The Ruffled Crow

Yesterday was our full day in Holmfirth, but I was just too tired to write it up. We had a full day perusing the town and taking the tour. The town doesn’t seem that big, but it’s built on the side of a hill. Slopes embiggen a place a lot and my legs (or lack thereof) apparently effect my vocabulary and typing ability.

Sid’s Cafe where Ivy held court. We had tea there and found out later that the interiors were done in studio

The day was given over to the express purpose of taking the little bus tour of filming locations for the Britcom Last of the Summer Wine. It was a noble purpose, but we were no match for old ladies with walkers (used for blocking defense) and 30-something mothers with tweens in tow. Add to that a bus with 11 seats and you begin to watch for weapons.

The bus tour doesn’t start running until 11-ish and takes about 45-50 minutes. We were unable to get on any of the first three so we hatched an apparently evil plan (according to an aforementioned 30-something mother with a tween in tow) to check if the LotSW museum was open (it wasn’t) and get back to the bus stop a half hour before it got back and stand where we figured it would re-board.

The Last of the Summer Wine tour bus

Our evil plan worked and we took a very pleasant tour of some beautiful countryside given guidance by an older gentleman by the name of Peter. How he got that quaint, but rattley, bus up some of those hills (and down them! whew…) and around  several tight turns is beyond me! Aside from his nerves-of-steel driving, Peter was very knowledgable and quite entertaining which made for a great 45 minutes.

For any fan of Last of the Summer Wine the bus tour is a must. I’d probably consider one of the later buses, however, to minimize the potential of walker-induced bruising and tween-towing 30-something tantrums. As Americans, I think we were one of the very few, if not only, non-Brit fans of the show there and that probably didn’t help either.

The trash bin next to Nora Batty’s flat. The Wrinkled Stocking is actually a tea room next door to the flat named for Nora’s famous wrinkled hosiery. We didn’t lift the lid so as to not dispel the illusion

Anyways, fun tour. Afterwards, a little clothes shopping, an ice cream, and a good wander filled the rest of our day nicely.