Grand Old Duke

Posted on March 26, 2020 by Hortoris

When I titled this as the Grand Old Duke I was thinking of York but the heritage spud not the second son of the Queen (you could say her errant spud.)

Prince Andrew former husband of Fergie (Sarah Ferguson)  and friend of Ghislaine has recently resigned from 3 Yorkshire roles. He has left his role as the chancellor of the University of Huddersfield, has resigned from his role as royal patron of the York Minster Fund and the Yorkshire Air Ambulance has thrown him out of the cockpit (sorry withdraw its connection). Looks like he has had his chips and his erstwhile Yorkshire career is mashed up.

 

First Earlies

  • Duke of York are seed potatoes that have been recognised since  1891
  • They are very popular for their great taste, early harvesting and all-round use.
  • Luckly I have just planted mine but find they are currently hard to obtain as they have fallen victim to Corvid 91. This is not a potato virus but a supply chain issue due to the pandemic. I never expected to see panic buying of heritage seed potato but they are currently hard to obtain.
  • Red Duke of York is a sport of the variety Duke of York first discovered during the WWII

 

 

 

Posted in Food and Drink & Yorkshire Products, Yorkshire History and Heritage | Comments Off on Grand Old Duke

Yorkshire Retailers Welcome Panic Buyers

Posted on March 13, 2020 by Hortoris

Fish & Chips Shops

  • Oh my Cod, how many Cod Fathers are there to a flounder?I will have to check on Fishbook
  • Open on Frydays all over Yorkshire not just the Chip in Dales
  • A Fish Called Rhondda
  • The Prawnbroker may get a bell from The Town Fryer
  • The New Cod on the Block may be called Plaice Station
  • If you think this is a load of Codswallop you should see the southern chippy Battersea Cod’s Home selling catfish

Other Retailers

  • Why don’t Boots  sell boots, and Selfridges don’t sell fridges

Boroughbridge 008

Ali’s Barbers is a cut above the rest but doesn’t make Aladdin appear.

Have you a favorite misleading street signs or one that downright lies like the one above. Even in Ilkley wells do not walk. Wells gush or flow, store and seep and cover for Yorkshire water when there is a drought. Tying to our earlier theme there is Frying Pan Alley in the east end of London where the eels and fish and chips are southern are soggy.

Posted in Wit and Humour | Comments Off on Yorkshire Retailers Welcome Panic Buyers

Tyke Taverner – Timothy Taylor’s Top Tipples

Posted on March 4, 2020 by Hortoris

As a veteran beer drinker and former member of the campaign for real ale, CAMRA, I am embarrassed to find there are 17 local branches in towns and cities across the county. I only discovered this fact only from reading the bimonthly magazine Tyke Taverner, the beer consumers’ magazine, supplied to pubs and clubs in Bradford and beyond.

  1. Barnsley:  barnsleycamra.org.uk
  2. Bradford: bradfordcamra.org.uk
  3. Cleveland: clevelandcamra.org.uk
  4. Doncaster: doncastercamra.org.uk
  5. Halifax & Calder:  hxcalderdalecamra.org.uk
  6. Harrogate & Ripon:harrogateandriponcamra.org.uk
  7. Heavy Woolen: heavywoollencamra.org.uk
  8. Huddersfield:  huddscamra.org.uk
  9. Hull & East Yorkshire:  hull.camra.org.uk
  10. Keighley & Craven:keighleyandcraven.camra.org.uk
  11. Leeds:  leeds-camra.com
  12. North West Yorkshire:  nwyorkscamra.co.uk
  13. Rotherham: rotherhamcamra.org.uk
  14. Scarborough:scarborough.camra.org.uk
  15. Sheffield:sheffieldcamra.org.uk
  16. Wakefield:  wakefieldcamra.org.uk
  17. York:  york.camra.org.uk

Haversack ale is a clever name and one of Timothy Taylors range that used to include Ram Tam that has been renames Landlord Dark.  Cook Lane is named after the site of Timothy Taylor’s first brewery in Keighley. It is meant to create a best in class modern 5.8 abv IPA using aromatic English grown Cascade and Chinook hops.

