The Past
This picture reminds me of the days spent in East Witton at my grandfathers house it was on the right as you look up the green with the pub behind you, it had a archway and it was a working farm there was no electricity and the water came from two pumps in the village green one at the top and one at the bottom.
He kept sheep and he had two sheep dogs one of them was a trainee because he would always be larking around in the kitchen just as any good puppy would.
As a family we spent our time on holiday there and enjoyed walking next to the river collecting fresh watercress also in the local towns Hawes and Leyburn the busses do not appear to have changed since 1960, sadley my grandmother died when i was one my grandfather and father have now passed away but i have never forgotten that time we spent together.
My father served as a solider in the Green Howards stationed at catterick he was posted to India until 1943 he came home and was the posted to France as part of the D-Day landings he managed to get shot and duly returned home where he met my mother who worked as a nurse she treated him and the rest is history as they say
My grandparents are buried in the church next to the blue lion they both lived there from 1880 to 1965 his name was Harry Kirby he had three sons one died at home in a farming accident as a youth i am dissapointed that i did not ask more questions about their past and the things they got up to, all i know is that the village of East Witton will hold a very special place in my heart now and forever.
I made a vist their two years ago nothing appears to have changed apart from the water and electricity is now in the houses
this is a place where time has stood still how magical!!
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RE: RE: The Past
I agree with you, Dave Kirby, East Witton is a place that doesn't seem to have changed much in hundreds of years. It was 1968 when I first visited East Witton, I was 11 years old. I went camping there with my uncle for a week, we camped in a field near the river. It took me 37 years to return - and I was overwhelmed by the fact that it was just as I left it all those years ago. I have walked along the riverside trying to find the place where we camped in 1968 - but I have failed up to now. I remember calling in at the village shop in 1968 when we first arrived to stock up for the week - it's now a post office too. We turned left out of the shop and walked along a country lane at the top of the Village Green, we walked along for what seemed like miles - but my legs were shorter then - and it's THAT distance that fails me in my destiny. I cannot remember when we turned off the road into a field on our right and walked down towards the river. I returned a second time in 2007 and stayed at The Blue Lion overnight and spent a whole afternoon the next day walking along the river to no avail. I will not rest until I find it - I shall return again, my memories of East Witton were happy ones and I long to re-live them by returning to the place where they were born. I hope East Witton NEVER changes - because it truly IS - The Place Where Time Stood Still.
Comment from Steven Wainwright on Monday, 12th January 2009.