Tales of the Dales opened last Friday evening at Wensley Church (CLICK HERE for a map) and has had a steady stream of visitors.

The church of Holy Trinity, Wensley is looked after by the Churches Conservation Trust. Its very beautiful - medieval wall paintings, ornate carvings, lovely stonework and a serene atmosphere - and a lot of people are discovering this gem for the first time.

The Preview saw the launch of two books: The Penhill Giant - a story book for children - and Tales of the Dales - which contains all the stories collected for the exhibition plus the paintings they inspired. Tales of the Dales nearly didn't make it for the show due to a breakdown at the printers but, with only two hours to go, it finally arrived. To buy either of them CLICK HERE.

Some of the paintings have caused a lot of interest, in particular the ones that deal with the dissolution of the monasteries, the Settle Carlisle Railway, potholing and peoples' favourite hill walks. The other main point of interest is my technique for mixing watercolour and indian ink. You can see this in action in a short film about the exhibition - CLICK HERE.

The show runs till August 11th and I'm at the church every day from 10 am to 5 pm. Come and see me if you're in the area. For full details of the exhibition CLICK HERE.

Industrial disasters have largely passed the Dales by. A lack of substantial coal mines, enormous factories and major roads have helped keep the body count pretty low. A notable exception to this was the Hawes Junction accident that was the result of a simple case of human error. One man forgot the time and two others didn’t follow the rulebook. The results were tragic, especially since this took place on a Christmas Eve.

Incidentally, Hawes Junction was renamed Garsdale station after the line to Hawes and Northallerton from the Settle & Carilse Railway was discontinued. The signal box – the scene of the crime, so to speak – is still there on Garsdale station platform and continues to function.

On 24th December, 1910, in the small signal box at Hawes Junction station, Mr. Sutton, the signalman, was looking into the darkness beyond the row of brass levers. The rain was lashing at the glass and the sounds of engine whistles were lost in the noise of the storm.  A little while earlier he had changed a signal so that two light engines could make their way northwards towards Carlisle but he forgot to change it back to warn any traffic that that section of line was in use. To make matters worse the engine drivers themselves, out there in the storm, didn’t follow regulations in reminding him, preferring to stay out of the rain.

Eventually there was a distant rumble from South. The wet shining rails quivered, the ballast beneath the track began to vibrate and distant lights showed through the falling veil of water. In no time at all, with a burst of crimson, steam and brass, the Scotch Express thundered through the station.

A few moments later the driver of a southbound train for Leeds pulled up at the platform and ran to the signal box, the words tumbling out: that he has passed two slow moving engines a little way up the line. And he has seen the express heading, at high speed, onto the same rails.

The signalman couldn’t believe the unfolding events. Before taking any action he scanned the pages of his train register, the awful truth dawning on him

When he finally lifted the telephone to call the signal box at Ais Gill this was the exchange:

Have two light engines passed north?

No.

Has the express passed?

No.

Mr. Sutton turned to the engine driver and said: Go to the stationmaster and tell him that I am afraid I have wrecked the Scotch Express.

Beyond Moorcock Tunnel the express ran into the two engines and was completely derailed. In addition to injuries caused by the collision, the timber-bodied coaches over-shot the ruined engines and the pipes for the carriage gas lights fractured.  This resulted in a dreadful blaze as the coals of locomotive fireboxes ignited the gas. In addition to the large number of serious injuries twelve people died.

The area where this happened is one of the most remote sections of railway in England. Ais Gill is the highest point of the Settle & Carlisle Railway at 1,169 feet above sea level. You can see a panoramic view of the scene from the Garsdale to Hawes road, looking north towards Wild Boar Fell. It is hard to believe that something so terrible happened in a place of such beauty.

