Yorkshire Gold

Yorkshire Gold

Yorkshire Gold

Yorkshire gold – it must be something in the water.

 

Yorkshire Golds so Far

  1. Alistair Brownlee – West Yorks Triathlon –
  2. ANDREW TRIGGS-HODGE  Rowing – coxless four     Hebden
  3. KATHERINE COPELAND   Rowing,   women’s lightweight double sculls     Stokesley
  4. Jessica Ennis – Heptathlon, Sheffield
  5. Ed Clancy – Team Pursuit

more to come.

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Greedy Boards In a Yorkshire Back Garden

Greedy Board compost bin

With the extra rain this summer all the garden greenery has grown like triffids.
There is far more garden plant matter to turn into compost and heaps are full to over flowing, bulging at the seams or both. Still mixed waste reduces in volume very rapidly as the rotting starts and the heap compresses so the greedy boards wont last long..

Compost is Good for Gardens

Grass clippings are full of nitrogen but can tend to make your compost a bit soggy so mix them with drier brown stuff. If you have no brown compostables you can tear up some newsprint or cardboard to balance the compost mixture.
Compost need air and active bacteria to get hot and kill off seeds and pathogens. If you have space (and energy) turn the heap over every few weeks.
By autumn (8 weeks) the greedy boards will have gone and the compost will have a wooden cover to retain heat and keep out excessive rain.
You should not need a compost activator, bits of soil and worms will do the job. However Garrotta will add trace elements and get your heap going

Compost bins
The motto of Yorkshire Rotters is ‘Rotting to the Core’
Good compost helps fruit and veg grow for all the Yorkshire Greedy Guts.

Other Greedy Boards

Day twelve: we don't need no steenkin' greedy boards

‘We don’t need no steenkin’ greedy boards’ by pragmatic_pete,CC BY-NC 2.0
Oh yes you do! With a shovel that size no wonder you filled the skip double quick.

Carter's Steam Fair ERF Lorry
This vehicle was built in 1971 and we brought it from David Norton, who used it commercially. We put a body on the back from a Foden lorry, in a traditional shape. It features ‘greedy boards’, carries the Swingboats and Strikers. This vehicle also has blowers with flames and advertising signs which are lit up by halogens when the fair is open. On the road this ERF tows the Juvenile truck and is currently owned by Joby Carter.
Photo and description ‘Carter’s Steam Fair ERF Lorry’ by James F Clay, CC BY-NC 2.0

Skips

Skips by Alan Stanton CC BY-NC 2.0 A London version of demure ‘greedy boards’.

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Yorkshire 7th in Olympic Medal Table

Beating the established sporting powerhouses of countries like Australia, Japan, South Africa, Germany and Cuba, the independent Republic of Yorkshire are currently 7th in the Olympic medal Table! Not even Usain Bolt and the Jamaican track team have been able to overtake the incredible small country of Yorkshire. Disconsolate Australian athletes have apparently been heading up the M1 looking for the recipe for Yorkshire puddings. However, Supreme athletics coach Geoff Boycott claimed 12 hours a day down the mine does great things for your long-term fitness.

Yorkshire medal table Olympics

Yorkshire Gold

  1. Alistair Brownlee – West Yorks Triathlon –
  2. ANDREW TRIGGS-HODGE  Rowing – coxless four     Hebden
  3. KATHERINE COPELAND   Rowing,   women’s lightweight double sculls     Stokesley
  4. Jessica Ennis – Heptathlon, Sheffield
  5. Ed Clancy – Team Pursuit

Yorkshire Silver

  1. NICOLA WILSON    Equestrian Eventing, Northallerton               SILVER
  2. LIZZIE ARMITSTEAD  Road Cycling,   Otley                                        SILVER

Yorkshire Bronze

TOM RANSLEY                  Rowing,             York City Rowing Club    BRONZE
men’s eights

Jonathon Brownlee – Triathlon  –

Yorkshire Gold Medals winners

Jessica Ennis in the Heptathlon 200m, 2012 London Olympcs

Jessica Ennis – Heptathlon

yorkshire

 Related

Yorkshire 7th in Olympic medal table Guardian

Join the rapidly growing Yorkshire Independence Movement! – next step a place on the UN Security council with China, Russia and US.

 

Posted in Yorkshire Sport and Pastimes | 1 Comment

Headingley Ashes

Headingley

As the England team come to Headingley to start the 4th 2009 Test and the 24th Ashes Test  on this ground England are looking for an eighth win. Australia boast eight wins to England’s seven, while a further eight matches have been drawn. The ground is part way through a major redevelopment but the playing surface looks grand.


