10/09/2025
Once the main township in Wensleydale, Wensley is a lovely spot on the River Ure. James Herriot got married at Holy Trinity Church in the original TV version of All Creatures Great and Small. Wensley used to be a much more significant place with its own prominent market, but plague in the 1563 meant many of its inhabitants fled.
It's still an estate village, with a long history associated with the Lords Bolton. The village was reconstructed in the 18th century, clustered around the small village green complete with an old village pump.
The Three Horseshoes, Wensley stands proud at the top of the hill, close to Wensley Brook and the hidden waterfall that once powered a cornmill. This is where you'll now find White Rose candles which recently featured in Channel 4's Our Yorkshire Shop. It's a wonderful workshop, where traditional methods are still in use to create a wide range of candles from huge cathedral whites to themed Halloween and Christmas candles. It's hard to resist making observations about Heath Robinson-style contraptions (despite the sign!)and the whole process is very soothing to watch, resulting in high quality candles.
Holy Trinity Church was built in the 1240s and remodelled in the 14th century. The carved oak pews relate to the age of chivalry with heraldic beasts. There are several special features in this lovely church including a reliquary which may have come from Easby Abbey after the dissolution of the monasteries. There's also a wall painting which depicts 3 dead individuals whose corrupt bodies are being eaten by worms...and a full lenfth brass effigy of the Flemish school, considered to be the finest example of its kind in an English parish church.
Wensley is the current home of Curlew Dairy which makes really excellent farmhouse cheese (they run some cheese-making workshops too!). If you're lucky, their honesty box will be open and selling cheese, fruit-cake and honey.
