Originaly written on Saturday, July 31, 2010

The 1st of August is Yorkshire Day. Savour it.

Yorkshire is a wonderful place. And the world has a lot to thank Yorkshire for. More than you will realise. But I’ll come to that in a few lines.

I have to say, I love Yorkshire. It has everything. The wonderful historical city of York, the one time Roman capital for the most northerly part of their empire. Harrogate, the wonderful Spa town with it’s own brand of water. Leeds, the cultural and economic hub that gave the world the made to measure suite. and clothed many an England World Cup team, including the, erm, 1966 winners! Sorry to the Scots, Irish, Welsh, Americans et al who have not won the football World Cup. I won’t mention England winning the Rugby World Cup either….

There are the wonderful Yorkshire Wolds,, for which there are many great mountain bike routes, rolling from the beautiful east coast through to the heart of the country. And of course the Yorkshire Dales,.

There is the Humber Bridge, which, when it was completed at a cost too vast to even contemplate, the bridge held the world record as the longest single span suspension bridge for 17 years. Brunel would have been proud!

Then there is the beer, or, in English, ale. There is a plethora of fine English Ales, from Timothy Taylors, Little Valley, Theakstons, purveyors of Old Peculiar and XB,and of course the Black Sheep Brewery in Masham. Ok, so that is North Yorkshire, but excellent beer none the less. An exhaustive list can be found here.

One of my all time favourites places is Beck Hole, a mile and a half from Goathland. Goathland, for those of you who like the I’ve been there feeling in cinemas, was the film location for the railway station in the Harry Potter films, amongst other things. However, Beck Hole also has the Birch Hall Inn, whic is about a small a pub as you can get without calling in my front room! Sadly, as Beck Hole only has nine, yes nine houses, which is a magnificent home to pub ratio, the ‘official’ Beck Hole web site and links to the pub, seem not to be working. So, instead, here is a link to a beer guide site. Well, it is a pub after all.

It is a while since I’ve been, sadly, having spent the last five years in different parts of Africa, but, for a pub which is only 200 square feet, or five metres by four metres of you like it metric stylee it serves a fantastic pint of ale, and some excellent, simple food, including some excellent sandwiches. They also sell the UKs favourite crisps, Seabrooks, from Brat’fud, or Bradford if you are from the Home Counties.

This seems like a nice segue into the ‘why the world is grateful for Yorkshire’ section.

It seems that, if it were not for Yorkshire and all that Yorkshire has been able to give to the world, we would never have left the Dark Ages. No, really……

If you move up the coast, from Goathland, you’ll get to Whitby. Whitby is, some say, home to the finest food ever created by man, fish’n’chips. Naturally, having more coast line and excellent arable land than anywhere else in England, deep frying a battered fish, traditionally cod, haddock or flounder, with deep fried thick cut potatoes was only really going to be created in such a magnificent county. France, for example, with it’s oh so delicious ‘boiled to death’ snails could never create a feast such as fish’n’chips!

But there is more to Whitby than simply mouth watering cuisine. Charles Darwin, was the man who brought enlightenment to the world with his books ‘The Voyage of the Beagle’, ‘The Descent of Man’ and of course ‘The Origin of the Species’. The first book, ‘The Voyage of the Beagle’ refers of course ship The Beagle, which set sail from Whitby.

Not long after, Bram Stoker published his most famous novel, Dracula in 1897. Whitby Abbey is seen as many for the inspiration of the infamous Transylvanian castle. Stoker also did most of his research in Whitby, which is all neatly summarised here. Boo!

Whitby, according to the Grauniad is also known as Britain’s Spookiest Town. Anyone who has been attacked by a seagull in Whitstable may disagree. Lost some Allen Keys, try Lowestoft….

Marks and Spencer started their Penny Bazaar in Leeds, stainless steel, used by billions the world over as knives and forks, was invented in Sheffield. The razor blade was too a top tyke tool invented by a chap called Wilkinson. They also made Swords…..

James Cook, the seafarer, and John Harrison, inventor of marine chronology and the man who finally resolved the issues of longitude, were both proud Tykes.

I’m also pretty certain that both Cook and Harrison would have savoured some incredible Yorkshire Puddings, because which Sunday dinner would be complete without a Yorkshire Pudding, into which the gravy from dead cows would be poured ? Cats eyes, yes, really, are a Yorkshire invention, with Percy Shaw hailing from cosmopolitan and mildly feline Halifax [Yorkshire, rather than Halifax Nova Scotia], which is now subsumed into the delightful conurbation of Cleakhuddersfax…..

But it is not just amazing science and technology for which Yorkshire is justly famous. The Brontë sisters, despite their vaguely Germanic spelling, were from Bradford. I do not need to tell any adolescent female for which books the Brontë’s were responsible. For the chaps, think Colin Firth in a ruff….

Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and one of my favourite artists, David Hockney all hail from Yorkshire.

William Wilberforce, the great social reformer, which my Kenya colleagues are rightly very proud, hailed from ‘ull, or, to give it’s full title, ‘ull! Guy Fawkes was from York, the inventor of the toffee apple and retailer and rights holder to Guys Fawkes Night which is celebrated ever 5th of November with a huge, warming bonfire. What a nice chap!

The list of reasons for the world to be grateful for Yorkshire, frankly goes on and on and on and on…. My advices would be to take a peek here, and see for yourself the magnificence and quality of Yorkshire endeavour.

For those that like there optical nerves to be stimulated a tad, there are some very good images of Yorkshire here and another set here.

Oh, and to hear a little Yorkshire being spoken click this link. Needs some translation help, try this Yorkshire t’ English dictionary.

Tarra.