External carvings on the South Nave Clerestory, which directs rainwater off the building, have become so badly eroded across the centuries that they are unrecognisable fragments. There is no record of what these carvings originally…
York Festival of Ideas 2021 has many online history events to watch and engage with; these include the events below. A full list of history events can be viewed at https://yorkfestivalofideas.com/2021/themes/history/. York’s City Walls in…
Interpreting Medieval Effigies: The Evidence from Yorkshire to 1400 by Brian & Moira Gittos was originally published in 2019 but is now being re-issued in paperback. It explores Yorkshire’s medieval effigies in great detail and…
The Socialist History Group have produced a ‘zine’ that has several articles in that may be of particular interest to our members: “When Basque Bairns came to Wakefield”, about the arrival of 65 Spanish children…
Online talk on “John Smeaton and the Calder Navigation”, 14 April 2021 by Lesley Taylor and Shirley Levon Lesley Taylor explained that the research that she and Shirley Levon had conducted was initiated during the…
As a farmer, he always shows great concern for his fields and his animals, and despite all his experience some years bring misfortunes. (yean is an old word meaning to give birth) April 2nd 1809…
Gresham College provides free public History lectures which you can watch both at the scheduled time and afterwards (online). You can read more about Gresham College’s free public lectures since 1597 here. Of general topical interest,…
An interesting article about Jenner and vaccination from the Museum Director at Dr. Jenner’s House. It is good to see Lady Mary Wortley Montagu mentioned – there is a monument to her at Wentworth Castle…
Lupset Hall Wakefield Civic Society has alerted us to a planning application to turn Lupset Hall into residential apartments: https://planning.wakefield.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=QNLOLTQQLH000 Amongst the 41 documents is a Heritage Impact Assessment which provides a history of the…
In September 2019 our excursion programme included a visit to Calverley Old Hall near Leeds which is a Grade I listed medieval manor house with fabric dating from the 13th to 17th centuries. While part…