Rhythm and Booze born in Barnsley but ‘now Yorkshire’s finest.’

Walking into a Rhythm and Booze off-licence is like walking into a cosy, but extremely well organised Aladdin’s Cave. I am partial to an occasional tipple and their wine selection is wide and good value. I was put on to our new local shop by members of the bowls club who are a set of winos (only kidding hic!).

Encouraged by the initial success of the Armthorpe branch in Barnsley they have opened in Doncaster, Wakefield, Otley, Sheffield, Ripon, Hull and recently in Garforth. Lots of Yorkshire off licenses in other words.

Help Protect Your ‘Offie’.

• Patronise Rhythm and Booze not sterile Tesco, Co-op or similar supermarkets.
• Shop at your local off license or it may have to close down.
• Times are always tough for smaller players in a competitive field and they need your trade.
• Drink Canada Dry or at least drink your Offie dry.

It strikes me that many retailers are breaching the trades description act.

• Boots do not sell boots, Body Shop stocks no bodies and Selfridges don’t.
• Mountain Warehouse isn’t a big warehouse, Millets is for the birds, Burtons have gone for one.
• You don’t go to Currys for a Curry
• B&Q only have Q’s no Bees
• I can’t see the French Connection to Iceland when they are both in Yorkshire
• Superdrugs are Majestically available in Oddbins but will your Mothercare
• Top Shop is at the bottom of the high street, (enough this is getting silly ed) .

A trip to Dentdale and a drink in the local hostelries of Dent wont make much of a dent in your bank balance. Fresh air in this valley is free and that should appeal to all Yorkshire folk.

In addition to the Sun Inn shown above I can recommend the George & Dragon or the Sportsmans Inn at near by Cowgill. Both serve good beer and have bed and breakfast accommodation that I have tested several times. When I was walking through Dent on a dalesway trek I was put up in the old Vicarage and very nice and welcoming it was too.

St Andrews church was built in the 12th century and has flagstones of locally quarried black marble once a famous export.

If you want to learn more about the social conditions and customs of the dale call in at the Dent Village Heritage Centre a and learn about the ‘Terrible Knitters of Dent’.
Men, women and children knitted massive amounts of woollen knitwear for sale in distant towns and cities. Taught from childhood, the residents of Dent and Dentdale soon gained a reputation because of their incredible speed and productivity. It seemed that every spare minute was spent knitting – but it was a much needed supplement to the meager family incomes of farmers and lead-miners alike.
The knitters held a rough looking knitting stick under their arm pit so as to keep one hand free for ‘what ever’. They are reputed to keep knitting unless asleep or at Church!
This ancient tradition still survives, beside the Village Green in Dent you can find Sophies Wild Woollens, producing exquisite quality designer knitwear.

Home of Yorkshire Geology

• The village was also the birthplace of acclaimed Victorian geologist Adam Sedgwick.
• He cut his teeth on the geological fossil treasures in the area before becomming a Cambridge University don.
• You can tread in his footsteps via the Sedgwick Geological Trail along the River Clough in Garsdale.
• There is a monument to Adam Sedgwick on the cobbles of the main street which must be one of Dents most photographed sites.
• Adam Sedgwick founded the system for the classification of Cambrian rocks and worked out the order of the Carboniferous and underlying Devonian strata.

Read more on Sedgwick

Tea room at Dent to refresh the parts other drinks have not had chance to reach.

Read about Yorkshires Rag Rugs and ragging or stick to the Knitting.

Quilters Guild
‘In 1990 The Guild embarked on the `British Heritage Quilt Project` to document items of patchwork and quilting dated prior to 1960, resulting in the publication of `Quilt Treasures` in 1995. In June 2001 we opened a small Resource Centre in our previous offices in Dean Clough, Halifax and this provided a stepping stone to our current home in York which opened just seven years later in June 2008′

Quilt Museum and Gallery – St Anthony’s Hall, York is the national headquarters of The Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles and its extensive collection of quilts and quilt related artefacts.
The Quilt Museum and Gallery is Britain’s only museum dedicated exclusively to quilting and textile arts based in historic St Anthony’s Hall, York. The hall was originally built as the headquarters of a religious guild in the 15th century, and has had a colourful past – as a workhouse for the poor, a hospital, prison, and a school and archive. The beautiful medieval spaces have been restored and adapted to accommodate the Museum and its wide range of displays and activities. It is not cheap to visit but members of the guild get special deals and there are regular exhibitions. The current exhibition is ironically called ‘The Celtic Fringe’ (I wondered when the Fringe would come to York).

