Doors and windows

I remember, a long time ago, my father telling me that when you look at a photograph or painting, it's often the white spaces or the gaps that tell an important story. Some of what you see isn't actually there, but our eyes and minds fill the spaces and create a story in our minds.

​I often think of that when looking at buildings in the Yorkshire Dales. Some of the most beautiful farm buildings, barns and houses are incomplete, sometimes even derelict, ruins that are gradually sinking into the ground. 

I particularly love the doors and windows of many Dales buildings, cobwebby, barely there, or boarded up, hanging on by a few strands of baler twine.

One of my favourite doors in the Dales. A small bar door in Arncliffe, where someone once cared enough to carve these hearts. Wonder if anyone still remembers wht?

The frames have rotted, the class has broken, but somehow the window holds its place in this bothy on the moor.

A modest barn door, just like so many others, and yet each one is so distinctive.

Every now and then you happen upon a grander door than all the others. This one is in Linton.

One of the Dales' most photographed windows. Image by Guy Carpenter

Wonder if anyone even still knows what's stored in here? When did it all become so forgotten? What happened? What's the story?

Ancient building, ancient machinery & a motley collection of doors & windows, standing the test of time

A masterclass in window blocking - the barn equivalent of a tapestry sampler with so many different ad hoc ways to block the windows from the elements.

No one really knows the story of Lobley Hall. Look closely and you can see how the surrounding ground is now higher than the building, and how it was once a grand place, evidenced by the dressed stone by the windows.

One of my favourite windows in the Yorkshire Dales, at the top of Bolton Castle. What a view!

How many thousands of people have enjoyed the view through this doorway at Jervaulx Abbey?