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Manor of Northstead – Resignation of MPs

By on May 28, 2009 in Our Yorkshire, Yorkshire Folk
Light-but-no-Illumination

Light-but-no-Illumination

Why isn’t the position of ‘Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead’ one of the busiest public offices in Yorkshire? Under the Act of Settlement a person who holds an office of profit under the Crown is disqualified from being an MP. Surely many MPs have treated their job and expense accounts as for personal profit.

The Manor of Northstead was once a collection of fields and farms in the parish of Scalby in the North Riding of Yorkshire. By 1600 the manor house had fallen into disrepair (like the reputation of our Houses of Parliament). The manor was purchased by King Richard III and although Scarborough Corporation purchased the land known as the Northstead Estate from the Crown in 1921, the lordship of the manor was retained by the Crown. The site of what may have been the manor house is now covered by the lake in Peasholm Park.

The position Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead is now used as a procedural device to effect resignation from the House of Commons, since British MPs are not permitted simply to resign their seat. This office is used alternately with the ‘Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds’ as a means of removing someone who is no longer able or wants to be an MP. Recent holders of the office at the Manor of Northstead include Boris Johnson (too allow him to become Major of London), Peter Mandelson, Enoch Powell, Piers Rolf Garfield Merchant (victim of a kiss and tell sexual affair), Ian Paisley, Robert Kilroy Silk and Mathew Parris.

Come on the ‘Expenses Scallies’ do the decent thing now! Do not wait for the next election to stand down but take up your new post at The Manor of Northstead right now and create some bi-elections.

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Zeppelin Early Warning Sound Mirrors

By on May 15, 2009 in Our Yorkshire, Yorkshire Folk, Yorkshire History and Heritage

new-picture

Between a messenger with a stick in Marathon or a Beacon on top of a hill but before Radar and electronic surveillance there was a humble invention the ‘Sound Mirror’. Development of Beacons moved from one fire for danger to three fires for fear of the Spanish Armada or John Paul Jones fighting off Flamborough Head in 1780. Beacons were our core early warning system around the coast. We even learnt to pour pitch on the fires so smoke could be visible during the day and light seen at night.

Come the Zeppelins in 1915 and these visual aids gave inadequate time to take effective action. Zeppelins started to bomb our steelworks at Skinnington in August 1915 because it was a key factory producing TNT. By the time the Zeppelins were visible the Royal Flying Corp did not have time to launch any defence so the ‘Sound Mirrors’ were created at Boulby Barns, Sunderland, Redcar, Kilnsea and many other sites to listen for the Zeppelin’s Maybach engines.

The ‘Sound Mirrors’ were a ‘U’ shaped, concrete structures comprising a thick wall with an inclined face and a shallow concave bowl shaped into its centre. They have been likened to a concrete goalmouth. On either side of the wall were projecting flanking walls to protect from noise interference and support the structure. The reflected sound was detected by a microphone placed in front of the dish and then transmitted to the headphones of the listener who sat in a trench at the front. They provided an alert not only to the Royal Flying Corps but to the local residents who could take cover as over 100 bombs were aimed at Skinningrove and Boulby. I for one would not want to be so near all that explosive.
In May 1916 an attack by eight Zeppelins with incendiaries still failed to destroy the works but probably roasted a few birds on the moors as loads were dropped on Danby Moor.

The photo is © Copyright (2009) City of Sunderland Council who add the following information on this Grade II listed National Monument ‘The monument includes an early 20th century military early warning device known as a sound mirror. It is located on a gently sloping hillside 2km inland from the coast on the block of land between the Tyne and Wear estuaries. The mirror was part of a chain of similar acoustic devices located on the north east coast extending from the Tyne to the Humber. They were erected to provide early warning of potential attacks on the important industrial complexes in the north east from ships and Zeppelins during World War 1′.
There is a specialist web site for Sound Mirrors maintained by Andrew Graham.

Footnote
If you want to know more about John Paul Jones and The Battle of Flamborough Head read his own log entry

Captain John Paul Jones joined the American Navy during the American War of Independence, attacking British ships at every opportunity.
The Battle of Flamborough Head took place on 23rd September 1779. Jones, captain of the Bon Homme Richard, set out to raid Leith, a port of Edinburgh, but the winds changed and he had no alternative but to proceed southward. His next attack point was to be Newcastle, to cut off the coal supply to London. Again he was unlucky and continued south to his main quarry near Flamborough Head, a convoy of merchantmen from the Baltic, escorted by HMS Countess of Scarborough and HMS Serapis…… read more at the Bridlington Free Press

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Yorkshire Roots of NSPCC

By on May 13, 2009 in Our Yorkshire, Yorkshire Folk

nspcc

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

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Barbara Hepworth 1903-1975

By on May 10, 2009 in Yorkshire Arts & Music, Yorkshire Folk

Book Cover

Barbara Hepworth sculptress and artist was a Wakefield lass attending the local Girls High School and then studying at the Leeds School of Art from 1920. She rattled through that course and then won a County scholarship to the Royal College of Art and studied there from 1921. A grant from the West Riding allowed her to study in Italy where she she married fellow artist John Skeaping.

