York Association Newsletter An Association of National Trust Members and Supporters June 2017 Number 181 Contents Page Chairman’s Letter 3 St Crux Summer Fair 4 Presentation to NT 4 Membership 5 Drop-in lunches 5 Talks and reviews 6 Day trips 8 Social and Fundraising Events 12 Country walks 14 Holidays 18 Holiday review: Springtime in Portugal 19 Dates for your Diary Back cover With this Newsletter you should find booking forms for the following: • Summer Garden Party 8th August • 2017 day trips (2 sheets) • 2017 full-day walks Please contact the Secretary if any of these are missing. Chairman: Roger King [email protected] 01904 761274 Secretary: Jean Haywood [email protected] 01904 702402 Treasurer: Roger Mortimer [email protected] 01757 268118 Membership: Elinor Bailey [email protected] 01347 821262 Day Trips: Colin Sherwood [email protected] 01904 640915 Walks: Alison Rutter [email protected] 01904 703430 Holidays: Peter Drew [email protected] 01904 702285 Events: Christine Truman [email protected] 01937 541163 Website: Mike Morrow [email protected] 01904 654546 Talks: Roger Armistead [email protected] 01904 622989 Newsletter: Catherine Brophy [email protected] 01904 331273 Cover: Enjoying afternoon tea at Goddards ©National Trust Images/Chris Lacey 2 Chairman's Letter The feedback from our second AGM at the Hilton Hotel, attended by 81 members, was again positive and a booking has already been made for the next AGM. Undoubtedly, the highlight was the superbly illustrated and entertaining talk by Dick Reid, embracing his life's work as a master carver and sculptor. We welcome Carole Wright, as a new valuable member of the main committee; Carole is already the Treasurer of the Projects Committee and has served that group for several years. I was personally disappointed that there are no new members on the Association Committee. Likewise, the role of Web Officer has been taken on by Mike Morrow, another long serving member of the Projects Committee. Any help you can offer for the sub committees i.e., the Projects, Programme and Walks Committees chaired respectively by Christine Truman, Colin Sherwood and Alison Rutter would be warmly welcomed. We also need a successor to Roger Armistead as Talks Organiser. This is not an onerous task since members suggest speakers. To encourage someone to consider taking on this position the bookings and programme for the 2017/2018 season has been finalised. Nominations of possible future speakers can be sent, for now, to Colin Sherwood or myself. Elsewhere you will read about the very enjoyable Tea Dance organised by the Projects Committee, which included a splendid traditional tea of sandwiches, scones and cakes, accompanied by music of a bygone age, meaning, for me (and I think, for many others) the ever popular and memorable songs of the 40s, 50s and 60s. As membership numbers have reduced this year please can you encourage family, friends, colleagues and neighbours to join YANT. Remember that you can now join YANT without being a member of the NT. Finally, in the hope of a summer of good weather I hope to see you on a trip and/or at the garden party. Roger King 3 ST. CRUX FUND SUMMER FAIR Friday 30th June from 10am All offers of help are greatly appreciated, during the day, to help our most important fundraising event of the year. All offers of help will be greatly appreciated. If you can help, even for an hour, with preparation and clearing up please ring Christine Truman on 01937 541163. Items are needed for the bric-a-brac, jewellery, scarves and books. If you would like items collected please ring: Bric-a-Brac: Peter Denton on 01904 647406 Books: Alison Rutter on 01904 703430 Scones and cakes can be delivered between 9am and 10am at St Crux on the day. We look forward to seeing you on Friday June 30th. Carole Wright presents the YANT donation to Clare Alton-Fletcher of the National Trust at the AGM in March 4 MEMBERSHIP We are very pleased to have welcomed the following new members to the Association in the last three months, bringing the total membership to 612. We look forward to meeting you all at some of the various events organised during the next few months. We will be arranging a coffee morning, sometime during September, for new members who have joined since October 2016. Lisbeth Wiberg-Dean Martin & Joan Conway Dianne Cox Carolyn Clarke & Harry Bell Keith & Eileen Davis Jenny Buck Anthony & Christine Phipps James & Kathryn Smith Celia Rowson David & Pamela Withey Jean Wilkinson Jennifer McNeil The recruitment leaflet is being re-printed at present, so please encourage your friends and family to join us. It is no longer necessary to be a member of the main National Trust in order to become a member of YANT. Thank