Tourism in Yorkshire

25 June 07 - 7 more postings added more than doubles the number on this page. More to come soon!

Each entry shows the date of its original posting on www.alanmachinwork.net

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Yorkshire is a state of mind as much as a county.

In the complicated history of local government, Yorkshire long ago ceased to exist as a single entity in favour of subdivisions that have changed their boundaries at different periods of reorganisation. There is one Yorkshire Regional Development Agency, one Yorkshire Tourist Board, one Yorkshire Cricket Club, but in other terms there are many Yorkshires with variations in geographical areas. The Viking Kingdom of Yorkshire might have been centred on York, but for most people today their home region may have at its focal point any number of towns or cities. Even so, Yorkshire Day has been celebrated on 1 August for a number of years now and what it celebrates is England's biggest county tradition, stretching from not far from the Irish Sea to the North Sea, and from the borders of Lakeland to the Midland plain.

To be a Yorkshire person traditionally means certain qualities from loving cricket to being careful with money, feeling superior to anyone from any other county and being in possession of a down to earth, wordly-wise kind of humour. Yorkshire people are known for their hospitality towards others and their lack of airs and graces. They love brass bands, speak a language called tyke, live on Yorkshire pudding and Yorkshire Fat Rascals. According to one regional purveyor of foods they drink a brand of tea specially blended for to water of the region - which rather sums up the public relations hokum of it all. The public relations industry could well have been invented in Yorkshire, so good have its people been over the centuries at building up their own brand image. Which, of course, anyone from Lancashire knows is totally inferior to that west of the Pennine chain.

The real truth to the less chauvinistic residents of the Yorkshire region is that it is an area with far more variety, interest and contrasting cultures than its traditions suggest. There are seafaring folk along the coast, broad-acre farmers in the Vale of York, hill farmers in the Pennines, Yorkshire Wolds and North Yorkshire Moors, city workers of factories and offices in the west and south of the region and market town residents in scattered centres throughout.

With its scale and the variety of landscapes, history and cultures that it contains, Yorkshire has had a prominent part to play in the development of tourism. From the focal point of medieval life in minsters and abbeys, through the relief to city dwellers offered by the coast and countryside, to the relatively recent discovery that even industrial cities have their own interest and leisure opportunities, the county - the counties - of Yorkshire have long attracted visitors.

These entries touch on just some of those reasons.
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Scarborough, the First Coastal Resort

03.08.07

This drab little spring can make some claim to being the source of British seaside tourism.

Almost completely ignored by holidaymakers, it stands part way down some steps to the beach by the Spa building on the South Bay of Scarborough. In 1626 a local woman, Mistress Farrar, decided that water appearing here, which stained rocks red, was good for people as it had curative properties. Dr Wittie of York wrote books which advised people to travel to the coastal town to drink the spa waters. A long list of ailments could be cured, according to him, such as "melancholic vapours, epilepsie and jaundice" and even healthy people could benefit from swigging it.

Before long the town had built a wooden shed to operate the spa. In due course newer buildings appeared, culminating in the group of Victorian meeting halls, shops and restaurants that stand there today. Swimming in the sea, digging sandcastles, riding donkeys and eating ice creams took the place of drinking the iron-tasting water from wells here, and almost all that is left today is this red-brown dribble. Other spas like Bath and Harrogate were inland. Scarborough led the way to the sea for generations of holidaymakers to come and earned itself the label of 'Queen of Watering Places'.

This, visible, spring of water is not one of the major spa sources in Scarborough: more important ones are hidden beneath the roadway and not usually available to the public to see.
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Tourism's Jet Set

05.08.06

Travel always needs wheels. Stage coaches, trains, cars, the landing gear of planes: no wheels, no tourism - at least for most people. You could hire a horse.

Not far from Scarborough is Whitby, home to the famous cliff-top Abbey, to Captain Cook's sea-going career, to the patent slug-powered thunderstorm detector (grand-daughter Jessica still doesn't believe that one) - to the writer of Dracula - and to the jet set. But not the up-to-the-minute high-flying kind. This jet set is a few million years old and is buried in the cliffs west of Whitby. But it still needed wheels - and it did its bit for queen and country and for tourism.

