The Battle of Hastings was only the beginning of the Norman Conquest of England and castles were one of their key weapons in the conquest of the North.
To subdue the rebellious north William the Conqueror redistributed the lands of Anglo-Saxon lords to his trusted Norman knights, including the Percys, who continued the conquest. By 1086 the Percy family held large estates in Yorkshire, including Wetherby, and by 1400 they were perhaps the greatest landed family in the north.
Gillian Waters explored how the Percy family gained their lands and castles in the north of England, including Wetherby, and how their castles reflected the changing styles over the centuries; from early motte and baileys to fortified manor houses. She also explored how Tottenham Hotspur Football Club acquired its name, and how the Percys eventually lost their manor of Wetherby.
Graham Read is an experienced Formula 1 correspondent and car tester, who also likes to share his passion for these subjects as a guest speaker, with his talks being accompanied by plenty of eye-catching PowerPoint images. On 26th November Graham will join us again to share his new talk all about the life on and off track of the iconic and charismatic Brazilian triple F1 world champion, Ayrton Senna da Silva, and it will cover all the major moments in his life from his birth to his sadly premature death.
Brian Hull gave a presentation of Lord Armstrong the nineteenth century pioneering engineer. The talk featured many images of his industrial achievements and concluded with an exploration around the estate at Cragside, Rothbury, Northumberland and the famous house. Included were explanations of the ground breaking “Armstrong gun”, a highly innovative field artillery piece featuring the barrel comprised of successive layers of wrought iron, a breech loading mechanism, giving a manoeuvrable weapon, in stark contrast to the heavy artillery in use during the Crimea War, for which his invention was designed to supplant.
The many adaptations of hydraulic power and Armstrong’s famous Accumulator were noted, including the steam powered bascules of Tower Bridge, London, designed and installed by the Armstrong company. Other engineering achievements included swing bridges, most famously crossing the Tyne river, but also railway swing bridges over the Ouse in Yorkshire. Then mentioned were his enormous cranes often rated at 100 tons, used for lifting heavy gun barrels onto the ships built by Armstrongs on the Tyne. At the end of the nineteenth century his companies famously provided all the ships used by Japan in the Russo-Japan war.
His vision assisted by the architect Richard Norman Shaw in developing a hunting lodge on the hillside at Cragside into the delightful house situated above Debdon Burn, unique in the World for the electric power provided by hydro-electricity and visited today by many thousands each year, completed the talk.
Wetherby and Boston Spa Men’s Forum resumed its regular Wednesday morning meetings on the 7th of January after the Christmas break with a talk by a volunteer speaker from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s (CWGC) Foundation.
The illustrated talk detailed the history and role of the CWGC and how they ensure that the 1.7 million men and women of the Commonwealth that died in the world wars are commemorated across 23,000 sites in over 150 countries so that the human cost of war is remembered forever. The talk also focused on the Yorkshire contribution in the world wars with some poignant stories of those that paid the ultimate sacrifice and who are commemorated by the CWGC.
Phew – it is so wet and cold – come and get warm & dry !
Come for a free cuppa tomorrow (28th January) and listen to Andy Fox telling you how to “Safeguard yourself from fraud”.
It is all happening in the St James Church Room, Wetherby commencing at 9.45 am.
Last week we heard Brian Hull giving a presentation of Lord Armstrong the nineteenth century pioneering engineer. The talk featured many images of his industrial achievements and concluded with an exploration around the estate at Cragside, Rothbury, Northumberland and the famous house.
Included were explanations of the ground breaking “Armstrong gun”, a highly innovative field artillery piece featuring the barrel comprised of successive layers of wrought iron, a breech loading mechanism, giving a manoeuvrable weapon, in stark contrast to the heavy artillery in use during the Crimea War, for which his invention was designed to supplant.
Don’t miss this week’s presentation – see you there ! !
Come and join us for a ‘cuppa’ on Wednesday 21st January at 9.45 in St James’ Centre Church Room, Wetherby when Brian Hull will be telling us about “Lord Armstrong, Victorian Industrialist par excellence and Cragside”.
It’s all ‘free of charge’, so come along and keep warm and have some fun with us ! !
See you there ! !
The presence of ghosts is an important factor in the tourist industry of York and the most haunted building is alleged to be the Treasurer’s House.