This story comes from:
Tales From The Dales
A major exhibition of new paintings based on stories from the Yorkshire Dales collected over the last two years. In addition to artwork the exhibition sees the launch of a book for children: The Penhill Giant, which is an illustrated retelling of events which took place on the hill overlooking the exhibition location. The exhibition will also see the launch of a book, illustrated with paintings created for the exhibition, which will include a collection of Dales stories, many of which will be appearing in print for the first time. 





The exhibition will be on at:
Wensley Church, Wensley, N Yorks.
10 am - 5 am   27 July – 11 August 2013
Preview: 7 - 9 pm Friday 26th July
A chance to see the paintings and meet the artist.
Stories of the Dales: 5.00 - 6.30 Saturday 27th July
Four Yorkshire writers read from and talk about their work.
Open Mic Night: 7 - 9 pm Saturday 10th August
A great evening of music with musicians from the Yorkshire Dales.
If you would like to perform CLICK HERE


Further details can be found on following me on Facebook or Twitter:
http://www.facebook.com/scottmassieARTIST
https://twitter.com/ianscottmassie

Like a lot of people who love the place, my appreciation of the Dales was greatly enhanced by the writing of a Sunderland-born vet. Although he worked from a practice in Thirsk, Alf Wight, who the world got to know better as James Herriot (he took his pen name from the Scottish goalkeeper Jim Herriot), spent a lot of time here. He sometimes worked with a practice partner based in Leyburn and, when he married, chose Coverdale for his honeymoon.

The films and television episodes that followed the success of his books featured many Dales locations and today, over forty years after the publication of his first book, countless people come to the Dales from around the world to find what he found.

Everyone who has read these charming stories has probably placed them in particular favourite Dales locations but, for me, it was in his autobiographical Dales journey James Herriot’s Yorkshire that he made me look at a place that sums up the Dales.

He tells of how he suddenly saw a sight that stopped him in his tracks, and made him realise that the Dales had everything he could ever wish for in a landscape. And in that moment he knew he would never live anywhere else.

If you take the road for Reeth out of Leyburn you pass, as you leave the town behind, a rather grotty quarry on your left and a boring pine plantation on your right. Then the landscape begins to open up but, instead of driving out onto open moorland, you find yourself passing firing range after firing range where the army has literally put the boot into Yorkshire. Once you come to the end of this dispiriting area, however, something wonderful happens. The road crests the brow of the hill and there before you is the view which converted Herriot to the Dales.

To the right, far away, are the Cleveland hills and beyond them the chemistry sets of Teeside, looking like tiny toys in the sunshine. To the left are the heather heights of Grinton Moor, studded with the ruins of the lead mining trade, splashes of green grass marking the places where the rabbits have carved out their grazing rights.

Ahead is Swaledale: farmhouses dotting the valley floor, dry stone walls climbing the fell sides, and hills and ridges marking away the miles to the North and West. It is incomparable.  Thank you James.

This story comes from:
Tales From The Dales
A major exhibition of new paintings based on stories from the Yorkshire Dales collected over the last two years. In addition to artwork the exhibition sees the launch of a book for children: The Penhill Giant, which is an illustrated retelling of events which took place on the hill overlooking the exhibition location. The exhibition will also see the launch of a book, illustrated with paintings created for the exhibition, which will include a collection of Dales stories, many of which will be appearing in print for the first time. 





The exhibition will be on at:
Wensley Church, Wensley, N Yorks.
10 am - 5 am   27 July – 11 August 2013
Preview: 7 - 9 pm Friday 26th July
A chance to see the paintings and meet the artist.
Stories of the Dales: 5.00 - 6.30 Saturday 27th July
Four Yorkshire writers read from and talk about their work.
Open Mic Night: 7 - 9 pm Saturday 10th August
A great evening of music with musicians from the Yorkshire Dales.
If you would like to perform CLICK HERE


Further details can be found on following me on Facebook or Twitter:
http://www.facebook.com/scottmassieARTIST
https://twitter.com/ianscottmassie

The Penhill Giant was very big and notoriously grumpy. He kept a herd of high altitude pigs and a big bad dog with the usual legendary bad dog equipment i.e. teeth like nails, jaws like a steel trap etc.

