A Wild and Woolly West Yorkshire in the Campervan | Yarn shop visit | Yorkshire Sculpture Park

[00:00:05][music] >> Hello everyone. Helen here.

[00:00:18]I hope you're feeling okay and all ready to go on a little trip in the camper van with me and with Phil, my husband.

[00:00:26]And you might be able to hear the rain.

[00:00:29]I'll just Just as I was getting into the camper van, it started coming down. I don't know how heavy it's going to be, but you might hear a gentle pitter-pattering in the background while I'm chatting to you today.

[00:00:41]Anyway, this particular trip that I'm taking you on was actually prompted by one of my lovely YouTube friends, Pamela, who has a channel called Ginger Cat Crochet.

[00:00:53]And she was chatting about a visit that she'd made to a new yarn shop not too far from where she lives in West Yorkshire.

[00:01:05]And it was it's a Yorkshire company called World of Wool, and I had By coincidence, I'd only just heard about them when I bought the wool to make my Audriana's vest that I just finished knitting.

[00:01:16]Uh so that was funny, really. But when I saw the pictures of World of Wool, I thought, "Really, really would love to go there."

[00:01:25]So Phil kindly agreed that we could go on a trip that had its main target as a yarn shop.

[00:01:33]>> [laughter] >> He's very kind.

[00:01:34]Uh and of course but we're not that familiar with West Yorkshire, and so we would be able to uh go to some other places as well while we're there.

[00:01:45]So West Yorkshire, just in case you don't know, is I'll [clears throat] show you here on the map. So we we're traveling from Durham in the northeast of England and going I suppose roughly southwest down to the area around Leeds. That's mostly where we were on this trip.

[00:02:04]We set off on Wednesday evening once Phil was home from work and we'd had our evening meal.

[00:02:11]So it was latish when we when we left and we traveled south down the A1 towards Leeds.

[00:02:18]It probably took us about 2 hours I think to get to Ilkley Moor where we'd stopped for the night once before and so that's where we chose to be on that night.

[00:02:29]After a misty start, the beautiful open moorland opened up and it was sunny for a short while.

[00:02:36]But then the sky darkened and we started to hear distant thunder which gradually got closer and closer and fork lightning appearing and soon some very heavy rain.

[00:03:00]Sometimes the storm was right overhead and the claps of thunder were unbelievably loud.

[00:03:14]I was very worried that we were going to be struck by lightning being the only metal thing for miles around.

[00:03:21]But thankfully we survived and I was very relieved when the storm moved away.

[00:03:27]It was a little bit misty again when we set off but very soon the sun returned and it remained with us for the rest of the day.

[00:03:34]Our first aim of the day was to go to the World of Wool Shop. So we headed towards Huddersfield enjoying all the countryside and little villages and towns along the way and soon arriving in the market town of Huddersfield.

[00:03:50]Huddersfield was once a thriving center of the woolen cloth making industry, which was greatly aided by the building of a canal and rail network in the late 19th century.

[00:04:02]Today, Huddersfield has a diverse multicultural community.

[00:04:07]We were on the lookout for somewhere to stop and have a cup of tea, and as we came past a large park, I spotted a cafe.

[00:04:14]We were very glad that we had stopped there.

[00:04:18]We strolled along to the cafe to begin with, passing a group of people who were having a croquet lesson. And we enjoyed mugs of tea in the cafe.

[00:04:29]Although I was keen to get to the wool shop, it seemed a shame to leave without exploring a bit of the park, and we didn't regret the decision.

[00:04:38]Greenhead Park was first opened in 1884 after the council bought a piece of land from the main land owning family of the area, the Ramsdens.

[00:04:49]In the post war years, the park must have gone into decline because the information sign in the park said that it had undergone a two-year restoration project from 2009.

[00:05:00]Including replacing the boundary fences and gates, which had been taken down in 1940 to support the war effort.

[00:05:09]It's once again a lovely hub for the local community and a very pleasant green space for people to spend time in.

[00:05:20]>> [music] [music] [music] >> It was the middle of the day by the time we got to World of Wool.

[00:07:02]What a welcoming place we found it to be.

[00:07:06]Friendly staff combined with a calm atmosphere and lots of space and walls filled with beautiful colors.

[00:07:14]Even Phil enjoyed it.

[00:07:16]He had a long chat with the member of staff on duty asking lots of questions about wool making then relaxing on the settee while I continued browsing around the shop.

[00:07:28]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> I couldn't possibly have come away empty-handed.

[00:08:53]I bought 400 g of their range of Lowland DK wool in the color coastal fog, which is a mixture of shades of gray.

[00:09:03]I had a project in mind.

[00:09:05]Although, when I got home, I found that it actually needs 500 g, so I had to order an extra 100 g online.

[00:09:13]I bought a bar of sheep's milk soap just because I love soap and a piece of felt to add to my collection of felt, plus a gift for my sister of wool for needle felting, which is one of her hobbies. I got the woodland animals pack because she particularly enjoys making animals.

