A-Z Challenge 2018 - British Rivers: 'U' Ure

The River Ure runs close to Jervaulx Abbey near Ripon in North Yorkshire.

River Ure near Jervaulx Abbey

Some years ago (I'm not allowed to say how many) our family visited Jervaulx Abbey, the Cistercian Abbey dedicated to St Mary in 1156.

Inside Jervaulx Abbey (I think) - 19xx

The Ure runs through Wensleydale and after 74 miles its name changes to the Ouse (see 'O'). Wensleydale is famous for its cheese. It was Cistercian monks that made it first. However the cheese now made in the town of Hawes has been made more 'famous' by Wallace and Gromit. 

Along the course of the river is a set of falls gouged out on a one mile stretch of the Ure that appeared in the film 'Robin Hood and the Prince of Thieves.' This is where Robin fought Little John.

The Upper Waterfall at Aysgarth

Unsurprisingly the Aysgarth Falls have become a favourite place for visitors - and not because of the Robin Hood connection.

Photo attributions:

• River Ure near Jervaulx Abbey: 8 January 2006 ex geograph.org.uk by Chris Heaton - CC BY-SA 2.0 licence
• Wallace and Gromit video - ex Youtube
• The Upper Waterfall at Aysgarth: 23 May 2012 by Wehha - CC BY-SA 3.0 licence

Rain - Sepia Saturday

It's hard to work up enthusiasm for rain in the middle of a heat wave as this week's rainy prompt requires.

 A dip in a swimming pool would be much more enjoyable.

Hartlepool Bathing Pool

The open-air swimming pool was opened in 1923. It was badly damaged during the great storm of January 1953, and was never fully repaired. The surviving remains of the pool itself are mostly obscured by seaweed, and all of the shoreward structures have long gone.

'Bathing Pool' area - 1953

A local beauty spot where children were often taken to paddle was Aysgarth Falls in Wensleydale but not on a day when the river was in flood.

Aysgarth Falls

Aysgarth Falls are a triple flight of waterfalls, surrounded by forest and farmland, carved out by the River Ure over an almost a one-mile stretch on its descent to mid-Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales of England, near the village of Aysgarth.

In Cornwall the River Fowey can flood quite spectacularly as it did in 2008

Somehow I don't think that there would have been many boat trips round the estuary that day. You would also have been struggling to go for a pint at the King of Prussia.

Fowey Parking - 2008.

It may have been OK for The Beatles to sing.

But for me it's Adele who has the right idea.

Meanwhile while you check out other rainy themes at Sepia-Saturday-185. I have to get ready to take my wife out for a birthday meal.

Rectangles - Thematic Photography

Rectangles creep up on you unexpectedly. They appear in many photos and were the last thing you were thinking about when you took the shots like these.

Swallow on nesting box - Michigan

And maintaining the theme of birds and rectangles:-

Aviary - Preston Park, Teesside

Down in Cornwall I was frustrated by the column that blocks the shot of a terracotta frieze.

Terracotta frieze - Truro Cathedral

Whereas if I had been looking for rectangles I couldn't have found a better place. 

Back in Yorkshire's Wensleydale rectangles even appeared on a roof.

Bolton Castle roof.

I'm told by mathematicians that a rectangle is a closed planar quadrilateral with opposite sides of equal lengths and with four right angles. I just hope that I am not a square, as apparently a square is a degenerate rectangle. Now whom do I blame for that?

Certainly not the others that you can find over at Carmi's Rectangular Thematic Photographic-222