No-one knows for sure what jet is. The black, shiny, hard material is more mineraloid than mineral - not quite a mineral like copper or tin or coal, that is. It might be close to coal, formed from wood, decomposed and compressed under enormous pressure within layers of rock. Or it might be from the sap within the wood, trapped in holes and compressed. Amber is thought to be a near relative.

The stuff is found in other places in Europe, too, but in Whitby it reached its greatest fame. Though used for jewelry since many years BC it was after Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert died and she went into deep, black mourning that it became popular in Britain. The Queen, and so the nation, adopted the fashion for black clothing and black jewelry. Jet supplied the need. An industry employing 1,500 people sprang up. Men called 'jetties' scoured the cliffs for usable lumps of the material and sold it on to craftspeople. It sold not only in Britain but in Europe and the USA. It was worn by the Victorians and by the 'flappers' of the 1920s, determined to show that a girl just wants to have fun, to dance and to attract the men. Even so, the association with funerals led to a decline in its popularity: workshops closed and trade declined.

Whitby, however, thrives on its associations with its past just as much as it does on its fishing, sailing, fish and chips and fun. Workshops still make ornaments and items of jet. Jewellers show it in their windows for sale to visitors wanting a special souvenir of the place. One workshop-cum-retailer has the Whitby Jet Museum extending from its sales area. Here, as in the photo, are set out the treadle-operated wheels which cut and polished the jet in days gone by. These working places were dusty and they were dangerous. Accidents were relatively common and deaths from shattering wheels not unknown. Modern methods take more care, using better tools for the trade. And now tourism might be helping bring about a revival in its fortunes as the young tourist who has jet-setted abroad takes an extended weekend in a resort closer to home.

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It's interesting who reads these pages - not that the webalyzer can record enquirers' email addresses - but on 5 June there were over 600 hits. What seems to have been the cause was a search question "Why did Queen Victoria wear Whitby jet?". I guess I helped some teacher's class find the answer.

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Creme de la Cream

06.08.06

Afternoon tea (or elevenses, lunch or evening meal) in Betty's is an institution in some of the posher bits of Yorkshire: Harrogate, Ilkley and York. During the day it's likely you will have to queue - it's worth it. A nice lady finds you a table and another nice lady, dressed a bit like posh children's nannies used to dress, takes your order and brings you food. To a certain generation of Brits there are similarities to the 'nippies' who used to serve in Joe Lyons' tea shops, but the resemblance is superficial. The food is wide ranging and either Good For You or jolly scrumptious according to your taste. Yorkshire Fat Rascals and curd tarts, lemon sorbets, salmon and salads go with cups of Indian or China tea or something alcoholic. They each have a shop where chocoholics can feed their habits and the clientele can find a nice cake to take home to great-aunt Maud. You can even sign up for a cookery course with staff tutors at a weekend venue. The founder gave the company a Swiss flavour to some of the menu. None of it - you can discover Yorkshire or Switzerland styles - is to be missed.
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Naval Warfare

02.08.06

HMS Exeter makes a tight turn close inshore to engage the enemy. Her battery of 8" guns will swing to starboard and deliver a broadside against the sea wolf that has been attacking British convoys. Not that anyone is sure any longer just which country that sea wolf is supposed to represent.

While medieval knights jousted in Scarborough Castle, the twice-weekly 'Naval Warfare' drama was being re-enacted on the lake in Peasholm Park. Since 1927 (except when hostilities moved to the bigger stage during World War II) the ducks on the lake have regularly looked on bemused as battles raged. The ships are scale models around 6 metres long, the main ones having a young man sat inside operating battery-powered propellors and pyrotechnics simulating explosions.

The first ships were based on the First World War, but those of the late 1940s modelled themselves on HMS Ajax, HMNZS Achilles and HMS Exeter that had fought the battle of the River Plate. Over the decades each has been replaced as the vessels wear out. While the names of the River Plate battle have been kept, the enemy of the time has been allowed to fade in to history as the influences of PC and EC have brought changes. Now, the raiding battleship is called the Robert Eaves, with no real-life ship as its model, nor connection with any particular country. So, come on, Scarborough tourism staff - just how was the name chosen?

