Last Of The Summer Wine Country

Do you watch Last of the Summer Wine? It's only repeats that are shown now but it was a long running British sitcom shown between 1973 and 2010, there were thirty one series. It was one of my dad's favourite programmes. It's quite surprising then that I've never seen a full episode, I've caught the odd five or ten minutes here and there but that's about it, it's never held my interest.

Last of the Summer Wine was filmed in Holmfirth, a West Yorkshire town about six miles south of Huddersfield nestling in the Pennine hills. Both the scenery and the filming locations attract thousands of tourists each year and though I never watched Last of the Summer Wine, we decided to go and have a wander round the town last weekend. I have to say that we've visited before, quite a while ago, and I wasn't really taken with it then but it was somewhere to go.

We decided we'd seek out the buildings used in the filming of the programme, something we haven't done before, and the first one we came to was Sid's Cafe. This really is a fully operational cafe and the menu looked good.

We then came to The Wrinkled Stocking Tearoom, named after Nora Batty's (a character in the show) ill-fitting hosiery. The exterior of this building was used as Compo's (another character in the show) house, though I think it was the back of the building which was used in filming.

So here we are round the back. There's a Last of the Summer Wine museum housed here too.

A blue plaque confirming that this is, indeed, Compo's House.

Right next door to Compo's house is Nora Batty's blue door.

How about a little holiday in Holmfirth? You could even stay in Nora Batty's cottage.

Of course, with so much beautiful scenery on the doorstep of Holmfirth, filming wasn't confined to the town. The Summerwine Magic tour bus will take you on a ten mile journey to see some of the filming locations.

After seeking out the Last of the Summer Wine points of interest we decided to have a wander around the town. All of a sudden we heard lots of horns blaring and a convoy of tractors had taken to the streets. It turned out to be Holmfirth's Tractor Run, a charity event to raise funds to help 6 year old Eden beat Neuroblastoma. The tractors were travelling from Holmfirth to Penistone via Holme Valley.

There's a decent selection of independent shops in Holmfirth, always nice to look around and perhaps make a purchase or two.

I was looking at all the mouth-watering bread in the window of this bakery when I noticed the stone built into the wall.

On the 5th of February 1852, the embankment of the Bilberry Reservoir collapsed causing severe flooding and claiming the lives of 81 people. The stone marks how high the flooding was in the town.

Ashley Jackson, the watercolour artist, lives in Holmfirth and he has a gallery here.

We passed a community garden where veggies are being grown in tyres and containers. I'm not sure it's in the best place though as it's by the side of a busy road in the centre of town. All those exhaust fumes!

The River Holme, a tributary of the River Colne, runs through Holmfirth.

I've only visited Holmfirth once before, quite a long time ago actually, so it was somewhere different for a drive out and made a nice change.