When you were at school did you give your address as number X, some street, Your Town, Yorkshire, England, Europe, The World, The Milky Way, The Universe or something equivalent.
Did you get a reply even with no post code?
Did you get replies to chain letters when you put your address at the bottom of a list and sent it to friends or you would break the chain?
Fun filled facts from Eric Idle in a song he wrote for the Monty Python team.
It nearly puts God’s Own County in context.
The traditional song of a Dalesman forced to flee to industrial towns the ‘three ridings round’.
The Dalesman’s Litany – Tim Hart & Maddy Prior
Maddy Prior is one of folk music’s heroes and still tours with The Carnival Band in a pre Christmas show featuring carols and seasonal music. Well worth looking out for a performance in Hull, Halifax or other local venues.
Maddy with Tim Hart and Ashley Hutchings were original members of the highly successful folk-rock band Steeleye Span. Sadly Tim Hart Died at the age of 61 in 2009.
The Dalesman’s Litany is a poem written around 1900. It is one of the best known works of Frederick William Moorman.
Moorman was a professor of English at Leeds University and compiled several books of traditional Yorkshire stories and poems and scholarly works such as The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire.
Sadly Moorman drowned in 1920 at the age of 46. He was succeeded at Leeds by J. R. R. Tolkien. Much of his poetry is available on Poetry Cat including A Song Of the Yorkshire Dales.
It’s hard when fowks can’t finnd their wark
Wheer they’ve bin bred an’ born;
When I were young I awlus thowt
I’d bide ‘mong t’ roots an’ corn.
But I’ve bin forced to work i’ towns,
So here’s my litany:
Frae Hull, an’ Halifax, an’ Hell,
Gooid Lord, deliver me!
When I were courtin’ Mary Ann,
T’ owd squire, he says one day:
“I’ve got no bield for wedded fowks;
Choose, wilt ta wed or stay?”
I couldn’t gie up t’ lass I loved,
To t’ town we had to flee:
Frae Hull, an’ Halifax, an’ Hell,
Gooid Lord, deliver me!
I’ve wrowt i’ Leeds an’ Huthersfel’,
An’ addled honest brass;
I’ Bradforth, Keighley, Rotherham,
I’ve kept my barns an’ lass.
I’ve travelled all three Ridin’s round,
And once I went to sea:
Frae forges, mills, an’ coalin’ boats,
Gooid Lord, deliver me!
I’ve walked at neet through Sheffield loans,
‘T were same as bein’ i’ Hell:
Furnaces thrast out tongues o’ fire,
An’ roared like t’ wind on t’ fell.
I’ve sammed up coals i’ Barnsley pits,
Wi’ muck up to my knee:
Frae Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham,
Gooid Lord, deliver me!
I’ve seen grey fog creep ower Leeds Brig
As thick as bastile soup;
I’ve lived wheer fowks were stowed away
Like rabbits in a coop.
I’ve watched snow float down Bradforth Beck
As black as ebiny:
Frae Hunslet, Holbeck, Wibsey Slack,
Gooid Lord, deliver me!
But now, when all wer childer’s fligged,
To t’ coontry we’ve coom back.
There’s fotty mile o’ heathery moor
Twix’ us an’ t’ coal-pit slack.
And when I sit ower t’ fire at neet,
I laugh an’ shout wi’ glee:
Frae Bradforth, Leeds, an Huthersfel’,
Frae Hull, an’ Halifax, an’ Hell,
T’ gooid Lord’s delivered me!
Some folk think we are in the pocket of the United States of America when it comes to military strategy, intelligence gathering and surveillance. Tell that to Gary McKinnon’s extraditors.
Yorkshire Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament will hold their Annual ‘Independence from America’ demonstration appropriately on 4th July.
The Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases will hold its demonstration outside the main entrance to NSA Menwith Hill, near Harrogate.There will be various speakers and music provided by the band Monkey Wrenchers, Roy Bailey and Daftasadrum amongst others.
The American’s ‘Independence Day’ is known as “the Fourth of July” celebrating the publication of ‘the declaration of independence’ from Great Britain in 1776.