Spectators watch the warfare unfold from the terraces in front of the lakeside cafe. The usual pedal-boats are moored out of the way for the half-hour or so of the show. A commentary with a nice mix of respect and sly humour describes the events and brings a touch of melodrama by getting the crowd to boo and hiss at appropriate points. Electronic keyboard music has warmed up the viewers, drawing upon suitable war and Disney film scores. There is a little guide book with the story of the show, and both it and the live commentary point out that nowadays the whole thing is done for fun. There must have been a number of mums and dads telling their children what it is all based upon. Perhaps the kids did some reading later and even asked granparents what they might have done during the war. Or just sympathised with the ducks being chased by dreadnoughts.
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Authenticity Again

01.08.06

A family gathering spread over a week on the Yorkshire coast gave plenty of opportunity to enjoy being a tourist in the area.

At Scarborough Castle a 'Knights' Tournament' included displays of archery, falconry, music and horse-riding skills. Four competitors rode their horses around a small arena set out in the castle grounds, throwing javelins at straw targets, smashing cabbages with a mace and tilting at a revolving target - a 'quintain' - with a lance. In the picture a competitor grabs a mace from a helper for the next part of his circuit, which was reducing the cabbage to pieces. It might be some way from the 'real' life of the middle ages with its loudspeaker commentary exhorting the audience to "put your hands together for the winner", but it can do what books, or teachers, can't do - bring home via all five senses the kind of action that a tournament involved. It had some participation by the audience in cheering their chosen rider, spurring him on to be faster, more daring, more accurate - and to be the winner. It helped raise money for English Heritage, who must care for and interpret the history of the castle. And of course it mixed some education with lots of fun.
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Fairburn Ings Reserve

03.04.07

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds cares for a large number of wildlife reserves around Britain. With the popularity of TV shows such as Birdwatch the number of people taking an interest in birds is growing, even though many might only use their own back gardens as viewing areas. Discovering bird life through the media and travel has been a long and symbiotic relationship. During the twentieth century bird books, radio programmes (like Nature Parliament) and TV presenters from Johnny Morris to David Attenborough made the subject interesting and excursions and holidays were made to see the real thing.

Fairburn Ings, near Castleford in West Yorkshire, occupies 286 hectares of mainly ex-mining land in which subsidence led to flooding and the creation of extensive water areas. Indeed, the name 'ings' comes from an Old Norse word for a frequently-flooded, marshy ground. The reserve opened in 1968.

The complex is free to the public with a good car park, small visitor centre and shop and a number of hides. Footpaths lead around the lakes and ponds with interpretation panels at key places. Kingfishers, Green Sandpipers, Reed Warblers and Little Ringed Plovers can be seen as well as the swans shown above and a range of plants, shrubs and trees. Its a big area, so that while the section near the visitor centre and car park have the most visitors, there are plenty of pathways where quiet bird-watching can be enjoyed. You might not get Bill Oddy and Kate Humble, but you will find friendly and helpful RSPB staff to discuss the wildlife on show.
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The Anglers' Country Park, Wakefield

07.04.07

Wakefield Metropolitan District has a number of country parks developed in former mining areas. Fairburn Ings, an RSPB Reserve and the subject of an earlier posting, occupies a similar kind of landscape. Pugneys, Newmillerdam and the Heronry and Anglers Country Parks lie close together to the south east of the city.

The Anglers Country Park, to give it its shorter name, has a 30-hectare lake as its centrepiece and the other two parks have their own lakes. There are other reservoirs and lakes in the area, one of which includes Walton Hall, the former home of the naturalist pioneering naturalist Charles Waterton. The Hall is now a hotel, standing on a small island connected to the bank of the lake by a bridge.

