Events and Activities

Events for 2024 will include those listed below. Other events are being planned and details will be published here when finalised. Do visit our YVBSG YouTube channel where you will find recordings of talks and short videos of previous visits.

  • Shandy Hall bread ovens and Coxwold walkabout

    Thursday 28 March 2024

    Join us on a visit to look at the newly discovered bread oven at Shandy Hall, Coxwold, followed by a walkabout in Coxwold. There is much of interest in this attractive village located eight miles south-east of Thirsk. The Group has recorded one building here: report 911, The Old School or Old Hall.

    • 10.00-10.30 - Arrive at Coxwold. Parking is at the Village Hall, YO61 4BB, where there are also toilets. Allow at least five minutes for the walk to Shandy Hall at the top of the hill. There is also village street parking for a shorter walk to Shandy Hall up Thirsk Bank. Unfortunately the Coxwold Tea Rooms do not open until 11.00.
    • 10.30 - Shandy Hall. Chris Pearson will give a guided tour round the outside of the building to explain what is known of its development (the recently revealed oven is on the outside too) before going inside to look at the bread ovens. She will also show us the wall painting in the parlour downstairs and a picture of the one upstairs.
    • 12.00 - Lunch. Members are advised to book a table at The Fauconberg, or try the Tea Rooms or bring a packed lunch.
    • 13.30 - Gather at St Michael's church for walkabout of Coxwold village with Moira Fulton.
    • 15.30 - Moira has kindly offered tea at her Coxwold home for those wishing to have refreshments before departing. Closing time around 16.00.

    Numbers are limited to 10 members. Please contact David Cook on archivist@yvbsg.org.uk or call 07810 668975 to book a place, first come, first served.

  • Marks, Graffiti, Wall Paintings and Decoration in Yorkshire Buildings

    Saturday 27 April 2024

    We're pleased to resume our annual day schools with an event to be held at York St John University from 9.30am to 5.45pm. The programme comprises:

    • Markings on timber and stone (David Cant)
    • Farm graffiti of the Yorkshire Wolds (Professor Kate Giles and Professor Mel Giles)
    • A farmer's daybook carved in oak: beam carvings at Manor Farm, Upper Midhope (Andrew Bower and Andy Bentham)
    • The painted chamber at Calverley Old Hall (Caroline Stanford)
    • The wall paintings of Pickering Church: their discovery, restoration and meaning (Professor Kate Giles)
    • Painted decoration on plasterwork, carved oak and panelling, and stained glass in West Yorkshire's mid sixteenth and seventeenth vernacular houses (Peter Thornborrow)

    For more information and to book a place, please see the full details. The booking form on its own is also available in Word format. The booking deadline is 14 April 2024 and the day school is open to all.

    The Group's AGM will be held immediately after the talks.

  • Vernacular Buildings of Bridlington

    Friday 10 to Sunday 12 May 2024

    This year's annual recording conference will be held in the seaside town of Bridlington, and we'll be recording buildings in the area including nearby villages. In the evening lectures, David Neave and Richard Myerscough will introduce us to the local architecture and building stones. On the Sunday afternoon we'll have a tour of Bridlington's very interesting Old Town, which has one of the best preserved Georgian streets in the county.

    For full details and to book a place, please see the attached conference leaflet and booking form - the booking deadline is 15 April 2024 and the conference is open to all. Two bursaries are available; for more information and to apply, please see the Bursary Application Form.

  • A walk around Easingwold

    Monday 8 July 2024

    A guided walk looking at vernacular buildings in Easingwold on Monday 8 July. The group has recorded more than a dozen varied buildings in the town, ranging from the timber-framed Tudor House and Cottage in Uppleby to a brick-built dovecote off Long Street. Our leader will be local historian Valerie Taylor. Meet at 11am in the Market Place, and bring a picnic or have lunch in one of several cafes. Maximum number 18. Please book your place by mailing Gunhildwilcock@icloud.com.