Not Taylors but a different session pale ale that caught my eye but not my throat is Dare of the Hog look out for it in Whitby or a blue pig sty.

Information from the Walkers Crispy issue of Tyke Taverner March/April 2020

Posted in Food and Drink & Yorkshire Products | Comments Off on Tyke Taverner – Timothy Taylor’s Top Tipples

More Modern Mosaics in Yorkshire

Posted on March 3, 2020 by Hortoris

Four years ago I was much taken by the roman mosaics in Aldborough – it is well worth a visit. Isurium Brigantum  was a Roman fort and town that has left us with several mosaic treasures including some housed at Leeds museum. That interest led to the post about mosaicing as a hobby and this is a link back to that content.

It seems the Yorkshire sculpture park has caught up with the current interest in the subject. There is a current and colourful display in the lower field. Before, after or during a snack children can colour-in or create there own version of mosaicart at the learning center.

This was just an excuse to rehash old interests but as the Romans would say ‘If you have an ear for them it is time to face the mosaic’.

There are lots on new mosaic courses and opportunities in Otley, Pateley Bridge  and Huttons Ambro near York to highlight just 3.

What did the Romans ever do for us except bring mosaic virus with their tomatoes.

Posted in Yorkshire Arts & Music | Comments Off on More Modern Mosaics in Yorkshire

Exceptional Dry Stone Walls

Posted on March 3, 2020 by Hortoris

Yorkshire and proud of the windows in this home from home. You need to shin up the tree to look at the roof to see if the sculpture is a solid cube. Made from Yorkshire grit I am sure it will be.

Sean Scully may be an Irish borne artist, brought up in London he regularly does the Yorkshire sculpture park proud with his large sculptures. This work made from 1000+ tons of Yorkshire stone,  quarried from nearby Wakefield, is as impressive as the hollow it will make in the ground at YSP.

One of the better dry stone walls or should that be 4 dry stone walls and may be a roof?    At the YSP last week it was so wet two fish swam in to a wall and one said to the other “dam”. When it comes to walls I will get over it.

The real thing – a pukka wall!

Posted in Yorkshire Arts & Music, Yorkshire Environment | Comments Off on Exceptional Dry Stone Walls

Summat Abaht Paradise in Yorkshire

Posted on February 27, 2020 by Hortoris

Something about paradise is the current exhibition in the nave of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park’s historic chapel. British artist Saad Qureshi has created an ‘eclectic mix of architectural styles, from traditional temples and churches to modernist houses and palaces, nestled among panoramas of forests, deserts and fantastical geological formations’. It looks like a plaster of Paris cast including a number of Gates to Paradise.

A true Tyke may think this sculpture is a bit of overkill as the show is already in Yorkshire the paradise on your doorstep.

Worth a look see and a bit of contemplation after a walk in the grounds and a brunch in the restaurant.

Posted in Our Yorkshire, Yorkshire Arts & Music, Yorkshire Trips and Places | Comments Off on Summat Abaht Paradise in Yorkshire

Environmental Bits

Posted on February 23, 2020 by Hortoris

Estuary English or Yorkshire Quotes?

  • ‘Ouch’ -Issac  Newton am urt t’core
  • New £50 notes do not grow on trees
  • Gona-mo or al-clowt-thi-iftha-dunt-giower dumpin dahn khazi.
  • Bubonic plagiarism
  • Dammit I’m Mad –  palindromically
  • pppppp proper prior …..

Green Yorkshire Quips

  • Rubble trouble
  • Plastics are caused by plastic
  • Litterfest
  • 96% of current statistics are made up and so are the other 4
  • Industrial environment slag heaps construction, destruction dilapidation
  • Inner city land usage creates barney rubble
  • Plogging is a Swedish portmanteau word, formed by combining ‘pick up’ and ‘run’. It describes an activity where you run along picking up rubbish.
Posted in Wit and Humour | Comments Off on Environmental Bits

Dour d’Yorkshire

Posted on February 14, 2020 by Hortoris

What Defines a Dour Yorkshireman

  • Yorkshire folk have a hard won but well deserved reputation of being on the right side of taciturn.
  • Some may think us curmudgeonly but that does a disservice to those grumps who really are.
  • At time we may seem laconic but we are intensely involved in our core interests and especially all that ‘gods county’ has to offer.
  • Dour is as dour does, but gruff we may sometimes seem. Generally we  are self-contained self confident and well short of surly or sullen.
  • More inclined to be sardonic than sarcastic particularly when expressing the Yorkshire sense of humour.
  • Being thought to be ‘tight with brass’ is no skin off our nose as we aren’t overly concerned about the views of others.