Occasionally the Giant popped down the hill for a spot of sheep rustling, but he mostly kept himself to himself.  One day a girl was bringing the sheep down from the high moor beside Penhill when one of her flock ran off. With a muttered curse about the intelligence of woolly things she trudged off in pursuit up the hill. Suddenly a cold grey shadow fell over her and when she looked up all she could see was a sky full of giant.

He carried her, kicking and screaming, up the slope and set her down on the hilltop. He was licking his lips as he looked forward to having his wicked way with her, when his (up till now) faithful hound bit him on the leg. The big bad dog had reconsidered where his loyalties lay and, while he wouldn’t say no to a nice slice of half-inched mutton, he drew the line at allowing his master to ravish virgins.

The dog chased the giant round and round the hilltop nipping at heels and buttocks until the giant tripped over a boulder and pitched headfirst over Penhill Crags. There was a nasty crunching sound and that was that.

I presume the dog and the maiden lived happily ever after.

This story comes from:
Tales From The Dales
A major exhibition of new paintings based on stories from the Yorkshire Dales collected over the last two years. In addition to artwork the exhibition sees the launch of a book for children: The Penhill Giant, which is an illustrated retelling of events which took place on the hill overlooking the exhibition location. The exhibition will also see the launch of a book, illustrated with paintings created for the exhibition, which will include a collection of Dales stories, many of which will be appearing in print for the first time. The exhibition will be on at:
Wensley Church, Wensley, N Yorks.
10 am - 5 am   27 July – 11 August 2013
Preview: 7 - 9 pm Friday 26th July
A chance to see the paintings and meet the artist.
Stories of the Dales: 5.00 - 6.30 Saturday 27th July
Four Yorkshire writers read from and talk about their work.
Open Mic Night: 7 - 9 pm Saturday 10th August
A great evening of music with musicians from the Yorkshire Dales.
If you would like to perform CLICK HERE


Further details can be found on following me on Facebook or Twitter:
http://www.facebook.com/scottmassieARTIST
https://twitter.com/ianscottmassie

The Dales are a strange combination of cosy villages, rambling roads that thread through the valleys and bleak empty moorland. Walking the moors is one of my greatest pleasures but the remoteness these open spaces, studded with old coal pits, lime kilns, grouse butts and prehistoric earthworks, is sometimes brought home with a story like this one:

The gamekeeper had noticed traces of bone flecking the peat for about four years as he passed the ditch on Thorny Grange Moor, but he thought they were the remains of a long-dead sheep. When he finally had a closer look. in May, 1997, the grisly truth became apparent. The remains were of a man who would have been about sixty when he died, the time of death being around twenty years earlier, in 1977.

The decased was dressed in a grey suit, a white shirt, a brown and orange tie and a pair of shoes by the George Ward Boot Company. In his pockets he carried a 1958 shilling, a 1971 penny, a mortice key in a tin, and a Cadaux 600 transistor radio. At some time in the distant past he had fractured his left collar bone, two ribs, both heels and suffered from mild arthritis.

Despite all this information, a facial reconstruction and a lot of publicity the Colsterdale Man was never identified. In a very sad press release a spokesman said: “A tooth has been retained for DNA comparisons.”

This story comes from:
Tales From The Dales
A major exhibition of new paintings based on stories from the Yorkshire Dales collected over the last two years. In addition to artwork the exhibition sees the launch of a book for children: The Penhill Giant, which is an illustrated retelling of events which took place on the hill overlooking the exhibition location. The exhibition will also see the launch of a book, illustrated with paintings created for the exhibition, which will include a collection of Dales stories, many of which will be appearing in print for the first time. The exhibition will be on at:
Wensley Church, Wensley, N Yorks.
10 am - 5 am   27 July – 11 August 2013
Preview: 7 - 9 pm Friday 26th July
A chance to see the paintings and meet the artist.
Stories of the Dales: 5.00 - 6.30 Saturday 27th July
Four Yorkshire writers read from and talk about their work.
Open Mic Night: 7 - 9 pm Saturday 10th August
A great evening of music with musicians from the Yorkshire Dales.
If you would like to perform CLICK HERE


