Blogs from the field
COUNTY SECRETS BLOG COMPETITION
County Secrets is a brand new series on FIVE which explores hidden wonders in the counties we think we know well. The County Secrets blog is written by the presenter, Jonathan Foyle who is WMF Britain’s Chief Executive. If you can answer the six questions, you could be in line for an exciting prize.
Answer the questions embedded in Jonathan Foyle’s County Secrets blog of the North Yorkshire episode by watching the series on FIVE, or through your own detective skills.
If you correctly answer all six questions we’ll enter you into the draw for a prize package including a private tour of Hampton Court where Jonathan will join you to show you the palace’s secrets. You’ll also receive three years’ free membership of WMF Britain and one years’ free membership of Historic Royal Palaces.
By simply entering the competition you can also take advantage of reduced first-year membership (when you set up a standing order) to Britain’s liveliest architecture charity. For just £30 you will receive 2-for-1 entrance to a range of magnificent properties, reduced price tickets to superb evening events and study days, and our magazine twice yearly, as well as the sheer satisfaction of helping to secure treasured places for everyone’s enjoyment.
To join or to give a membership as a unique gift, just call Sarah on 0207 7305344 or click here to send an email and quote ‘I’m a County Secret’. Good luck!
JONATHAN’S COUNTY SECRETS BLOG: NORTH YORKSHIRE
Day 1
08:50 Arrive at King’s Cross Station for the 09:00 to York with a case of essentials including call sheet and location notes, diary and Blackberry to stay in touch with the office and a change of clothes in case of sliding down a ravine. Decide I’ll have breakfast on the train before taking my allotted seat 50 in coach D. Turns out to be no restaurant car, nor a coach D and hence no seat 50. Wonder if this is an omen of things to come.
11.07 Arrive in York, quite peckish and in an over-optimistic linen shirt. It’s drizzling and about 5 degrees cooler than in London. Head into the city, come across an outdoor supplies shop and somehow buy an unattractive fleece jacket. Head for York Minster to meet the crew.
11.45 En route, Mark (Camera, Director, Producer) and Hannah (Researcher, Assistant Producer) call to say they’ll be arriving by car in a few minutes to film some ‘GVs’ (general views). Hannah suggests that Sarah (sound recorder) should be deposited by her haywire sat-nav into the centre of York soon. She’ll join me for lunch before we all get going on the derivation of ‘Yorkshire’. An excellent plan: one needs sustenance before launching into the etymology of any county.
12:30 Haul my fleecy torso to the Minster Yard. The sky is dark, the tree canopies offering the only shelter. The four letters of ‘York’ contain a thousand-year long story of rivers, Romans, yew trees, Celts, boars, Vikings and harbours. ‘Shire’ is just a bonus. The verbal archaeology that surrounds us, locked away inside our common parlance, never ceases to amaze me.
QUESTION 1: What did the Vikings call York?
12:50 With one moist piece to camera in the can, we head off to Swinton Park near Masham, a late Georgian house, a clumsy but charming echo of the shape of a medieval castle. In about 1820, its owner, William Danby, invested in a bizarre project for a picnic place.
QUESTION 2: What was Danby’s picnic project?
16:00 The drive to Studley Royal gardens is short, but finding the entrance to the water gardens rather than Fountains Abbey is a challenge. As we drive through the unlabelled gate, the clouds become more mobile, and break to reveal blue sky. There’s life left in the day yet. Just as well, as I present the set up for the next feature. It may seem odd to present a secret location at Studley Royal, as it’s seen by a third of a million visitors a year, but this garden for John Aislabie was the ancestor of another garden created for his son, William Aislabie, in a gorge six miles away.
QUESTION 3: What is William Aislabie’s garden called?
19:00 We’re off to take part in a meeting of a venerable archery club. Simply learning how to shoot (never ‘fire’, I’m told) an arrow requires instruction with much mystique-enhancing terminology. But practise makes perfect, and you need perfection to win the championship this club stages each year, the longest-running sporting event in the World.
QUESTION 4: What’s the name of the 300-year-old archery competition?
22:00 Dinner in Harrogate. You can’t leave recording kit in a car, so it all comes into restaurants with us. Other diners become anxious, perhaps fearing an undercover exposé on the cuisine. Text home, promising to call in an hour.
23:00 Arrive at the guest house at a village near Ripon. No mobile signal and no phone in the room. Am reminded the production company is called Doghouse Media.
JONATHAN’S COUNTY SECRETS BLOG: NORTH YORKSHIRE
Day 2
06:45 Wake up and draw back the curtains to reveal- rain. Am the first in to breakfast, a rare occurrence, and enjoy the moral high ground along with muesli and a fry-up.
08:50 Arrive at our second location- the one I introduced at Studley Royal and which is the subject of QUESTION 3. A beautiful day to see this dramatic garden on the River Ure, with follies including Mowbray Castle.
12:30 Travel to Richmond. Richmond Castle is one of the most picturesque ruins in Britain, with an imposing Norman tower. I meet a group of ladies from Leeds enjoying a day out. But Richmond holds a twentieth-century tale of political incarceration.
QUESTION 5: What was the nickname of the group who were imprisoned here in 1916?
15:50 Drive west from Richmond toward Hawes in Wensleydale, until Sarah realises her fuel is low. Sets her erratic sat-nav to find a petrol station and after being sent to a car showroom and a mews, we arrive for fuel at a forecourt 40 yards from where it wants us to be at its third attempt. We can now drive through the Dales, one of my favourite places in all the world, as dark blue storm clouds gather.
17:00 Arrive at Hardraw where I enjoy a swift pint en route to a magnificent natural wonder in the back garden of the village pub.
QUESTION 6: What’s the name of this natural wonder?
23:36 Arrive back at King’s Cross via Leeds, and head home for a good night’s sleep.
To enter please click here. Please include your name, postal address, email address, daytime telephone number and answers to the six questions.
Terms & Conditions
- The winner will be drawn from the correct entries received before midnight on 31 March 2009.
- In the event of no correct answers being received the winner will be drawn from those entries with the most correct answers.
- The winner will be notified within 28 days of the draw.
- Only one entry per person is allowed and any entrant who enters more than this will be disqualified.
- Employees of WMF or any company involved in the competition or production of a television programme to which a competition relates, or web company connected with WMF or any such person’s subsidiary or associated companies, agents or members of their families or households, are not eligible to enter the competition.
- Entries will only be accepted from those aged 18 or over and entrants must be a resident of the UK.
- Prizes are non–transferable and there is no cash alternative. WMF reserves the right to substitute prizes of equal or greater value at any time.
- The judge’s decision is final
- Only reasonable travel expenses will be paid.
- The winner will be given a choice of fixed dates in which to redeem their prize.
- The reduced membership offer can only be redeemed when a competition entry has been received.
- The membership offer is only valid when a standing order form has been received.
- The membership offer is open until midnight on 31 March 2009.
- WMF reserve the right to withdraw the reduced membership offer at any time.
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