Leave Station car park 9.30am. Start at Forbidden Corner in Coverham DL8 4TQ (GR:SE 094 867, What3Words: ///shampoos.wished.briefer) at 10.30am. 6 Miles. Easy/Moderate. £7

A delightful but not too demanding walk with a few short climbs to work up an appetite for lunch at the Saddle Room restaurant situated in the old stables adjacent to Forbidden Corner. The walk starts at Tupgill Park which boasts ornamental parkland as well as the quirky tourist attraction. On route we pass a number of historic sites including Coverham Church, the ruins of 13^th Century Coverham Abbey, Braithwaite Hall a 17^th Century Manor House, ancient pack-horse bridges and the magnificent Middleham Castle, as well as Middleham’s famous stables and gallops. We will stop beside the River Cover for a short picnic break so please bring a drink and a snack. We will be at the Saddle Room for lunch at around 1.45pm. Walk participants will be contacted prior to the walk for their menu choices.   

The Station, Richmond DL10 4LD | 10:00am – 4:00pm | Book Fair free entry | Bookbinding Workshop from 10.00am - 1.00pm £50 (including materials) | Café/restaurant, disabled access.

For the Book Fair, booksellers will have stalls on the Platform.

For the Bookbinding Workshop, which runs from 10.00am to 1.00pm, have you ever wondered how fine and antiquarian books were made? The art and craft of book making dates back over 2000 years, but whether works from ancient China, Islamic bookbinding, or stately-home libraries, the principles are similar: papers are sewn together and secured within a protective casing. In this workshop led by local bookbinder, Delphine Ruston, you will make two books of your own to take away – a 3-hole pamphlet (or chap book), and a single-section, hardback notebook.

Tickets available for the workshop from The Station

Richmond Town Hall, DL10 4QL | 7:30pm | £10 | Refreshments, bookstall, disabled access.

A love of birds has always been an important part of the British way of life but in wartime birds came into their own, helping to define our national identity. One of the most popular bird books ever, Watching Birds, was published in 1940 while “There’ll be bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover” epitomized the blitz spirit. Along the coast, flooding to prevent a German invasion helped the avocet make a remarkable return while the black redstart found an unlikely home in our bombed-out buildings.

As interesting as the birds were some of the people who watched them. Matthew Rankin and Eric Duffey counted seabirds while looking for U-boats. Tom Harrison, the mastermind behind Mass Observation, watched people ‘as if they were birds’ while POW Guy Madoc wrote a truly unique book on Malayan birds, typed on paper stolen from the Japanese commandant’s office. For Field Marshall Alan Brooke, filming birds was his way of coping with the continual demands of Winston Churchill. Peter Scott served with distinction in the Royal Navy and became one of the greatest naturalists of his generation.

Nicholas Milton is an ornithologist, historian and a journalist. He has worked for The BBC Natural History Unit, the RSPB, The Wildlife Trusts and Greenpeace and has also written extensively about WW2 for a range of national newspapers.

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