God's Own County

Victorian Yorkshire Christmas Traditions

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Hortoris

Interesting Christmas Traditions

Victorians were very nostalgic and thought Christmases just weren’t what they used to be.
Victorians were known to complain Christmas was becoming too commercialised (where have we heard that before?)
Bringing in the Yule log and Kissing the bough were pre-Victorian customs. Kissing the bough was popular in Yorkshire where a ball of evergreens with candles and mistletoe was used as a home decoration.
Christmas Day became a public holiday in 1834. In 1871 Boxing Day became a holiday to reflect the time when staff and tradesmen were given a ‘Christmas Box.
Good King Wenceslas and Once in Royal David City are two Christmas Carols that were written in Victorian times. Many other traditional carols were revived as the Christmas festivities grew in social importance.

Otley Victorian Fayre 6th December 2015

Preparations are in full swing for the 30th Otley Victorian Fayre. More stalls than ever will be groaning with Christmas goodies for you to buy and eat. Traditional street organs will play their catchy music, dance troupes will perform for your enjoyment, local schools and adult choirs will sing carols on the stage.

The children can enjoy Punch and Judy shows, traditional fairground rides as well as visit the Lion’s Santa’s grotto in the market place. Every year more and more people join in the fun by dressing in Victorian costumes.

As darkness falls there will be a fabulous lantern parade through the town organised and run by Otley Courthouse.

Kirkgate Examiner York

The Castle Museum York generally celebrates Christmas with several seasonal exhibits and an interesting issue of an eight page newspaper highlighting ‘a taste of Victorian Christmas’.
New Years Eve and New Years Day were the key times for family get togethers, celebration and for present giving. It was the Victorians that helped reinvent Christmas and replace New Years Day with Christmas Day in the affections of the British families.
From the 1700’s Germany had used trees as a focal point and Christmas decoration but it wasn’t until 1848 that Prince Albert brought the tradition to England. He actively promoted the shaped tree with its fir like branches called in German a Tanne or Spindlebaum.

Christmas Decoration Traditions

Using Evergreens like Holly and Ivy are traditions that date back to pagan times.
Mistletoe has fertility and love connotations and was used to decorate Victorian houses and provide a place for a Christmas kiss.
Glue paper chains and twists of coloured crepe paper were introduced by Victorians
Candles were eventually replaced with electric light bulbs and now we have leds and other bright lights.
Holly wreaths are said by the york Kirkgate Examiner ‘to be a charming transatlantic custom’ imported from America.

Christmas Cards History

In the 18th Century visiting cards were in common use by the middle and upper classes. On new Years day visits were more frequent and the cards were passed around freely. Valentines cards were also in use and both formed a base for the Christmas card as we know it today. As Christmas Day was popularised by the Victorians they started to develop early designs of Christmas cards based on Valentine designs with Christmasy messages. These designs may have included pets or seaside scenes which would now seem unseasonal but Robins featured in early designs.
The first official Christmas card was created in 1843 and by 1880 the custom had become so popular that the post office asked people to ‘post early for Christmas’ for the first time. postmen wore red jackets and were nicknamed Robins and new cards often showed Robins on cards being delivered by red clothed postmen.

Yorkshire Expats Virtual Christmas Card can be viewed here

Christmas Food History

Old fashioned communal Christmas eating and drinking was much admired by Victorians. Food was provided by the squire or local land owners and was part of the seasonal activity.
Roast Turkey features in Mrs Beetons Cookery book of 1859 as a staple for the middle class Christmas.
Plum pudding of dried fruit improved by a soaking in spirit was another Victorian favourite. It also included suet, grated bread, sugar and candied peel along side the rasins and currants.
The earliest recipe for Yorkshire Christmas Pies dates from the eighteenth century, but they are probably much older. They were always stuffed to the gunnels with game and boned birds and frequently required a bushel of flour to make the crust. They were frequently sent as gifts. See Harewood house Victorian recipe for Yorkshire Pie
Roast goose with the classic sage and onion stuffing featured in a Victorian Christmas meat feast.

