During Summer 2023, we enjoyed a lovely Road Trip up and down the spine of the UK. We have done this several times before, but this one felt a bit more special as we took in some delightful scenery as well as finally visiting some old, ancestral villages along the way.

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The trip started where most of our trips start - in my hometown of Sutton Coldfield. We arrived a week or so earlier and spent that first week catching up with friends and family. At the end of the week, I drove down to London to collect Phoebe and her belongings after her year-long placement there. After loading, unloading and reloading the car, we all set off on Monday morning to bring her gear up to Durham where she will spend her final year at university. During that day in London, I took a walk to Tower Bridge to meet an old friend from Macau - someone who I had not seen for literally 25 years. Needless to say it was great to catch up.

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Back to the road trip and I had rented the car a few days prior - that was a story in itself - and ended up with a Nissan Quashqai which proved to be a lovely ride. These new cars make motorway driving much easier - I set the cruise control and the car slows down and speeds up in relation to the car in front. Anyhow, I like to get a good bit of distance behind me before stopping so I think it was somewhere north of Leeds by the time we stopped for lunch. I do enjoy the plant-based Whopper from Burger King, so that tends to be our first port-of-call at motorway service stations when in the UK. After our break, we eventually pulled up outside Phoebe's new student digs in Durham in late afternoon.

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This was our first visit to Durham since we dropped Phoebe off for her first year at university in September 2020. This time though we were staying within walking distance of the city centre, so after unloading the car we took a walk around the block which also took us past the church where my parents were married in 1966. We also have ancestors buried in the cemetery there, but would need a bit more time (and less rain) to find them. As I may have mentioned previously, Durham was where my Grandparents lived for most of their lives and therefore my mother's hometown. I spent many a happy school holiday in nearby Cleadon but it was great to spend some time in Durham itself and while there I also took a lovely morning run along the River Wear and around the Cathedral grounds.

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While Phoebe's house was a decent student house, we didn't need to spend more than one night there, so we decided to head off after lunch the following day. After a busy search through the city centre, lunch ended up being a nice burger in the Fat Hippo. Once we finally git ourselves on the road, our destination was my brother's place in Anglesey which was meant to be a five hour drive. However, all the added detours along the way extended the trip closer to eight hours.

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The detours in question were a long-held desire of mine to visit some of the old Yorkshire villages where my ancestors were from. In particular I was aiming for a farm in the village of Dacre in Yorkshire which is where at least seven generations of my family (including my aforementioned Grandfather from Durham), were either born, lived or died. The earliest record I have there is from 1769 which recorded the death of my sixth Great Grandfather William Whitley. In fact, the farm in question is still owned by a farmer called Maurice Whitley - obviously a descendant of both William as well as my Great Grandmother Elizabeth Whitley. I wasn't really sure what I was going to do when I got there, but I was hoping that it would feel right to knock on the door and introduce myself. 

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Although the villages of Yorkshire provided some delightful scenery along the way, the winding roads added to the travel-sickness. But we got through and stopped in a few places to appreciate the views and I'd like to think the photo below made the trip worthwhile. We eventually found Dacre Banks and an old churchyard. I just wish I had had more time to search through as I'm sure there would have been plenty of Whitleys buried there.

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Before that though, we passed through many familiar sounding villages - Masham, Kirkby Malzeard, Laverton - all with family connections but with the time ticking, I was focused on Dacre. I had actually been in this area before - during a Venture Scout Camp in around 1987. Masham is home to the wonderful Theakston Brewery and we spent one fun evening there having a tour and then sampling their tasty beverages - XB was my favourite. On another day of the trip, I actually passed through Dacre on a cycle ride so as well as trying to find the farm, I also wanted to replicate a photo I took on that ride. 

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Once I'd replicated the photo, as above, I realized I didn't actually know where the farm was, but a quick scan of the GPS showed the familiar-sounding hamlet of Heyshaw. So we drove another mile or so and found a small road leading downhill to a collection of farmhouses. I knew the name of farm - Hood Gap - but the first 3-4 farms all had different names. We'd reached the bottom of the hill by now and on top of the road getting narrower, we also had a few less-than-welcoming glances from the farmers. We were very obviously out-of-towners and I didn't feel comfortable to continue so we turned around headed back up the track. A day or two later I looked it up and little did I know that we were about half a mile from the farm itself - so near yet so far!

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Back on the main road, we still had a fair few hours to go to get to Anglesey and we chose the fastest route offered up by GPS. This took us through towns such as Burnley, Blackburn and Wigan - names of football clubs that I knew well, but places I'd never actually visited before. We eventually worked our way to the A55 which was fastest route through North Wales and we made it to Anglesey around 8pm after a service-station dinner. Needless to say, Anglesey was great - we spent a nice evening with my brother and his family and headed off the following morning. 

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For the route back to Sutton Coldfield, once again we let the GPS make the decision for us and this time it chose to take us through the mountains. Despite more travel-sickness, it was a lovely route - winding our through the hills and valleys. We gave ourselves plenty of time but as we got closer, the pressure was on as we needed to get Thalia on the train to Bristol. Eventually though - after a food stop in Oswestry - we made it with just a few minutes to spare. All's well that ends well though and it was a successful end to lovely (non-stop) road trip.

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