Hepworth was in frequent contact with Henry Moore with whom she had been a student both at Leeds and at the Royal College. The two sculptors had vacations together where in 1937 she met Ben Nicholson and whent to live with him (over ‘t brush). They were later married from 1938 to 1951.
She was made a Dame in 1965, ten years before her death during a fire in her St Ives studio in Cornwall, aged seventy-two

Barbara Hepworth is best known for creating beautiful, flowing and rhythmic sculptures with holes. The materials used included wood, marble or bronze and the piece was often influenced by the organic shapes and contours of nature. There is a permanent outdoor exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in West Bretton near Wakefield. The Hepworth museum as part of the Tate in St Ives contains sculptures in bronze, stone and wood along with paintings, drawings and archive material.

A quotation by Barbara Hepworth resonates with me when I post short pages to the Gods Own County site, ‘Halfway through any work, one is often tempted to go off on a tangent. Once you have yielded, you will be tempted to yield again and again… Finally, you would only produce something hybrid.’

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Horse Stables Middleham

By on May 7, 2009 in Our Yorkshire, Yorkshire Business and Money, Yorkshire Folk, Yorkshire Sport and Pastimes
Graham Ramsden Flickr

Graham Ramsden Flickr

It may go back to the monks of Jervaux Abbey who were reputed to be horse breeders. ,Did King Richard the third exercise on ‘Low Moor’?  Or is it  down to the Middleham racecourse that opened in 1739. What ever the reason Middleham  is known for its stiff winds, ‘High Moor’ and strong air and being a great base for Racehorse training. Set high in Wensleydale, trainers, jockeys and horses alike can enjoy sensational scenery also enjoyed by many visitors. It is common place to see the horses on the gallops or if you stay in bed and breakfast or a local hostelry you may be woken by the early string on its way to exercise on the common land that is the Moor.

Gaitowners were those who have grazing rights over the land and they caused problem and injury to horses in the holes left by grazing cattle. Horses are now such a large part of the economy in Middleham that sensible arrangements have been created to allow the exercise and training to takle place on undamaged ground.

Issac Cape of Tupgill Park stables may have been the first trainer to be based in Middleham. Many famous racehorses have been trained here including Derby winners Pretender 1869 and Dante 1945 and St Ledger winner Theodore. Another trainer Neville Crump turned out three Grand National winners from his famous yard Warwick House Stables, Sheila’s Cottage 1948, Teal 1952 and Merryman II 1960. More results and history from 1800 on Yorkshire Racing.

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York Railway Station History

By on May 6, 2009 in Yorkshire Facts - Interesting and Unusual, Yorkshire Folk, Yorkshire History and Heritage

york-railway

History, York and Railways go together almost like fish, chips and mushy peas. Well the Railway station designed by Thomas Prosser and William Peachey in yellow stock brick with tone dressings, in a classical Italianate style must have been food for thought when it was opened in 1877.

At that time it was the Largest Railway Station in the World with 13 platforms and the marvelous glazed arching roof. All the platforms except 9/10/11 are under the large, curved, glass and iron roof. This North Eastern Railway building was the third station to be built in York as the first was opened in 1839 by the York and North Midland Railway on land previously occupied by a Hospital for Poor Women. Then it was developed by a second station built within the shell of the first by George Townsend Andrews in 1840 almost in time to coincide with the new postage stamp.

Another world first for York Railway station was the incorporation of a hotel within the buildings. Royal Station Hotel was named after Queen Victoria who reputedly had lunched there on her way by train to her Scottish estate at Balmoral Castle. The arrivals platform had a refreshment stand and there was an office for George Hudson.

