Mistress of all she surveys.
Margaret Lilly talks to Lady Sheffield, whose family owns one of Yorkshire’s finest stately homes
Photographs: Paul Heaton (Fotocraft Images)

WITH her dark locks and colourful clothes Lady Sheffield cuts a vivacious figure as we chat amid the historic splendour of Sutton Park, one of North Yorkshire’s prettiest stately homes. The mansion is situated in Sutton on the Forest near York, an equally pretty village originally in the Forest of Galtres. An Elizabethan house belonging to her husband’s family once stood in the park and this was replaced by the present house, built in mellow brick in 1730. Owner Sir Reginald Sheffield also has a second stately pile at Normanby Park, Lincolnshire.

Our artist Les Packham MBE paints the town and writer Gillian Smallwood Savours its attractions

IT’S not surprising that Ilkley is a popular place. After all, the attractive West Yorkshire town knows how to welcome visitors; it’s been doing so for at least a couple of hundred years. Ilkley’s fame has spread far and wide largely because one of the world’s most recognised tunes, On Ilkla Moor Baht’at, which translates as On Ilkley Moor Without a Hat, has become Yorkshire’s unofficial anthem. As a result thousands have been drawn to the superb swathe of moorland celebrated in the song, but Ilkley has other blessings too.

Margaret Lilly samples the charms of this historic coaching town
Photographs: Paul Heaton (Fotocraft Images)

THE main appeal of this attractive market town is the amount of green space around its centre: wide stretches between houses and roads are edged and cut by cobbled paths and cobbles make up much of the old centre, around the Market Place.
Easingwold is almost equidistant between York and Helmsley and is just off the A19. ‘Twas not ever thus: until almost the end of the last century this main arterial ran right through the town, down Long Street which fortunately is off the old part, a straight thoroughfare running north to south and once choked and fuming.  Now there is room to breathe and many shops have benefited from easier access, since the A19 now runs around the western edge.