Getting to Anglers Park proved confusing. White-on-brown signs give directions to each of the parks, but not always by individual name. A sign pointing to the "Waterton Discovery Centre" was worth following, but the next required turn in the route only had "Anglers Park" shown. As this appeared to be a different location we sped straight on, found Walton Hall, failed to get in because of an electric gate demanding a token to get out, and so backtracked to the previous road sign. After a meandering run between some more lakes we finally arrived at a spacious car park, but still needed to go to check that we were in the right place.

The park is an attractive place with a couple of smaller lakes, one good for pond-dipping, the other, with a hide, for peaceful bird watching. The main lake has a path all the way round, though a distance back from the water and not very well equipped with seats. It has the feel of a municipal urban park, with broad grassed areas and a lake set out for people to walk around. Arriving at a visitor centre for cups of tea meant that it was turned 4pm when we found the Discovery Centre entrance - steel roller doors firmly closed down at four o'clock. There was little visitor interpretation outside - does the lack of panels and the existence of those steel doors point to a vandalism problem? A large interpretive panel near the car park was illegible, not because some tyke had felt-tipped penned it, but because it had faded beyond use in the sunlight.

The nice things about the place was the relaxed atmosphere - it was less crowded than Pugneys or Newmillerdam - thanks to the families having a quiet afternoon there, some pleasant staff in the tea room, and the permanent inhabitants swimming and waddling round the lake.
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Children's Holiday Homes

15.01.07

Originally appeared on westwood232.blogspot.com on 5 July 06

The kind of social conditions produced by the industrial cities of the nineteenth century started a number of initiatives to get children into the countryside. These often started as day excursions organised by Sunday Schools attached to churches and chapels. Those schools started by teaching the theory - that a better life would exist beyond the daily grind of farm and factory, but indeed, beyond the grave. Then they moved on to show that in practice a taste of a better life was available more immediately in the form of a trip to the coast or countryside. Funds were raised and transport organised, at first in the shape of horse-drawn wagons, later the railways being built around the nation. Thomas Cook's 1841 excursion from Leicester to Loughborough was one of these, though run on commercial lines. A verse in The Lady's Home Magazine of around 1904 encouraged readers to give ninepence (in 'old money' quite a donation) to give "some poor child a happy day".

The new Local Authorities set up to improve the life in towns and cities around the mid nineteenth century had to take on the role of providing education to all children within their boundaries. Many of them cooperated with local charities to run residential holidays of a week or more, often in buildings converted from other uses or specially designed. A Manchester and Salford Children's Mission operated a centre at St Anne's on the Lancashire coast.

Boys from Halifax could go to a tented camp near Filey, and later both boys and girls could spend a fortnight much nearer to home at Norland Moor, away from the smoke of the town. These were generally children from less-well off homes. The system still operated in the 1970s, and the building stands with its gold-painted lettering announcing itself, as seen in the photo.

Wakefield children could go to a camp on the Holderness coast near Mappleton. That village housed a whole range of camps. One was owned by the Young Men's Christian Association. During the war it was used by the army, then afterwards took in boys from the north east as part of the British Boys For British Farms scheme. Groups in Hull had camps at Great Cowden and Rolston. Under a later arrangement the West Riding of Yorkshire sent children to the Rolston camp. The Bradford Cinderella Society ran one at Hest Bank, though it was at one time controversial as being said to be run by "an aggressive atheist".

Leeds children can still use a Holiday Camp at Silverdale on the edge of Morecambe Bay. It was founded by the Leeds Poor Children's Holiday Camp Association in 1904. On its recent centenary a history of the camp was published in celebration, and a BBC web site has collected many memories of different kinds from people who attended as chidren. A purpose-built new building was opened in 1952, replacing one which had been erected in 1920 after the original was destroyed by fire. The new one has a swimming pool with high-diving boards.

The type of holiday enjoyed by children to these centres has generally been based on the place itself with activities and games taking place within them. They have used their localities to greater or lesser extents as the organisers felt fit. In that, they were just like other holiday centres, bases for fun and games rather than exploration of regions in the way field study centres would become. Which is just what most people on holiday want.

