Last of the Summer Policemen

Posted on February 10, 2017 by Hortoris

Book Cover

In Scarborough some while back I saw this familiar face signing his book of poetry on the pavement on Bar Street. (His hand and pen were doing the signing not the face).

Ken Kitson was born in Bradford in 1946 and has had a varied career on British television since the 1970s.
He has been in The Sweeney, Minder, Danger UXB, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and four times played different parts in Coronation Street.

As a droll policeman in Last of the Summer Wine, he will be a familiar face to many. I for one could not put him in context as I walked past.

Ken is trying to raise £2 million to release a movie based on his screenplay “Fistful of Dreams”. ‘The film will be set in Yorkshire, telling the story of Will Case, an unemployed Bradford divorcee disillusioned with society who decides to start living by the romanticised code of the West; dressing as a cowboy and taking part in quick draw competitions.’ For more see Tabard

Sources

Amazon  reviews

‘ This book reveals another side of Ken – the poet. Sensitive and imaginative, Ken’s poems are none the less highly accessible. His subjects and messages are drawn from a real world we can all experience and share in. Moods, Moments & Memories draws on material from the whole of Ken’s career.’

‘This book was not what I was expecting either. But I will keep it to add to my collection of Summer Wine books.‘

While I certainly do not regret ordering this book, it was not exactly what I expected. I thought it was going to be an autobiography by Ken Kitson rather than a book of his poetry. Hope he will write his life’s story in the future because I have enjoyed his acting for years in Last of the Summer Wine.

Gods Own Summer Wine

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Dickie Bird of Barnsley

Posted on February 10, 2017 by Hortoris

Harold 'Dickie' Bird and Simon 'The Analyst' Hughes

Harold Dennis (Dickie) Bird, was born at Church Lane Barnsley 19 April 1933. (Simon Hughes in the photo wasn’t born in Barnsley) so no ball him
In the 2012 New Years Honours list Dickie was  awarded the OBE.
The award could so easily have been the OBU or Old Blind Umpire but well done Dickie. Other sporting awards for Yorkshire folk go to Jamie Peacock from Leeds Rhinos and Taekwondo champion Sarah Stevenson from Doncaster.

 

Pre Umpiring

  • Dickie has a damaged knee and couldn’t play his first choice sport of football.
    He started cricket in the nets at Barnsley Cricket Club.
    Two team mates at that time were Michael Parkinson and Geoff Boycott.
    In his autobiography Dickie tells of the time when Boycott refused to open the batting with Dickie preferring to bat no3. Dickie and Eddie Legard then proceeded to score 182 to win the game before a frustrated Boycott  could get in to bat.
    Barnsley also fostered other great cricketers including Martyn Moxon, Darren Gough and Arnie Sidebottom.
    Dickie played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club 1958-64 in the same side as Fred Trueman, Bob Appleyard and Johnny Wardle.
    After retiring from county cricket he coached and played league cricket before becoming an umpire.

Umpiring Era

  • Dickies first county game was in 1970 and his first Test match was  England v New Zealand at Headingley in 1973.
    One negative memory of his umpiring days was Dickie’s reputation for stopping play for weather.
    After a pitch invasion when the West Indies won the world cup Dickie lost his white hat. A year later as passenger on a London bus he noticed the conductor was wearing a hat similar to the one he lost and asked the conductor where he obtained it from.
    “Man, haven’t you heard of Mr Dickie Bird,” he replied. “This is one of his hats. I took it off his head at the World Cup final… we all ran onto the field and I won the race.” Apocryphal or not it is one of Dickie’s favourite after dinner stories.
    Affectionately remembered for his sense of humour and on field idiosyncrasies Dickie retired from umpiring in 1996 at the age of 63.