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Cycling – Bike Week in Yorkshire

Posted on November 17, 2015 by Hortoris

Looking Towards Burnsall courtesy of Cycling Info

National Bike Week set me thinking. I am always interested in sports, pastimes & hobbies and am often astounded how well supported and organised many of them are. For example there are 100 serious Cycling Clubs in Yorkshire detailed on Cyclingweb And it is competitive too with Hill climbs time trials and road races each with up to a dozen categories so that everyone has something to go for. Seacroft Wheelers have a list of their competitive events

Selective Club Comments
100 year old Hull Thursday RC are active in track, road and off road cycling catering for all ages and skill levels.
Bronte Wheelers cycling club runs activities in road racing and Cyclo Cross. They are very distinctive in West Yorkshire and are often seen in the area sporting their red, white and Blue jerseys.
Huddersfield Star Wheelers are developing young peoples interest in cycling with previous experience of promoting events with the British Schools Cycling Association (BSCA).
Yorkshire Road Club are a self confessed ‘band of renegades wishing to cause chaos to back end of the pelotons of Yorkshire and beyond. They take part in British Cycling (BC), The League International (TLI) and the League of Veteran Racing Cyclists (LVRC) races on closed circuits and the open road’.

Bike Week

So from competitive cycling to the fun of Bike Week. Leeds and Sheffield are holding their own week’s in support of the campaign from the 13th – 21st June 2009. York has arranged Charity sponsored rides, a cycle fair and one event that appeals to me a ‘Bike Breakfast.’ These breakfasts are available all around the county (and country) from Settle to Scarborough to Sheffield, Bedale to Barnsely so the message is saddle up don your helmet and clips and Get On Your Bike.

Winter Cycling photos from Cycling Info

Beauty in the Yorkshire Dales

Posted on November 12, 2015 by tejvan

The Beauty of the Yorkshire Dales from Malham Cove.

yoorkshire

The craggy limestone pavement at top of Malham Cove. Foreboding clouds in the background heigten the atmosphere, but, the sun manages to come through

yorks

photos by Tricky (flickr)

Kettlewell

Posted in Yorkshire Dales | 1 Comment

The Land Girls of Yorkshire

Posted on November 11, 2015 by Hortoris

‘Back to the Land Girls’ or ‘Back to the Land, Girls’ is the title of a new comedy based on The Land Girls of Yorkshire. Inspired by war-time reminiscences of various Yorkshire based or bred Land Army girls this play has been written by Kate Bramley of the Badapple Theatre Co. Ltd. Kate was formerly with the the Hull Truck Company and has penned this fictional play based on many personal stories from Land Army girls.

Music from the World War ll era is augmented by new tunes from Jez Lowe – the Bad Penny turning up again.Look out for any adaptation of the play.

The BBC ran two series about Land Girls

Posted in Our Yorkshire, Wit and Humour, Yorkshire Arts & Music | Comments Off

Elastoplast, Cods Liver and Nivea

Posted on November 11, 2015 by Hortoris

T J Smith opened a chemist shop in Hull in 1856 as a 30 year old member of the newly formed British Pharmaceutical Society. An early product was the Dark brown, fishy smelling Cod Liver Oil made from Hull fish . Indeed he sold this and a progressively refined version from Newfoundland and Norway to Guys Hospital and Great Ormond Street Childrens Hospital in London. A small part of the early business was supplying bandages and wound dressings.

By 1896 and in poor health he invited his 22 year old nephew Horatio Nelson Smith (named after TJ’s father) to join the company and it became T J Smith and Nephew until it becoming a limited company in 1907. Having outgrown its premises in North Churchside it moved to Neptune Street and shifted its production away from cod liver oil in favor of bandages. Horatio signed a contract with the Turkish government in 1911 after the outbreak of the war with Bulgaria when numbers employed reached 54 and this grew rapidly during the 1914-18 war when a manufacturing plant was also opened in Canada. Health and Safety legislation helped save the company through the depression requiring companies to stock First Aid materials.