[00:09:32]After lunch in the van, while we were still parked in the World of Wool car park, we set off to visit the picturesque village of Holmfirth.

[00:09:40]Like many towns in this area, Holmfirth's success was down to the wool and cloth trade, along with local quarrying for stone and slate.

[00:09:52]Being positioned in a narrow valley, Holmfirth has been rather prone to flooding over the years.

[00:09:58]A devastating flood in 1777 washed away an entire church.

[00:10:03]The burst reservoir in 1852 caused catastrophic damage in the whole valley.

[00:10:10]The little town has a lovely variety of shops and eating places.

[00:10:14]So, let me show you the things that captured my attention while we wandered round.

[00:10:21]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> After a little rest, with cold drinks and a bite to eat, it was quite a warm day.

[00:12:21]We drove up and out of the valley to get a view over the surrounding landscape.

[00:13:06]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> We parked almost at the summit of Holme Moss and relaxed there for an hour or two taking in the wide views across the hills and valleys.

[00:14:06]It wasn't a totally clear day, but clear enough to see quite a distance away.

[00:14:12]I rather liked the quote on the large frame on the hillside.

[00:14:16]Many people look, but only a few see.

[00:14:20]Hinting that looking is just a physical thing, whereas seeing requires attention, intention, and empathy.

[00:14:28]When you see, you notice the details and appreciate the hidden beauty or meaning of what you're looking at.

[00:14:36]It was still warm and sunny, but there was a very blustery wind.

[00:14:40]I attempted sitting outside on a convenient rock to do some crochet surrounded by the beautiful views, but after a short time I decided that I preferred the shelter of the van sitting on a comfy seat.

[00:14:54]And it was certainly a lot more restful than being constantly buffeted by the wind.

[00:15:00]I also had a little look through a book that I'd bought in the Oxfam bookshop in in Holmfirth. I'm really interested in the history of children's playground games and rhymes and the authors of this book are absolute experts in it. They they probably know more than anybody else.

[00:15:20]So I'm going to enjoy, uh, looking at that further.

[00:15:25]As evening came, we drove back down into the valley to a tiny village called Holme.

[00:15:31]>> [music] [music] >> It was pie night at the Fleece Inn in Holme, and nothing makes Phil happier than a good pie.

[00:16:02]Phil chose the lamb and mint pie, and I had chicken and leek and ham pie, all accompanied by very generous amounts of vegetables and potatoes prepared in two different ways, which I forgot to photograph.

[00:16:16]We would definitely go back there again.

[00:16:19]We then drove back up to Holme Moss, over the other side of the summit, and into Derbyshire, and stopped in a gravelled parking area by a road that was soon almost devoid of traffic, and we very happily went to sleep surrounded by the rolling countryside.

[00:16:38]It was still rather windy the next morning, but the weather was set fair again, and there was no rain forecast.

[00:16:46]We were soon ready to set off, this time heading for the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

[00:16:52]The Yorkshire Sculpture Park is the largest open-air art gallery in Europe, and was founded in 1977 by Sir Peter Murray, exhibiting a huge variety of modern and contemporary sculptures.

[00:17:06]The park covers 500 acres, land that was once part of the 18th-century estate of Bretton Hall, originally designed as a private deer park for the Wentworth family.

[00:17:19]A new visitor center was opened in the park in 2019, providing indoor exhibition space, as well as a cafe and shop and other facilities.

[00:17:29]After some essential refreshments, we set out to explore the sculpture park.

[00:17:35]It's so large that it definitely needs more than just one day to properly see and appreciate everything. There are over 90 outdoor sculptures to see, spread out across the beautiful parkland.

[00:17:48]And as it was rather a hot day, I found it quite tiring after a while.

[00:17:53]There were occasional benches to sit on, but I would definitely have liked a few more, especially in positions where you could sit and contemplate whichever sculpture you were looking at.

[00:18:04]I also found it very hard obeying the instruction that the sculptures were not to be touched.

[00:18:09]Some were so tactile that I had to try very hard to resist brushing my hand over them.

[00:18:17]The sculptures that I was most keen to see were the ones by Barbara Hepworth, who actually appears in my family tree.

[00:18:24]Her first husband, John Skeaping, was my grandma's cousin on my mom's side of the family.

[00:18:31]John Skeaping was also a successful artist.

[00:18:35]At the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, you can see Hepworth's series of sculptures called the Family of Man, a group of strangely shaped people that represent different members of a family.

[00:18:47]She had imagined it being displayed on a gently sloping hillside, and once said that she liked her work to be displayed outdoors, where it would be able to breathe.

[00:18:58]So, she would be very pleased to see it installed here.

[00:19:02]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> I rather like the tall, thin sculpture called a needle woman by a South Korean sculptor called Kim Sooja.

[00:20:01]It represents her interest in traditional forms of female labor, as well as the metaphorical idea that the body is a needle that weaves together the fabric of our lives, our cultures, and our cities, celebrating a shared humanity regardless of geographical borders.