Since Umpiring

  • Dickie wrote his humerous autobiography simply titled My Autobiography that has sold more than a million copies.(and many of these several times over via charity book shops)
    The Dickie Bird Foundation was set up with “The vision of the Foundation is to assist young people under 18 years of age to participate, to the best of their ability, in the sport of their choice irrespective of their social circumstances, culture or ethnicity and to ensure that, in doing so, they improve their chances both inside and outside sport”
    Dickie has more honorary degrees from Yorkshire Universities than he has A levels.
    Harold Dennis (Dickie) Bird MBE 1986. As a Barnsley lad he could have been nicknamed the Bird Bard of Barnsley

Umpiring Career 1970-1998 from Dickie’s own web site

1970 Stood in his first county game

1973 Stood in his first Test Match. England V New Zealand July 5-10 at Headingley

1973 Stood in his first ODI England V New Zealand July 20th Manchester

1995 Stood in his last ODI England V West Indies May 26th The Oval

1996 Stood in his last Test Match England V India May 26th Lords

1998 Stood in his last County Match Yorkshire V Warwichshire

2007 Dickie came out of retirement in January 2007 to umpire the XXXX Gold Beach Cricket Tri-Nations series involving cricket legends from England, the West Indies, and Australia, which took place at Scarborough beach in Perth, Australia .

 

Related

The Best of Dickie Bird on audio CD from Amazon

Wisden on Yorkshire
Photo on creative commons license by Badger Swan on flickr
Fiery Fred Trueman Fantastic Raconteur

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Extra Unseasonal Photos

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Hortoris

Value for Money Extra Autumn Photos of Yorkshire

autumn

Menston trees in autumn sunshine

autumn

Acer in Autumn sun.

wharfe valley

Wharfe Valley from Bleach Mill Lane
autumn

St John’s Road

autumn

Ripponden

autumn

Bolton Abbey

autumn

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The Cragg Vale Coiners – Phillis Bentley

Posted on February 5, 2017 by Hortoris

Coiners historically were people who were makers of counterfeit coins or those who ‘coins money’ by clipping or filing off bits of valuable metal. They literally were ‘coining it in’.

 

A tour d’Yorkshire book from and about old ‘Cragg Vale’.

Book Cover

There is nothing counterfeit about the currency of books by Phillis Bentley. Her book about the Cragg Vale Coiners ‘Gold Pieces Tales from the Tops’ is one of her 15 major novels that emphasised her knowledge and love of Yorkshire, the mill owners, the work force and the occasional coin operator from around Halifax. Gold Pieces is seen through the eyes of a twelve-year-old boy,

Phillis was writing at a time when middle class girls were just emerging from the constraints of the Victorian era. J B Priestley wrote of her ‘The truth is, it is about five times harder for a woman to be a professional writer than it is for a man’.
After penning ‘Environment’ in 1922 she took to heart the problems of the slump in the West Riding and wrote her defining work ‘Inheritance’. This was based on the story of three generations of a family engaged in the textile trade. Like Gold Pieces it drew heavily on her knowledge of the Calder Valley and her home region.

Other books by Phyllis Bentley

Most of her books had a Yorkshire theme and she became well known as a regional novelist.
Sleep in Peace
The Adventures of Tom Leigh
The Rise of Henry Morcar
Freedom Farewell
Panorama: Tales of the West Riding
A Man of His Time
Crescendo
The Adventures of Tom Leigh
Ned Carver in Danger
Take Courage
The House of Moreys
A Man Of His Time

Phyllis Bentley’s non-fiction work included scholarly works on the Brontë Sisters, the English woollen industry, the Fall of Ancient Rome as well as works on the West Riding history and topography.
O Dreams O Destinations was the title of Phyllis Bentley’s autobiography.

Interesting Snippets about Phyllis Bentley

Phyllis was born in 1894 and looked after her mother until she died at age 90. Phyliss herself died in 1977
In 1967 Inheritance was filmed by Granada TV, with John Thaw and James Bolam.
Moving with the times many of her books are now available again on kindle
Phyllis became a professional lecturer and had a spell binding voice when talking about The Brontes.
At her funeral in Halifax she was described as ‘a one woman Yorkshire Institution’
For more on the real life Cragg Vale Coiners read Homeland

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York’s Unusual Cold War Bunker Museum

Posted on February 4, 2017 by Hortoris

York Cold War Nuclear Bunker

At the height of the cold war the Royal Observer Corp No 20 opened it’s bunker in Acomb York. In 1961 it was the a time of concern and international political unrest with serious fears about the Russian intentions.
The fear of nuclear attack was exacerbated by the Cuban Missile crisis in 1962. From the 1960’s until the 1990’s it was the job of the Royal Observer Corp working with the Home Office to monitor, gather data and report on any nuclear activity via a series of bunkers and remote monitoring stations.

