Drive & Stroll, with Ron Freethy - beyond Skipton into a tourist-free zone!

A SUMMER Monday at Skipton market is a joy well known to many folk from East Lancashire.

The old "Gateway to the Dales" is easily reached via the A59 through Clitheroe and Gisburn.

For those who like to explore the area further, I can recommend Gargrave if you want to sit, picnic and watch the world go by.

For those who enjoy a walk, there is the reward of finding one of the most fascinating buildings in Yorkshire, known as Friar's Head.

I turned off the A59 near the Bull Hotel at Broughton and within 10 minutes I was parked by the Leeds to Liverpool canal at Gargrave locks.

It had stopped raining but a chill breeze swept down from the limestone hills which enfold the River Aire.

There is an advantage to this sort of weather - there is no heat haze and the atmosphere is so clear that the views are breathtaking. I never realised there were so many shades of green.

After enjoying my lunch, I set off in the direction of Airton, turning off to the right along the narrow winding road to Winterburn. This takes its name from the fact that the "burn," or stream usually only flows in the winter or following heavy rain.

After pausing to admire the azure blue flowers of meadow cranesbill, which overflowed from the hedgerows, I reached the wonderful old house called Friar's Head.

This can be seen from the roadside without disturbing the owners.

Many authorities consider this to have the finest 17th century frontage to be found in the Dales and yet so very few people know of its existence.

Its mullions are particularly fine.

Friar's Head stands on the site of a farm grange built by the monks of Furness Abbey, who had sheep grazing around Skipton - the name actually means Sheep Town. Sir Stephen Procer, who built the now well-known Fountains Hall, near Ripon, was born here and it is easy to see how Friar's Head influenced the design of his much more famous architectural enterprise. The house must have been a hive of activity during the Civil Wars of the 1640s, when it was a meeting place for cavaliers.

In Winterburn itself is a building which is an important part of the history of English religion. In 1694 Winterburn was a secluded meeting place for Protestant dissenters. They were helped by a most formidable lady by the name of Barbara Lambert, who was the wife of John Lambert of Calton Hall.

John was the son of Major General John Lambert, one of Oliver Cromwell's best known generals.

The area around Winterburn must have been a place of split loyalties with Calton Hall on one side and Friar's Head on the other.

Barbara was born in 1639, a member of the influential Lister family of Gisburne Hall and was obviously a wilful lass.

She secretly married William Nowell, of the Read family, in the gardens of her own home but soon afterwards her young husband was drowned. Barbara then married John Lambert and was already known for her Puritan sympathies.

In 1704 she paid for the construction of a congregational church at Winterburn, which closed in 1880 but then served for a time as a chapel of ease to the parish church at Gargrave. It is now a private residence, set amid the almost unknown hamlet of Winterburn.

I cannot understand why this area is not on the popular tourist route but the advantage is that the area has retained all of its beauty and character.

I found rowan trees at their best, with succulent berries hanging from the branches and being fed upon by mistle thrushes and wood pigeons.

It was almost dark when I returned to my car at Gargrave to find several barges had tied up by the locks.

Their lights reflected in the water and the smell of frying onions and brewing coffee reminded me it was supper time.

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