Health Care Products

Innovative products have been at the forefront of Smith + Nephew’s business since the start. Elastoplast often thought of as generic adhesive backed sticking plaster was an S&N trademarked product. They were also pioneers of Gypsonia a ready to use Plaster of Paris bandage. A new manufacturing line was later known for producing cellulose sanitary towels, which had been developed to cope with the scarcity of cotton S&N sold them under the trade name Lilia, which had originally referred to an industrial cellulose towel product. S&N’s good fortune is illustrated by Nivea brand moisturizing cream. Overseas rights for the Nivea brand of moisturizing cream passed to Smith & Nephew with the acquisition of Herts Pharmaceuticals Ltd. in 1951. Soon it contributed almost as much as Elastoplast bandages to S&N’s consumer sales. In 1992, Beiersdorf bought back the rights for what was estimated to be the largest toiletry brand in the world. Smith & Nephew continued to earn a 17 percent royalty on U.K. Nivea sales without having to spend any money on advertising. In the 1960s, the brand was extended with “Nivea Lotions” and an upscale skin care line known as “Nivea Visage” .

Currently Smith + Nephew employ 12,000 people in over 30 countries and are internationally renown for hip and knee Orthopedic replacements and Advanced wound management amongst other modern Healthcare products.

A great Yorkshire company that is doing a good and necessary job.

Posted in Our Yorkshire, Yorkshire Business and Money, Yorkshire History and Heritage | Comments Off

Ripper Sutcliffe’s Victims

Posted on November 8, 2015 by Hortoris

This book examines the detail behind each of 13 murders by the Yorkshire Ripper and the resulting police investigations. There is less said about the seven attempted murders but it does highlight the possibility of several other unsolved cases including 2 male deaths that could be attributed to Sutcliffe. Michael Bilton in ‘Beyond Belief’ focuses also on the victims and their lives, rather than glossing over them to focus on the criminal Peter Sutcliffe. Much of the newspaper reporting in 1981 covered Sutcliffe’s time from being a Grave digger at Bingley in the 1960’s until his arrest in Sheffield and sentencing at the Old Bailey in May 1981

‘This book is different as it tells the story in some detail of the effects on the son of the victim, his family neighbours and friends. It really is an eye opener and reminds us all and especially those responsible for investigating crime and those responsible for the future of the villain to consider much more fully the effects the murderer has on those bereaved and their well being. Very well written and though detailed is not ” Heavy”. It is to this sons credit that he came through his trauma eventually and a credit to the author for sensitivity and thorough research.’ with thanks for Amazon review by Rev. J Cooper.

Anna Rogulsky was attacked in Keighley in July 1975 and Wilma McCann and Joan Harrison were murdered later that year. Emilly Jackson, Marcella Claxton, Jayne McDonald, Marilyn Moore, Marguerite Walls, Upadhya Bandara, Jacqueline Hill and Irene Richardson were all found dead in Leeds during the 5 years of horror perpetrated by Sutcliffe. Murders also took place in Halifax, Huddersfield, Bradford and of Vera Millward in Manchester.

On 2 January 1981 Olivia Reivers was getting into a car when the police stopped to talk to the driver. He asked to go relieve himself in some bushes where he stowed a knife and Ball Pein Hammer. Meanwhile police realised the number plates were false and took Sutcliffe, then calling himself Peter Williams, into Hammerton Road police station before transferring him to Dewsbury. Another knife was discovered in the toilets at the police station and eventually Sutcliffe confessed he was ‘The Ripper’.

Posted in Books Club & Literary Work, Yorkshire History and Heritage | Tagged Biography | 1 Comment

Rotherham Rant 2

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Hortoris

It is 6 years since the first rant was published – see below

Only now are there any signs of getting to grips with the myriad problems for this town.

In a couple more years I will revisit the improvements and local governance changes.

The more we see and read the more perverse the world of social services seems to be. The ‘politically incorrect brigade’ who removed children from foster parents because they are members of a political party are rightly in the firing line.

Should someone resign for fostering the children with these parents in the first place?
Certainly someone must now depart from their job or elected office because they must be wrong from the start or dead wrong now when they take the kids away.
Sadly no one in public life seems inclined to own up and takes responsibility by resigning (unless the pay out is worthwhile).
In Rotherham they were kipping on the job but it is the kids who will find it hard to kip as they are moved from home to home.