Telephone operators desks

The bunker is located under several feet of soil and was designed to withstand all but a direct hit by a thermo-nuclear device. It was capable of housing 60 staff of both men and women and was linked to over 40 smaller 3 person cold war stations around Yorkshire.
The facilities include services such as canteen, ablutions, dormitories and a telephone exchange but TV and radio connection to the outside world was not allowed. The operations room, decontamination rooms, aerosol filter chambers are displayed along with an ejector room to pump away sewage and maintain a positive air-pressure.

The York bunker was ‘stood down’ in September 1991 and closed six months later. It has since been restored and opened as a modern and successful museum piece by English Heritage.
There is a tour by knowledgeable guides who add to the atmosphere and the film show that complements your visit.

Cold War Quotes

“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.” Winston Churchill (5th March 1946)
“The Cold War isn’t thawing; it is burning with a deadly heat. Communism isn’t sleeping; it is, as always, plotting, scheming, working, fighting.” Richard M Nixon
“With the development of increasingly terrifying weapons of mass destruction, every individual faces the ever-present possibility of annihilation should the conflict enter the phase of total war.” National Security Council 1950
“It shall be the policy of this nation, to regard any nuclear missile, launched from Cuba on any state in the western hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union” John F Kennedy October 22 1962.

Book Cover

Books on Underground Structures of the Cold War are available from Amazon

Photo Credits
York Cold War Nuclear Bunker by Ulleskelf CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Telephone operators desks by IanVisits CC BY-NC 2.0

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Ilkley Moor Baht’at not Baht’camera

Posted on February 3, 2017 by Hortoris

Hats were not needed by this family on the slopes of Ilkley Moor last Boxing Day. The sun shone on the sledging and created long shadows of Mary Jane and family a few years after the cooartin’.
Escaping the fatal crowd a black hat was now covering the bald spot and thee will not need buryin’.
Given the weather it was too cold for t’worms too cum and eat thee oop but with all the poultry eaten over the holidays there is no telling who will be getting their oahn back.

Well back to a Turkey sandwich for lunch.

Read about Ilkley in Spring On Top of Ilkley

‘The Calf’

Down  t’town

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Hawes Interesting and Unusual

Posted on February 3, 2017 by Hortoris

The picture shows Hawes Church rebuilt during Queen Victoria’s reign. It is dedicated to St Margaret of Antioch.

Interesting and Unusual Facts about Hawes

The railway is gone and you can only get to the Museum by bus as Hawes railway station was been converted into the Folk Museum. Well, since Dr Beeching zapped the Dales, you can take shank’s pony and walk or even take the car if you want to pay for parking.

The cultural museum was inspired by Marie Hartley and Joan Ingleby, the prodigious authors of Yorkshire sociology and history. The museum covers all you could want to see about life in the dales from the ice age forward and explains a lot about the Yorkshire psyche. There are lots of interactive activities to keep the young and old amused and kids get in for free!

The Wensleydale Vintage Bus service uses two buses from the 1940’s (named Dorothy and Edith) and Bessie from 1961 to run between Ripon and Hawes, Garsdale and Redmire. Bus passes accepted! In summer this links to the Wensleydale Railway.

Recently in the news is the Hawes bookshop that charges you to go inside. Bloomingdales or blooming cheek where  customers who enter the shop and browse are charged 50p entry fee. This has given  folk something to complain about but don’t let that put you off as you may find the book of your dreams and get the 50p back into the bargain.

A good walk from the village will take you through fields to The Green Dragon. Dating from 13th century this pub is home to the famous Hardraw Force, England’s highest single drop waterfall. Access to the waterfall is only through the pub and a paying turnstyle.

Hawes had its own ropeworks and nearby is the village of Gayle famous for its cotton mill.

Gayle Beck

Gayle Beck and Ford


Aims and Objectives of the Friends of the Dales Countryside Museum

* To promote the improvement of the museum
* To raise funds to help in maintaining and enlarging the collection. (Registered Charity No. 519 546)
* To arrange events for the interest and education of the Friends

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Yorkshire Roots of The NSPCC

Posted on February 2, 2017 by Hortoris

 

Benjamin Waugh of Settle is credited with forming the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in 1884. With Lord Shaftesbury as president they had 32 national branches or aid committees within 5 years. Each branch raised funds from donations, subscriptions and legacies to support an inspector, who investigated reports of child abuse and neglect.
Queen Victoria became the Royal Patron of the NSPCC in 1895 when it was granted its Royal Charter. It retained the name as NSPCC was already well established and it avoided confusion with the RSPCA which had already existed for more than fifty years. Did and Do we put animals or children first?

