National Parks

Yorkshire exclusively has two National Parks – The Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors (we share some of the Peak District with Derbyshire). Both give a range of unspoilt natural beauty. Outside of the National Parks, there are still many aonb’s beautiful areas – Nidderdale, Haworth moors e.t.c. Yorkshire gives an unparalleled display and variety of scenic countryside.

Bradford.

Bradford was the first industrial city and at the forefront of the great industrial revolution in the nineteenth century. Today Bradford has reinvented itself as a city of peace and multiculturalism.

Yorkshire Cricket Club.

Yorkshire have won the county champions a record 30 times – making them by far the most successful cricket county in Britain. Yorkshire has also produced some of England’s greatest cricketers from the fiery fast bowling of Fred Trueman to the imperious batting of Geoff Boycott.

Yorkshire Tea

OK, it might not be grown in the foothills of the Yorkshire Dales, but, it is a quintessential Yorkshire brew – strong, dark and invigorating.

We Say it how it is.

Yorkshireman are known for their no nonsense straight talking. A spade’s a spade and we don’t suffer fools gladly. You will always know where you are with a Yorkshireman – no false flattery or lack of gumption for saying it how it is.
We do not say a lot but when we do it is likely to be pithy, blunt and to the point.

Last of the Summer Wine

There’s life even in the oldest of Yorkshireman. As this series set in the picturesque Haworth (near Holmfirth? Yorkshire humour and bad geography O level) shows.

Steel and Coal.

It’s no mistake to say Great Britain was built with Yorkshire steel and Yorkshire coal. Sheffield once provided 50% of the world’s steel and Yorkshire’s coal mines are well known for their prolific output.

A Nice cup of Tea

It’s only in a county like Yorkshire that within a short distance you can go from the grime of Coal mines to the luxury of a Betty’s tea room with stately cups of tea and scones.

Yorkshire Dialect

There is something refreshing about the dialect of Yorkshire. Words like gumption, rapscallion, are all great words which make a fascinating conversation.

• thers nowt sae kweer as fowk – People can be the strangest of things at times

Yorkshire Humour

A couple are playing ‘I spy’ in the kitchen of their home somewhere in Yorkshire
‘I spy with my little eye something beginning with T’ said the husband.
“Tea pot said the wife.” ‘Nay Lass!’
“Tea towel.” ‘Nay Lass!’
“Toaster.” ‘Nay Lass!’ he said, drumming his fingers on the work top.
“Oh I don’t know” she said at long last “I give in”
‘It’s easy’ he said. ‘It’s t’oven!’

More humourous slogans

Google helps direct readers to our Gods Own County website. Several hundred people a day were able to read one of our pages that related to the words or phrase they had searched for using Google’s search engine. We were happy with that although we would always want to contact more readers.
From this week Google have changed and now send less than a quarter of the traffic to our pages. Have they forgotten to speak Yorkshire or Tyke? It isn’t a hard dialect to follow and Google coped for last few years.
The answer is in algorithmically putting our pages much lower in the searches even for clear phrases you may be searching.

We haven’t done anything different to deserve this down grading.
Our content is largely unique and a bit off the wall. Not all pages appeal to all people which is why search is important to us.
Regular readers use the RSS feed which can arrange for our pages to be automatically emailed or streamed to you. If you have n’t tried it sign up from the red button.
We have been old fashioned dinosaurs and avoided new social media like Facebook and twitter but may be we have been twits not to link to them.

Perhaps we will have to resurrect our own Goole Search Engine first launched on a n unsuspecting public in spring 2009.

Charity begins at home can only hold true if you have a home!

Thousands of Burmese ‘Karen people’ from the Irrawaddy delta of Burma have fled their homes in terror! Their villages were burned down, their families forced to suffer rape, torture or the horror of watching KNLA soldiers and the Burmese Military following a ‘flush and kill policy’.

Those who fled to Thailand were herded into camps and even after over 10 years armed guards prevent them from leaving the camp. Some of the worst suffering comes to babies and children who must rely on outside intervention, education, health and support.

Enter Leeds Charity Kidz in Kampz

Since the 1990′s the unpaid staff at Kidz in Kampz have raised funds to support the educational and welfare needs of children living in camps such as Nupo.
A vibrant charity shop behind Asda at Holt Park Leeds redirects virtually all its funds (+87%) to the Kampz for health, hygiene, and education projects.

Examples of support include the 60 young people without parents who live in Kidz in Kampz safe boarding houses and the new mother and baby centre providing training and nutritious food for 600 malnourished mothers.
The charity also funds the school of hope for children with special needs in Nupo camp.

Kidz in Kampz have built two pre-school nurseries, accommodating 200 two to four-year-olds. ‘Here they have two nutritious meals each day, plus fruit and milk. However more important a chance to play together – just for a short time every day nursery activities provide a brief respite from the harsh conditions of camp life.’

The charity is a hands direct support project and not a lobbying and campaigning organisation. For this reason Yorkshire folk can feel happy supporting Kidz in Kampz knowing any goods or money will be put to good use. The link above shows how you can help financially or just call into the shop.

The patron of Kidz in Kampz is the Leeds politician Greg Mulholland MP and the charity registered number is 1096118.
The Charity manager is Madge Davey and this is a link to a story about one of her efforts for the kidz.

Photographs have been supplied by Kidz in Kampz .

At the end of this video there is a selection of other You Tube videos of schools and camps for the Burmese refugees in camps on the Thai border.

When scared or ill some people may go white in the face. Imagine if you were a scarce breed of sheep that was already whitefaced so how can they register shock.