Secrecy seems to trump commonsense in many of these situations. We may never know what has gone on behind the scenes as the truth is often covered up in the guise of protecting the children. Christopher Booker writes in the Daily Telegraph ‘Our ‘child protection’ system is severely dysfunctional, but it has not come to the centre of national attention because it hides its workings behind a veil of secrecy ………’

Blame culture, self interest, financial chicanery, obfuscation and buck passing have become national diseases. I have half a mind to vote for a different set of politicians (if I thought they would make a difference) and half a mind is all you need to vote in our current party system. Come on Rotherham show us how to do it in your by-election

Photo credit Rotherham … GREGGS. by BazzaDaRambler CC BY 2.0

Posted in Our Yorkshire | Tagged events, politics | Comments Off

Brass Bands of Yorkshire and Yore

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Hortoris

Where there’s muck there’s Brass Bands and where there is a lot of brass there are Silver Bands. ‘The Cloth-Cap’ music of the working class man has strong links in Yorkshire and with Yorkshire businesses.

For up to date news and reports there is a weekly magazine The British Bandsman ‘the leading international Brass Magazine’ with too large a circulation to feature on Private Eye.
The Bandsman has a data base of 108 brass and silver bands in Yorkshire without a single Salvation Army band listed. Exactly half the Yorkshire bands are in West Yorkshire including such names as Gawthorpe Brass, Frickley & South Elmsall Brass Band, Hammonds Saltaire Band, Holme Silver Band (1), Meltham & Meltham Mills Band and Brighouse & Rastrick Band. In South Yorkshire you can hear Rockingham Band, Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band,Grimethorpe Colliery Band and Stocksbridge Band amongst others. North Yorkshire has many village bands and this is just a selection, Knaresborough Silver Band, Leyburn Brass Band, Muker Silver Band, Summerbridge & Dacre Silver Prize Band, Reeth Brass Band and York Railway Institute Band. So if you are thinking of joining or rejoining have a look for a band near you (or not so near if the sound of your practicing travels).

Widely accredited as the first amateur band was that of Stalybridge Old Band in 1814 followed by the world famous Black Dyke Mills Band formed in Queensbury Yorkshire in 1816. Below is a photograph of the Keld Village band from a book of old photographs that I can no longer trace.

I am indebted to The History of Brass bands for the following musical quotations

‘Brass Bands are all very well in their place – outdoors and several miles away’

Sir Thomas Beecham

Come if you dare! Our trumpets sound’. Purcell…the brass band movement has a great future]:

‘It has a great present, if only people would realise it’

Gustav Holst

‘God tells me how the music should sound, but you stand in the way’

Arturo Toscanini to a trumpet player

‘Never look at the trombones, it only encourages them’

Richard Strauss

‘Military justice is to justice what militarymusic is to music’

Groucho Marx

Posted in Our Yorkshire, Yorkshire Arts & Music, Yorkshire Sport and Pastimes | 2 Comments

Kirklands Bridge Club 1974-2015

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Hortoris

Dorrie Waugh – Kirklands Bridge Club President

Sports and pastimes were an important part of our society, culture and upbringing long before the advent of digital media, computer games and television. Board games like Ludo, Snakes & Ladders and Monopoly were only marginally less popular than family card games such as Snap, Sevens and Beggar-my-neighbor. Bridge is one popular card game that has evolved into an internationally competitive activity, the pastime of Omar Sharif and Warren Buffet amongst many others. However Bridge is not just for the rich or famous but is played in village halls, clubs and family gatherings all around the country.

One such Rubber Bridge Club is celebrating 41 years of existence in the West Riding village of Menston this autumn. Formed by Dorrie Waugh and several friends, after a notice was pinned up in a local amenity centre, over 20 people turned up on the first night in 1974. With Dorrie as president since inception the club has grown and prospered by sticking firmly to its Rubber Bridge roots and eschewing the duplicate version of the game. Subscriptions are returned in the form of prizes or subsidised parties and free Champagne was provided as promised for the 40th anniversary party.

The rubbers are contested for small stakes and it is a good night if you win 50p and a bad night if you loose anything. Even poor hands may win a cash prize for a Yarborough but a grand slam is worth £2.50 – riches indeed. Long may this and similar clubs thrive and prosper.

Partnership Comments

We had a partnership misunderstanding. I assumed my partner knew what he was doing.

My partner is 20 years behind the times. He still thinks you need high cards to bid.

Your play was much better tonight and so were your excuses.

We play forcing hesitations.