Link to Yorkshire CND Independence from America web site
Photo Credits
Menwith Hill Radomes by tj.blackwell CC BY-NC 2.0 ‘Menwith Hill Radomes
It’s a shame I didn’t have more time to stop to shoot from a better angle and sort out the exposure values for this image, but it was in my interest not to annoy the patrolling police any further after the friendly little ‘stop n search’ interview we had earlier.
The moorland surveillance base (near Harrogate, Yorkshire) is guarded by UK Ministry of Defence Police who are paid for and under the operational control of the Americans and is enclosed by an alarmed security fence topped with razor wire and with CCTV cameras mounted at regular intervals along it.’
Menwith Hill Day of Action 2011 068 by Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament CC BY 2.0
81 keep space for peace by Vertigogen CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 ‘Menwith Hill US Spy Base’
Flags and motors are a bit like rainbows! You see one and then there is another right behind.
That is no longer true of buses in the dales, you see one and then a week later lo and behold there is another if you are lucky.
The British formula 1 triumvirate would like to see more flags like these.
This Jowett car made in Idle only just escaped needing a man with a flag walking in front.
Seriously the exceptionally well engineered Jowett Javellins were very fast cars of their time.
Are your spirits flagging after all the Jubilee excitement. I thought not!
Mr Herriot’s Motor is stood on flags at the Thirsk James Herriot museum.
Yorkshire Gold is one of the many Yorkshire Forward quangos that will be concerned about their future with the demise of the RDA’s. (Regional development agency and putative regional assembly orchestrator under labour and John Prescott.)
The ‘business club’s’ aim is to help local companies win contracts including ‘Crossrail, the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games and London Heathrow Terminal expansion’ but I am not impressed as most of the opportunities on the web site are past there sell by date (like Yorkshire Forward).
One interesting opportunity was to license Cycling and Wheeeled products for the Olympics but you had to know about Locog and what the acronym means. On your bike!
Oh that gives me a private enterprise idea read Cycling in the Hills of Yorkshire and Cycling Info.
Another quango organisation Competefor also offers tendering opportunities meant ‘To ensure the transparency and availability of London 2012 opportunities maximising the number and diversity of businesses contributing to the London 2012 programme, and create a legacy of increased capacity and expertise.’
All this was brought to you by Yorkshire Forward and ‘Solutions for Business funded by Government’ what a great strap line/name that is!
You will not grow roses like these but you can do even better with rose tips from God’s own county.
We know it will be a white rose for most of our regular readers. For those who enjoy gardening then the rose opens up a whole avenue of colourful floral beauty and scent.
This rose was full of scent as white and single roses often are. It was growing in a hedgerow planted around gravel pits at Pool in Wharfedale.
Roses with hairy thorns and bourbon roses are also usually well scented.
The best scent comes at a price from David Austin Old Fashioned English Rose collection.
Climbing roses bring the flowers up close so you do not need to bend to get the fragrance.
Yes there are some other coloured roses but white floats the Yorkshire boat. See Thompson Morgan for a selection of Roses
Aim for distinctive colours rather than wishy-washy shades.
Roses have the ability to be Shock and Awe plants and colour is a key feature so you do not want one that fades into the back ground.
Photo Credits
Rose by clouserw CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 From The Uncommon Rose farm
Rose logo bt sodacans CC attribution 3.5
A white rose finale for God’s Own County.
Here is a rollicking good tune with evocative words for those unfortunate expats who are reluctantly separated from God’s Own County.
Yorkshire born and bred, words and music by Steve Saville.
1985 seems like yesterday but ‘Yorkshire born and bred’ was written 27 years ago by Steve Saville. The words and music are copyright 1985 and we are pleased to thank Steve and You Tube for access.
This Brass Band performance is going strong in a new century and lets hope that we can still say that in another 88 years.
You can’t please all of the people all of the time.
There are some folk you probably never get to please – these are a couple of YouTube comments on ‘Yorkshire born and bred’ :-
‘THIS IS NOT YORKSHIRE THIS IS PURE TACK FORGET IT ‘
‘Brilliant. From Yorkshireman living in Texas. Chuffin Brilliant.’
If the Olympics gave medals for weather Yorkshire would win a series of Golds.
