The Way of the Wombat

Here are a few more pictures of our break in North Yorkshire - mainly pictures of the small market town that we were just outside. As usual I was drawn to the churchyard...

( Hawes )

We did get out and about and further afield, too. Under the next cut is a picture of ( Castle Bolton )

We decided not to go inside, because we were on our way to another small market town, lower down Wensleydale - Masham. Masham has two claims to fame - the Theakstons Brewery and the Black Sheep Brewery. We chose to visit the smaller, family run, Black Sheep. The family who run it are Theakstons... The bigger firm was taken over by a large brewery chain, and one of the family members decided, after a couple of years, to leave. After a couple of years he came back to Masham and set up a small brewery almost next door to the original, which he named Black Sheep as he was something of the Black Sheep of the family...

Then, in 2003, the other branch of the family bought back their original brewery - so Masham has two breweries, next door to each other, owned by members of the same family!

The tour of the brewery was interesting - and led by a lady who really knew her stuff. There was a good cafe, where we each chose the warm salad topped with bacon, duck and black-pudding - and very tasty it was too, washed down with glasses of very decent ale.

I have more pictures yet - we visited a falconry centre, and travelled on the famous Settle to Carlisle railway as well...