Sunday 2 October 2011

Brantingham Village

 
It looks like today, in East Yorkshire, the last sunny day of this glorious Indian summer draws to a close with increasing cloud and although it's still warm, it is now raining.

However this afternoon, with friends, I managed a last foray into the beautiful gentle green countryside that surrounds  the Humber basin before the autumn proper arrives and walking becomes too difficult in this rural setting of hills and small forests.

The village of Brantingham lies on the north bank of the Humber west of the City of Kingston upon Hull but far enough away to have its own uniqueness. This is almost a picturesque chocolate box village at the foot of the rising Wolds with its own dale and church, its own village hall and pub and a pond.

It's popular with walkers because its surrounded by woods and farmland rising steeply on each side of the dale. There are panoramic views of the Humber basin nearby and today Red Kites were circling in the air, often harried and harassed by smaller Kestrels. Rooks in flocks were flying hither and thither among the abundance of trees.

The Brantingham church, dedicated to All Saints is a delicate Norman and Perpendicular revival church last rebuilt in the late 1870s but there have been vicars and priests recorded in the locale since the thirteenth century. The registers go back to 1690. It is lovingly tended with a neat graveyard just to the north of the village. It was a lovely still place to sit and contemplate for an hour.

You may remember the story of the Sykes family of Sledmere House which I visited a few weeks ago - well the Sykes are here in this village too and have wielded their interests, mainly benevolently. 


The pond sadly is in desperate need of water for the few ducks that reside there permanently.

There are lots of circular walks in the area that dissect the village and there is a nice pub which offers good food and hospitality.

Early this morning, before the majority of the citizenry was awake, I was in the City of Hull taking some photographs of the old town with my son John when I happened to notice a huge line of geese flying by, heading west. They were making a hell of a racket which was a rather rural sound for a city still asleep.


By the way, you remember that bug I spotted yetserday and posted? I looked on the blog Donegal Wildlife suggested by fellow blogger Weaver of Grass - an excellent site, and the bug is called a Hawthorn Shield Bug - Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale.

I hope you have a great week ahead.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

7 comments:

  1. I love those Yorkshire villages, but I'm surprised this one has only one pub -- not that it would bother me since I am teetotal, but Flamborough, as small as it is, has about six! The church in your photo looks as if it has had an extension built on it but maybe it was just designed that way. Many of the churches in Yorkshire were built around the 12th and 13th centuries. St Oswald and St. Cuthbert seem to have been the popular dedications.

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  2. Hi Val
    Thats kind of you to say, I do love photography.
    XX

    Hi ChrisJ
    I think you are right about the extention, in fact round the other side, out of view there looks to have been a brand new bit put on recently, entirely in keeping, but it looks really clean!
    XX

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  3. So it was a shield bug? There's hope for me yet!

    Pretty looking village. We drove back over the Wolds on Saturday and ended up stopping near Beverley (Bainton?) for a cream tea. Not sure I've ever been to Brantingham though.

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  4. Picturesqué that church and it's grounds.

    I find it a bit disconcerting. The spaces between the graves, despite the old headstones, are too large. It's not an, ahum, 'active' graveyard, and hasn't been for some time.

    Yes, it's good looking, and yes it has history, but looking at that - it's frozen in time. It's a good on the eye set piece.

    I'd hate to see that in the interests of preservation they get Disney-fied mate :)

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  5. Hi MorningAJ
    Well done, you were spot on!
    XX

    Hi Wheelie
    The graves go back (the ones we can read) to the early 1800s but the latest is 2010. It's only a small village but the grounds are large for a small church, hence I guess the spaces although I have to say there are many unmarked graves identified by uniform 'bumps' in the grass.
    XX

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  6. Nice to se these photos as well as the ones of Sledmere, Fimber, Wetwang etc. I grew up in Hull and enjoyed multiple Sunday outings with my parents to many of these East Riding spots.

    Brantingham has two memories for me: picking wild strawberries there on many a summer afternoon, and as a small child losing my balance and rolling down one of the slopes at great velocity!

    Thank you for these great photos!

    Susan Lorant
    Prescott, Arizona, USA

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