Thirsk is a small town in Yorkshire. Its most famous inhabitant is probably James Herriot, a veterinary surgeon who wrote a series of books that were turned into TV series All Creatures Great & Small and some movies. His real name was Alf Wight, but vets were not allowed to advertise and so he took the name of a soccer goalkeeper when he came to writing his books that were popular all over the world.
The building where he lived and operated his business is now a museum. The shop and ticket desk are in the building to the right. Once you have paid you enter through his front door that takes you into the hall.
Much of the house has been set up as it would have been in the time the books were set. Alf/James worked with brothers Donald and Brian Sinclair who were called Siegfried and Tristan in the books. Alf eventually retired after around 50 years of working with animals as he kept it up even after the books were successful.
The job of a vet will have changed a lot over the years. These days they will have much more equipment. When Alf started it was mostly about caring for farm animals, but now pets will be a bigger part.
In the garden is a statue of Alf. He would write his books on this typewriter in front of the television after work.
There is a barn at the end of the garden where you can watch a short film about Alf featuring Christopher Timothy who portrayed James in the original TV series. You will hear the theme tune for that in the house where they have lots of publicity material for the show and the movies.
The show Heartbeat was also set in that area and there is an exhibit about that too.
Next there is a mock-up with a set from the show. It was interesting for me to see the cameras and recording equipment.
Upstairs there is a museum of veterinary equipment. Apparently it is one of the largest of its type. Some items had been loaned to the recent re-make of the TV show. We really enjoyed the museum having watched the TV show when we were young.
We stayed in an AirBnB just up the road from the museum. We did explore the town a little. There is a market square surrounded by a good variety of shops that has most of what you could need. Most of the buildings in the centre are quite old. On our first evening we saw a lady in a high-viz jacked that said Duck Warden. Apparently some ducks come up from the river in the evening and hang around the square until morning. Someone will be there to keep an eye on them. We saw the ducks on the river during the day.
We used Thirsk as a centre for exploring the area. I will post soon about other places we visited.
 |
The man behind: | @tenkminnows: Helping good Hivers level up @proofofbrian: A bot that checks for tag typos #BritList: A monthly list of Hivers in the UK |
So nice place! Many years ago I watched a movie from that book played by Anthony Hopkins and the tv series is on our whishlist of the series we want to watch! ❤️ Along the time I watched many tv series and movies settle in the north of the England and I'd like to visit that area in real. Maybe in the future (I cross my fingers!). ❤️
It's a lovely area that I'm sure you would like. Some of it has not changed much over the years.
Nice find Steve, I think the north of England is a very well kept secret. It's amazing how much better it is than how it is usually portrayed. "It's grim up north"
I never watched the series but it ran for years.
Vets not allowed to use their own name seems draconian.
We found more cool places up there. We popped into York to see a friend, but we have done a lot of the sights there before and wanted to explore elsewhere.
York is brilliant. I went to the railway museum there years ago and the old town is stunning. The Shambles is so picturesque.
Wow, what a nicesurprise to come across this post. I've seen most of the episodes of All Creatures Great & Small and it is airing in my country as we speak. I loved their lifestyle, even though we most likely won't be able to live like that anymore. It's nice to read about the writer and see his birth and workplace. Thank you for this!
My pleasure. It's interesting to get the background to people like this. I think his writing life was pretty tough, but he must have found it rewarding.
What was the actual name of the TV show? I'm guessing it was just something that was popular over there? We are taking a trip next month and I am hoping to visit a museum, but I have to wait and see if the group I am with will go with me.
It was All Creatures Great & Small. This is the theme we heard so much there. He did signing tours in the US so it must have been popular there.
Ah yes, that is it. I didn't seem the title in your post which is why I was confused. I guess I didn't realize it was so new. I thought it was much older than that, but if the guy wrote it while he was watching TV it couldn't have been that old.
I've added that to the post. It was on when I was a kid and with the few channels we had back then a lot of people would watch it.
I think my sister read the books when we were kids. I remember that one and then all something bright beautiful or something to that effect.
You can check out this post and your own profile on the map. Be part of the Worldmappin Community and join our Discord Channel to get in touch with other travelers, ask questions or just be updated on our latest features.
Update: @steevc, I paid out 41.159 HIVE and 0.000 HBD to reward 11 comments in this discussion thread.
Visiting Thirsk and exploring the World of James Herriot museum looks like an unforgettable experience for fans of All Creatures Great & Small
Travelling in time to discover amazing places, nice places.
Esos equipos Sony se ven interesantes , hay mucha historia allí..👆🧐
Ive always admired the brick houses of England!
There's a lot of stone buildings in that area too. Brick is the standard material though.