Wheeling in to West Yorkshire

In the morning, I went to charge my camera batteries and left them charging while we went to breakfast.

Door to our room

Door to the Tiny elevator

Breakfast hours

Breakfast buffet used dishes trolley

They had scrambled eggs, baked beans, sausages, croissants, pain de chocolate, fruit, cereal and juice.

My breakfast, eggs, sausage and pain de chocolate

And tea of course.

Tea at breakfast

When we checked out, our original card was blocked. So I had the original open charge on my first credit card for $57.71 (£39) and an additional charge on the second card for £59 (or $91 US). This should have been a clue to me about this hotel. But I was concentrating on getting to Holmfirth so I did not pick up on the clue. Before we actually left, we sat in the car while I called NFCU. It was the same as the last time I had a card refused - they typed in the wrong expiration date. We waited while she reinstated it. So we left about 10. I had put the lat/lon in my GPS but I was only able to tell the car GPS the road the place was on.

The car has a back-up camera which beeps if you get too close to something. It beeps if you get to close to any corner. So if you are stopped at a light, and someone walks across in front of you, the car beeps. Also MY GPS kept telling me when there was a speed camera and when it did that, it beeped. Bob wanted to know what all the beeps meant. (As if I knew.) We went along the river and through the fields

Near the top of Holme Moss

- lots of bicyclists - and across what I find is Holme Moss which is a moor in the South Pennines of England, on the border between the High Peak district of Derbyshire and the Kirklees district of West Yorkshire just inside the boundary of the Peak District National Park. The park land has lots of hiking and walking areas. Holme Moss is the source of the River Holme. It is covered with snow in the winter, so locals go there for sledding. For bicycling, the northern side of Holme Moss in particular is one of England's best known bicycle ascents.

Lone Cyclist

Switchbacks

A6024 crossed Holme Moss, which looked in the early spring a little like some areas of the western US

Stone walls along the road

Holme Moss in spring sunshine

We saw the Holme Moss transmitting station which is near the highest point of the moor. The road also runs alongside Brownhill Resevoir before getting to Holmbridge.

Holme Moss transmitting station

Holme is the first town you come to if you cross Holme Moss from west to east on A6024 just before you get to Holmbridge.

Holme sign

Slate roof detail

Coddy's Farm

Car we rented at Coddy's BandB

We got to the B&B about 10:30 and there was a boy there clearing up. He said check-in time was 4 pm. So we left and went into Holmfirth along narrow lanes with stone walls on each side and barely room for one car.

road down toward town

Stone walls on each side

One of the characteristics of roads in this area is the stone walls that line them. A lot of these stone walls are drystone with hedgerows, which means that no mortar is used to hold the stones together. In the early days of Kentucky, they also built drystone walls. (In Kentucky, most of the masons were Irish.) Unlike in Kentucky, in West Yorkshire, the walls will have hedgerows on top. But the part of the wall that might come into contact with the car paintwork is the stone part, and not usually the hedgerow part.

Narrow West Yorkshire Lanes

By the time we got there, it was almost time for lunch. So I got the GPS to take us to Compo's Cafe. There were two cats there.

Compo's Cafe cat

The Cafe didn't open until Half Eleven, so we waited in the car.

Compo's from the parking lot

Bus stopping at bus stop across from Compo's Cafe

One of the things I noticed about Holmfirth was the buses. In the show Last of the Summer Wine they were always taking a bus someplace. So think for someone little more mobile than I am, it wouldn't be necessary to have a car
Inside Compo's Cafe

Inside Compo's

the walls were decorated with photos and pictures of the cast.

Nora Batty's picture in Compo's Cafe

Photos of the cast on the wall

Clock on the wall

The menu had a pensioner's special and I got a chicken leg and Bob got

Cod and chips (£5.50) - Pensioner's special

Came with bread and butter and tea.

Bread and butter and tea

Narrow old world streets mean that there's little parking in town. I got the idea that we could leave the car there (parking was free) and I could take the scooter into town. On the way down the street on the scooter, we saw a cemetery. I thought it was St. John the Evangelist which is where Bill Owen (who played Compo) is buried, but it was not. The sign on the gate was too faded to read. We saw the bus that gives the Last of the Summer Wine tour.

Summerwine tour bus passing Wrinkled Stocking Tearoom

Holmfirth Tourist Information Centre

The information center of a town is always a good first stop and the one in Holmfirth is no exception. When we went to the Information Center and the lady there was VERY helpful, and told us told us about the possible parking lots. There's little parking in town unless you use a Pay and Display parking lot like we used in Port Isaac. The rules for the lot are that you will get a ticket if:
1 - you fail to display the ticket
2 - you overstaying the time, or you not having the time you paid for visible
3 - not parking entirely within the marked space
There was one by the library and information center (Council Offices Car Park) which she thought we might be able to use as it was a weekend, There was a free one by the market where we might find a space if it wasn't a big market day,
There was one in town by the bus station (Station Road Car Park) which was limited to two hours of time, and
There was one by the co-op (Crown Bottom Car Park).
The Station Road Car Park was difficult to use as the spaces were cattywampus and our rental car was too big to fit very well.
The Crown Bottom Car Park on Market Street by the Co-op was the largest one and the easiest to use as it was laid out on a grid. 20p for 30 mins, 40p for 1 hour, 60p for 2 hours.