Further details can be found on following me on Facebook or Twitter:
http://www.facebook.com/scottmassieARTIST
https://twitter.com/ianscottmassie

As a son of Scots I grew up with a lot of great stories but few were as terrible as the tale of Mary Queen of Scots. Born of a Royal bloodline, intelligent and beautiful, she should have had it all but she was doomed, She was proclaimed Queen of Scots at six days old. She married a prince of France, became a queen consort of that country but was widowed before the age of eighteen.

Returning to Scotland she married her cousin, Lord Darnley. However her husband was jealous of her friendship with her secretary David Rizzio and organized a conspiracy to murder him. The conspirators, accompanied by a body of armed thugs, carried out the killing in front of Mary (who was seven months pregnant with James VI at the time) after she was forced to hand over Rizzio at gunpoint. They stabbed the Italian courtier fifty-six times. The conspirators were funded by several persons who wished to destabilise Scotland and included Elizabeth I of England, who also provided the conspirators with sanctuary.

Soon after Darnley was murdered in a massive explosion and then things went from bad to worse when Mary married the man accused of Darnley’s murder. As public support for her collapsed in Scotland Mary looked for mercy and protection to Elizabeth and England: the last in a long line of bad decisions.



Initially described as a guest, Mary was politically too important to be left at liberty and she became a captive of the English queen, ending up at Bolton Castle in Wensleydale. She was given many of the trappings of a queen: a chamber in the south-west tower, and fifty-one attendants including a secretary, a master of horse and three laundresses. She was also allowed, under tight supervision, to join the hunt. She used this opportunity to gain knowledge of the area so that, if the chance came to run, at least she would know which direction to take.

One day, with the help of a servant, she managed to escape from the castle and made for the nearest town - Leyburn. She took the east lane out of Castle Bolton and made her way to Warren Wood, at which point she would have been able to hear the hue and cry closing on her. At last she came to the long ridge west of Leyburn and the tale has it that the brambles tore her shawl from her shoulders. She was captured at what has come to be known as Queen’s Gap, and the ridge has become known as The Shawl.

Mary was never free again and, before her beheading at Fotheringhay asked her executioner to “make an end of all my troubles”. Fearing she might be made a martyr, anything her blood touched was burned including her clothes and the execution block.

This story comes from:
Tales From The Dales
A major exhibition of new paintings based on stories from the Yorkshire Dales collected over the last two years. In addition to artwork the exhibition sees the launch of a book for children: The Penhill Giant, which is an illustrated retelling of events which took place on the hill overlooking the exhibition location. The exhibition will also see the launch of a book, illustrated with paintings created for the exhibition, which will include a collection of Dales stories, many of which will be appearing in print for the first time. The exhibition will be on at:
Wensley Church, Wensley, N Yorks.
10 am - 5 am   27 July – 11 August 2013
Preview: 7 - 9 pm Friday 26th July
A chance to see the paintings and meet the artist.
Stories of the Dales: 5.00 - 6.30 Saturday 27th July
Four Yorkshire writers read from and talk about their work.
Open Mic Night: 7 - 9 pm Saturday 10th August
A great evening of music with musicians from the Yorkshire Dales.
If you would like to perform CLICK HERE


Further details can be found on following me on Facebook or Twitter:
http://www.facebook.com/scottmassieARTIST
https://twitter.com/ianscottmassie

This is a story which has a lots of storytellers’ fingerprints on so I’m going to tell the version I heard first, which I think is the best.

Three drovers and a dog came down from Scotland with a herd of cattle bound for Bradford market. They were hoping to sell some Highland cattle that had been seized by the English in the hard years after the battle of Culloden.

