Yorkshire: The Truth
by The stereotypical Yorkshireman is a big fat beer swilling bloke who eats Yorkshire Puddings, tripe, black pudding and dripping and bread. He keeps whippets, pigeons and ferrets tha knows. Yorkshire is a backward rural county where everyone plays cricket. However, this stereotype could not be further from the truth…
Image via Wikipedia
(Picture is of Harewood House)
The Yorkshire stereotype lingers on. A backward, rustic county where we wear flat caps and carry ferrets in our pockets. We are Tykes who speak our own language, sithee. This Monty Python sketch shows this well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo
Enough of that!
The Truth
Sure, somewhere in the backwaters of The Pennines or somewhere there are still folk who race pigeons and so forth, bless em. But modern Yorkshire is about vibrant cities like Leeds, Sheffield , Bradford and Hull. I Googled the good things of Yorkshire:
Over a million pages, and that BBC article was a good starting point:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/5234444.stm
and:
http://www.dayoutwiththekids.co.uk/search.php?county=West%20Yorkshire
Actually the larger conurbation around Leeds and Bradford could easily become “Pennine City” through the course of time. Someone once called this area “HuddersCleckHaliWakeFord or something in recognition of this fact. What a city “Pennine” could be! I was brought up in West Leeds by the way, a couple of miles or so from Pudsey.
What Yorkshire can be Proud of
Yorkshire has a great industrial heritage: woollen mills, engineering, steel (Sheffield) and so on. Culture is everywhere. Leeds has its Playhouse and Grand Theatre. Roundhay Park, famous for its “Children’s Day” and Tropical Gardens. There is Headingley: home of the County Cricket Club, former Rugby League World Champions The Rhinos, and Leeds Carnegie Rugby Union club. Elland Road houses one of the greatest football teams ever. Nearby Huddersfield Town won three league titles in a row once.
Sheffield has two football teams with great histories, plus Sheffield FC – the oldest club in the world. It has The Crucible – theatre and sports venue. Hull has “The Deep” Aquarium. That city was once second only to Grimsby as a fishing port! (That’s an Humberside In joke!).
Then there is Bradford with its Media or Photography Museum, Alhambra Theatre etc. Not to forget our county town York with its ancient castle walls. There are countless sports, football, rugby and cricket clubs around the county. There are spa towns like Harrogate (very posh!).
Yorkshire is famous for many good things, both real and fictional. Such things include “Emmerdale” TV soap (if we ignore The Dingle family!), James Herriot, stately homes like Harewood House and Temple Newsam. There’s Kirkstall Abbey (amongst others), The Dales, The Pennines, Bronte Country, the beaches of Whitby and Scarborough. There are seaside resorts such as Filey, Bridlington, Flamborough, Hornsea and Withernsea. Whitby has its famous abbey and Dracula connection.
We have great heroes like Captain Cook, Geoff Boycott, Freddie Truman and Len Hutton. Wiki is helpful here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_from_Yorkshire
They missed Jimmy Saville I think! N.B. - J Priestley (scientist), Percy Shaw (invented cat’s eyes), John Smeaton (civil engineer), Helen Sharman (first British astronaught), William Wilberforce, Guy Fawkes, Robin Hood (?), Harold Wilson (PM), Patrick Stewart (Picard), Dame Judi Dench, Brian Clough, Henry Moore.
Then we have adopted sons and daughters like Billy Bremner, Seb Coe, Lucas Radebe etc.
Yorkshire is the largest county in the UK. It is easy to forget good things therein. Hull and Middlesbrough often get forgotten. Yet I hope this account will do something to set the record straight about Yorkshire. Whether we are “Tykes” or not.
Paul Butters
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Post CommentAlistair Briggs
On July 27, 2011 at 3:55 pm
Sheffield FC are not the oldest football team in the world, they are merely the oldest continuous surviving documented non-University club.
An older football club than that, for example?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Football_Club_of_Edinburgh
Wikaboo!
PaulB
On July 27, 2011 at 4:44 pm
Well, THIS site reckons otherwise:
http://www.sheffieldfc.com/
PaulB
On July 27, 2011 at 4:54 pm
And THIS site seems to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_football_clubs
PaulB
On July 27, 2011 at 5:19 pm
From Wiki:
“Sheffield Football Club is an English football club from Sheffield, South Yorkshire. The club is most noted for the fact that they are the world’s oldest club now playing Association football, founded in 1857. They currently play in the Northern Premier League Division One South.”
Would have added this to the article but it has yet to appear on my Contents Page list.
Karen Gross
On July 27, 2011 at 9:23 pm
Sounds like a charming place. But Yorkshire pudding is bland.
toomanysounds
On August 2, 2011 at 7:44 pm
I went to York university, loved the city. Not a whippet in sight but plenty of ecclesiastical masonry and aromas of burnt chocolate from the Nestle factory.
Not everybody plays cricket – Except 3 of the first 4 heroes are cricketers, and the other one is from Middlesbrough – which seems to be part of Yorkshire for 30-odd years per century, and is at the moment. Don’t really agree with that!
I was about to mention Withernsea and Hornsea not being Yorkshire, they’re blatantly Humberside, but apparently that county doesn’t exist right now. Just goes to show how complex a county it is; it seems to have conquered it’s neighbours since my childhood
Yorkshire, it isn’t a place, it’s a state of mind.
PaulB
On August 5, 2011 at 3:40 pm
Actually I worked for Humberside County Council! Fortunately the Careers Department got privatised before Humberside got disbanded. Careers became part of Humber Connexions, which in turn vanished after I retired.
The Hull accent reminds me of Liverpool in a way.
I can take or leave Yorkshire puds: give me a nice stew and dumplings any time. Hate cricket TBH!
Valerie Hamer
On August 26, 2011 at 10:24 am
Great article Paul. I was born in Middlesbrough-when it was still Yorkshire. So I consider myself to be a Yorkshire lass.
Sometimes I really miss the UK. It;s tough to be living away from the place. Reading this is bittersweet.
PaulB
On August 26, 2011 at 11:03 am
Thanks Valerie. Actually I thought Middlesbrough was still in Yorkshire, but that may be debatable. Have to admit I tend to associate it with Newcastle, Sunderland, Hartepool etc.
PaulB
On August 26, 2011 at 11:04 am
I meant Hartlepool. The North East anyways, where the “bhoat cums in”!
eaa1118
On August 26, 2011 at 7:17 pm
Very informative article, PaulB… and it triggers memories of where one comes from…
Thank you.