The Forum’s guest speaker on the 4th of March was Glennis Whyte, a volunteer with the National Trust at the Treasurer’s House, whose subject was Ghostly Tales of Treasurer’s House. She assured members that she had an open mind as to the truth of her stories.
She began by relating the history of the house which had been owned by many people before being bought by Frank Green, a wealthy industrialist from Wakefield.
In 1930 he gave the property to the National Trust with certain restrictions on its use. Breaches of these conditions seemed to have been followed by unexplained occurrences such as movement of furniture and items witnessed by members of the staff and visitors.
Many people have reported seeing figures on the stairs who disappeared without reason. One particular instance involves a lady who invites children to sit on a chair, this figure only appears to children.
Finally Glennis mentioned the most famous ghosts when a young worker in the cellar witnessed a troop of Roman legionnaires marching by. This vision has been reported by other witnesses. Members joined in a discussion on the existence of ghosts, some being more sceptical than others.
Mike Earle proposed a vote of thanks to Glennis for a fascinating talk.
The Forum occasionally organises a meeting where the speaker is a well-known personality and the members invite guests to join them to enjoy the entertainment.
On the 28th of February the speaker was Amanda Owen the Yorkshire Shepherdess.
99 members and guests filled the Church Centre and were not disappointed by Amanda’s superb presentation. Her talk was illustrated by pictures of her farm at Ravenseat in Swaledale taken by herself or one of her children.
Amanda described how her life progressed from living in Huddersfield to marrying Clive, a sheep farmer in Swaledale and producing a family of nine children. Her ambition in life had always been work in the countryside after reading James Heriot’s book If Only They Could Talk and she was working in the Lake District on any farm work she could obtain when Clive asked her to help with a problem with one of his sheep.
Ravenseat Farm is high up in the hills and is half-way along the coast-to-coast walk. Catering for the passing walkers produces a useful supplementary income because an estimated 16,000 walkers pass each year.
Amanda appears regularly on television and has written a number of books about life on a sheep farm, all of which have featured in the Sunday Times Best-Sellers list.
Amanda invited questions from the audience which resulted in an interesting discussion about the effects of global warming and mistakes made in draining the moorland.
Forum Chairman Mike Earle proposed a vote of thanks and Amanda signed copies of her books for the audience.
On the 19th of February the Forum’s guest speaker was Gillian Waters who had spoken previously on topics of medieval history.
On this occasion her subject was Richard the Third, Hero or Tyrant.
At the outset Gillian admitted that she quite liked her subject and she started by destroying some preconceptions about him. Modern opinion is based on Shakespeare’s play which is based on Tudor propaganda (Gillian’s description).
This portrays him as an evil monster with many physical deformities. Although he suffered from curvature of the spine, in other respects his appearance was unremarkable. Gillian detailed the complicated history of the fifteenth century when the houses of Lancaster and York vied for the position of King of England until Richard, supported mainly by landowners and troops from the North of England, became Richard the Third. This included the murder of the two young prices in the Tower of London although there is little proof that Richard was responsible for this. In 1485 Henry Tudor landed in Wales and marched into England at the head of his army.
Henry had no justifiable claim to be King being only distantly related to the royal line, but he defeated Richard at the Battle of Bosworth, slaying Richard on the battlefield. Richard’s body was carried to Leicester where it was buried in an obscure churchyard and laid undiscovered until recently uncovered under a carpark.
After questions from Forum members Chairman Mike Earle proposed a vote of thanks to Gillian Waters for a most interesting talk.
On the 12th of February the Forum welcomed Victor Hawkins from Wetherby Historical Trust.
His talk was titled The Great Sale of Wetherby and described the occasion in 1824 when all property in our town was auctioned by its owner the Duke of Devonshire to obtain funds to settle gambling debts (it is believed).
Victor started by listing the various owners from the town’s establishment in Anglo-Saxon times to the time of the sale. He circulated a copy of the sale documents, pointing out the fanciful descriptions contained.
He went through a few of the prices paid for various properties, the most expensive being a package of the two corn mills at 8,100 guineas and the cheapest being Bishopgate, a large slum tenement building on the site of the present day Bridgefoot Gardens, at 410 guineas.
The whole sale raised 198,476 guineas for the Duke, estimated to be worth £73 million by modern standards. Victor fielded many questions from Forum members particularly about who the purchasers were. Some were tenants of the properties many of whom were declared bankrupt the following year.
Chairman Mike Earle proposed a vote of thanks, enthusiastically supported by the members.