[00:20:20]The translucent panels had a special sheen on them created by something called a nano polymer, so that it appears different in different kinds of light.

[00:20:31]It can be quite difficult to get your head around modern sculptures, but if nothing else, it can be very thought-provoking and encourage us to see the world in a very different way.

[00:20:42]I often wondered what was going on in the mind of the artist when they came up with their pieces of artwork.

[00:20:48]And many of the information panels did give some clues about what the artist had been thinking.

[00:20:54]Modern art definitely raises lots of questions in my mind.

[00:20:58]I'm especially interested in how human emotions can be expressed in three-dimensional form, and I certainly had an emotional response to many of the things that we saw, though perhaps not always the ones that the artists had in mind while they were creating their work.

[00:21:15]Damien Hirst is a prime example of an artist who plays with people's emotions, and his work has resulted in lots of controversy over the years.

[00:21:24]His work confronts themes that we might wish to avoid, such as death, and often strives to unveil the truth about something, which is the thing that Damien Hirst thinks is the greatest thing about art.

[00:21:37]He likes John Ruskin's quote that art is like holding a mirror up to life.

[00:21:43]And even if I wasn't so keen on the first sculpture of his that I saw, The Virgin Mother, it certainly elicited some strong emotional reactions within me.

[00:21:53]It's 10 m, or about 30 ft tall, and stands there as a powerful presence in the landscape.

[00:22:00]But well, maybe I'm just a bit squeamish, but I didn't like the fact that the inside of the body of the lady was revealed very garishly, causing me to want to look away. I'd love to have read the minds of all the other people who were standing looking up at this intriguing piece of work.

[00:22:16]The sculpture called Charity represents collection boxes that were seen in the 1960s and 70s, and questions the way we used to view disability compared to how we see it today.

[00:22:28]I had feelings of discomfort when I saw this one.

[00:22:31]Finally, The Hat Makes the Man is a three-dimensional version of a surrealist painting by Max Ernst, and however I looked at this one, it just gave me a feeling of deep puzzlement.

[00:22:56]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Probably my favorite installation that we saw on our visit was the one called Deer Shelter Skyspace.

[00:25:18]In 2009, the American artist James Turrell transformed this 18th century deer shelter into a place for quiet contemplation.

[00:25:28]He's been creating what he calls Skyspaces since 1974.

[00:25:34]Rooms that are open to the sky.

[00:25:37]The information board told us that inside the room the sky seems to be brought within reach and is no longer out there, but is right on the edge of the space you are in.

[00:25:49]The artist himself said that in working with light, what is really important to me is to create an experience of wordless thought.

[00:25:59]Sitting in that space really did have a profound effect on me.

[00:26:03]It felt very calming and meditative to sit there watching a square of sky.

[00:26:09]Never the same from one second to the next. And I wanted to try and give you that feeling of a meditative experience.

[00:26:17]So, I've written a piano piece called Sky Square to accompany 3 minutes of peacefully watching the sky.

[00:26:39]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> We stayed at the sculpture park for the entire day.

[00:29:38]A break at lunchtime to have some tasty food in the restaurant, where there was also an interesting exhibition of artwork using different kinds of rope.

[00:29:48]But finally, it was time to move on.

[00:29:51]There was one more place of interest that Phil wanted to go to and see before we stopped for the night.

[00:29:57]And that was the Emley Moor Tower.

[00:30:00]This tower transmits radio and television to about 5 million people, including us in Durham.

[00:30:07]It's the tallest free-standing structure in the UK, and at 330 m or just over 1,000 ft, it is actually very slightly taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris and about 20 m taller than the Shard in London.

[00:30:24]The previous tower on this site was built in 1964 and it collapsed 5 years later. A combination of strong winds and heavy ice on the steel cables.

[00:30:35]The current reinforced concrete structure was designed by Arup in 1971 to be capable of withstanding harsh Yorkshire weather.

[00:30:46]We then drove off to find a nice place to stop for the night.

[00:30:50]We were very happy to find a quiet place within a small wood, an area called Stocks Moor Common, and it proved to be extremely peaceful all the time we were there.

[00:31:01]In the morning, we enjoyed just sitting with the van door open and listening to the birds for a while until finally it was time for us to set off for home.

[00:31:13]And we really thoroughly enjoyed our two days in West Yorkshire. It wasn't enough. And we'll definitely be going back sometime.

[00:31:22]Uh partly because we want to go and see all of the other sculptures in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. There's loads more uh lovely places to go and visit as well.

[00:31:31]So, we will we will be back.

[00:31:33]>> [gasps] >> And if you enjoyed the Skyspace video and just being calm for 3 minutes looking at the sky, I might well put that out as a standalone video. And then if you ever want 3 minutes of calm, you could just you just go and watch that.

[00:31:51]But anyway, that's that's enough for me for this time. And the rain's still pouring. I wonder if you've been able to hear it while I've been chatting.

[00:31:59]Uh but yes, until I see you again, keep yourself nice and busy. Take great care of yourself.

[00:32:05]And I'll be back very soon. Okay. Bye.