Amazing Feats and Triumphs in Headingley Tests

  • It is hard to believe it is 32 years since Geoff Boycott scored his 100th first-class hundred at his home ground in 1977.
  • Don Bradman stands tallest among those who have graced the Headingley turf, having scored 963 runs in just four Tests at an average of 192. The 334 he made in 1934 on his first Test appearance at the ground included 309 runs in a day, and he scored another triple century in 1938. Returning in 1948 Don Bradman scored an unbeaten 173 to a final-day pursuit of 404 to help Australia chalk up one of the eight wins.
  • Fred Trueman was the hero in 1961 when in one spell he claimed 5-0 on the way  to match figures of 11-88.  Having bowled Richie Benaud, he consoled (or is it sledged) him in inimitable style saying   “Don’t worry, sunshine. It would have knocked over even a half-decent batsman.”
  • Imagine Headingley in 1981 with England forced to follow on 290 runs behind and 135 for seven in the second innings and yet contrived to win by 18runs. Ian Botham’s scored an unbeaten 149, and pushed the score up to 420 leaving Australia chasing 130 to win on the last day. Enter Bob Willis with a spell of 8-43 in 15 overs and our tight victory.

The scene is set for another epic battle with our old foes those Yorkshire men in exile the Aussies. The Western Terrace is no more but the support will be there. Let us hope for a great game and an England victory despite the lack of Yorkshire born talent in the England team.
The only weather forecast I have seen is that there will be ‘no change in the changeable weather’ so no draw I hope.

Photo credit Headingley by clumsy_jim (CC BY-NC 2.0)

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Yorkshire Special Pizza Delivery

Hi, do you deliver Pizza?

Only to Cleckheckmondsedge.

Liversedge

Cleckheckmondsedge is Yorkshire shorthand for an area that comprises of three west riding towns, Cleckheaton, Heckmondwike and Liversedge.
Liversedge was named in the domesday book and now comprises several smaller village areas, Norristhorpe originally called Dog gus, Roberttown, Millbridge at the centre and Flush where the woollen mills stood. Towards Cleckheaton are the settlements of Hightown, Littletown and Popeley Hill. Liversedge spans the sides of the Spen Valley.

Note in 1066 a ‘sedge’ was an allium type vegetable called a ‘nonion’ hence a popular Yorkshire dish Liver………

Posted in Wit and Humour, Yorkshire Trips and Places | 2 Comments

Whitby Swings Open 100 Year Old Bridge

This is a 100 year old view from Whitby’s famous wooden Swing bridge. A centenary celebration of the building of the Swing Bridge and reopening in 1909 will take place on 8th August 2009 between noon and 7.30pm. There will be Bridge decorations, period costumes, indoor photo displays of building work, and a re-enacted Opening ceremony. Whitby does this sort of thing very well so expect Marching bands, static life boat display, street theatre, Sea shanties and a Full sail past with modern and older local traditional craft.

Whitby Pannett Art Gallery is also holding a week long art exhibition featuring the bridge.

The swing bridge joins the two communities East and West of the river Esk together. It has been the scene of rivalry in the earlier part of the last century, where gangs of youths would contest the bridge with ” t`other side o` watter dogs “. Now a days it is drinkers from pubs at either side of the river that contest the quantity of ale to be supped. The original bridge was first mentioned in 1351 and used to lie to the landward side of the present one, roughly aligned with Baxtergate. Centuries ago, houses on wooden piles overhung the river above and below the bridge. Each section of the bridge swings independently and the bridge is staffed 2 hours each side of high tide. Many visitors get to see it in full operation or even queue good naturedly in the resultant traffic.

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Yorkshire Festival of Women’s Writers

West Lane Baptist Church, Haworth
The third Bronte Festival of Women’s writing weekend takes place 31 August – 2 September 2012. It will feature readings, workshops, talks and more from prominent and emerging women writers!

Main Attractions

Sadie Jones discusses her latest novel The Uninvited Guests (2012), a ‘spellbinding thriller that strips away the respectable layers of Edwardian society to reveal the dark secrets beneath’. Her first novel, The Outcast (2008) won the Costa First Novel Award.

Poets Zoe Brigley and Amanda Dalton feture in events at both venues over the weekend

The weekend will also feature writers Helen Simpson, Tiffany Murray and Claire Harman discussing whether Jane Austen or the Brontë sisters have had the greatest influence on contemporary fiction. read more about this event on Bronte Blog

Tickets from
Bronte0010
Bronte Parsonage Museum

Photo credits
Bronte0010 by mdesive CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
West Lane Baptist Church, Haworth by Tim Green aka atoach CC BY 2.0

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Bradford – What a Way to Treat Architecture

Bradford Godsowncounty 038

How many good buildings has Bradford got that it can allow this great 1930’s edifice to fall down around the politicians ears? For 12 years there has been deriliction in more ways than in architectural terms. The unique building has a place in old Bradfordians hearts under at least one of it’s various names the New Vic, Gaumont or the Odeon.

Following a great tradition of destruction there was Swan Arcade, Busbys, two Victorian Railway Stations, Kirkgate and Rawson Markets, Theatre Royal on Manningham Lane but emphasis is on the ‘was’.
I guess the ‘Penny Bank’ at North Parade / Manor Row is threatened and even the modern Building Society premises up Westgate will follow Provincial House, the City Centre police station and BHS Forster square.