Also linking to our Yorkshire theme there is an opportunity to visit an exhibition ‘Inlaid Patchwork in Europe from 1500 to the Present’. at Leeds City Art Gallery. 26th August – 31st October 2010. Something of an advance warning, this exhibition is coming to Leeds from the State Museum of Berlin, via Austria, and includes an example from 1766 loaned by the Sevenoaks Museum in Kent.
For a full and fascinating review of the exhibition by a British Quilt History List member who has visited the exhibition, read more on Textile Hunter blog

Other sites of Interest
Quilting at the Victoria and Albert museum has its own blog with good photographs.
Quaker Tapestry museum Kendal
Rag Rugs and Ragging in Yorkshire

Quilt history an American site where quilting is very popular.

Quilt Styles Old and New

Quilts made of a solid piece of fabric as the top layer are referred to as Whole Cloth Quilts. The three layers of top, batting and backing were quilted together, and the quilting itself became the decoration.
Trapunto is the technique of slipping extra stuffing into certain areas of a quilt to bring out the quilting in that area.
Broderie perse refers to the applique of cut out motifs from printed fabric onto a solid background. This form of quilt making has been done since the 18th century.
Medallion quilts are made around a center. The central area is surrounded by two or more borders. Although some borders were solid, many were pieced or appliqued.
The latter years of the nineteenth century the best know quilt style was the Crazy Quilt made of abstract shapes sewn together.
To promote excellence in the art and status of quilt making and, through education, to extend knowledge and understanding of its heritage.
Quick scrappy quilts are usually made from many different bits of fabric or leftovers.
Nine patch is based on a pattern of square block designs three units by three.
Log Cabin patterns have a narrow strips around a central square often sown on to a foundation cloth of paper or fabric.
Four patch is a block 4 by 4 or multiples of 4 in rows

This is the 11th book by Kaffe Fasset who settled in England in 1964. He has exhibited at the V&A museum in London and is highly regarded for his knitting, patchwork and needlepoint books.
Click on book covers to purchase them from Amazon.

Otley museum is a Yorkshire treasure that charts the industry and life of folk in Otley though the exhibits and informative volunteers. There are currently good research facilities where you can access the principal Museum Archive or the Urban Development Archive and conduct family or historical research. Current exhibits include details of locally discovered Neolithic bodies 5,000 years old that are thought to have suffered from Spina Bifida type health problems through new Rag Rugs from local children to Victorian coat hangers from gents outfitters and photographs of old farming families.

Local industries provided many of the commercial exhibits with a lot of detail from the heart of the printing machinery industry and the birth of the Wharfedale Printing machine. Notwithstanding the industrial connection the heart of the collection is an accumulation of all things that have gone to make up the life of a great market town in the West Riding.

Currently the museum is open Monday, Tuesday and Friday 10.00-12.30 and staffed exclusively by volunteers. Visit the Museum soon as the Mechanics Institute or Civic Hall where it is located is due for refurbishment. All the exhibits will have to be put into storage and it not certain that the self-funding charity will be able to afford the rent due to the council when the premises are reopened. Local communities need connections to the past and the museum deserves to be given every chance to entertain and educate future generations. Otley also needs all the attractions it can muster to encourage day trippers and visitors to the market and the surrounding countryside.

One special collection is of ‘Concealed Shoes’ which are individuals shoes discovered in old buildings. Since the 13th century buildings have had shoes concealed in the fabric, in walls, chinneys, roofs or under floorboards. Probably placed there to ward of witches and evil spirits they were meant to bring good luck or avoid bad luck. if you find such a shoe it is worth reporting to the museum for deatiled record keeping but leave it in place in case evil spirits do exist.

Biblography on Concealed Shoes.
Otley Museum concealed Shoes found around Otley Research File by appointment.
Edwardd J C Swaysland Boot & Shoe Design & Manufacture 1905 Museaum copy
Swann, J.M. web story and , ‘Shoes Concealed in Buildings’, Northampton Museum Journal 6 (December 1969) pp.8-21.
Ralph Merrifield, ‘Folklore in London Archaeology’, The London Archaeologist (Winter 1969) vol.1, no.5.
Ralph Merrifield, The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic (London, Batsford, 1987).
Denise Dixon-Smith, ‘Concealed Shoes’, Archaeological Leather Group Newsletter no.6 (Spring 1990).
Olaf Goubitz, ‘Verborgen Schoeisel’ in Westerheem VIII no.5 (1989) pp.233-39.
Margaret Baker, The Realms of Gold (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1975; Penguin 1977) p.357.
J.L. Nevinson, Letter to The Times 5 February 1934, asking for reasons for concealments.
Col. Pen Lloyd, The History of the Mysterious Papillon Hall (Leicester 1977).

The Architecture of Otley is featured in the Otley Museum but there are many places for visitors to discover. The above photograph is a detail from the memorial to the Navvies who built and died during the construction of the Bramhope Railway Tunnel.

Yorkshire!  Yorkshire!   Yorkshire!

