This one is a long time coming, so I'll piece it together from memory and a little help from the many photographs we took during the trip. As I've said, we do like to add on a side trip to our longer UK holidays - 2023 was to Istanbul on the way back, 2024 was to the Lake District and 2025 was to Yorkshire. Yorkshire is a spiritual home for me - I was very close to my (up-North) Grandfather, and as a very proud Yorkshireman, his love for the county rubbed off on me. My family tree research has also given me more insight into the towns and villages where he and his ancestors lived for hundreds of years, before his father made the move to Durham. The rest, they say, is history and as it happens, I'm writing this on April 5th, 2026, which is exactly 120 years since he was born.

As I've written previously, I saw some of these towns and villages during my Venture Scout trip in 1987 and we'd actually passed through the same towns and villages during a day's drive from Durham to Anglesey in, I think, 2023. However, this wasn't enough to satiate my need to see more of the place where he grew up, so I booked a few days in Pateley Bridge and a hire car during our UK visit in July 2025. Pateley Bridge is the largest town in the area where my Grandad grew up, so many of the records refer to this place. He, however, was born in the village of Dacre Banks, around 10km away.

We were staying in a small apartment on the edge of the town and on the first day, we took a stroll up the high street, which, after seeing old photos, hasn't really changed much at all. The 'oldest sweet shop in the world' is still there, and while I could imagine my ancestors popping in from time, I wasn't blown away by it - just felt a little too commercial. We ventured a little further away the following morning, along the river and back again as the weather started to turn. With the weather getting worse, we decided to take a drive in the afternoon and head to Masham, the home of Theakston's brewery where I had also visited in my 1987 trip.

​

So we saved our longest walk for the last full day of the trip. This was to be the 'pilgrimage' of sorts - not only going through Dacre Banks, but also past and through many of the farms where my ancestors lived and worked. To clarify, my 2nd Great Grandfather was Joseph Atkinson, and he worked on the railways. He was a Yorkshireman of course and we can see him working in Seacroft, Crossgates in 1881, which is where my Great Grandfather John William was born in 1883. By 1891 though, they were all living in 'Grange Villas', Dacre, and Joseph was a Railway Signalman. By 1901, Joseph was still a Signalman, and 18-year old John William was now a Railway Porter. John William married Elizabeth Whitley in 1905, and my Grandfather John Clifford was born in 1906, in Dacre Banks. By 1911, John William was now a Railway Signal Porter, living in Grange Terrace, but at some point between 1911 and 1921, they moved up to Durham where John William continued to work as a Railway Signalman and John Clifford eschewed the railway trade to work as a Joiner, which became his lifelong trade.

So, we had a few places to tick off during this hike - Dacre Banks of course, but also the farm where Elizabeth Whitley grew up, which was home to several generations of Whitleys before and after her. Then of course, there are the other parts of the family tree - the Abbots and the Beecrofts, whose generations lived and worked on these farms.

The route should have been fairly straightforward as it's a well trodden hike along the River Nidd. However, as we (I) wanted to see these aforementioned farms, I went for a more adventurous route and did make a few wrong turns at the start. We ended up battling our way through some rather dense woodland before reaching a seemingly deserted (and rather intimidating) farmhouse. We turned back and found another potential footpath, only to give up on that one and head back the way we came. As it happened, that second footpath would have led us the right way, but as the path was overgrown with ferns that were pretty much my height, we didn't risk it. Anyhow, we figured it out eventually and worked our way over Nought Moor and into Hood Gap and Heyshaw, which are pretty much the ground zero areas as far as this part of our Whiteley ancestry goes. I couldn't quite work out which farm was 'ours' and even though a Whitley still farms there, I didn't pluck up the courage to knock on doors. I do tend to leave myself unfinished business, so maybe one day I'll go back and knock on those doors.

Anyhow, it was a lovely hike, perfect weather and great views of the Nidd Valley. It was never a straightforward route, but we eventually figured it out and inched closer to Dacre Banks. Once there, we found a village store and bought some sandwiches and snacks for lunch, which we ate outside the old, but closed, Royal Oak pub. I left the girls there though, and went to explore the village.

I went first to the Holy Trinity Church, which was built in 1837 and from memory at the time, saw countless ancestral baptisms, marriages and funerals - covering six or seven generations - all the way back to its founding. I walked through the churchyard too, and came across many gravestones featuring Whitleys, Abbots and Beechcrofts. I hadn't done any specific research prior to this visit, but it dawned on me that there was a direct ancestor buried here and I found the gravestone of 'Elizabeth, wife of William Whitley of Hud Gap, who departed this life on May 2nd 1878 aged 52 years'. I did a quick search and confirmed that this was the grave of Elizabeth Whitley, my 3rd Great Grandmother. Quite a poignant moment - not only finding such history, but I think this was the first time I'd ever visited a family gravestone.

Once back in the village, one of the first things I noticed was the lovely village green and right next to it, I stumbled across a row of small cottages. I knew I was on Grange Road, and noticed Grange Lane coming off it, but I was quickly blown away to see the street sign of 'Grange Terrace' on the end house. This was the place, this is where my Grandfather lived as a young boy, possibly throughout WW1 and up to the age of 15. Even if the family upped and left soon after the 1911 Census, my Grandad would have played on this very village green up to the age of 5-6 years. Quite astonishing really, and although it was quite hard to take it all in at the time, I've reflected on it since and feel so content to have connected with the past in that way.

As we know, my Great and 2nd Great Grandfathers both worked on the railways and although the Dacre Banks line is no longer in service, the old railway station still exists. It's now a private residence and I found it just a few minutes walk from Grange Terrace, a route that my ancestors would have walked hundreds of times. After a little more reflection, we all sat on the village green for a little while longer while waiting for our uber. It really was a happy experience, being in such a revered place with my family there with me.

Once back in Pateley Bridge, we got ourselves ready for the drive home the following day. Before we left, we took a morning walk up the hill, and with a little extra time to spare, Phoebe and I pushed on and found the old church of St. Mary's. Although now derelict, it still retains many of its walls and graveyard and this church too, saw many of my older ancestors pass through before it fell into disuse in around 1827. One last stop off before heading off, we passed by Dacre Banks again to place some flowers on the grave of Elizabeth Whitley - the girls paying their respects to their 4th Great Grandmother.

All in all, what a lovely trip. Not quite the same stunning scenery as the year before in the Lake District, but this was more of a personal journey, when you realize that it's important to pause and reflect on the past and those that came before us. I can highly recommend it.