The World of James Herriott at Thirsk

Outside the main door of Skeldale House,  Home of James Herriott in Thirsk, Yorkshire Dales

The World of James Herriott is an interactive museum that is based in the real-life home of the famous vet who was born James Alfred Wight, was known in real-life as Alf and took the pen name James Herriott because he liked a Scottish footballer by that name.

Well, from the minute we entered the village of Thirsk, I felt completely at home, as if I belonged to its world of the 1930s. We paid £5 each to enter the place which allowed us to tour the interior of the house and to use an audio tape that cost us an extra £2. Narrated in the voice of Jim Wright (the son of James Herriott), the tour took us through the various rooms in their house as it was lived in from the years 1950-1957 when the kids were little. The same house (left) was used as a surgery, however, right up to the year 1997 which was when his son Jim Wight who also became a vet moved to larger premises. The place is decorated to look like a museum belonging to the 1950s—the decade in which I was born and for some reason I feel so much at home in that atmosphere.

Below left, you see pictures of the living room in which James Herriott spent much of his leisure time reading voraciously or listenign to music. On the right is a picture of the family dining room-cum-waiting room with a wax effigy of Mrs. Pomfrey, one of Herriott’s best-loved and most eccentric charecrts with her beloved dog Tricky-Woo, awaiting the vet’s attention.

Then, we went through the garden (left, which is also so well described in the books and TV shows)—the beloved garden of Skeldale House where the family worked hard and where the kids spent so much time. (I realized later that the name Skeldale came from the valley of the River Skel which is where Fountains Abbey is located and, no doubt, the Wight’s home took its name from that location).

I took a picture in the car, the Austin Severn, in which the vets scoured the Yorkshire countryside in the early days as they paid house calls to their horse, cow and sheep patients. The 10 minute film, narrated by Christopher Timothy who played Herriott in the series, was excellent and took us through the entire life of the author in a nut shell.

Then, upstairs, we saw a reproduction of the wonderful TV sets (above)that were so easily recognizable to fans of the series All Creatures Great and Small. The entire visit was so worthwhile and to be walking through the rooms in the company of fans who are equally besotted by the enthralling work of Herriott was itself an experience.

On the left, you see a picture of the real-life people who populate Herriott’s books including himself (bottom row, extreme left) and his colleagues, Donald and Brian Sinclair (middle and right) and the three actors who played them (standing above)m Christopher Timothy, Robert Hardy and Peter Davison .

Outside, I took some pictures by the main door and also of the building. In a few paces of a quick walk, one comes to the main Market Square of Thirsk where many stores carry Herriott memorabilia and are named after the characters (Jim and Rosie’s Bric-A-Brac and Furniture Store; The Darrowby Inn—a pub, where later in the evening, Llew and I had a local beer.) It is the place where a weekly farmer’s market is still held exactly as it was on Mondays in Herriott’s day. It really was a fun excursion and I am glad that Llew seemed to enjoy it as much as I did.
To return to the rest of our travels in the Dales, please click on Yorkshire.