Freeway -Free in Yorkshire – Market Day in Helmsley
As we traveled across rolling hills purpled with heather under blue skies and puffy clouds, one member of our group asked our guide “When will we get to the Yorkshire moors?” She gave him a quizzical look and replied “This is them!” He was taken aback – this was not the dreary, dank scenery made famous in Wuthering Heights and The Secret Garden.
The uncharacteristically lovely weather continued as we stopped in Helmsley. It was Friday, Market Day, and the square was full of stalls offering everything from greeting cards to cabbages. The window boxes were cascading with flowers, and inside the city hall vendors stood proudly behind tables teeming with meats, cheeses, and jellies all produced locally.
We were told there is a ruined castle suitable as a setting for Gothic novels on the banks of the adjacent river Rye, but the bountiful display of local goods seduced me away from the ruins. Sometimes real life is more attractive than fiction.
Allyson Johnson 