East Riddlesde Riddles

After a day in Skipton we decided for a more adventurous day out on Saturday: we ventured to Keighley and thence to East Riddlesden Hall, a National Trust property. For boaters, the nearest mooring is between the two electric swing bridges numbers 197 and 197A near Puffer Parts. 

This manor house was built in 1642  by a wealthy Halifax cloth merchant, James Murgatroyd. It is perched on a small plateau around which the River Aire flows.  Legend is that the Murgatroyds were notorious for debauchery and the river altered course to move away from the hall in shame.
This is not the only odd thing at Riddlesden.......

In the dining hall there is a fireplace half way up the wall.(top right of my photograph)
Murgatroyd intended to build an additional storey in this room but died before getting further than creating the fireplace. (good place to hide a priest, though)








In the same room on the wall opposite the fireplace(s) is a tapestry with its own curious features.......

The head weaver on a large tapestry would sometimes include his own likeness somewhere in the picture and this is the case here.






But how often did Jake the Peg feature in Greek mythology?

There is an extra foot here

No Photoshop in the 17th century to correct the error.

In one of the bedchambers upstairs is this treasure chest.
But the keyhole on the front is a dummy: the real one is hidden in the lid.

The last riddle I will leave you to ponder for a day or two.


How does one fill a teapot which has no lid?


On our way home we hailed The Little Red Bus which takes about 50% longer to travel from Keighley to Skipton because it darts in and out of the residential estates looking for passengers.  There wre five of us initially but the other three  passengers disembarked together and we had the driver to ourselves.  To my suggestion that he should be ginving us a commentary on the journey he did just that. He gave us the local gossip, the history and stopped to show us the views.  Had the day been clear I thik he would have waited whilst we took photographs.  One piece of local information I do want to share with you.  In Cononley there is a terrace of houses which are known locally at Frying Pan Terrace. The story is that in days gone by the residents of this terrace clubbed together and bought a frying pan.  On Sundays it was used by each house in turn to cook breakfast, starting at one end of the street and working its way along to the other. On a similar subject, I recall a domestic science teacher at secondary school admonishing a pupil for washing her omelette pan: apparnetly this was considered a sin: such pans should only be wiped clean with a dry, salty cloth. How the world changes!