All Yorkshire folk worth the title know that today, August 1, is Yorkshire Day. It is the day when tykes unite together to declare their gratefulness for being born in this most hallowed and beautiful county. A county with more acres than there are letters in the whole of the King James’ Bible.  The day [...]

‘Upon this primrose hill Where if Heav’n would distil A shower of raine. Each several drop might goe To his owne primrose, and grow manna so.’ – John Donne (1572 – 1631) One of my favourite walks is carpeted with wild primroses at the moment. I remember picking them from the very same place when [...]

In many parts of England, bloodsports used to be associated with Lent and Eastertide and for most places, Shrove Tuesday was marked by cockthrowing – the tradition given a nodding remembrance to in the tossing of the pancake, but in one part of North Yorkshire, cockthrowing was entertainment for the whole of the fifty liturgical [...]

                   The Ceremonies For Candlemas Day. Kindle the Christmas brand, and then Till sunset let it burn; Which quench’d, then lay it up again, Till Christmas next return. Part must be kept, wherewith to teend The Christmas log next year; And where ’tis safely kept, the fiend Can do no mischief there.                                    Robert Herrick [...]

  Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall and broke beyond repair…it doesn’t seem much of a tale to fit a play around, but actor, writer, director and Pantomime dame extraordinaire, Berwick Kaler, manages to do just that with a brilliance that no-one else could ever achieve. The pantomime, ‘Humpty [...]