Mills are virtually wiped out with an occasional white elephant housing conversion scheme or arsonists testing ground.

Do not get me started on the ‘Conditioning House’ on Canal Road. I dare you to look at the condition that build is now in!

Meanwhile the great vision from our political elite is a moat around City Hall (sorry I mean a Park with a Mirror Pool). Not to mention the hole in the City Centre designed as Forster House by John Paulson. Come back Paulson even you can’t do as badly!

Gaumont dome

Returning to the Odeon there is a full and interesting history by Colin Sutton ‘Bradford – New Victoria/Gaumont/Odeon’
It is not too late ‘Save our Heritage Buildings’.
The Architects journal says ‘….utterly deplorable act of architectural vandalism.’
Writting in the Telegraph and Argus about asbestos at the Odeon, Uther Pendragon says ‘As usual just one more reason to sweep away Bradford’s heritage in the headlong pursuit of modernisation. As usual destroy and replace with concrete and glass soulless buildings with a limited lifespan that will be declared “not fit for purpose” within a generation’
It is 12 years since the Odeon closed The story of how she came to be hidden away like a bad ghost is riddled with almost unbelievable twists’ the Odeon rescue group

Bradford Little Germany

Little Germany Special

A lot of investment in Little Germany was to be praised. It is the commercial community who need to step up to the plate to reinvigorate this zone. We can’t go on blaming the politicians despite their weedy performance.

Bradford Little Germany

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Yorkshire Cottage Staycation Ideas

Whitby Cottages

Yorkshire folk are not shy and retiring when it comes to extolling the virtues of ‘God’s Own County’ and we encourage visitors to share some of our passion. But there is more to a stay in Yorkshire for your holidays than a quick drive around ‘The Dales’. Here are 3 different ideas to consider.

Industrial Heritage
South Yorkshire has a heritage based on steel and coal and whilst the sites and sights are rapidly disappearing there is still a lot of recent history to investigate. Kelham Island Museum and Abbeydale hamlet are worth a visit (not to mention the great camera pub The Kelham Island Tavern). There is also Wortley Top Forge with Working Water Wheels, Stationary Steam Engines, Large Mill Engine & Free Guided Tours. You do not have to stay in a small cottage there are good bed and breakfasts and former mill owners mansions to consider as well.

Cottages by The Sea
Well not quite by the sea because I would recommend the cliffs on the East Coast at locations such as Staithes, Flamborough Head, Robin Hoods Bay or inland at Hinderwell. These are great bases to explore the walking on moor or coastal paths. You could try the Lyke Wake Walk or better still settle for learning the Lyke Wake Dirge

    ‘THIS yah neet, this yah neet,
    Ivvery neet an’ all,
    Fire an’ fleet an’ cannle leet,
    An’ Christ tak up thy saul.’

more verses from Lyke Wake org.

TV Nostalgia Holidays
What is your TV programme of choice? Do you want to stay in Darrowby with the vet or Emmerdale with the need for a vet. Is it Aidensfield that gets your heart beating or a trip to the Royal to get your heart restarted? I would suggest you base yourself in a Market Town and experience the local hospitality and hostelries. Richmond, Thirsk, Pickering, Malton or Otley are all places I would consider as a base. Perhaps it is Last of the Summer Wine and Holmfirth that will float your boat but whatever you fancy give Yorkshire a break this year.

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Assassin of Bradford – A4

It is not an authors job to run down my home city of Bradford! Tom Cain manages to do just that by casual, throw away references in his book ‘Assassin’.

Book Cover

Preface to Yorkshire Book Club (A4)

‘Assassin’ is a fast paced thriller based on a good guy versus bad guy. Both key players are former special forces now operating outside the confines of MI6 and the US Secret Service.
In the murky world of people trafficking and modern day slavery there are winners and losers until a new USA president decides to launch a clean it up campaign in Bristol. Not surprisingly this winds up the profiteers and people behind the profitable industry.
This is a light read of over 500 pages that seem to be finished in next to no time.

Yorkshire God’s Own County Book Club Opinion

Bradford is not a setting for any part of the book but it is used in a cliched manner that raised my hackles. Issue one was a gang of ‘Pakistani’ men who were running a prostitution racket until the villain decides to ‘teach them a lesson’. Then those same Bradfordians are paid large sums of money to create a Muslim protest against slavery in front of the US president on his visit to Bristol. This typecasts a Bradford community with stereotypes to sensationalise an otherwise excellent book.
Oslo was the setting for most mayhem but the plot and characters moved around the world with some of the bad guys living to fight another day.

Book Club Type Questions for Consideration

Do you agree that there were hackneyed references to Bradford and did you find any other trite assumptions.
Were the technical devices credible or was the plot too James Bondish.
Would you read other books by this author?

Footnotes

Carver a sequel has just been published in July 2012.
Other books by Tom Cain.
Tom Cain is the pseudonym for an award-winning journalist, with 25 years experience working for Fleet Street newspapers and magazines in Britain and the US.

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