The Yorkshire Portal
Yorkshire (/ˈjɔːrkʃər, -ʃɪər/ YORK-shər, -sheer) is an area of Northern England which was historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was 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 west contains part of the Pennines, which form the Yorkshire Dales in the north-west. (Full article...)
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Guy Fawkes (13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
Fawkes was born and educated in York. His father died when Fawkes was eight years old, after which his mother married a recusant Catholic. Fawkes later converted to Catholicism and left for the continent, where he fought in the Eighty Years' War on the side of Catholic Spain against Protestant Dutch reformers. He travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England but was unsuccessful. He later met Thomas Wintour, with whom he returned to England.
Wintour introduced Fawkes to Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. The plotters secured the lease to an undercroft beneath the House of Lords, and Fawkes was placed in charge of the gunpowder they stockpiled there. Prompted by the receipt of an anonymous letter, the authorities searched Westminster Palace during the early hours of 5 November, and found Fawkes guarding the explosives. Over the next few days, he was questioned and tortured, and eventually he broke. Immediately before his execution on 31 January, Fawkes jumped from the scaffold where he was to be hanged and broke his neck, thus avoiding the agony of the mutilation that followed.
Fawkes became synonymous with the Gunpowder Plot, the failure of which has been commemorated in England since 5 November 1605. His effigy is traditionally burned on a bonfire, commonly accompanied by a firework display. (read more . . . )
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Credit: Photograph by Chris Franks
Conisbrough Castle Keep is a 100 ft high circular keep, which is supported by six buttresses that dates to the 12th century. In the mid-1990s, the keep was restored, with a wooden roof and two floors rebuilt. (read more . . . )
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George Herbert Hirst (7 September 1871 – 10 May 1954) was a professional English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1891 and 1921, with a further appearance in 1929. He played in 24 Test matches for England between 1897 to 1909, touring Australia twice. One of the best all-rounders of his time, Hirst was a left arm medium-fast bowler and right-handed batsman. He completed the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in an English cricket season 14 times, the second most of any cricketer after his contemporary and team-mate Wilfred Rhodes. One of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year for 1901, Hirst scored 36,356 runs and took 2,742 wickets in first-class cricket. His Test figures were 790 runs and 59 wickets. (read more . . . )
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Selected Did You Know . . .
- ... that St Mary's Church, Whitby (pictured), was the setting for a scene from Bram Stoker's Dracula?
- ... that Butchers Wheel, a cutlery and tool factory in Sheffield, could only be accessed through a single, guarded door?
- ... that disputes between rival railway companies during the building of the Cleveland Railway became so intense that they led to a "battle" on the River Tees?
- ... that a large fragment of the Northumbrian Easby Cross was over 1,000 years old when it was found built into a wall in a field?
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