McNeil, F (2004) Now I Am A Swimmer: Silverdale Holiday Camp, The First Hundred Years, Leeds, Pavan Press

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Halifax Piece Hall

23.12.06

As the commercial life of Britain grew stronger in the eighteenth century the availability of finance allowed for more investment in building. Some of it was connected with the industrial revolution, but other construction served the older systems. It is an interesting coincidence that the year 1779 saw the building of the iron bridge in Shropshire as one of the first great symbols of the new economic order at the same time that one of the most magnificent architectural productions of the old was being completed, in Halifax. Tourism played a part in the story of both of them.

The Halifax Piece Hall was simply a market for the sale of pieces of cloth, each traditionally 30 yards long, as much as a handloom weaver working along the valley of the River Calder could produce in a week while at the same time having to look after a small farm. Cloth was taken there on a Saturday and sold to visiting merchants during a two-hour trading period on that day. The goods were then transported across Britain and often into Europe for buyers to turn into clothing. Apart from space for merchants to trade with the weavers the building was for hardly any other purpose than to store cloth which might have to wait for the next market session. Small rooms were used by the traders, but with 315 of them ranged around the galleries of the hall the building had to be big.

More than that, it had to advertise the prosperity and wisdom of those who used it. Like many another trading hall or exchange building, the Piece Hall had to impress. What better to do the job than a refined, classically-inspired edifice which proved what worldy-wise men these were? They might be two hundred miles away from the capital and situated in the Pennine hills, but they knew a thing or two about culture as well as about commerce.

Their cloth hall was built around a giant, rectangular space upon which all the rooms and galleries looked out. Only three great gateways made openings through the high walls so that when closed the whole building was secure. The carefully-proportioned galleries giving access to the store rooms were punctuated by dozens of columns in different styles, strongly arched at the lower level, sturdily squared above them, and gracefully rounded and tapered above those. A cupola above the main entrance contained a bell which marked out the start and finish of the trading periods.

This commercial showcase of the eighteenth century was produced from the mould given by the Grand Tour and its partakers. It is not known for sure who the architect of the Hall was - a Thomas Bradley or one or other of the Hope brothers, Samuael and John. It is clear that whoever designed it was working from information given in architectural books of the day which communicated the secrets of the buildings seen by travellers from Britain in Italy and Greece. Writers such as Batty Langley and William Pain had published books with descriptions and drawings of the principles laid down by classicist architects like Palladio and Alberti. In Halifax there was a very well known bookseller and published named Edwards. It might not have been from his shop that the Piece Hall architect obtained whatever pattern books he was using, but it is highly likely that the local merchants who employed that architect were familiar with Italian and Greek desings through books bought there.

The flow of knowledge from Europe, and the Mediterranean region in particular, into Britain, was through three main communication channels: the published work in books and engravings, the fine art of the painter, and the memory and notebooks of the tourist. And it was only the tourist who was able to see for himself the stupendous effect of the great buildings of Athens and Rome upon those cities, an effect that they wanted to bring to bear upon their own communities back home.

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A Day Out - The Deep, Hull

29.12.06

The sharp prow of "The Deep" juts out into the Humber Estuary with the muddy water of the River Hull flowing alongside. This is the self-described iconic attraction for the city, built as part of its regeneration campaign at a cost of around £56m.

"The Deep" calls itself "the world's first submarium", though it is not immediately clear what that is, or how this attraction is different from the dozens of sea-creature centres which have sprung up everywhere from Scarborough to Sydney. It's bigger than its near neighbour in Scarborough and appears to be around the same size as the National Aquarium in Plymouth. It follows the latter's visitor route which starts once you leave a lift on the next-to-the-top floor and walk down sloping ramps into the deep bowels of the building. Like Baltimore's Aquarium it tells its story with interactive displays and smaller tanks along the way, but unlike that city it does not have anything like a dolphinarium alongside for a spot of theatrical entertainment.

These comparisons might be provoked by claims about some unique statement, but the average visitor isn't bothered. The Deep does its job well and is worth its entry fee - quite steep at £8.00 for adults, £6 for children, under 4s free. The value delivered is in the spectacular building, the excellent design standards and the beautiful displays. It might also be that if the aquarium is as successful as its seems to be, there is an element of pricing to keep visitor numbers down: the city centre is but a short walk away and preventing huge inflows of people not quite over-inspired by Hull itself would be a tricky business.

