Do You Latch the Sneck or Sneck the Latch

Posted on May 14, 2020 by Hortoris

Painted Door and Sneck in Eccleshill

There is more than one way to ‘shut that door’ or gate including the use of a catch, bolt, bar, lock, hook, hasp or some other fastening. Here on Gods Own County we are ‘locked and loaded’ with a Yorkshire sneck. They are still in common use for outside lavatories, outhouses and garden sheds.

Construction of a Sneck

  • Used since the early 15th century a sneck is an iron latch made by a blacksmith.
  • There is generally a lever to lift a cross bar and then a catch point to sneck or latch into.
  • Importantly there is also a lever through the door on the inside or you would be in danger of ‘two old ladies stuck in the lavatory’.
  • The sneck can be used vertically but more commonly horizontally as above.
  • Further north in Scotland you can ‘sneck’ a window catch or use sneck as a verb when closing the lid of a tin.
  • By contrast a deadbolt latch has a bolt to slide into a strike plate.
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Morley Cholera and Collieries

Posted on May 13, 2020 by Hortoris


Throughout Yorkshire there were primrose paths to brilliant primulas this spring. Apologies are in order as this picture in Morley is a couple of years old as I am confined to barracks at the moment.

Morley was a great coal mining town and in the 19th century there were many well-known Morley’s collieries and ‘British Mining No. 87 – Coal Mining in Morley‘ lists 87 pits in all. The Northern mine research society  ( nmrs) covers the impact of HM Inspector’s of Mines on the employment of women and children. There is a detailed account of the Morley Main explosion of 1872 which claimed the lives of 34 men and boys and many of the 42 horses that were also below ground at the time.

In 1849 there were 200 deaths in Morley due to Cholera and in 1901 Sewage Purification Works opened.

To demonstrate the towns motto Industria Omnia Vincit ‘Industry overcomes all things’ there are over 5,000 individual stones in the mosaic. Many from local quarries that were  large employers since the 17th century.

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Open and Shut

Posted on May 10, 2020 by Hortoris

Is York St Mary’s an entrance you can use or a no entry sign that you shouldn’t. This sign was erected for the Van Gough Experience. I tried to enter at the start of the exhibition but there was still erection work going on inside hence the shut signs. Regrettably I was unable to go and see the exhibition when it was open and now, as Visit York now say ‘we are following government policy and strongly advising all visitors to stay home and stay safe. This means not visiting York, even for the day, until the current situation has passed’. 

W Wells & Sons Ginger beer suppliers of Ripon has long been out of Fizz and I think it is one of the naturally shut places. I didn’t know ginger beer came from wells! As an aside this company was one of the licensees of the Codd patent of 1872 on a glass bottle, originally made at Hope Glass Works in Barnsley. A Codd bottle has a marble in the neck to keep it shut to retain the effervescence.

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Off The Wall

Posted on May 9, 2020 by Hortoris

Who would have thought fire cement could have 101 uses? I was certainly sceptical until I came across a booklet published by the Pyruma people at Sankey’s in the 1950’s. They claim it was ‘Ideal for making – Model Railway Buildings and Accessories, Harbours, Ship Models, Airport Buildings and features, Houses, Bookends, Ashtrays, Animals and Figures, plaques, relief objects in addition to being an adhesive for ceramic fibre blankets

Signs on the Wall at Bradford Industrial museum.

The International Plastic Modellers’ Society (UK), is organised from Bridlington and on 8-9 November all being well it will run Scale ModelWorld show this year in Telford. Expect to see a lot more than a collection of Pyruma enthusiasts.

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Why Walk the Yorkshire Way

Posted on May 7, 2020 by Hortoris

In these corvid times Yorkshire folk have been given permission by the government nay, encouragement to walk (once a day keeping your distance etc). Walking is free, simple and health enhancing and in Yorkshire what is not to like?

Old Drovers Flags   Idle West Riding

The sun wasn’t cracking the flags when this snap was taken. If you stray off the path you will be in clover.

Almscliff Crags in light snow

North Yorkshire is anything but boring. The snow could have landed on this path up to the crag in any month but not on Christmas day.

Lone Walker at Ingleton Falls

Walkers of Yorkshire Quotes

  1. ‘There are few better things for toning your thighs and sorting your head’ Sarah Baxter
  2. …the beauty is in the walking  – we are betrayed by destinations.   Gwyn Thomas
  3. Walking is man’s best medicine  Hippocrates
  4. You don’t need a road map to know which way the feet go  Bob Dylan
  5. Oy! get back to Lancashire  Unknown farmer

Yorkshire & Humberside Distance Walks

Lest you forget ‘Why walk the Yorkshire way’

  1. I will remind you it is free! 
  2. There are so many great places to visit and views to admire.
  3. There is nowt like Yorkshire
  4. Did I mention walking is free
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Will They Reopen When They Think it’s All Over

Posted on May 2, 2020 by Hortoris


Snooker and pool Cue re-tippers formerly or currently in Shipley


Uncomfortable shopping trolleys used as Pontefract Taxis. They are the only transport to be allowed to park ‘at any time’


In Leeds Harlie’s isn’t currently accepting orders but will it reopen via Just Eats or Deliveroo. They’d be silly burgers not too!

