Walking the Wolds: Rudston:

Rudston is a village in the Yorkshire Wolds in the East Riding of Yorkshire surrounded by farms. The name comes from the 25 ft monolith in the village churchyard, sometimes referred to as the Cleopatra’s Needle of the Wolds and is said to have date from the late neolithic period, possibly around 2,000BC.  ‘Rod’ means ‘rood, cross’ and ‘stan’ referred to the ‘stone’ used for the cross.

In the village stands Rudston House birthplace of the author Winifred Holtby who wrote about the East Riding, the Wolds and the Dales. Her best-known work, the novel South Riding was published posthumously and has aired on TV as a serial and has been made into a film.   The house bears a plaque which reads: “Winifred Holtby, novelist and social reformer 1897-1935, author of South Riding. The original home of the Holtby family and birthplace of author.”

Born 1898 into farming family Winifred studied at Oxford where she met author Vera Brittain.  The two were lifelong friends and moved to London where there is a plaque to commemorate both of them at No. 82 Doughty Street, Holburn.  In 1931, Winifred Holtby was diagnosed with Bright’s disease and passed away in 1935 aged 37.  She was laid to rest in the churchyard at All Saint’s Church, Rudston. 

Winifred Holtby - Wikipedia

The well-described walk we went on, courtesy of the Hull Daily Mail  https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/five-mile-yorkshire-wolds-walk-2647408 took us on a public bridle path up through woodland known as the Zigzag Plantation and on to Woldgate, a Roman road and where the artist  David Hockney observed many different seasons and recorded what he saw using his iPad and on canvas with paints. 

The trail then descends by an underground reservoir and finishes at the Gypsey Race, a chalk stream which flows into the North Sea at the harbour at Bridlington.