JOHN YORKE STOOPS BUT STANDS PROUD

One of those days that makes you glad that your alive, drove over to Nidderdale for lunch and decided to pay a visit to the Two Stoops for a breath of clean country air, the lighting, just before sunset, was marvellous and has brought out the colours in this photo without my resorting to editing.

HERE'S THE HISTORY BIT
These are the Two Stoops - otherwise known as Yorke's Folly. They look like abbey ruins and certainly tempt a closer look. They were built by John Yorke (1733-1813) who was a substantial landowner and well -travelled man.

When it came to his Folly the design was influenced by his travels. He originally built three stoops 46 feet high. They actually serve no purpose and it is to his credit that he used the local poor and unemployed to carry out the work on the construction. It has been said that the people were too proud to accept hand outs and that John Yorke may well have decided to build these monoliths purely to ease the blight on the people of the dale. He brought much work to a severely starving dale and it earned him the nickname of 'the poor man's friend'

Alas in 1893 one of them blew down in a storm but the two remaining stoops serve to remind the dale of the wonderful philanthropist that was John Yorke.