Vision Of George Hudson – Railway King

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Frank Meadows Sutcliffe at Whitby

By on May 4, 2009 in Our Yorkshire, Photos, Yorkshire Folk, Yorkshire History and Heritage

Rigg Mill, Whitby

You do not need any special reason to visit Whitby but if by chance you have overlooked the Whitby Museum then you are missing a trick. It is located at the Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society where the famous photographer Frank Meadows Sutcliffe was curator. Sutcliffe was born at Headingley, Leeds in 1853 but set up his own professional studio in a disused jet workshop at Waterloo Yard, Whitby in 1875. Photography in Victorian times was not easy to master and people were often content to produce an acceptable image which was sharp and well exposed but there were a handful of photographers who wanted to lift their pictures into the heady realms of ‘Art’.
Frank Meadow Sutcliffe was one of these artists! His sepia toned pictures are world renown recording incidents and images from a bygone era, his most famous photograph was taken in 1886. Water Rats caused much comment at the time as it featured naked children but the image is not erotic and even the Prince of Wales is believed to own a copy. Sutcliffe was using the conventions of the academic nude to show how photography can approach art. However it is said that his local clergy excommunicated him for displaying his Water Rats.

Woman with...

Some of the strongest images are of what was work-a day life in Victorian times like this picture above of ‘The Fisher women Shop’. His fishermen pictures show such detail they repay lengthy study and he also produced farming and landscape pictures around Whitby Sandsend and Staithes of artistic merit.

Sandsend Beck

Frank Meadows Sutcliffe became World famous as a great photographer winning over 60 gold, silver and bronze medals from exhibitions all over the world. He is buried in Aislaby churchyard, north of Whitby .

When you next visit Whitby, and I hope it is soon, take a look at the many pictures that are available from the Sutcliffe Gallery, Flowergate, Whitby.

Photo credits
Rigg Mill, Whitby by Preus museum
Sutcliffe, Frank Meadow
Mølle ved en foss. Whitby, England, 1900
17,7 x 22,8 cm
Sandsend Beck and NMFF.000448 by Preus museum
CC BY 2.0

NMFF.000448

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Big Daddy – Shirley Crabtree

By on April 27, 2009 in Yorkshire Folk, Yorkshire Sport and Pastimes

big-daddy

With a name like Shirley Crabtree you were bound to learn to fight and so it must have been for young Shirley in Halifax in the 1930′s. Early stints as a miner and in the Coldstream Guards did not prepare him for a regular place in the team at Bradford Northern so he took his 64 inch chest into professional wrestling. After a collection of ‘stage names’ the Blond Adonis, Mr Universe and Battling Guardsman Shirley opted for ‘BIG DADDY’ for his matches and became a cult TV personality.

Big Daddy feuded with Mick McManus, Steve Veidor and Giant Haystacks among others and would also be noted as the first man to remove the mask from Kendo Nagasaki during a televised match. I wonder who wrote that script, everyone knew who was going to win but we had to go through all that nonsense before hand before Big Daddy was once again declared the winner. World of Sport on ITV was the escapism with Dickie Davis and Saint and Greavesy from the more serious Grandstand on the BBC and the All in Wrestling was a major part of the attraction.

According to Shirley Crabtree entry in wikipedia ‘In August 1987, Big Daddy bowed out of the professional wrestling spotlight after a turn of events during the final moments of the match against Mal “King Kong” Kirk. After Big Daddy had delivered his belly-splash, rather than selling the impact of the finishing move, Kirk turned an unhealthy colour and was rushed to a nearby hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival. Despite the fact that the inquest into Kirk’s death found that he had a serious heart condition and cleared Crabtree of any responsibility, Crabtree was devastated and nevertheless blamed himself for Kirk’s death. ‘

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Cockersdale and Keith Marsden Doin’ the Manch

By on April 20, 2009 in Our Yorkshire, Wit and Humour, Yorkshire Folk, Yorkshire History and Heritage

Doin’ the manch is the title and first song on a re-released album of songs from the pen and fertile mind of Keith Marsden. Hopefully this song is playing as a tribute to Keith who died in 1991. The Manch is Manchester Road in Bradford which contained a record number of pubs most of which get mentioned by Keith in his humorous manner. There was also a serious side to Keiths songs about social conditions in the Yorkshire mines and mills and Cockerdale still sing many of them on the 3 CD’s and in live performances. The live show entitled ‘Picking Sooty Blackberries ‘ is pure Keith but Cockersdale performed ‘Lest we Forget’ the songs of Rudyard Kipling and Peter Bellamy at the Whitby Festival 2008.

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Alan Titchmarsh Yorkshireman

By on April 16, 2009 in Wit and Humour, Yorkshire Folk

Book Cover

The clever gardeners at Gardeners tips a Yorkshire based website have picked up on Alan Titchmarsh’s new ‘How to Garden’  books.  Of course the former Ilkley Parks gardener (who else planted all that heather on the moors), Alan has many more strings to his bow nowadays including classical music. He also writes books of fiction although some of his garden exploits will remain fiction to me.

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