Whilst my opening may now stop the Guardian from linking to this post due to their Lancashire roots, I will continue developing the theme of three things to Enjoy in England. They will be Ridings, Dales and Pastimes.

Yorkshire Ridings
In truth the use of ‘three’ by the Guardian is obviously aimed at our Ridings. We don’t have much truck with South Yorkshire the sorry excuse for a local government reorganisation of 1974, preferring to keep to The West Riding, East Riding and North Riding and the old county boundaries. Maps published with facsimiles of the Domesday Book show that significant parts of Lancashire were formerly a part of Yorkshire but that is a story for another day.
We support, with tongues in cheeks, the Yorkshire Independence Movement and the busy new Yorkshire search engine www.Goole.com.

Three Dales

Choosing only three Dales  is a ‘hard ask’ (what ever that is) when just one Dale from 16 in the Yorkshire Dales National Park could provide a life time of enjoyment. However this is our choice for the Guardians with a phot of Burnsall in Wharfedale.

1. Wensleydale is full of riches amongst the towns and villages including Hawes, Askrigg, Leyburn and Middleham. From fast flowing falls on the river Ure at Aysgarth and Hardraw to local markets, auctions and racehorse training. That is to say nothing about local beer and cheese.
2. Wharfedale is the home of the Dalesway from Ilkley to the watershed at Oughtershaw. Wending its way through whirlpools at Bolton Abbey and limestone escarpements it is just the Dale for taking a long walk, having a good pub drink or enjoying a relaxing weekend break.
3. Swaledale is  a land that time forgot since it gave its name to the hardy sheep with the captivating black faces. Swaledale Sheep even have there own website. Not without culture there is the renown Swaledale Music Festival plus the villages, with names like Muker, Gunnerside and Reeth, which cater for walkers on the coast to coast walk.

Three Pastimes

Folk Music can be heard in at least 3 great festival venues Whitby Folk, Otley Folk and in October at Ingleton Folk Fest. There is more Yo-Ho-Ho at the annual Sea Shanty maritime music festival at Hull. Traditional music is played in pubs and clubs throughout Yorkshire particularly up the East coast in Robin Hoods Bay. Lots more info is printed in Tykes News with details of hundreds of folk club events.

Hobbies

At Gods Own County we are still collecting reports about hobbies and pastimes with a national interest but a local flavour. Trig Spotting on Baildon Moor lead to links to great web sites and exploits of those who bag trigs in the same spirit of the Munro climbers. The smaller society with more items to view is the Pylon Appreciation Society and you could also join the Rag Ruggers.

Humour

The Yorkshire reputation for taking the micturition out of our financial prudence was exemplified by the Yorkshire Supermarket special offer ‘Buy One – Get One’.

Shop sign Cakes 66p – Upside down cakes 99p.’ Nothing half baked about Yorkshire. Three cakes, Pontefract cakes, Havercakes and Cake ‘oles.

A Yorkshireman shopping in London was asked ‘What is Sirs pleasure?’ He replied Whippets and Rugby League if it’s owt to do wi’ thee but reight nah I’d like a new shirt.

The last word goes to a Yorkshire woman ‘A man’s a lump of clay- a woman teks ‘im an’ meks ‘im into a mug.’

More humourous slogans

Rag rugs remains have been found in old Celtic and Viking homes and the making of rugs from rags is still practiced in Yorkshire. As the pictures imply there have been style changes as the availability of rag material has changed (some might argue improved). This is a new world of Proddies, Poggies, Clippies or Latch Hooks some of the tools of the trade to push the rags through the hessian. The process is now a little more complex as the rugs have become art objects often used as wall hangings or decorations.

Rag rugs are sometimes called Tab Rugs, Peg Rugs and Clootie Basses. Here in West Yorkshire the popularity of groups where people to get together to mat ‘n’ chat is growing. “It’s a nice communal thing to do, to sit with your rug.’ According to Jenny Salton, Museums Officer at Tolson museum Huddersfield.

Louisa Creed and her husband from York are also exponents of the revived craft though Louisa has been making rugs for over 20 years. Louisa Creed’s work is highly valued and respected on both sides of the Atlantic, rugs can sell for upwards of £1200, better than your average Rag and Boneman prices. She has her own web site and has a  selling exhibitions at The Treasurer’s House, York until  Thursday 2 April 2009   by The Ebor Ruggers,including rugs by Louisa and Lewis Creed. Then look out for Exhibition and Workshop at Scampston Hall  28 April -  21 June 2009
with a workshop on 5 May 2009.    www.scampston.co.uk

Making Rag Rugs: 15 Step-by-Step Projects by Clare Hubbard £47.95

Rug Hooking for the First Time by Donna Lovelady£6.99

See also Quilting

More rag rugs from the display at the James Herriot museum in Thirsk

Hearth Rug – All Creatures Great and Small

Rag Rug to a Bull