THIRSK

By the time she rolled into Thirsk at 11.15 am, Sheila had covered the first 253 miles and has 188 miles before she reaches Edinburgh - and 639 miles to home…
Sheila may have liked to spend a little time at Thirsk. The “Visit Thirsk” website says that the town has “a charm of its own, essentially unchanged and influenced by the world. It centres around a bustling cobbled market square, dominated by the town clock, with its Monday & Saturday markets and independent shopping”.
It goes on to say that “visitors from all over the world are impressed by the warm and friendly welcome of the residents of this gem of a town” – and the reason that Thirsk attracts visitors from all the over the world? James Herriot, of course!
Author Alf Wight, better known by his nom de plume, James Herriot, was Thirsk’s most famous vet and the town was immortalised in Herriot's books as “Darrowby”. It is now home to the World of James Heriot Museum (admission £8.50) and it is the epicentre for all the slow-moving James Herriot charabanc tours around the Yorkshire Dales.
On leaving Thirsk, the route heads north-westerly, running parallel to the A1(M) through Northallerton before snaking to the left at the infamous Scotch Corner and running more or less alongside the A66 into Barnard Castle.
The BBC’s weather forecast for the North West of England is for “another day of sunshine and showers, these heaviest inland with a risk of hail and thunder”. Tonight, "showers will ease for a time, but further showers will return during the early hours, these perhaps heavy in places. Under any clearer skies it will turn chilly”.
There are 40 miles to the next control point at Barnard Castle.