Kirkham Priory — A Walk Through Land Girls, Ruins & the Secret D‑Day Valley (Live Walking Tour)

Filmed live on location, this walking tour explores Kirkham Priory and the Derwent valley — a landscape shaped by medieval canons, Georgian architects, Victorian railways, the Women’s Land Army, and the secret D‑Day preparations of 1944. We begin at the Stone Trough Inn, overlooking the valley once worked almost entirely by Land Girls during the Second World War. From there the walk drops toward the ruins of Kirkham Priory, uncovering the Domesday settlement, Walter Espec’s Augustinian foundation, the architecture of the cloister, the canons’ daily life, and the quiet dissolution that left the riverside ruins we see today. The story then shifts to the Georgian bridge designed by John Carr, the arrival of the railway in 1845, and the moment this peaceful valley stepped into the modern age. Finally, we explore the extraordinary wartime chapter: amphibious vehicle testing on the Derwent, bocage training among sculpted hedges, and the visits of Princess Elizabeth and Winston Churchill as preparations for D‑Day unfolded in secrecy. A walk through eight centuries of life, labour, faith, engineering, and wartime planning — all held within one remarkable Yorkshire valley. #KirkhamPriory #YorkshireHistory #WalkingTour