Giffard & Courtney
The Local Area
Birdsall House
Our venue, ancestral home of the Willoughby family since the 1500's, who live there to this day.
Malton
Malton is a classic provincial English market town and great base to explore from. Self styled as "Yorkshire's Food Capital", it's a delightful place to spend the weekend, with a selection of local producers and breweries. Dickens visited and based Scrooge off an accountant and his office he encountered here. For an unconventional, extremely inconvenient, yet highly amusing wedding gift, the livestock auctions take place on Tuesdays.
York
The heart of North Yorkshire. York is a small city with a history dating back to the Romans, when it was the capital of the northernmost part of the Roman Empire, which Giff thinks about regularly. Great food, lots to do, and the highest concentration of pubs in England*. *A claim that Giff has made for years, but that Courtney is unable to confirm.
Whitby
Coastal town set in a dramatic valley, Yorkshire's answer to Amalfi. The Yorkshire coastline is more PNW than California, but is a big part of the county's identity, and well worth making the effort to visit for a rugged stroll and abundance of quaint fishing villages. Bram Stoker was inspired to write Dracula here, and it's where the Count came ashore. It remains a pilgrimage site for goths. The best place to get Fish and Chips in the country.
Castle Howard
A ridiculously extravagant Baroque stately home open to the public with extensive manicured gardens. The set of Brideshead Revisited, and a wonderful tearoom. We did consider this as a venue, but they seem to cater more to the oligarch market.
North Yorkshire Moors
A beautiful windswept national park, famous home of the Bronte sisters and setting for Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and the Secret Garden, among many others. ‘My sister Emily loved the moors. Flowers brighter than the rose bloomed from the blackest heath for her. Out of a sudden hollow in the hillside, her mind could make an Eden. She found in the bleak solitude many and dear delights, and best loved was liberty.’