Hug an Airedale and eleven other things to do on Yorkshire Day

Happy Yorkshire Day to all Yorkshire folk, to Tykes abroad and offcumdens (those born outside the County), that love and connect with the Broad Acres.
Here are twelve things you can do to celebrate Yorkshire on its official recognition day, August 1 or on any day that you are inclined to get connected to the people, places and customs of Yorkshire.

1. Wear the White Rose

The White Rose is the emblem of the County of Yorkshire. Please don’t confuse this with the red rose of Lancashire or the wild rose of Alberta, Canada where I now reside. Wave the flag if you can!

2. Eat Yorkshire puddings

Make and eat some Yorkshire puddings. Here is a recipe from an old and battered tea towel. My Mum taught me to ensure that your fat in the tins is hot before you add the mix, and not to peep inside while it’s cooking (keep the oven door closed!) Another tip from me is to add a good dash of beer while mixing to help them rise. Timothy Taylor’s is the best (see below).

3. Drink some decent beer

Have a celebratory drink of some good Yorkshire ale. The best of a very good bunch to choose from is Timothy Taylor’s. I am biased since Landlord and other good sups is brewed in my home town, Keighley, but many Championship judges have decided that as well.

4. Have a proper brew

If alcohol is not your thing, and that is fine, or it’s just too early in the morning, make a proper brew of tea. For our family that means one thing: Taylors Yorkshire Tea. Not to be confused with the name of the beer, this is best mashed in a proper pot (a Brown Betty is nice) and taken with buttered toast, a bacon butty, or some shortbread biscuits. Or all of those!

5. Read a Yorkshire book

Maybe one from one o’ them books by the Brontë sisters such as Wuthering Heights, Emily’s only novel published in 1847. It’s amongst the greatest novels of passion in the English language and is based around the farms and moors of Haworth, in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

If you like, have a look at Cobbled Together, a book of Yorkshire dialect and other poems about Haworth, written by my mother, Dorothy Nixon, with my photographs from the village we were both born in.

6. Have a laugh

If you are short of reading time and in need of a laugh, watch some old Monty Python on YouTube. See Cathy and Heathcliff performing Wuthering Heights in semaphore or check out the Four Yorkshiremen sketch.

7. Listen to some Yorkshire music

If you want to stick with tradition, then brass band music is your best bet. There are many recordings by mill and colliery bands from Yorkshire to listen to. The Grimethorpe Colliery Band’s rendition of the Adagio movement of Concierto Aranjuez, by Joaquín Rodrigo (called “Orange Juice” in the film Brassed Off-see below) is beautifully haunting. For something more jaunty, listen to The Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band playing the Floral Dance or summat like that. Or go more modern with a tune from Yorkshire artists such as The Arctic Monkeys (Sheffield), The Reytons (Rotherham), Kaiser Chiefs (Leeds) or The Housemartins (Hull).

8. Sing a song!

Top o’t list for Yorkshire Day is, of course, the anthem Ilkley Moor Baht ‘At. Any struggle through the dialect is worth it in this very ecological song from the moors between Airedale and Wharefedale. For a variation, check out Brian Blessed’s rap version.

9. Watch a film

Go watch a rerun of a film like Brassed Off or The Full Monty for dark humour about the decline of the mining and steel industries in Yorkshire. The aforesaid Wuthering Heights or sister Charlotte’s Jane Eyre offer plenty of versions to choose from over the years.

One of my own all-time favourites is The Railway Children, directed by Lionel Jeffries in 1970 and filmed in my home village, Haworth, and along the Keighley & Worth Valley Preservation Society railway line. Alternatively, a TV series (and film) like All Creatures Great and Small, which features vets on the North York Moors/Yorkshire Dales.

10. Eat some Wensleydale cheese

Back to some food ideas, you can’t go too wrong with a slice of Wensleydale cheese, just like Wallace and Gromit enjoy with their crackers, or do it my way, with a nice piece of apple pie.

11. Hug an Airedale

Yorkshire is known for two breeds of dog. One is the scrappy little Yorkshire Terrier that many people love and some choose to dress up and put curlers in their hair. Then there’s the biggest and the best, the internationally recognized royalty of Terrier breeds, the Airedale.

If you see an Airedale on the street or in the park, please say hello! If you have an Airedale in your family, please give her/him a special hug today. Sadly, my lovely Arya the Airedale and Aspen the Airedale have both passed away but you can see sweet Aspen starring in my short documentary film, Airedale: Terrier and Terrain.

12. Visit Yorkshire

Unless you are currently living in Yorkshire, in which case you can tick this one off, book a holiday to visit Yorkshire.  Cycling is one way to get around if you’re keen and fit. The 2014 Tour de France (@letouryorkshire) ran its first two stages from and between Leeds, Harrogate, York and Sheffield, including through Haworth, where I was born and bred.

Enjoy your Day

So there are twelve things to do on August 1, Yorkshire Day. As we say in Yorkshire, enjoy thissen and sithee!