Posted in Our Yorkshire | Comments Off on Dour d’Yorkshire

Old Amos Nowt but a Great Old Dalesman

Posted on February 14, 2020 by Hortoris

Nowt but Old Amos

  • It is better to ‘ave nowt than do nowt.
  • A laugh at your own expense costs nowt
  • He that knows nowt doubts nowt
  • Nowt but rain leaves us all soggy
  • Nowt is as desirable as summat you can’t ‘ave.

This is largely a rehash of a post from a couple of years back. Old Amos is nowt but 66 years old and still pensionless. Some of the priceless quotes of his wisdom come from the Dalesman book ‘More Yorkshire Wit and Wisdom’.

Legendary Yorkshireman Old Amos is 67 this year but regrettably  there will be no pension for Old Amos because he was above pensionable age when he first appeared!

Old Amos has been a fixture at the Dalesman magazine since May 1953 although its first edition was published in 1939 under the original title of ‘The Yorkshire Dalesman: A Monthly Magazine of Dales’ Life and Industry’. Old Amos is still capable of dishing out words of wisdom in Yorkshire dialect.The wry humour of Dalesfolk is continued in current monthly issues of Dalesman now published from Skipton.Book CoverOld Amos Biography

  1. Born in Clapham at the Dalesman maternity unit in 1953. Mother unknown father Rowland Lindup cartoonist with a twist. He must have surprised the midwife by being born with a full white beard, old jacket and hat making him look quite rotund and ancient.
  2. He was originally named ‘Owd Amos’ to differentiate him from the old testament version of Amos who I am sure his subsequent followers knew was one of the Twelve Minor Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and old testament.
  3. Prior to publication he used deed poll to become the more familiar and avuncular ‘Old Amos’ using one aspect of the poll tax to good effect.
  4. His first words were ‘A word of advice – nivver give it’.
  5. Some of his later words were ‘Ah’ve always been too busy to grow old.’ ‘Old age is when it takes twice as long to rest and ‘alf as long to get tired.’ and ‘ It doesn’t matter how old you are but how you are old!
  6. His other biography may be available in Amazon
  7. Very Old Amos lived in the kingdom of Judah and is a prophet in the old testament

Book Cover

Posted in Wit and Humour, Yorkshire Folk | Comments Off on Old Amos Nowt but a Great Old Dalesman

Was His Nibs a Yorkshire Man?

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Hortoris

Not all great phrases and sayings are Yorkshire-centric and ‘His Nibs’ is probably one created for the home counties elite. In one version of the meaning and derivation ‘His Nibs’ is ‘a mildly derisive mock title used to refer to a self-important man, especially one in authority’.

Nib of the Year Awards

God’s own counties nomination is ‘Sir’ Gary Verity the former Welcome to Yorkshire  chief executive who was allowed to resign on health grounds. As the Yorkshire Post reported ‘ It has been revealed that £482,500 has been spent in connection to the costs of two independent inquiries ordered in the wake of Sir Gary’s resignation in March on health grounds following bullying and expenses allegations, with the figure also taking account of “termination” expenses’.

A recent report released by the new chief executive Peter Box reports welcome to Yorkshire spent a quarter of a million pounds on the Chelsea Flower Show whilst seeing the demise of the autumn flower show in Harrogate.

Welcome to Yorkshires contribution to cycling and the counties profile has been  significant but so was Beryl Burton’s and many other cyclist and clubs.

Footnote

Another link to ‘his nibs’ is to its use the game of cribbage but in my scoring system it is ‘one for his nob’ not his nib.

Posted in Our Yorkshire, Yorkshire Sport and Pastimes | Comments Off on Was His Nibs a Yorkshire Man?