Rainbows would be a gold medal prospect for the rural dales, urban homes and seaside locations.
“The way I see it, If you want the rainbow you gotta put up with the rain” Dolly Parton.
If we were giving out honorary Yorkshire citizenships then Dolly would be one of the first. (I can say that because it is unlikely that we ever will).
Crock of Gold where are you? Under the sea as you can see.
Even on a cloudless Dales morning the rainbows were still out in force.
Not everything is what it seems or so it seems.
Funny how rain makes flowers grow and buses disappear.
One good thing about rain, you do not need to shovel it.
Photo Credits
Rainbow – The Keep – Scarborough Castle by Tina_S_White CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Yorkshire Rainbow by St Stev CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Yorkshire Dales Rainbow by Ambersky235 CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
S3K: Up above the streets and houses… by RedDogFever CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 ‘For those of us of a certain age, Zippy, Bungle, George and Geoffrey are the words that spring to mind when you say ‘rainbow’.
This is a panorama shot taken with the S3000 in ‘Panorama Assist’ scene mode, and then stitched together using Arcsoft Panorama Maker 5, which was bundled with the camera.
Wish I’d got the second rainbow fully in, though… Cherry Burton, East Riding of Yorkshire, August 2010′
utley rainbows by jonsatticuk CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Two for the price of one – that is Yorkshire value! Not only that but we didn’t need twice as much rain to get the Gold for Rainbows but it helps.
Do you lust after a good read? If you love to read but want some recommendations then Nancy Pearl may be an answer to your needs. If you have no time to browse you favourite book shop then this American librarian has lots of recommendations for your consideration.
Book Lust to Go ‘Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers’ is the ideal book to give you some holiday reading ideas.
‘Adventure is just a book away as best-selling author Nancy Pearl’s latest offering returns with recommended reading for more than 120 destinations around the globe. Book Lust To Go connects the best fiction and nonfiction to particular destinations, whether your bags are packed or your armchair is calling. With stops from Texas to Timbuktu, Nancy Pearl’s reading recommendations will send you on your way.’
Nancy Pearl has a series of book lust titles to her credit and I wonder if she has read even half of the titles she recommends. Never the less she is full of good ideas and has encouraged publishers to bring back many ‘Book Lust Rediscoveries’ in reprints or new editions. Check out ‘Book Lust Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason’ and ‘More Book Lust: 1000 New Reading Recommendations for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason’.
Photo Credit
LibraryThing ten million books contest entry by eclecticlibrarian CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
On second thoughts try to find your own time to browse in your local book shop, they need our trade! NPR have this list of Nancys current summer read recommendations.
Would a true Yorkshireman buy an e-Book and a hard copy of the same? Would this be an unjustified extravagance?
To me a hardback was an extravagance and I would often wait for the paperback version to be available. The price difference now seems to have narrowed with the increase in your average paperback price ( deliberate to allow for discounting and two fors?) On odd occasions I would buy both or two paperbacks of the same book by mistake. I bet many readers have done that when the front cover of a paperback is changed for a new edition or when a TV link is created.
Now I discover another reason, for buying an e-book and a hard copy, published by our friends on the Cycling info blog-
‘I was writing a piece on cycling – ‘obsession, passion and enjoyment’ when I came across ‘Obsessive Compulsive Cycling Disorder’ by Dave Barter. I initially bought the book for 99p in e-book form, but could never be bothered to download it to iPhone so I ended up buying hard copy for £6.99.’ Cycling Info for the full SP
Are e-books really books? I think not! I will start a new movement E-books are no such thing (the Eanst movement)
Much as I prefer a tactile printed book the e-download era seems to be up on you but not on me. Am I just an old fashioned dinosaur?
Today’s Day-2-Day calendar says ‘Whatever you delete today you desperately need tomorrow.’ I wonder if that applies to e-books? At least barring fire of a charity shop raid my books are safe.
Is a blog a poor writers form of book? Most including this blog would not survive in anything other than e-form!
Red Lion books in Essex deserve a bit of promotion for this tweet
Customer “I’ve just bought a Kindle, can you show me how to work it.
” Bookseller: “1st you have to soak it overnight in a bucket of water” —
