A Window on a Vet’s World

This is a window designed in honour of a vet – James Herriott. He (under his real name of James Alfred Wight) made his name by writing a whole series of books about being a young vet in Darrowby (actually Thirsk) visiting farms and their animals hither and yon in the Yorkshire Dales from the 1930s onwards. If you don’t know his books, you may know one of the TV series going out under the name of All Creatures Great and Small: 1978 & 2020, as apparently they’re doing the rounds the world over.

Well, there’s a museum in Thirsk as well – World of James Herriott – occupying the house he and his family lived and worked in all those years ago. And it has a window celebrating the landscape that formed the backdrop to his work. Here it is as the featured photo. And here is a bit of a collage of the backdrop to the working week of any Yorkshire vet, then and now. Except I haven’t got a picture of the White Horse at Kilburn featured in the window. About 170 years ago, it was cut into the landscape to emulate the chalk hill figures of southern England, and Herriott, like all the rest of us, would see it often as he drove round and about the area.

If you’re in the area and want a good family-friendly destination, the museum is highly recommended. You’ll come away with all the older family members saying ‘I remember those’, as they peer at tea-cosies, mangles and a thoroughly ancient car (Gumdrop, anyone?), bemused by the vetinary equipment, and entertained by the quizzes and activities in the children’s gallery. You too can insert your arm into a cow’s rear end to deliver a reluctant calf.

And for a bit of context, here’s a view from a window in the museum.

Monday Window

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Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

58 thoughts on “A Window on a Vet’s World”

  4. I didn’t know there was a Northern white horse, one for the list if I ever get back up North! Lovely shots of rural life, the cows peeking over the stone wall look like they’ve seen it all before.

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  5. This, once more, was a delightful, interesting and beautiful photo/prose-trail into and along the history of your land. Thank you so much. You don‘t know that but we have the whole, complete box set of All Creatures…. Still in its original packaging because after I bought it, my eyesight started to deteriorate and these DVDs weren‘t on top of my watch-list…. I now doubt that they will ever be opened, together with some 200+ further films I bought while living in the UK and France – where I did find time to buy series but not to watch them. I thank you for these amazing life-stories, including the ever mournful looking cows and museums re-telling the life of ‚then‘.

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    1. Oh, Kiki, I didn’t realise your sight presented such difficulties. I am sorry. These particular stories would probably work as a sound track, even of you can’t take in the details of people, landscape etc. Maybe give them a go?

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  7. What a fab window. I think I may have a photo of that white horse. It’s a beautiful landscape as your photos demonstrate. Your barn with the geese is one of my favourite photos of yours.

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  8. We’ve not yet been to Thirsk on our Yorkshire explorations but I’m sure I’d like this museum. To my surprise I’ve enjoyed the new TV series almost as much as the originals (I was determined not at first as they’re on Channel 5!) Thanks for reminding me we should visit one day 😃

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    1. That’s interesting. I haven’t watched them (because they’re on Channel 5 – what a snob I am!). I need to get over myself, and you need to visit Thirsk, which is charming, before visiting a village along the road where I began my schooldays in a 2 class school (5-8s in one class, 9-15 in the other).

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      1. I felt the same about Channel 5 but they do have the odd programme worth watching. Michael Palin in North Korea for instance. And the Dales are the real star of All Creatures…

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      2. So many excellent tearooms! It was disappointing that the yarn bombers weren’t in evidence last week. I don’t go to the bookshop, even though it’s an indie, because of my loyalty to our own lovely indie bookshop.

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  16. Love the design of the window, beautifully done! Thank you, Margaret, for the historical information, which made it even more specially. Love the photos of the landscape.

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  20. I knew that James Alfred Wight, AKA James Herriot, resided in the Yorkshire Dales, but I didn’t realize how picturesque this region was. Your photos beautifully captured rolling hills and farming landscapes. I LOVED the cows.

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  22. Beautiful window and gorgeous photos – I tried to decide which I like best and can’t. The shorn sheep reminded me that a friend who is a local sheep farmer came up to me at church on Sunday and told me her first phase of lambing is over and she can now wear her wedding ring again. She spends a lot of time with her hand inserted in a sheep’s rear end! Her husband deals with the cows.

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    1. Lambing over? We’re hardly thinking of it yet here. And with Easter so early I doubt if there’ll be many Easter lambkins. And no … you don’t want to lose your wedding ring up a sheep’s insides!

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  25. Beautiful photos of an absolutely stunning landscape. Interest history. Think I would enjoy the series as I enjoyed the books. Love the geese and the cows.

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