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Petty and Sons Printers of West Yorkshire

Posted on April 20, 2020 by Hortoris

Petty & Sons was officially launched in 1865 by John William Petty at a Leeds base wence from it became one of the UK’s preeminent printers. During the 19th century the strong Methodism and Temperance principles of the Petty family helped the business to grow as they produced print for the Band of Hope and other similar movements.The founders son and driving force was named Wesley and this gives a clue to this lay preacher beliefs. Wesley recalled that the Leeds born painter of moonlight views Arnold Grimshaw was only allowed to sell his paintings on the clear evidence that they were not painted on a Sunday.

The companies early accounts books show that much of the initial printing equipment was bought from local Yorkshire engineers such as Otley based Dawson Payne (& Elliot), James  Mann (later to become Geo Mann) Sheffield engineers and type founder Stephenson Blake and fellow printer Geo Pallister. Waite and Saville machines were added later. To some extent the rise and fall of the printing equipment industry followed that of Petty & Sons. By the turn of the 20th century Pettys Southern printers in Reading was in significant production and there were operations in Cheapside London, Belfast and Dublin as well as new extensive premises in Whitehall Road Leeds.

TV Christmas Magazines

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Trees of Yorkshire Museum Gardens

Posted on April 19, 2020 by Hortoris

St Olav’s Church – York Museum Garden

I intended to write about six Champion Trees of Yorkshire but discover the subject is fully covered in the Yorkshire museums own web site.

Champion trees are the biggest examples in Yorkshire identified by the Tree Register. However there are many ‘unusual large trees’ and ‘decorative smaller trees’ in the park originally established by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society in the 1828. The definition of our Yorkshire heritage is never ending and awe inspiring to visitors, residents and true born tykes. To be a Yorkshire heritage tree it needs to be a large, individual tree with unique value, which is considered irreplaceable, “The main criteria are age, rarity and size, together with aesthetic, botanical, ecological and historical value.”

The best way to appreciate all such trees is to get up close and look and compare. York is one of the great places to visit as soon as the lockdown environment is eased. Would that I lived close enough now.

On the Banks of the Ouse York

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Spectators on Yorkshire Puddings

Posted on April 15, 2020 by Hortoris


With no live sporting fixtures or artistic performances where have all the spectators gone? Well one answer is on some form of ‘lock down’ even those who are doing sterling work to keep us live, fed and serviced in all sorts of ways are social distancing.
Did you notice the social distancing between the sweet potato and the traditional ‘baker’? A baked potato for dinner today will make an interesting change from Yorkshire pudding and roasts.

Interesting Facts about Yorkshire Puddings

  1. National Yorkshire Pudding Day is celebrated annually on the first Sunday in February. For some reason the Americans, who rightly revere the Yorkshire pud, use a date in October for a similar celebration but less reverentially they call them popovers. (We can’t pop over anywhere at the moment with the lock down.)
  2. The Royal Society of Chemistry claim that “A Yorkshire pudding isn’t a Yorkshire pudding if it is less than four inches tall.” Nor to my mind if it is called a Dutch baby , a Bismarck or a Dutch Puff.
  3. Yorkshire pudding do not rise as tall at higher altitudes but do brilliantly in the Pennines, the Yorkshire moors and our coastal regions.
  4. Morrisons supermarket have experimented with  a ‘Yorkshire pudding pizza’ but whata mistaka to makea.
  5. The weirdly named Toad in the Hole is one of my favorite ways of cooking up a good Yorkshire pud. Bang on or should that be banger on?
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Two Yorkshire Culinary Favourites Rhubarb & Ginger

Posted on April 9, 2020 by Hortoris

It is the time of year when Wakefield rhubarb is in season and gingerbread is never out of season. So here is a combination of these two excellent local products brought together as Rhubarb Gingerbread. I use thicker stalks of the rhubarb as the forced pink variety is a bit wet.

Rhubarb & Gingerbread Ingredients

  • 11 oz  flour plus small teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
  • 5 oz  butter, softened
  • 5 oz castor sugar
  • 4 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 6 oz crystallised ginger
  • 10 oz rhubarb cut into small pieces
  • 4 oz  golden syrup
  • 1 beaten egg & milk to mix

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