At Lodge, on the slopes of what would soon be known as Dead Man’s Hill, they stayed within an inn kept by a woman and her daughter.

A few days later they returned with the price of the cattle in their pockets and stayed the night. Unfortunately this time they stayed more than the night.

After getting the drovers drunk the two women murdered the men as they slept. They cut off their heads and buried the bodies and heads in two different places on the hill. They had reckoned without the dog, however.

No matter how they tried they couldn’t catch or scare away the faithful sheepdog. Of course, sooner or later some travellers making for Lodge saw the dog digging and went to have a closer look. Out of the ground came one head, then a second and then a third.

There are two versions of the endgame:

In the first the two women were taken to Pateley Bridge, tried and hung.

In the second the two were found to be witches and were mysteriously petrified. They stand as two weathered stones, known as Jenny Twig and her Daughter Tib, overlooking Nidderdale near Lofthouse.

This story comes from:
Tales From The Dales
A major exhibition of new paintings based on stories from the Yorkshire Dales collected over the last two years. In addition to artwork the exhibition sees the launch of a book for children: The Penhill Giant, which is an illustrated retelling of events which took place on the hill overlooking the exhibition location. The exhibition will also see the launch of a book, illustrated with paintings created for the exhibition, which will include a collection of Dales stories, many of which will be appearing in print for the first time. The exhibition will be on at:
Wensley Church, Wensley, N Yorks.
10 am - 5 am   27 July – 11 August 2013
Preview: 7 - 9 pm Friday 26th July
A chance to see the paintings and meet the artist.
Stories of the Dales: 5.00 - 6.30 Saturday 27th July
Four Yorkshire writers read from and talk about their work.
Open Mic Night: 7 - 9 pm Saturday 10th August
A great evening of music with musicians from the Yorkshire Dales.
If you would like to perform CLICK HERE


Further details can be found on following me on Facebook or Twitter:
http://www.facebook.com/scottmassieARTIST
https://twitter.com/ianscottmassie

There was, an old, old house on the road sliding up toward Stainmore Pass. It was known as the Old Spital Inn and stood on the site of a 12th Century  monastic hospital belonging to Marrick Priory.

One night a lady stopped to pass the night but insisted that she must leave early the next morning and that, if a little breakfast was left out for her, she need not disturb the rest of the household.

The landlord and his wife asked the maid to make sure the lady was comfortable and to lay out some breakfast before retiring, which she did but, as she was banking up the fire, she noticed a pair of trouser legs beneath the lady’s skirt. All thought of sleep banished, she lay down on a couch and, after a respectable interval, settled into a rhythm of convincing snores.

The lady, who of course was nothing of the sort, took from his coat a Hand of Glory*.

*A Hand of Glory Recipe:

Take the corpse of a man who is freshly hung from the gallows, and sever his hand at the wrist. Squeeze out as much blood as you can.

Taking some of the remaining corpse, render it down (boiling or microwaving both work well) to gather a quantity of fat.

Preserve the hand with saltpetre and season well with salt and pepper and leave in a stoneware jar for two weeks.

Place the hand in a hot oven – 230 degrees/gas mark 8 – for an hour before removing and shaping the hand to form a fist.

Take some of the rendered human fat and make a candle (scented or unscented – it seems to make no difference) that is then forced into the grip of the fist.

Your Hand of Glory is now complete and, when lit and accompanied by the right spell, will render all those asleep unwakeable.

The robber placed the Hand of Glory on the table, lit the candle made from the dead flesh and said:

“Let those who are asleep be asleep,

Let those who are awake be awake.”

He then went to the door of the inn and, after drawing back the bolts, stepped out into the night and whistled to his accomplices. However it was at this moment that the maid, rising from her feigned slumber, gave the robber a hearty shove, slammed the door and pushed home the bolts.

