“Fleur and Colin travelled to the historic town of Beverley, on the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds, to launch the second edition of their book The Yorkshire Wolds A Journey of Discovery. The new edition of this acclaimed book has been planned to coincide with the work by Natural England to consider designation of the Yorkshire Wolds as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. This year is also the 40th anniversary of the Yorkshire Wolds Way National Trail.
“The book was officially launched by Councillor Jane Evison, Portfolio holder for Tourism for East Riding of Yorkshire Council, at the Treasure House in Beverley, followed by a book signing in the excellent Beverley Bookshop – complete with cakes and roses. If you can’t get to Beverley for your signed copy of this limited edition, you can order it through the Shop part of this website (click here: Yorkshire Wolds Edition 2), price £15 post free.”
The views expressed in this post are those of the contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of all members of the Gritstone co-operative.
If Coronavirus has taught us one thing, it is the enormous value of the natural world, and our access to it. Just over 70 years ago the great 1949 National Park and Access to Open Country legislation opened the way to the great National Parks of England and Wales, access to many of our finest areas of uplands, the setting up of National Nature Reserves and the long process of recording the precious networks of public rights of way on Definitive Maps for every county in England and Wales. The paths and open public access areas have been a lifeline for many millions of people and undoubtedly saved the NHS many billions.
Gritstone author Colin Speakman won the Golden Eagle award for Outstanding Services to the Outdoors at the meeting of the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild this weekend.
Colin is a prolific writer, environmentalist, academic and broadcaster. He was presented with a specially commissioned painting of Pen-y-ghent by the artist and environmentalist, David Bellamy.
A co-creator of the Dales Way, now 50 years old and one of the most popular long distance paths in the country, Colin has written nearly 60 books, covering walking and history, transport guides, biographies, poems and fiction. He has recently been described as one of 20 of Britain’s all-time “Walking Heroes”.
His recent publication was a biography of John Phillips, the influential 19th-century Yorkshire scientist who completed the first detailed geological surveys of the Yorkshire Coast and the Yorkshire Dales and who helped establish the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
Gritstone Publishing is Britain’s first publishing co-operative run by authors. Gritstone specialises in publishing non-fiction and fiction titles relating to the landscape and the countryside. Its seven members are all experienced outdoor writers and journalists.
Caption: Colin Speakman with artist David Bellamy and his award
*Trade distribution of Colin’s new Yorkshire book: Cordee Ltd, 11 Jacknell Rd, Dodwells Bridge Industrial Estate, Hinckley, LE10 3BS, 01455 611185 and sales@cordee.co.uk
The views expressed in this post are those of the contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of all members of the Gritstone co-operative.
If you wanted to define the single most serious threat to the health, welfare and well-being of future generations of people living in Yorkshire, it would not be Covid-19, terrorism, nuclear weapons, a crashing economy, but something that impinges on all these things – climate change.
We now know from the evidence of the world’s leading scientists, that the world is now approaching a critical point.
The views expressed in this post are those of the contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of all members of the Gritstone co-operative.
It has become a commonplace that when the coronavirus pandemic finally ends, hopefully through mass vaccination of the UK population, Britain has the rare opportunity to become a greener society, one in which a respect for and understanding of the natural world will become a major driving force.
Some conception of how this might be achieved lies within the pages of Gritstone author Laurence Rose’s inspiring new book Framing Nature*, which explores the complex relationship between people and wildlife and how much we can benefit by understanding and respecting the natural world around us that ultimately we all depend on for our very existence.
The views expressed in this post are those of the contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of all members of the Gritstone co-operative.
The pandemic has forced many people to look at new lifestyle choices, including different ways of travelling. If air travel has suffered a massive (temporary) decline, so has public transport usage. Car travel on the other hand, is almost back to normal – lower in city centres as people abandon the daily commute but maybe even above normal levels in rural areas and country towns.
People are, however, cycling and walking more frequently – at least while the weather is fine and days are long.
The views expressed in this post are those of the contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of all members of the Gritstone co-operative.
With the sudden influx of visitors to the countryside as Lockdown eased, a hoary old myth has been allowed to re-appear, suggesting that the current problems are part of a rural/urban divide – an invasion of “townies” into the protected rural paradise enjoyed by locals.
The idea that people who live in towns are different from those who live in the countryside is as false now as it has ever been, but even more so in our time of almost universal rural motorised mobility.
The views expressed in this post are those of the contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of all members of the Gritstone co-operative.
One of the unforeseen, but devastating impacts of the Covid-19 crisis is the damage being inflicted on public transport. Usage of public transport during the height of the pandemic collapsed to between 5% and 10% of normal, in part a result of constant messages to avoid public transport or only use for “essential” work journeys.
Around 25 years ago my wife and I decided to give up our car, partly because we couldn’t afford the repair bill to our elderly Citroen, but also because we thought, living where we did in Ilkley in West Yorkshire, we could enjoy a car-free lifestyle, using excellent local buses and trains and walking and cycling whenever we could – what is now the Government’s new green agenda.
But for the first time in those 25 years we are regretting that decision.
Over 70 walkers joined local Gritstone member and author, Colin Speakman, at the weekend on a six mile walk on the Dales Way.
The Dales Way 11th Edition by Colin Speakman
The walk celebrated the original public walk organised over fifty years ago to inaugurate the 81 mile long Dales Way. The Dales Way is now one of England’s most popular long distance walks, connecting the towns and cities of West Yorkshire with the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District. The 50 Year Anniversary walk went along the banks of the River Wharfe from the start of the Dales Way in Ilkley to Bolton Abbey in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
Colin, a founder member of Gritstone Cooperative and now the Chairman of the Dales Way Association, and Vice President of both the West Riding Ramblers and the Yorkshire Dales Society, said it was “his privilege to have been able to lead the original walk on March 23rd 1969 and now the Golden Jubilee walk just over 50 years later”.
On their return to Ilkley, walkers joined Sir Rodney Brooke, President of the Ilkley Manor House Trust and Ilkley & Keighley MP John Grogan, for the official opening of a special exhibition dedicated to the story of the Dales Way.
Mr Grogan paid tribute to the vision and energy both Colin Speakman and Tom Wilcock of the West Riding Ramblers Association who had conceived and developed the route in 1969 as a way of encouraging access to the spectacular countryside of the Yorkshire Dales so close to the cities such as Leeds and Bradford.
The free Dales Way 50th exhibition is open on weekends at the Ilkley Manor House until September 1st (see www.ilkleymanorhouse.org full for opening times and directions).
Supported by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Sustainable Development, Fund, the Dales Way Association has also published a special illustrated souvenir booklet 50 years of the Dales Way Priced at £4.99 it is available by contacting Colin, at the exhibition or can be obtained post free via the Dales Way Association www.dales way org.
Colin’s most up to date guidebook of the Dales Way, now in it’s 11th Edition, is also available from Gritstone.
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
