Saturday September 10, 2022 is a day I will remember for a very long time. I led a guided walk around the ex-pit village of Ryhope as part of
Heritage Open Days 2022.
Ryhope is the village where I grew up and lived for most of my life, and it's now where I set my historical, bestselling novels, published by Headline. The books are standalone and you can read them in any order.
Our group met outside of The Top House pub at 11am and 30 people turned up for the walk!
My friend, and tour guide, Paul Lanagan interviewed me en route.
At each stop on our walk, Paul asked me questions about the locations and how they make their way into my novels. We walked past pubs, shops, houses, the old pit site, the miners' hall, the rhubarb field, the old Co-op, it was wonderful. Here are just a tiny selection of some of the pictures taken on the walk.
This is the Albion Inn where we ended the walk and had lunch. This pub stars in my debut novel
Belle of the Back Streets and is where I held my first ever book launch too. The pub now does AirB&B rooms and I highly recommend it if you're looking to stay in Ryhope and perhaps do your own tour of locations in my books.
The chap in the red anorak above is my husband Barry. He walked at the end of the group to make sure there were no stragglers and no-one got lost. He also gave everyone a raffle ticket at the start of the walk and at the end, I pulled the winning ticket out. The winner won one of my books of their choice.
Paul had printed out some pictures of the locations as they would have looked in 1919, the era I write about. It was great to see the comparison between how locations looked 100 years ago and how they look now.
Then we came to the new Ryhope mural. It's painted on the side of the old miners' hall which stars in my novel
The Miner's Lass.
Everyone loved the mural by artist
MarkOne87. It shows Ryhope's history from a farming and mining community through to the era of WW2.
Here's a short video taken of the mural.
Here is the bridge across the railway station at Ryhope. The station is no longer in use but in my novels
The Tuppenny Child and
A Mother's Christmas Wish it plays an integral role in bringing the heroines of each book into Ryhope.
Here are some of the group members walking past The Railway Inn. This pub stars in my novel
The Tuppenny Child.
We stopped off for coffee and cake at Saint Paul's church, which features in all of my books. It has a starring role particularly in
Pearl of Pit Lane where the heroine Pearl hides away inside the church when she becomes homeless.
After our rest stop at the church, where we also signed the book of condolences for Queen Elizabeth, we walked on to the village green. This house is The Wilderness, which I fictionalised and it has a starring role as The Uplands in
The Girl with the Scarlet Ribbon.
And finally, after the walk, a well-deserved sit down in The Albion Inn and some lunch. A reader brought me a couple of books to sign including this copy of The Girl with the Scarlet Ribbon. Its cover is torn, eaten by her dog Bonnie, who was demanding the reader's attention when she was engrossed in the book. This made me laugh so much. A nice end to an incredible day.
With thanks to Beverley Ann Hopper and Kristie Lanagan for the photos and videos.
Thanks to Paul Lanagan for encouraging me and supporting the walk.
Thanks to my husband Barry for being my wing man today (and always!).
Shall we do it all again next year?
Delighted to say I am now offering GIFT VOUCHERS
which can be exchanged for any of my sagas or cosy crimes.
Perfect Christmas presents!
All details at bit.ly/GlendaYoungGiftVoucher
Glenda Young
Twitter: @Flaming_Nora
Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor
Website: GlendaYoungBooks.com
