YORKSHIRE NEWS
On the Yorkshire Life radar: events, openings and happenings across Yorkshire
GROWTH PLAN
Exciting times for Dr John Grimshaw, director of the Yorkshire Arboretum at Castle Howard, who was named MBE in the New Year Honours List, for services to Tree Health and Plant Conservation.
‘It came as a great surprise,’ he said. ‘It’s a recognition for what everyone at the arboretum has been doing to raise awareness about tree health and the need to conserve the diversity of trees.’
STEAM AHEAD
Britannia, the locomotive which hauled the funeral train of King George VI from King’s Lynn in Norfolk to London during February 1952, visits the North Yorkshire Moors Railway in February. Enjoy adventures on board with activity sheets in ‘crafty corner’, demos, and a fairytale show with Storycraft Theatre on February 13 at Pickering Station. nymr.co.uk/britannia
Buttering up
Yorkshire is home to some brilliant bread makers and February is the month to show your support as the Real Bread Campaign encourages people around the globe to bake and buy real bread in Real Bread Week (February 17-25).
The campaign supports and promotes bakers who are making additive-free bread – and also encourages people to dig out their unused bread-making machine and get baking. Bread is cheap to make, nutritious and timeless – and tastes brilliant and comforting straight from the oven. There’s also something to be said for the mindful activity of mixing, kneading and shaping dough by hand, which is calming and therapeutic.
An interactive map will guide you through some of Yorkshire’s real bread bakeries so you can make a pilgrimage in February, join classes or be inspired for a 2024 food tour to tick them all off.
Favourites include: Leeds Bread Co-op in Meanwood, award-winning Crow’s Rest Microbakery in Wakefield, which specialises in sourdough bread using organic stoneground flour &UK grain, Crust &Crumb in Brighouse, a family-run business operating as a bakery, coffee shop and wood-fired sourdough pizza spot.
In Glaisdale, Off the Rails sells real bread from a kitchen window, opening on to Glaisdale Station Car Park. Bakery workshops available. And the much-loved Haxby Bakehouse is always worth a visit if you’re in the York area. In Sheffield, Forge Bakehouse is worth a visit – be tempted by a bread menu which changes throughout the week, and the seasons. realbreadcampaign.org
LASTING TRIBUTE
North Yorkshire-based artist blacksmith James Wilkinson has created a touching sculpture after being commissioned by Guildford High School to remember a past pupil, Emily Oliver, who recently passed away.
Said James: ‘A s an artist, blacksmith and metal fabricator, I’ve created many bespoke s
