Skipton

After adjusting to life in Silsden with Fran and Geoff, I set off for a day in Skipton. It is called The Gateway to the Dales in all the tourist literature. I have always liked the centre with its church and castle at the top of the main street which is flanked by cobblestones. It also has the Leeds and Liverpool canal near the centre. All part of the Industrial Revolution which brought the raw material to the area for its textile mills and engineering factories. Skipton somehow escaped that, as did Ilkley, and were always known as the more ‘genteel’ towns in the area.

For me, the main attraction  is the bookshop opposite the bus stop and Co-op store. I can spend hours there just going through the stock. I bought seven books and all for about a third of the full price for the shop only sells surplus discounted books. I wandered along the main street looking at the market stalls, and smiling at the exchanges between customers and sellers in the broadest of Yorkshire accents and thinking that no matter how long I lived in Berlin I would never be able to understand the Berlinisch banter in the same way.

I found a butcher’s selling fresh Pork Pies and bought two. I took them to the church garden and found a bench overlooking the street where I slowly ate a succulent freshly baked pork pie as the sun set over the town. Mmmm .. I could eat one now! Here are a few views of the town centre.