On Monday,
Bev and I decided to visit Sutton Bank in the North York Moors National Park. Sutton Bank is one of the most spectacular inland cliffs in Britain with a near vertical drop of 140 metres. The views across the Vale of York were absolutely stunning. From the top, I managed to bag a (grainy) image of York Minster
(bottom left) and
Drax power station in the same frame. Not that remarkable but if I tell you that the Minster is 20 miles away and
Drax is 36 miles away, you might be more impressed.
Sutton Bank has a flat top made from limey grit stone that survived the gouging action of the last ice age. It’s home to a gliding school and you can watch them being towed up from a path that runs right next to the grassy runway. We had a fantastic time exploring the area on well constructed paths radiating out from the inevitable visitor’s centre. For a meagre £2.20 you can park there all day and that’s not bad in a recession. Highly recommended.
Driving back from Sutton Bank we decided to stop and have a look at St Gregory’s Minster in Kirkdale, near Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire. St Gregory’s date back to the Anglo-Saxon period and has a rare sundial set into the outer wall of the nave above the south door. The inscription on the sundial tells how Orm bought St Gregory's Minster when it was all broken down and fallen and let it be made anew from the ground to Christ and St Gregory. The dial and the reconstructed Minster date to the mid 11th century. Which was nice.
