Four Days up at Masham - A Nostalgic Trip Down Memory Lane - Locations of All Creatures Great and Small.

At the beginning of this week we took a break of four days in Masham. We usually go there for a few days between Christmas and the New Year, and in 2011 I had planned to look up some of the locations of the BBC TV Series All Creartures Great and Small, which tells the humourous adventures of the vet James Herriott. His real name was Alf Wight.

However, the weather was not very good, and some of the sites of filming are along very narrow roads, with sheer drops on either side, so we decided that it would not be sensible to try The James Herriott Trail in such cold and inclement weather. This last week we were blessed with some very clear sunny weather so we decided that one of the days we would retrace the footsteps of James Herriot (as told in the BBC TV Series.)

Just prior to our visit to Masham last year I had come across an article by Carol Drinkwater (the original Mrs James Herriot) in which she revisits some of the scenes of the filming, so using this as a starter we set off on our journey.

If you remember the opening credits of the series, an old fashioned car is shown going through what in England is called a ford, but is probably more commonly known as a watersplash, as this is exactly what the water does when a car is driven through it at any speed above about 10 miles per hour! Nowhere in Carol Drinkwater's article did she mention the watersplash, so after a bit of research on the web I discovered that the location was between the villages of Feetham and Langthwaite.

If you want to refresh your memory of the scene, google Youtube, then enter All Creatures Great and Small. Select the one which is described as All Creatures Great and Small Theme w/Credits Season 1 Ep. 1. The seventh shot in the opening sequence is the location I was looking for, and success! I actually found it!!

The Watersplash featured in the BBC TV Series All Creatures Great and Small.

About sixteen years ago, Dot took me away on a surprise holiday to the village of Askrigg. We stayed for a couple of nights at the Kings Arms. I later learnt that this was the pub which featured in All Creatures as "The Drovers", so a visit was made to Askrigg......

The Bar in the King's Arms Askrigg, which was named "The Drovers" in All Creatures Great and Small.

In this second shot you will see lots of hooks in the ceiling of the bar, and in "The Drovers" there were all sorts of agricultural implements hung from the ceiling.



Now I was hot on the trail. Do you remember that the surgery in the series was at Skellgate House? well, would you believe it the actual building used as Skellgate House was across the road from the King's Arms/Drovers!

This hotel, with the ornate doorway was "Skellgate House"

There was ample proof that the Kings Arms had been used for the filming, with lots of photographs of the cast on the walls.

Photos of Seigfreid Farnon, (Robert Hardy) Tristan Farnon (Peter Davison) and James Herriott, (Christopher Timothy)

Carol Drinkwater and Christopher Timothy (Mr & Mrs James Herriott)

Robert Hardy (Seigfried Farnon)

Apart from our finding the locations we had a most enjoyable journey through some stunning scenery in Wensleydale, Swaledale and Arkengarthdale.

Snow still in evidence on the hill tops

 Snow still in evidence on the hilltops

Old Lead Miners Cottage

A Nostalgic Trip back to the locations of the BBC series "All Creatures Great and Small"

We usually have a post Christmas break up at the Kings Head in Masham Market Square.

A couple of weeks ago I booked it over the Internet, and just as a precaution I rang them later to make sure they had received the details. (I had had a confirmation e mail, but the confirmation didn't mention that they knew we would be taking Ruby with us, as we have done in previous years.) I know from previous visits that they have certain rooms specifically for accompanied dogs. It was a good job, as they hadn't seen (or read) what I had put on the e mail. Fortunately there was a doggy accompanied room they could book us into!

It's strange how things pan out sometimes.

I was reading the Mail on Sunday last week, and in the travel section was an article written by Carol Drinkwater (the actress who is currently in Calendar Girls, but some years ago - in the seventies and eighties, she was Mrs James Herriot in the much loved BBC Series of "All Creatures Great and Small." The series regularly achieved viewing figure in excess of twenty million viewers.)

Whilst we are in Masham we usually spend some time visiting the local villages/historic homes/castles etc. One year we had even been on a trip on the Wensleydale Railway.

Diesel Multiple Unit approaching Leyburn Station on the Wensleydale Railway

The article Carol Drinkwater had written was a trip back to all the locations where they had filmed at in Wensleydale, and included Middleham, Castle Bolton, Bainbridge, Askrigg, Low Row, and Reeth. She mentioned the lovely little old church of St Oswald at Castle Bolton, the King's Arms in Askrigg (used as The Drovers in the BBC Series), The Punch Bowl at Low Row, where Robert Hardy stayed when they were filming and the water splash  near Reeth (in Arkengarthdale) seen in the opening credits.

There it was - an instant itinerary for a day trip whilst we are in Masham! So I am planning on doing a trip based on the locations used in the BBC Series of "All Creatures Great and Small"