The Yorkshire Portal
Yorkshire (/ˈjɔːrkʃər, -ʃɪər/ YORK-shər, -sheer) is the largest county by both area and population in England, located in Northern England which was historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county is named after its original county town, the city of York.
The south-west of Yorkshire is densely populated, and includes the cities of Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, and Wakefield. The north and east of the county are more sparsely populated, however the north east includes the southern part of the Teesside conurbation, and the port city of Kingston upon Hull is located in the south-east. York is located near the centre of the county. Yorkshire has a coastline to the North Sea to the east. The North York Moors occupy the north east of the county, and the centre contains the Vale of Mowbray in the north and the Vale of York in the south. The east contains the Wolds and the Holderness plain. The west contains part of the Pennines, which form the Yorkshire Dales in the north-west. (Full article...)
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The Battle of Towton was the "largest and bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil". The engagement took place near the village of the same name in Yorkshire on 29 March 1461, a Palm Sunday. It was part of the series of civil wars—the Wars of the Roses—fought between the Houses of Lancaster and York. More than 50,000 soldiers were mustered for this battle. The reigning king of England, Henry VI, headed the Lancastrians, while the Yorkists were led by Edward IV, who had declared himself king and was using this battle to affirm his claim. Their armies met on a plateau near Towton amidst a snowstorm. The Lancastrians, superior in numbers, were lured out of their defensive positions by the Yorkist archers, who took advantage of the strong wind to outrange their counterparts and inflict casualties without suffering any in return. The ensuing melee raged for hours, and the Yorkists finally gained victory after the arrival of their reinforcements. Many Lancastrians were killed in their panicked flight from the battlefield, and the heralds reported a count of 28,000 dead. Henry fled to Scotland, leaving Edward free to start the Yorkist dynasty. (more...)
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Hawes is a small market town in the Yorkshire Dales, located at the head of Wensleydale the town is famous as being the home of Wensleydale cheese at the Hawes Creamery. (read more . . . )
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During his lifetime, Priestley's considerable scientific reputation rested on his invention of soda water, his writings on electricity, and his discovery of several "airs" (gases), the most famous being what Priestley dubbed "dephlogisticated air" (oxygen). However, Priestley's determination to reject what would become the chemical revolution and to cling to phlogiston theory eventually left him isolated within the scientific community.
Priestley's science was integral to his theology, and he consistently tried to fuse Enlightenment rationalism with Christian theism. In his metaphysical texts, Priestley attempted to combine theism, materialism, and determinism, a project that has been called "audacious and original". He believed that a proper understanding of the natural world would promote human progress and eventually bring about the Christian Millennium. Priestley, who strongly believed in the free and open exchange of ideas, advocated toleration and equal rights for religious Dissenters, which also led him to help found Unitarianism. (read more . . . )
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The Churches Conservation Trust, which was initially known as the Redundant Churches Fund, is a charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk, those that have been made redundant by the Church of England. The Trust was established by the Pastoral Measure of 1968. The legally defined object of the Trust is "the preservation, in the interests of the nation and the Church of England, of churches and parts of churches of historic and archaeological interest or architectural quality vested in the Fund ... together with their contents so vested".
The Trust cares for over 350 churches. The charity is financed partly by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Church Commissioners, but grants from those bodies were frozen in 2001, since when additional funding has come from other sources, including the general public. During the 2016-2017 period, the Trust's income was £9,184,283 and expenditures totaled £9,189,061; 92% of the latter was spent on front line projects. During that year it had 64 employees, and received the support of up to 2,000 volunteers. The charity is run by a board of trustees, who delegate the day-to-day management to a chief executive and his senior management team. (Full article...)List of selected lists
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Selected Did You Know . . .
- ...that John Harrison (pictured), seventeenth century benefactor of Leeds, is reputed to have slipped Charles I a tankard of gold coins disguised as beer?
- ... that Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford was allegedly killed by a spear through the anus at the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322?
- ...that Ebenezer Rhodes, Sheffield's Master Cutler, was declared bankrupt after losing money publishing books about Derbyshire?
- ...that the 364-metre pier in Withernsea, England was struck by ships four times, finally leaving it only 15 metres long?
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