Thornton-le-Dale: the village guide

Yes, with one honest qualification: it is a short visit rather than a long one. What makes the trip is the arrangement of the place. Thornton Beck runs the length of the main street with footbridges over it, the 17th-century thatched Beck Isle Cottage sits beside the water and is probably the most photographed cottage in Yorkshire, and the green keeps its medieval market cross and stocks. Very few villages hold all three within a few minutes' walk of one another.

There is more to do than look. The woodland path north to the Saxon church at Ellerburn is the walk most people remember, and it is described in full on the Ellerburn circular. Mathewsons, the classic-car auctioneers known from television's Bangers & Cash, keep their gift shop and showroom here, with the auction saleroom about two miles away at Pickering, so a Ford Zephyr or a Jaguar going past on the main street is an ordinary sight. The tea rooms, the chip shop and Baldersons ice cream cover the rest of an afternoon, and a cone eaten on a bench by the beck is the thing regulars come back for.

It suits walkers, families with young children, anyone who likes an unhurried village, and visitors using the place as a base for Pickering, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and Dalby Forest. It is less rewarding if you want museums, nightlife or a long list of attractions, because there are not many of those. Allow two to three hours for the village on its own, and a full day if you add a walk or the forest.

The honest caveat is timing. On warm summer weekends, and on Show days in early August, the centre is busy, the ice cream queue reaches the pavement and the Maltongate car park fills early. Out of season, on a weekday, or before about half past ten in the morning, it is a quieter and considerably better village to be in.