She ran upstairs but could not wake the landlord nor any of his family as they lay locked in their enchanted sleep. Hearing the disgruntled robbers attempting o force the door, she acted on a surprisingly effective instinct and, sweeping up a bowl of milk, she doused the flame of the Hand of Glory. Instantly the sleepers awoke and, hearing the noise at the door, the landlord’s son leaned out of an upper window to ask the men their business.

They replied that, if they could have the Hand of Glory, they would do no harm and be on their way. By way of reply the lad discharged a blunderbuss and, in a clatter of old iron, a cloud of smoke and a spattering of blood, the robbers took to their heels. And, in the best tradition of a traditional tale, were never seen again.

This story comes from:
Tales From The Dales
A major exhibition of new paintings based on stories from the Yorkshire Dales collected over the last two years. In addition to artwork the exhibition sees the launch of a book for children: The Penhill Giant, which is an illustrated retelling of events which took place on the hill overlooking the exhibition location. The exhibition will also see the launch of a book, illustrated with paintings created for the exhibition, which will include a collection of Dales stories, many of which will be appearing in print for the first time. The exhibition will be on at:
Wensley Church, Wensley, N Yorks.
10 am - 5 am   27 July – 11 August 2013
Preview: 7 - 9 pm Friday 26th July
A chance to see the paintings and meet the artist.
Stories of the Dales: 5.00 - 6.30 Saturday 27th July
Four Yorkshire writers read from and talk about their work.
Open Mic Night: 7 - 9 pm Saturday 10th August
A great evening of music with musicians from the Yorkshire Dales.
If you would like to perform CLICK HERE


Further details can be found on following me on Facebook or Twitter:
http://www.facebook.com/scottmassieARTIST
https://twitter.com/ianscottmassie

Behind the lovely waterfall of Janet’s Foss is a cave, hidden by the falling water. This is the home of Janet – Queen of the Fairies. Her name lacks the grandeur of Titania but her Foss is beautiful. There’s another cave close by called Janet’s Cave which visitors often mistake for the fairy’s home but this was just an unmagical overnight shelter for travelers and itinerant workers in past times.

The pool below the falls was used as a sheep wash, the water thought to bless the sheep with good health. Charles Kingsley knew this place and its stories, and he drew inspiration for The Water Babies from here, Malham Tarn and Arncliffe .

It’s a gorgeous spot but has been a bit of a focus for deranged fairy hunters. Viscount Torrington, a Georgian traveler and diarist, was one of these. He turned out a dreadful little poem after a visit here:

Little Gennet, Fairy trim,

To the merry Dance leads on

Full of pastime, full of whim,

With her playmate, Oberon.

Enough said….

(Foss is an Old Norse word for a waterfall. It pops up in slightly altered form at High Force and a few other places.)

This story comes from:
Tales From The Dales
A major exhibition of new paintings based on stories from the Yorkshire Dales collected over the last two years. In addition to artwork the exhibition sees the launch of a book for children: The Penhill Giant, which is an illustrated retelling of events which took place on the hill overlooking the exhibition location. The exhibition will also see the launch of a book, illustrated with paintings created for the exhibition, which will include a collection of Dales stories, many of which will be appearing in print for the first time. The exhibition will be on at:
Wensley Church, Wensley, N Yorks.
10 am - 5 am   27 July – 11 August 2013
Preview: 7 - 9 pm Friday 26th July
A chance to see the paintings and meet the artist.
Stories of the Dales: 5.00 - 6.30 Saturday 27th July
Four Yorkshire writers read from and talk about their work.
Open Mic Night: 7 - 9 pm Saturday 10th August
A great evening of music with musicians from the Yorkshire Dales.
If you would like to perform CLICK HERE


Further details can be found on following me on Facebook or Twitter:
http://www.facebook.com/scottmassieARTIST
https://twitter.com/ianscottmassie

In 1869 the Midland Railway started building the Settle to Carlisle line as a way of getting its passengers to Scotland. For years it had been frustrated by the London and North Western Railway who owned the West coast main line. The final ding-dong with the LNWR came when they wouldn’t allow the Midland to use its station at Ingleton, resulting in two stations in one tiny town. The Midland had had enough and set out to build the line that most people said couldn’t be built.

