A new blue plaque has been unveiled at Rowardennan on Topcliffe Road in Sowerby, the family home where Alf Wight wrote much of the work published as James Herriot. His children, Jim Wight and Rosie Page, unveiled it near what would have been their father's 110th birthday. The BBC reported the unveiling, and Thirsk's tourist information service has shared the family's memories of the house.
There is something lovely about the place being marked by the people who grew up in it. For visitors, it fills a gap in the Herriot story: the town already marked where Alf worked as a vet, and now it marks the home where he sat down to turn that work into books.
Two Herriot addresses, two parts of the story
The earlier plaque is at 23 Kirkgate, where Wight joined the veterinary practice in 1940. He lived there before moving with Joan and their children to Rowardennan in 1953. Kirkgate became the Skeldale House of the books and is now the World of James Herriot museum. You can see the former home and surgery from the inside there.
Rowardennan tells the writing story. It was the Wight family home for more than 25 years, and Jim and Rosie remember it as their childhood home. The World of James Herriot walking guide says Alf wrote much of his work here and places the house between numbers 96 and 98 Topcliffe Road. The nameplate is on the gatepost. A reader can now stand outside the surgery and the writing home on the same visit and see how the two belong together.
Wight was born in Sunderland in 1916, grew up in Glasgow, trained as a vet there and came to Thirsk in 1940. Encouraged by Joan, he drew on his years of rural practice to write If Only They Could Talk, published in Britain in 1970. Its stories and those that followed reached readers around the world as All Creatures Great and Small. The museum's biography has more on the man behind the pen name.
What changes on the blue plaque walk
Rowardennan brings the Thirsk and Sowerby count to 21 blue plaques. The established leaflet and our article about the original twenty still tell the stories of that walk. We have added the new address as stop 21 on our mapped trail.
There are now three sensible ways to do it. Stops 1 to 18 make a town circuit, including the Kirkgate Herriot plaque. Stops 19 and 20 carry the original walk into Sowerby, where Hannah Packer and Joan Maynard are marked on Front Street. Continue to Rowardennan for the full 21, giving the writing home its own stretch of the day. It is farther from the Front Street pair, so this is a choice to make before setting out, especially if you are walking with children or have limited time.
Visiting the new plaque
Rowardennan is a private home in Sowerby, not an extension of the Kirkgate museum. View the plaque from the street and give the residents their privacy. If you are already walking the Thirsk blue plaque trail, the first eighteen stops form the town circuit and the next two sit together on Front Street. Rowardennan takes you farther along Topcliffe Road, so allow extra time. The Herriot walking guide gives a route via Gravel Hole Lane; we will add our own photograph and a checked walking time after we visit.
For a shorter Herriot visit, see the Kirkgate plaque and museum first. Our James Herriot day in Thirsk brings that together with the church where Alf and Joan married and other nearby stops.
Make a day of the two Herriot addresses
Start at the World of James Herriot museum on Kirkgate. Allow the museum's recommended ninety minutes for the restored home, surgery and dispensary. The earlier Herriot plaque is outside, at stop 7 on our trail. From there, the town circuit covers stops 1 to 18 in about 75 minutes, including other stories from Thirsk's market and coaching history.
If you have longer, follow the original 20 blue plaques to the Sowerby pair on Front Street. That is the established walk in the town's printed leaflet. Rowardennan is stop 21, an additional leg to Topcliffe Road. The mapped 21-stop guide shows all three choices, with photographs of the plaques we have recorded ourselves. You can add the museum and either the 20-stop or 21-stop walk to Your Day Plan, then adjust the order before printing it.
The photograph at the top of this article shows the Kirkgate museum. We will add our own photograph of Rowardennan after visiting. Until then, the BBC report has a view of the unveiling.
