The Yorkshire town that gave us the home of cricket and All Creatures Great and Small
Day-tripping in Thirsk is presumably an uncontroversial topic to those of our readers who identify as human, but if any of you happen to be a literate farm animal then the concept may be alarming. Should you be such a creature, Thirsk isn’t so much a day trip as a one-way trip, its abattoir tending not to issue return tickets.
The abattoir, Bowood Yorkshire Lamb, was in the news the other week because four of its staff have been found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to animals. Caught on hidden cameras, the cruelty they inflicted on live sheep had the additional effect of tarnishing the good name of Thirsk. A wealthy, friendly little market town in Yorkshire’s North Riding, Thirsk is otherwise best known as the home and literary inspiration of James Herriot, the well-known and well-loved vet whose books about his work spawned the television adaptation All Creatures Great and Small.
This makes it the official town of gently delivering baby lambs into the world, yet Thirsk is now associated with gruesomely wresting those same sheep back out of existence. Entry-level take: how awful. And ironic. Selina Scott’s take, outlined in a letter to The Times: Thirsk should “hang its head in shame” for harbouring a non-stun abattoir while promoting Herriot’s work.
This seems pretty unfair. Thirsk residents seem to be pretty unanimously appalled, and a number protested outside the abattoir when they found out what was going on inside. “What would James Herriot think of this?!” one woman was reported to have shouted.
Thirsk certainly treats its animals no worse than the rest of us. In a place with such proximity to agriculture, they are undeniably an important part of life here. Indeed, Thirsk’s affinity with animals is almost literally writ large: fly over the town, and a few miles to the east you’ll see a huge white horse carved into the sandstone slopes of Sutton Bank. Some villages – naming no names, Cerne Abbas in Dorset – are overlooked by carvings of men with huge appendages. Thirsk, however, prefers its stallions equine.
Appropriately, one of the town’s biggest draws is its racecourse, which is surrounded by countryside and hosts 16 days of racing a year. Trot into the town centre and, if it’s a Monday or a Saturday, you’ll come across the market, which isn’t as bustling as it used to be but remains lively. The former coaching inns that fringe the marketplace used to host nightly stablefuls of horses on their way south to London. Carve it into the hill and they will come.
Thirsk is small, so it’s a short walk from there to the museums. They’re opposite each other: on one side, the Thirsk Museum, and on the other, the World of James Herriot, a comprehensive and family-friendly look at the vet’s life and legacy.
As for the Thirsk Museum, it’s the birthplace of Thomas Lord, who gave his name to Lord’s Cricket Ground, and its best exhibit is the Busby Stoop Chair. Cursed by a murderer awaiting the noose, the chair was said to cause the deaths of anyone who sat on it. So many deaths were attributed to the chair that the pub’s landlord gave it to the museum, where it hangs so high on the wall that you’d really have to try hard to clamber on to it.
I wonder whether the curse is still working. The abattoir is pretty short-staffed at the moment…
Daytripper | More from our series on UK days out
Five good reasons to visit Thirsk
The walk
Take the recommendation of the North York Moors National Park Authority: the White Horse Walk. Three miles long, it starts from Sutton Bank National Park Centre and a view that James Herriot called the finest in England.
The races
Thirsk Racecourse’s opening meet is on April 21. There are more races across the summer, with the season concluding with Ladies’ Day on September 8.
The museum
As well as the chair, there’s cricketing memorabilia, farming equipment and period rooms that show what life used to be like here. Admission is free.
The birds
See eagles, owls and vultures at the excellent Thirsk Birds of Prey Centre. Visitors are able to hold the birds after each display. Animal lovers, be reassured that the birds always return after being let off their chains. Sheep… be less reassured.
The vet
The World of James Herriot includes the vet’s restored Forties home, the Austin 7 driven in All Creatures Great and Small, a farrier’s workshop, a collection of historical veterinary instruments, and much else. Family tickets ￡28.