Cooking at High Hall in Appletreewick, Yorkshire Dales this weekend. It’s a remarkable listed country house, built around 1535, and extended later in the 16th Century by Sir William Craven, whose career is widely regarded as one of the inspirations for the story of Dick Whittington. In 1548, William Craven was born to a pauper’s family in Appletreewick in Wharfedale, in a cottage. The Rector of Burnsall found him an apprenticeship in London, and he travelled by draper’s cart to be apprenticed to a Merchant Taylor in the City of London. He thrived and rose through the ranks of the Merchant Taylors’ Guild, and made his fortune (estimated at £8billion in current terms). He was knighted by James 1st in 1603, and became Lord Mayor of London in 1610. With a fondness for his Yorkshire Dales roots in Appletreewick, Sir William acquired and enlarged the High Hall that had stood opposite his childhood home for his own use. He built the road bridges at Barden and Burnsall, paved the road from Appletreewick to Burnsall to ease his attendance at St. Wilfrid’s Church, paid for the Church’s repairs, and built and endowed Burnsall’s Grammar School, whose foundation stone still lauds his contribution. Looking forward to seeing inside High Hall and cooking for a celebration that is bringing two families together for the first time.