A couple of weekends ago we went up to Yorkshire for a family wedding celebration, we decided to make the most of the weekend being dog free is quite a rarity and we jam packed in as much as we could before the party and the next day before heading home. We ended up crossing the border and spending time in two counties over the the weekend and had a thoroughly lovely weekend!
Hebden Bridge
Hebden Bridge is a place I’ve been to many, many times – and also not at all at the same time. It was one of the routes that I took on the train when coming back from University in Preston, and it was always a spot which I thought was very pretty. I equally hated it as it still meant I had about 5 hours of train travel ahead of me, but when I found out the B&B we were staying in was close to the town I’d been through many times I suggested we went.
We ended up leaving the house later than planned, and by the time we’d dropped the dogs off at kennels, and fought our way through crappy traffic we arrived about 2 hours later than we thought, so ended up with less time that we thought we would do. Hebden Bridge has canals (which we didn’t get to walk down), but we ended up going straight to the town centre for a spot of lunch.
The town turned out to be pretty busy and it took us half an hour to find a car parking space thanks to there also being a steam punk weekend going on! You could almost forgive my picture for being from the Victorian Era if it wasn’t for the colours! We were close to giving up and moving on to a different town but I’m glad we waited it out as the town was pretty and did not disappoint. Whist there wasn’t lots to see and do, the town centre was pretty and classically Yorkshire with pretty buildings, laced in climbing plants and street lamps emblazoned by well kept hanging baskets.
We stopped into the pub ‘Shoulder of Mutton’ which was very busy, we took this to be a good sign, and took up a pew with a glass of wine for me, and a pint of ale for Ben to get us unwound for the weekend. We knew we wouldn’t be having a large meal in the evening so opted to eat well – with me going for a Katsu Curry and Ben going for Beef Shin with Bacon.
After a walk around some local shops we found a sweet shop and decided to grab ourselves a bag of sweets each for our upcoming walk. The sweet shop had an amazing array of sweets, chocolates and truffles, in retrospect I wish I’d gotten some truffles as I took so many pictures of them and they look amazing – but I went for some mixed buttons whilst Ben went for some cinder toffee with Chocolate.
Hardcastle Crags
Over the weekend we decided to make the most out of our National Trust Membership, as we’ve been giving them money for nothing for the past 18 months as we’ve just not had time to go! We looked at places we could do a running tour of during our trip, and the first sop was Hardcastle Crags and Gibson Mill. The Car Park for the Crags are around a miles walk from the Mill itself.
Whilst the route was a little up and down *for our flat Lincolnshire roots* – the path was well surfaced and easy to walk along, we power walked down to the mill, through the pretty carved out path of trees, moss covered rocks, exposed roots and the peaceful sound of the crag below.
Sadly due to us running behind earlier in the day, it meant we missed last admission into Gibson Mill by around 10 minutes, so frustrating! What we also didn’t realise was that there was a cafe there too, so we could have come here to eat and visit and gone to Hebden Bridge after. However the mill still did not disappoint as a building and was very striking to see once we reached a clearing from the trees.
The Mill sits in beautiful surroundings, surrounded by 400 hectacres of unspoilt woodland at the south of the Pennines, and next to the river. The Mill is the only one in the UK completely unconnected to the main electrical grid. We were looking forward to learning a bit more about the mill’s history inside – but never mind it’s an excuse to go back. We explored the back of the mill with a pond, and at that point it very suddenly went overcast and grey and within minutes it was raining.
Ben managed to squeeze in a quick hop across the stepping stones, before looking like a sad gnome waiting for Children to cross before he came back over. I opted to stand under tree cover as I’d dyed my hair pink before and wasn’t prepared for it to rain so was keen to not let it drip everywhere (sadly this did not work!) By this point it was about 5pm, and we walked as quickly as we could back through the thickest tree covered route we could find to stay out of the rain, check into our B&B and get ready for the evening ahead.
The B&B Over The Bridge at Ripponden
My Mum and Dad were already checked in to their room at the B&B Over the Bridge as they’d stayed the night before (as well as the night after too!), This was a lovely little B&B of three terraced houses which had been knocked into one and completely renovated. The house was beautiful and felt like a true home away from home. Our room, The Limes, had a beautiful view over looking the bridge, and hearing the sound of water passing the room from the river, it felt like a really relaxing spot.
The room was well equipped and comfortable, our room wasn’t the biggest, but it was perfect for a night or two’s stay. The room had shower room with toilet, and in the room a wardrobe, comfy double bed, amenties box, drinks making facilities, TV with a DVD player (with a huge selection of DVDs in the main hall, we opted for the Hangover whilst we were getting ready!).
Due to Ben starting to get ready way to late, we never managed to get any pictures of us ready to go and we basically had to run out the door when he was ready as not to be late. We had a lovely evening celebrating my Uncle’s wedding (he got married in Switzerland back in May), and it was nice to see family I’d not seen since our wedding, as well as one of my cousins I haven’t seen in what we’d worked out was almost 10 years, who also got married this year.
The next morning we had a lovely breakfast, everything is hand cooked to order – filling out your desired choices on a sheet the night before. Whilst they had a very interesting Yorkshire Pudding breakfast, we decided to fill up on a hearty English Breakfast to keep us going through the day, which turned out to be the right choice, as we ended up not eating until we got home! The owners were friendly and welcoming and we would definitely stay with them again if we were in the area, and may well do as it’s a lovely part of the country that we’d like to explore more.
I’ve had to split this post into two, as we were two busy bees that weekend and we covered a lot of ground! I hope you enjoyed this post and let me know if you’ve been in this neck of the woods before, we’d love to go back in future as it was so pretty.
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Sounds like a great little break away! The scenery looks lovely and your room looks very cosy! Can’t wait for part two x
It looks so beautiful there! Sounds like a lovely little trip 🙂
I love all your photos they’re lovely!! Fabulously written write up i loved this post xxx
Wow! Absolutely stunning! Hope your pink hair is ok from the rain!