning.

One of the surprising things was the size of the snowflakes. Some of them look distinctly like white feathers as they fell.