you. Elinor Bailey, Membership Secretary Drop-in Lunches Drop-in lunches for members will continue on the last Wednesday of the month at the Walmgate Ale House & Bistro. The price remains at £7.50 for one course and £10.50 for two; both options include tea or coffee. Do come and join the friendly YANT group here. Dates are on the back cover of the Newsletter. Save the Date! 3rd October Mystery Tour; Including lunch in an old coaching inn! 5 Talks Next talk at the Friends Meeting House. Saturday 21st October 'A Year at Sea' by Mererid Hunt The talk will begin at 2:30 pm as usual, with £4 entrance to cover expenses. Roger Armistead Talk Reviews Kevin Trickett, “Wakefield”, 18th February Kevin Trickett, President of Wakefield Civic Society, spoke about the history of the city, recent and proposed developments, and the work of the Civic Society, including their blue plaque scheme. An accomplished and enthusiastic speaker Kevin was brought up in Wakefield and has presided over Wakefield Civic Society for 15 years - rescuing it from near collapse. Wakefield in Anglo- Saxon means Waca's Field. However it was located at a wide and shallow crossing point of the River Calder in Roman times; and later became a Wapentake – an area within the Viking Danelaw. The first written record of Wakefield is in the Domesday Book when the manor was given to the De Warren family, based at Sandal Castle. Richard of York was lured out of Sandal castle and lost the battle of Wakefield on 30 December 1460. Sandal castle was royalist in the civil war, and was subsequently demolished by Cromwell. The ruins are currently in the care of Wakefield council, which cannot afford to maintain them. Wakefield Mystery Plays were re-enacted in Wakefield cathedral in 2016. This stands in the centre of the four main streets - Kirkgate, Northgate, Westgate and Warrengate. A street layout of long narrow burgage plots can still be seen - plots are two perches wide (1 perch is 16 ft. 6 inches). Wakefield's Elizabethan grammar school still stands and is one large hall - different age groups sat on different forms in the room - hence the term. The Theatre Royal seats 500 and is still well used, the street outside was renamed Drury Lane. Wakefield is West Yorkshire's third oldest city (1888) after Leeds and Sheffield, and the city holds both County Hall and City Hall. A key industry and source of wealth was the clothing trade, before the rise of Leeds and Bradford, with many river and canal warehouses still remaining. (Titus Salt was apprenticed to a wool-stapler here). Wakefield remains a major 6 distribution centre, close to both railways and the motorway network. Kirkgate station was built in 1854 and was sadly neglected until recently. The main station, Westgate is at the end of a 99 arch viaduct across the city and was much modernised in 2015. There are plenty of new buildings, including Wakefield College and Pinderfields Hospital, and of course the well-known Hepworth Gallery. Some of the Victorian buildings have been successfully converted to new uses. Kevin concluded by explaining how the previous development agency, Yorkshire Forward, had helped to fund new buildings, Wakefield being an area of deprivation. He finds that the profile of the city has been raised by the Hepworth gallery, and hopes that Wakefield College can be made into a university, to further support new development, and to the overall benefit of the city. Colin Sherwood Victoria Hall, City of York Archivist, “York City Archives: Building a gateway to history” 8th April Victoria Hoyle explained that The City of York Archive is the caretaker of 800 years of documentary history in the city. The oldest document is the charter of Henry II of c.1155 which is older than most of York Minster and the city walls. York has the most complete civic records outside London and one of the most important civic records dating from 1272 to the present day. The only missing years are a few during the Civil War. There are some famous documents in the collection including the letter from the city on the death of Richard III in 1485. Funding from the Welcome Trust has enabled the “Past Caring” project running from 2016-18 to conserve and catalogue York’s health and poverty records. There is more information about this project on the blog at https://citymakinghistory.wordpress.com The Archives are the legal repository for local records including council archives and the records of schools and education in the city. As well as school magazines, they hold photographs and registers from local schools including Nunthorpe Grammar School. There are records, including photographs, of small businesses and social and cultural material from the eighteenth century to the present.