Parking

While I was at the information center, I bought a book map - details of the Holmfirth area. They also had a lot of funny post cards, books, DVDs and some articles of clothing.

Humerous post cards

Bag or T-shirt

Books, CD's pens, travel guides etc

One of the things that the boy who rented us the car said was that he often cycled in this region. We saw cyclists on our way there. Last year part of the tour de France was held in Yorkshire, and that this year there was going to be a tour de Yorkshire. That had really increased the interest in cycling.

Cyclists at a light

There are cyclists everywhere, in neon spandex, bike helmets, and shoes that clack when they walk. There are cycling routes, cycling clubs and guided rides

Library and Council Offices Parking Lot

Bob went to get the car which we had left at the top of the hill and came down and parked in the council parking lot next door while he loaded the scooter back in the car. Bob parked on the street near the cemetery we saw, but he parked too far away and I had to have the scooter out again to get there. Unfortunately, the grass inside was too long for me to do anything but sit on the scooter.

Long grass in the cemetery

I figured out that St. John the Evangelist was up the next street, but it was about 120 degree turn to the left to get to the street. A lady who was in the house on the corner saw us through the window and came out to direct!!! Then we passed the gate on the other side of the unnamed cemetery that we had just been in and the sign wasn't quite so deteriorated so I took a photo of it and that told us the name.

Sign on the gate

It was the Lane United Reformed Church Upper Graveyard. The Lane United Reformed Church declined in membership and the building which formerly housed the church has been turned into apartments. This cemetery which has one side on Upperthong Lane has often been mistaken for part of St John the Evangelist Churchyard. Sign on the gate says in part

Lane United Reformed Church Holmfrith
Upper Graveyard

The church is now closed and to preserve the amanity of the graveyard it has been locked.

BIrd

We were about halfway up the hill when we met a whole bunch of cars coming down. We backed up into someone's driveway. There was a truck behind us - I don't know where he went. I turned out that there had just been a wedding at St. John's. We parked and went in.

St John the Evangelist Churchyard

A lady saw us come in and told me that there was a ramp in back and I should come into the church, so I did.

Refrigerator magnet they gave us

The camera battery that I had just topped up last night was now only 1/4 full.

I talked to the minister (a woman) and took some photos in the church. The church of St. John the Evangelist was built in 1847. In the history of the church it was written "The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £211, with residence, in the gift of the Crown and the Bishop of Wakefield alternately." Rev. John W. Jeffery was the vicar from 1881 to 1909. His parishioners put a plaque in the church after his death.

Plaque inside for Rev. John W. Jeffery

For the centennial of the church they constructed the entrance gate (Lynch gate) which also commemorates those who died in WWII

1948 Lynch gate for 100th Anniversary

Bob walked around outside taking photos also, especially of Bill Owen (Compo's) grave

0766 St John the Evangelist Churchyard

Bill Owen, whose full name was Wm. J. Owen Rowbotham

Grave marker with his full name

is best-loved for his role as the mischievous Compo, in BBC’s TV series “Last of the Summer Wine”.

He was a professional entertainer for 63 year’s and spent 26 of those years as the little man in a woolly hat and wellies. His wellies almost had the status of another character in the show. He also appeared in 46 feature films, such as “When the Bough Breaks”, “Once a Jolly Swagman”, “Georgy Girl”, “Lindsay Anderson's O Lucky Man” and many of the early “Carry Ons” films. As a songwriter in partnership with Mike Sammes, he wrote the lyrics for dozens of pop songs for the artist Engelbert Humperdinck, Harry Secombe, Sacha Distel Pat Boone and Sir Cliff Richard's 1960s hit, “Marianne”. He died at age 85 in Highgate, England. Although he was born in London (he was a cockney), he was an adopted Yorkshire man and wanted to be buried in Holmfirth. His son Tom arranged for him to be buried at St. John the Evangelist,

Grave marker for Bill Owen

and promised to take care of the gravesite. Unfortunately, according to the vicar, he has not honoured this obligation.In any case the grave is right behind the church and has a profusion of wellies displayed on it.

Wellies at his grave

Then we tried to park next to the Holmfirth Market, but all the parking places were taken and we gave up and went back to Compo's and got a meat and potato pie each for dinner and then tried to get back to Coddy's Farm. After making a couple of wrong turns, we arrived about 3:50. The lady that welcomed us, said that the couple who they had booked into the ground floor handicapped room was just as happy to have one of the rooms upstairs (probably cheaper), so we got a handicapped room after all. It has a huge shower

Shower

and the bathroom as a whole has heated floors and heated towel racks and is big enough to park a car in.

King sized bed

TV on the wall

Closet

We were very happy. I could do limited internet, but not really post photos.

View from the farm

Sunset

Tomorrow we will take the Last of the Summer Wine tour.