Benjamin Waugh was born, the son of a clergyman, in Settle, North Yorkshire and attended theological college in Bradford before moving to London. As a Congregationalist minister in the slums of London, Waugh was appalled at the deprivations and cruelties suffered particularly by workhouse children. In addition to being a founding secretary for the NSPCC he wrote a book ‘The Gaol Cradle, Who Rocks It?’ and subsequently urged the creation of juvenile courts and children’s prisons as a means of diverting children from a life of crime. Waugh worked to raise awareness lobbying government and publishing detailed reports of abuse and neglect. These Victorian values still seem to be required in today’s society see ‘Horrendous Child abuse uncovered in Doncaster’ or the Daily Mirror reported around Christmas 2008  ‘ The serious case review, which Doncaster council slipped quietly on to their website, is the latest scandal to rock social services departments after the death of Baby P. The report branded social services “chaotic and dangerous….’

Read 2 Hours in Settle

Settle and dent

 

Posted in Our Yorkshire, Yorkshire Folk | 1 Comment

Settle Interesting & Unusual Facts

Posted on February 1, 2017 by Hortoris

Settle and dent

The North Yorkshire settlement of Settle may have been populated by Angles in the 6th century and there are prehistoric remains amongst the limestone hills nearby.

Interesting Facts

  1. Settle is well known for its position on the Settle to Carlisle railway, where steam trains still run on occasion, beware the station is well south of the town centre. The railway was opened in 1875 but Settle was connected to the rail network 25 years before that via a road link to Giggleswick station.
  2. Nearby the iconic Ribblehead Viaduct over Batty Moss was built by navvies in the 1870’s and has 24 arches
  3. .
  4. Long before railways and possibly even wheels, the land was inhabited by wild animals and our ancestors.  Victoria Cave contained remains of mammoth, bear, reindeer and hippopotamus as well as stones, flint, bone and other implements and ornaments.
  5. Set in the midst of great walking country, Settle is a bustling center for tourists and day trippers. For that reason there are numerous cafes, tea shops and pubs offering refreshment.
  6. The river Ribble provided the power for Settle’s former cotton and paper mills and now is a base for many walks. Try the three peaks if you want a tester.
  7. Overlooking the town is Castlebergh, an impressive 300 feet limestone crag which flies the flag even when England are not in the world cup.

Continue reading →

Posted in Villages, Towns and Cities | 2 Comments

Take a Turkish Bath to Unwind your Mind

Posted on January 31, 2017 by tejvan

Turkish Baths

Pamper yourself at the Turkish Baths in Harrogate. In the 21st century it is seen as a luxury way of relaxing but it was not always so. At one time it was a treatment and possible cure for a range of diseases.

In 1596 William Slingsby discovered a chalybeate spring in Yorkshire and that became a forerunner to Harrogate’s prominence as a Spa town. He built an enclosed well at what became known as the first resort in England for drinking medicinal waters.

The Victorians built the current Turkish bath which is still operating from the entrance on Parliament Street. the Moorish design includes elaborate Islamic images, arches and screens.

Harrogate

As the Bath’s promotion says it is a place to ‘unwind your mind and invigorate your body’. A minimum 90 minutes is recommended and towels are provided. Children under 16 are not permitted because you go for relaxation and kids can prevent you doing that.

Areas have Roman names rather than Turkish ones; Tepidarium is the Warm Room, Calidarium the Hot Room and Laconium is the hottest Room to purify and detoxify the body by opening the pores and stimulating the circulation. Then you can take the plunge in guess what the Plunge Pool.

http://www.turkishbathsharrogate.co.uk/Pages/home.aspx

Bath Time

Credits
Turkish Baths by UK Pictures CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Harrogate by kpc CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Bath Time by Superlekker CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 ‘Victorian Turkish Baths in Harrogate. Where staring at the ceiling is utterly entertaining, not to mention to very very hot rooms and nice steam to make you so clean… Believe me, two hours and a half in there just fly by.’

 

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