The Whitefaced Woodland is a northern sheep breed from the South Pennines of Yorkshire and Debyshire. also known as the Penistone sheep after the Yorkshire town where sheep sales have been held since 1699. Commercial flocks of the Whitefaced Woodland are kept in the region and at special amenity farms such as Meanwood Valley Urban Farm Leeds.
The breed is listed as vulnerable by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.

Facts and Characteristics of Whitefaced Woodland Sheep

The wool is white and finer than that of many other hill breeds, being suitable for the manufacture of carpets, knitting or hosiery wool.
Also known as the Woodie and ‘the Penistone’ after the Yorkshire town where a sheep fair has been held since 1699.
The popularity of the breed declined with the introduction of black-faced sheep which were better suited to the cold wet conditions and rough grazing of the Pennines. Flocks are still maintained in Norfolk where the conditions encourage larger lambs to deveop.
Both sexes are horned and the ram horns are heavily spiraled.
The wool is short and fine possible due to relations with merino sheep in the past. You get about 5 pounds of wool per fleece the finest being when a sheep is shorn for the first time.
Whitefaced Woodland Sheep have mainly been bred as a meat breed.

The Whitefaced Woodland has common roots with other Yorkshire breeds such as the Swaledale and the Lonk. The Lonk is an ancient breed also found in the Pennine districts of Yorkshire and Lancashire. The Swaledale is a breed of domestic sheep named after the dale of the same name.
A similar breed called Limestone sheep is now thought to be defunct.
I have been unable to trace why the whitefaced is linked to Woodland but it may come from the the Woodlands Valley in the Peak district.

Credits

Whitefaced Woodland Sheep Society

Thank goodness that there are many British and Yorkshire printing companies still in business.
The digital age of texting, tweeting, poking and what have you is all very well but I like ink on paper. (Is it OK to say Kindling?).

Leeds Sports Centre Print

I do not usually go to the sports centre for my fix of ink on paper. However at Fridays badminton game I was like an amorous shellfish and pulled a muscle.
After an early shower and waiting for my fit opponents, I lurked around reception reading the usual flyers for local attraction, theater programmes, visitor attractions and the like. Then I discovered a printers delight, enough bumph for an ink sniffers orgy:
Free large format magazines were available in addition to the local free newspaper.
‘Sport’ a 62 page weekly seems sensible fodder for a sports centre.
‘Shortlist’ for film, cars, news, tech etc seems a bit too lifestyle for for the fit and energetic but wait until you see the other magazines.
Thirdly was ‘Freestyle’ with 90% glossy adverts and ‘Stylist’ a chunky 76 pages on The Art Project as the main theme for this weeks issue.
Last and probably least but most costly was a 16 page, smaller, 8″ square brochure printed for Leeds Council. Entitled ‘Taking the lead’ it is a summary of the strategy for sport and recreation in Leeds 2006 to 2012.
Only just in time could be a new mantra for local authorities as six and two thirds of the seven year period covered has already been and gone.

Sunday Newspaper Print

My experience with free magazines got me on edge counting the weekend papers. The Sunday paper had 6 newsprint sections, two gash supplements and two glossy magazines.
That excludes the free loose inserts advertising shirts, furniture, bodyline classes and Sky.
I would be remiss in not thanking the lady who delivered a 328 page Ikea catalogue to me in the garden on Saturday. Unlike newsprint it wont turn into compost but you can’t have everything.

Think of the environment and resist the urge to print out this article!
Spare a thought for printers who work at printing not printers that sit on a desk next to a computer and squirt ink around. This alternative printer has 3 parts, the case, the jammed paper tray and the blinking red light.

Rubbish belongs in a bin not on a beauty spot or road side. Our local railway station has lots of these see-through litter bins but mainline stations like Leeds seem to have opted out of litter measures.

Fly-tipping is the ‘illegal deposit of any waste onto land or a highway that has no licence to accept it.’ Illegal dumps of waste can vary in scale and the type of waste involved. Conviction for fly-tipping crimes can lead to significant penalties under The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005.

Litter according to Keep Britain Tidy is ‘waste in the wrong place caused by a human agency’ but what this really means is that litter is caused be people. Put simply it is people dropping their waste in our parks, on our beaches, on our streets and in all our public places that creates the problem of litter in our communities. Littering from moving cars is a dangerous and unnecessary activity. The average fine is around £100 although a magistrates’ court can impose a fine of up to £2,500.

With dog fouling it is the the responsibility of the dog owner or the person in charge of the dog to clear up any dog foul left by their dog. If you fail to clean up after your dog you can be issued with a Fixed Penalty Notice, or if the case goes to court a fine of up to £1000.00.

Fly-posting is difficult and expensive to remove and can create a feeling of unease and fear. It costs council tax payers thousands of pounds a year to remove fly-posting which is defined as ‘the display of advertising on buildings and street furniture without the consent of the owner’.

Wish You Were Here

Blue Flag Beaches in Yorkshire 2012
Bridlington North Beach
Hornsea
Scarborough North Bay
Whitby West Cliff
Withernsea
Sadly Filey missed out this year on the Blue Flag awards given to coastal destinations with the highest standards of water quality, cleanliness, safety, and environmental management.

Leeds Liverpool Canal Shipley

The Love Your River campaign backed by Defra, the National Trust, the Environment Agency, the Wildlife Trusts, Keep Britain Tidy and Water Companies will promote the value and benefits of rivers to everyday life. Yorkshire has some of tthe best and cleanest rivers in the UK so lets keep them pristine.
Let’s not have anymore oil spills ‘About 5,000 gallons of diesel, worth thousands of pounds, leaked into the River Aire in Leeds on Saturday night. The Environment Agency said the oil had covered an eight mile stretch from bank to bank between Leeds and Castleford.’ more from BBC