  • A visit to Newlaithes Manor House, Horsforth, and Kirkstall Abbey

    - PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED TO 2025

    Saturday 28 September 2024

    A visit led by Peter Thornborrow. Newlaithes Manor House is a complicated building but in essence is an aisled hall with a rear aisle under a low sloping catslide roof heated by a large segmental-arched stone fireplace set next to the original rear Tudor-arched doorway - probably the kitchen originally. It has a separate housebody with seventeenth century panelled walls. The attached former two-storey parlour wing, now a small cottage, has the remains of timber-framing (wall-plate, corner posts and braces) and a large external chimney stack for fireplaces on both floors.

    Of greatest interest is the four-bay aisle arcade visible at the first floor in a corridor the length of the building with board-and-muntin panelled walls set between jowled posts. The end bay has stone walls and windows on two sides with an angled corner fireplace. Here the timber structure is covered by more plank wall panelling, the styles with reeded edges, incorporating nine panels of Tudor linenfold panelling, very fine and rare carved with a cross design suggesting ecclesiastical origin - perhaps from the Prior's lodging at nearby Kirkstall Abbey which we will visit in the afternoon.

    For more information, please see the further details. To book a place, please ring Peter's mobile on 07304 048049. Confirm: peterthornborrow@gmail.com.

  • Bridlington and Boynton Review

    Saturday 5 October 2024

    After our successful recording conference based in Bridlington we are getting the reports ready in preparation for this follow-up day. In the morning we will meet in the Priory Rooms in Bridlington for presentatons on the buildings recorded. After a buffet lunch we'll travel to Boynton where we have a visit to Boynton Hall, courtesy of the owner, Mrs Marriott. It's a multi-period building and there is much of vernacular interest as well as work by John Carr and Jeffry Wyatville. We will then have a look at the village and the three buildings recorded.

    To book a place, please complete and return the booking form (Word version or pdf version) together with your payment.

    2025

  • Annual day school

    Saturday 15 March 2025

    Our next day school will be held at the Square Chapel Arts Centre, Winding Road, Halifax HX1 1QG. The theme will be Vernacular Buildings of the South Pennines, looking at how the landscape, social and economic aspects are reflected in the buildings of the area. Speakers will include Peter Thornborrow and Kevin Illingworth, who are both very knowledgeable about buildings either side of the Pennines; Sue Wrathmell, who will talk about buildings in the Skipton area; and others being arranged. The booking form will be available early in the new year. For now, hold the date!

  • AGM

    Date to be confirmed

    In response to several requests, the AGM will be held on an alternative day, probably by Zoom, rather than after the day school as in previous years. Details to follow.

  • Annual Recording Conference

    Friday 9 May to Sunday 11 May 2025

    We're planning to hold our next conference in the Bradford area, based at Aldersgate Methodist Chapel, Common Road, Low Moor, Bradford BD12 0TW and on Sunday at Calverley Old Hall, 10 Woodhall Road, Calverley, Pudsey LS28 5NL. The conference will follow the usual format of a meal, lecture and introduction to the locality on the Friday; surveying buildings in the Wibsey, Low Moor and Horton areas of Bradford, followed by a lecture at Aldersgate, and a meal at a local venue on Saturday; and concluding with drawing up at Calverley Old Hall Community Room in the morning on Sunday, followed by lunch and a visit in the afternoon. The booking form will be available early in the new year.

Third Thursday Talks

We are continuing to offer a series of occasional online talks which will normally take place by Zoom at 7.30pm on the third Thursday of the month. The talks are open to all (including non-members) and are free of charge. Members are notified by email as soon as booking is open for each talk, and details are also added to this website. When booking for a talk is open, please register by clicking on the 'Book now' button, which will take you to the Eventbrite booking page. Joining instructions with the Zoom link will be sent by email after booking. When possible, the talks will be recorded and published on the YVBSG YouTube channel.

Future talks

  • Weavers' cottages and loomshops in the Huddersfield area

    A talk by Colum Giles on Thursday 16 January 2025 at 7.30pm.

    Weavers' cottages are found widely in the West Riding of Yorkshire but especially to the west and south of Huddersfield, where they occur in such numbers as to give a distinct character to the area’s landscape. They have a strongly regional character, built of local stone and with the long multi-light mullioned windows which serve to identify them. This talk will describe the different forms taken by these cottages, discuss the range of dates at which they were built and examine their role within the woollen textile industry during the period in which, one by one, the different stages of manufacture were mechanised, leading to the demise of domestic production.

    Booking not yet open.