Now although the Settle Carlisle line is a spectacular and astonishing engineering achievement it lacks something in terms of customer satisfaction. This is because, like an early version of a budget airline, the stations are nowhere near the towns they are named after. So if you get off at Dent Station you’ll have to walk four and a half miles to get to Dent.

(Fortunately they renamed Hawes Junction as Garsdale – it was twelve miles from Hawes!)

One benefit of the walk from Dent Station to Dent, however, is that it takes you through the beautiful valley of the River Dee. The river is pretty much invisible a lot of the time – heavily wooded and deep down in a gorge.

When I went to find the cave of Ibbeth Peril it was a damp autumn day. The leaves were thick on the trees, the brambles prickly and non-compliant and the rocks above the gorge were moss covered and slippery. I eventually found my way down to the riverbed by falling into it, after a brief, unplanned, but exciting journey, on my posterior.

I stood up, made sure that nothing vital had snapped, and found myself in a broad, deep, stone lined channel. There was no sky above – just a mass of trees - and there was only a slight trickle in the streambed. It seemed completely silent.

In the course of researching this book I’ve found myself in some extraordinary places but this took the biscuit. The whole pack of ginger nuts in fact! I walked until I found the cave. It wasn’t hard. There is a lovely waterfall, a round pool of deep green water and, beside it, a big black hole in the rock.

The story goes like this: If you got drunk the witch that lived here would find you as you were walking home. While befuddled by drink she would lead you, with suitable seductive promises, to this gorge. If you were lucky she would lead you into a deep, deep cavern (which, by the way, is about half a mile in from the cave entrance), and leave you there to sleep it off. You would wake up, hungover and disoriented in the dark, with a mouth like the bottom of a witch’s cave, and have to find your way out.

If you were unlucky she just drowned you in the pool.

The gorge is a very scary place. The atmosphere is cold and everything seems unnatural. It feels more like the surface of the moon that the Yorkshire Dales. You are acutely aware of being in a physically vulnerable position: in a water channel with plenty of evidence that sometimes the river here is a violent torrent. In fact a school party had to be rescued from Ibbeth Peril cave in 1990 when heavy rains made the river rise with frightening speed. The event led to a revision of safety procedures for parties going underground.

But who was the witch? There is very little known about her, but she seems to have been called Ibby, short for Elizabeth, and she’s buried in Dent graveyard. Her fame only grew after her death, due to her cruel and unusual stand on binge drinking. Whether she exists or not, Ibbeth Peril is an amazing place, but next time I won’t go there alone. 

This story comes from:
Tales From The Dales
A major exhibition of new paintings based on stories from the Yorkshire Dales collected over the last two years. In addition to artwork the exhibition sees the launch of a book for children: The Penhill Giant, which is an illustrated retelling of events which took place on the hill overlooking the exhibition location. The exhibition will also see the launch of a book, illustrated with paintings created for the exhibition, which will include a collection of Dales stories, many of which will be appearing in print for the first time. The exhibition will be on at:
Wensley Church, Wensley, N Yorks.
10 am - 5 am   27 July – 11 August 2013
Preview: 7 - 9 pm Friday 26th July
A chance to see the paintings and meet the artist.
Stories of the Dales: 5.00 - 6.30 Saturday 27th July
Four Yorkshire writers read from and talk about their work.
Open Mic Night: 7 - 9 pm Saturday 10th August
A great evening of music with musicians from the Yorkshire Dales.
If you would like to perform CLICK HERE


Further details can be found on following me on Facebook or Twitter:
http://www.facebook.com/scottmassieARTIST
https://twitter.com/ianscottmassie