THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

Ugthorpe is still a lonely enough spot, more or less cut off from the outer world.  This is, perhaps, the main reason why its inhabitants stuck to the Old Religion at the Reformation.  With the neighbouring village of Egton Bridge, it forms a little Catholic oasis on the windswept moors.  Picture it as a straggling village built of greenish grey stone; low pitched roofs, with mellow red tiles.  Winter storms cannot penetrate these thick walls.  Here one finds a real native type of English Catholicism, redolent of the soil.  The outward expression of the religion of these farmers and country folk is as natural and spontaneous in its own way as that of a Breton peasant or an Italian contadino.  Here in Ugthorpe one found a genuine Nordic Catholicism, practised by sturdy Yorkshire folk who have never ceased to be in communion with the Holy See.

Anson/Recluse, 1946