Welcome to Region 07 – Yorkshire
Welcome to Yorkshire. This Region covers South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, North Yorkshire and East Yorkshire – so an amazing array of places to visit and enjoy among the cities of Leeds, Sheffield, York, Ripon and Hull as well as all the surrounding and beautiful countryside edged by the North Sea and the Pennines.
Yorkshire also has its own Regional Committee which usually meets in Leeds. Normally it meets three or four times a year and arranges monthly events. Committee members then take personal responsibility for an individual edvent to share the load. We now have a full programme of monthly events organised well in advance each year. All friends and family are welcome to join us at our events, as are members from other areas. We particularly like to arrange some family events suitable for young relatives and also endeavour to have at least one Handshake event each year. That is an event to explore into another Region or Nation, to which we invite members from that area to join us.
If you are interested in becoming a Yorkshire Local Contact, please let the Executive Representative know.
Executive Representative: Mike Anderson
Local Contacts:
Leeds and Sheffield area: Jean Hertzog – jean.hertzog@aoug.org.uk
Huddersfield and Halifax area: Lesley Sleigh – lesley.sleigh@aoug.org.uk
Previous Events
York Lunch
Yorkshire members gathered at the Novotel in York for their annual lunch. We sat and chatted over coffees, prior to our meal, in a very lively bar area surrounded by a very large group of cyclists. they were not in cycling gear, but instead dressed extremely smartly for a special private dining dinner after which numerous presentations were to be made for club members’ achievement during the preceding year.
We were escorted into the main restaurant which was much quieter with just a few other guests dining in little booths. We had pre-ordered our food making for a speedier service but there was still plenty of time to chat and ‘put the world to rights’ over a leisurely meal.
Peterborough Cathedral
This first event of the year was an experimental handshake, venturing not into the adjoining Region, but travelling much further down into the East of England. However it proved successful with not only a group of Yorkshire folk but also members from the local area too.
Celebrations were taking place at the time of our visit to celebrate Catherine of Aragon who is buried in the cathedral as Henry VIII did not want her to be granted the honour of a royal funeral in London. Thus we were lucky to meet the ‘Royal Roses’, a group of volunteers who dress in the appropriate costumes to support Tudor festivals throughout the UK.
Pontefract Castle
Pontefract Castle may be small but it was nevertheless very interesting, not only for the history of the structure but also for the herb garden growing plants relating to the castle’s period in history. The most interesting seemed to be the liquorice plant whose root is used to make the town’s famous Pontefract cakes – flat discs of liquorice the size of an old penny. This brought back memories of childhood and of course we had to buy some!
Shibden Hall
The family home of Anne Lister, better known by many as ‘Gentleman Jack’ from the BBC programme of the same name. A large group of Yorkshire members met in the cafe at the bottom of the hill in the park that surrounds the hall, before climbing aboard the road train to save the ascent up the hill.
The house is small, but with its stables, carriage houses and other outhouses, it gave a perfect reconstruction of what life would have been like at the time Anne and her father lived there. Touring around the house we were able to recognise many settings used for the TV drama.
Yorkshire Wildlife Park
Although, children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren, often accompany our members on AOUG outings, this Summer excursion was designed especially with children in mind. Having met as usual in the cafe we ventured off, granddaughter leading the way, to seek out the various animals. Not always easy as the enclosures are vast and some animals will chose the furthest point away from the visitors to rest. Polar bears and big cats were high on our list but who could resist watching the playful Lemurs too.
The number of Polar Bears has now increased to five and so even if some were sleeping, others were to be seen swimming and playing with their inflatable toys. However the highlight for us were the twin leopard cubs, just a few weeks old, who had ventured out for tyhe first time on the day of our visit.
Knaresborough
On a rather stormy day we met down by the river close to the specactular Karesborough viaduct to share a snack before venturing to the other side of the river to walk tgo Mother Shipton’s Cave. This is limestone country and the structures of the cave that developed centuries ago, lends itself to rainwater leeching the rock of some of its minerals to then be deposited on whatever is below. Over a period of time the lower items covered in the limestone mineral, themselves turn to stone.
Stories grew about the woman who had lived in the cave, implying that it was her evil spells that turned things to stone and so the legend of Mother Shipton was born. Now people bring object, hats, bags, teddy bears to hang below the limestone cave and then return some time later to see their petrified state.