The aquarium was opened in March 2002. Since when over two million visitors have plunged in amongst the sharks, rays, jacks and cod. Yes - there are cod, real fish swimming round in the huge sea tanks, looking quite unlke the little freed productions lying alongside a plate of chips. And there are plaice, another favourite fried food which started real life as a proper fish albeit looking like a steamrollered cod perhaps and usually content to lie on the sandy sea floor more like the plate than the fish we eat off it.

On a rough, wet day's visit - today, in fact - the car parks at The Deep were full and struggling to find more spaces. The building was comfortable, however, although there were small queues for the best viewing points next to the great tanks that house the stars of the show. It's quite dark inside, but carefully positioned lighting makes the route through perfectly clear. A huge tank forms the vertical core of the building and at intervals giant windows give views inside at different levels and angles from the surface down to the very abyss.

As would be expected a restaurant is available, at the top of the wedge-shaped building, with a small, partly open platform right in the high, sharp point of the structure, giving views across the wide Humber Estuary. The ship-shape design (by Sir Terry Farrell and Partners) is a little similar to that of the Amsterdam science centre, but this one looks even more like the prow of a ship able to slice through the waves. The Amsterdam centre looks out onto docks, The Deep onto a broad span of turbulant open water.

Next to the entrance is the Deep-artment Store, heavy on toys, gifts and those peculiar CDs of shapeless mood music under titles like 'Twilight' and 'Sounds of the Jungle'. The shop looks like a straight souvenir centre rather than an educational resource facility - most of the books are picture books of varying kinds. Car drivers find that they pay £3.00 for parking, of which they get two squid back in the form of a voucher to spend in the shop or restaurant. Having forgotten to use ours at lunch time we looked forward to using it in the shop, but found ourselves wanting nothing there but some postcards, so the aquarium was squids in (OK, that's two puns at the hands of the attraction and none from me, so don't complain).

It was a good day out, to the tuna twenty pounds for two people - a really great plaice to see and it all went swimmingly.
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Tourism As Education - Flour Power and the Archers

28.12.06

With the approaching New Year the travel supplements herald another tourist season. English Heritage and the National Trust care between them for attractions as diverse as nuclear bunkers and medieval abbeys. Both organisations look after Fountains Abbey and the parkland connected to it of Studley Royal near Ripon, North Yorkshire. While the government agency owns the site it is the Trust that operates the facilities to its usual high standard. Fountains and Studley Royal are a very special world and popular as a place just to walk and enjoy for their atmosphere: the woodlands, lakes, lawns and temples form a gentle, enclosed world with the Abbey nestling within.

The former corn mill has displays for visitors. Videos show life as practised by the monks in their daily round. A simple meal is set out on a bench. In one room of the building is a set of working grindstones that can be turned by handles to show how corn was turned into flour. The river water now drives an electricity generator rather than heavy stones - itelf an illustration of self-sufficiency. In another space there are soft building 'stones' that children can place together to make an arch and see how the Abbey builders formed its lofty spaces or the solid shape of the bridges over the river. This is discovery by seeing, by watching and listening, reading - and doing.
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Informing Communities - Abbey

03.10.06

Whitby Abbey is associated not only with the history of Christianity but also the origins of the story of Dracula, the life of fishermen over the centuries and the early life of Captain James Cook, the explorer. It stands high above the east cliffs at the top of a long, long flight of steps climbed by thousands of tourists and people from the nearby community.

So it has many stories to tell. English Heritage care for the site and organise the interpretation of these stories through a visitor centre and guide books, and also an up-to-the-minute personal digital player. Carried by the visitor who holds an earpiece close to his or her head, the unit replays recorded words and sound effects chosen by the user according to at which point they are standing. Rechargeable batteries and no moving parts mean much more reliable units than the simple cassette players available in the late 1970s. The capital cost might be high, but it's relatively easy to revise messages. The human voice has a strong resonance for the listener. In addition, different languages and messages suitable for different ages can be added quite easily.