Let Sleeping Vets lie – Not here though

“Animals are born who they are, accept it and that is that. They live with greater peace than people do.” ~ Gregory Maguire

Last week, youngest daughter Sophie and I took a drive over to the little market town of Thirsk in North Yorkshire to step back in time and visit the James Herriot Museum. This was my second visit and Sophie’s first.

The museum is the former home and surgery of the world famous country vet James Alfred Wight, better known as Alf Wight,  but to the rest of the world he will always be the very wonderful James Herriot, the vet from fictional Darrowby.

Having lived on a small farm for almost 2/3 of my life and all of Sophie’s, the visit to the museum was of particular interest to us both.

The staff here were talkative, friendly, extremely helpful and very proud of their veterinary museum and even more proud to have won ‘The Best in England Small  Visitor Attraction’

The first character we bumped into was  Mrs Pumphrey and Tricky Woo and who could possibly forget these two? Based on a lady by the name of Miss Warner and her pampered pooch Bambi.

Sophie and I spent two fascinating hours inside the museum. We were encouraged to explore every room, take photographs and ask  questions of staff members. Alf’s son Jim, also a vet (retired) called in whilst we were there.

 Picking up a bar of red soap in the old kitchen, Sophie said the smell  was strong and evoked memories of horse shampoo and looking after the horses she had when growing up.

 In the television studio Sophie examined the cameras and monitors and I had fun pretending to be the Skeldale receptionist by answering the old fashioned sugery phone, still sporting its original telephone number.

SONY DSC

Upstairs in the childrens’ interactive gallery we reverted to our childhood and had a great time trying out the many activities.

We took lots of photographs but filming proved difficult due to the presence of other visitors. Later, however, I found this super video presented by Alf’s son, which is far superior to anything I may have produced and also saved me uploading the many photographs we took on the day. To view the video, click the graphic below.

Today the the real Skeldale practice has moved to much bigger premises just a short drive away and where the staff, farm animals and pets, both pampered and otherwise, have become stars in their own real life veterinary series ‘The Yorkshire Vet’. The new series  begins again on channel five Tuesday 26th September. Peter the senior vet and Julian his partner are absolute naturals in this program, Peter actually began his career as a Herriot trainee.

If this series has or does make its way over the pond, it is a definite ‘Must Watch’ series.

© nansfarm.net September 2017 – Article linked to the word-prompt ‘Pamper’

Click below to read some of the previous articles of farm life at Nan’s Farm.

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three