Discovering a double bink at Dales post office

In terms of binksupmanship, her post office is unique: it is a double binker. There are two binks – one on either side of the front door.

“I’ve been here 14 years and all that time, the villagers have always called them ‘the binks’,” says Sandra, “and one of the old men who’s lived here all his life says they used to keep the milk for the shop under the bink.”

For those new to this topic, “bink” is a dialect word for a “stone bench”, specifically one that is used for putting a milk church on. A classic bink is beside a cottage door and has a sink attached to it. The churn would be placed upon the bink and the housewife would use the contents to make cheese or butter.

“It’s a Georgian building,” says Sandra, “and it was originally a pub and then in Victorian times became a shop.”

A late Victorian picture of Thoralby post office and shop with the binks clearly visible outside the front door

Perhaps the shopkeeper required two binks to keep the dairy counter stocked, although it is a new departure to hear of milk sheltering from the sun underneath a bink.

Thoralby – once settled by a Viking called Thoraldr – is a lovely stone village to the south of Aysgarth, at the entrance to Bishopdale. It has 25 listed buildings, the oldest dating from 1641.

Not only does it have a preponderance of binks but it also has a plethora of bee boles – sunny alcoves in a wall where, before the invention of the beehive in the 1850s, a basket of bees would be kept to make honey.

One of the first buildings as you enter Thoralby from Aysgarth is Warnford Court, built in 1807 by barrister James Willis who had made his money in London where his chambers were in Warnford Court in the heart of the City.

Warnford Court at Thoralby is named after a London barrister's chambers and has bee boles. Picture: Google StreetView

Not only does his country residence have a coach house, kennels and summerhouse – all listed – but next to the summerhouse are eight bee boles in two tiers.