If I did everything right, I wouldn’t be playing with you.

My partner leads the 8 from a 98 doubleton because his teacher told him “eight ever, nine never?”

Know the difference between a serial killer and a bridge partner? Answer: You can reason with the serial killer.

“You know, you may not be the worst player in the world, …. but if that person should die….”

Where is the hand you held during the bidding dummy?

After playing bridge a pair go to the same pub and start going over the hands again.
Finally Jim says: “Bill, don’t we know anything but bridge? Can’t we discuss something else, anything else, movies, politics sports, even sex?
“Sex, says Bill, I had sex diamonds to the king-queen..”

Bridge Tall Tales

A notable bridge player in his eighties was asked why he bid every time it was his turn. He replied: “At my age the bidding may not get back around to me again.”

Bridge is a great comfort in old age. It also helps you get there faster.

They were at a concert. Said she, a bridge addict, “What’s that book the conductor keeps looking at?”
“That’s the score,” answered her escort.
“Oh. Who’s vulnerable?”

Helen Sobel was once asked how it felt playing with a great expert (Charles Goren). “Ask him,” she replied.

South had started with four hearts originally and had to guess who had the HQ. He started by leading the HJ from his hand. West went into an Oscar winning performance trying to make South think he had the queen and finally played low. South, taken in by all of this, also played low as did Roth! When Roth’s partner saw that Alvin had the queen and could have defeated 7NT by taking the trick, he asked Roth why he hadn’t taken the trick with the queen. “Because I thought you had it”, said Roth.

Posted in Our Yorkshire, Yorkshire Sport and Pastimes | 1 Comment

Yorkshire’s Closed Churches

Posted on October 31, 2015 by Hortoris

Open but Closed!
St. John the Evangelist is the oldest church in the centre of Leeds and it was constructed between 1632-1634. It was restored in 1868 but all the main features were preserved. That is to no avail now as the church pews are empty and the church deconsecrated. So it is closed as a church but open as a tourist attraction and art space. The Tudor fish and chip shop known to millions as Nash’s was just behind St John the Evangelist and were it not now also closed it would have been a good place to have lunch after a quick visit to this well preserved 17th century building.

It seems quirky to me to have a web site for derilict churches but this church caught my eye due to the history and provenance of Mount St Mary’s Irish Famine Church. The architect was Joseph Hansom who also created the Hansom cab abd parts were designed by E.W. Pugin who also designed the Houses of Parliament. ‘Mount Saint Mary’s stands in a district of Leeds traditionally known as ‘The Bank’. This high ground dominates Leeds and had originally been used as farmland but by the late 1840’s it had developed into an industrial area densely packed with mills and workshops whose tall chimneys billowed out smoke which all but obliterated the sun and choked the air.By this time, The Bank also became home to a large community of Irish Catholic families who had emigrated to Leeds to seek work building canals and railways and as millworkers. ‘

Churches Conservation Trust

This organisation supports 27 Yorkshire churches of which 18 are in North Yorkshire

St John the Evangelist church Cadeby was designed by renowned Victorian architect Sir Gilbert Scott in 1856 for Sir Joseph Copley and was intended as a decorated version of the Early English church at Skelton near York.Although some of the external stonework detail has eroded, the fine carving inside by J Birnie Philip is as crisp as ever and there is lovely painted decoration inside the roof.

Holy Trinity Wentworth is now a partly ruined building which started life as a church in the 15th century but was converted to a mausoleum in 1877 after a new church was commissioned. In the chancel, brass and stone memorials and alabaster effigies from the 16th and 17th centuries trace the powerful Wentworth family, These include one to the Earl of Strafford, a supporter of the Crown who was beheaded on Tower Hill just before the Civil War, and Charles Watson-Wentworth, the 2nd Marquis of Rockingham, who helped to negotiate an end to the American War of Independence.

Wentworth estate workers and villagers rest in the churchyard, including the 17-year-old Chow Kwang Tseay from China, baptised John Dennis Blonde. He was thought to have been rescued from HMS Blonde’ and brought to Rotherham in 1847 as a 14-year-old.

Posted in Wit and Humour, Yorkshire History and Heritage, Yorkshire Trips and Places | Tagged churches, fish | Comments Off