Events and Activities
Events for 2025 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.
Tour of Calverley Old Hall
- NOW FULLY BOOKED
Thursday 13 February 2025
We have arranged a guided tour of the recently restored Calverley Old Hall in West Yorkshire on Thursday 13 February from 1pm to 3pm. There is no charge but donations are welcome. Numbers are restricted to 15; if you'd like to come, please book via email to David Cant, davidjcant@hotmail.com or by post to 3 Middle Hathershelf, Halifax HX2 6JQ, including a phone number for confirmation. You might have seen images of the spectacular wall paintings recently discovered at the Hall, or the splendid hammerbeam roof, but there are also more modest features of interest to be seen. Further information about the Hall can be found on the Landmark Trust website. If you can't make the YVBSG visit, public open days at the Hall are planned for 17 and 18 May 2025 - see the Landmark Trust website for details.
A visit to Newlaithes Manor House, Horsforth, and Kirkstall Abbey
- NOW FULLY BOOKED
Sunday 2 March 2025
A visit led by Peter Thornborrow, postponed from 2024. 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. 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 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. Here the timber structure is covered by more plank wall panelling incorporating nine panels of Tudor linenfold panelling, very fine and rare carved with a cross design suggesting ecclesiastical origin.
We'll meet at 10.30am. After our visit we will depart in convoy going direct to Kirkstall Abbey - to eat in their own cafe, some tables outside in the grounds.
After lunch, we'll start our visit in the museum street, roughly at 1.30pm. Susan Wrathmell has agreed to act as our guide round the Abbey remains. She is the author of the excellent book: Leeds (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides) which provides a detailed plan and description of the abbey. Entry to the abbey is £6.20 unless you are a Leeds resident when it is free. It has two museums, one in the former cloister features a re-created Victorian street.
For full details and information on how to book, please see the document: Visit to Newlaithes Manor House, Newlaithes Road, Horsforth, and Kirkstall Abbey.
Vernacular Architecture of the South Pennines
Saturday 15 March 2025
Our annual day school this year will be held at the Imperial Crown Hotel in Halifax from 9.30am to 5pm. It will look at how the landscape, social and economic aspects are reflected in the buildings of the area, and the talks are:
- The Vernacular Architecture Group and future directions in vernacular studies by Rebecca Lane
- The evolution of settlement in the Upper Calder Valley by Nigel Smith
- Christopher F Stell: a pioneering study of the vernacular buildings of the Upper Calder Valley by Peter Thornborrow
- Features of buildings in the Yorkshire and Lancashire Pennines by Kevin Illingworth
- The 17th century decorative plasterwork extravaganza in the Yorkshire and Lancashire Pennines by Mark Womersley
- Some evidence for Civil War damage and rebuilding in Skipton by Susan Wrathmell
Fee: £30 for YVBSG members, £35 for non-members, including buffet lunch and other refreshments. Closing date for booking: now extended to 10 March 2025. Full details of the programme and how to book can be found on the booking form (Word format or pdf format).
Introduction to traditional lime plastering
Sunday 16 March 2025
We are offering a full introduction to lime plastering and a practical demonstration workshop with Mark Womersley, showing you how to recreate a section of mid-seventeenth-century ornate wall plaster. The workshop will use haired lime plaster gauged with Plaster of Paris onto a lathed background and demonstrate the application of hand-shaped stucco and the fixing of cast decorative elements. The half-day, which includes pastries and hot drinks on arrival and a light lunch before you go, will be held in the Crossley Gallery at Dean Clough between 9am and 12.30pm and will cost only £45 per person. Free parking is available at the venue. Places are limited to 30 people.
If you would like to come, please email mark@mwomersleys.co.uk or text Mark on 07802 549634, and he will send you a prepayment invoice and book you on this half-day workshop. Mark has worked with lime plasters for the last thirty years and will provide a fascinating and entertaining session - if you're coming to the day school on the previous day, why not stay on in the area for this extra half-day?
Visit to Woodsome Hall, Fenay Bridge
Saturday 12 April 2025
A visit to this fine Grade I listed hall near Huddersfield, now a golf club (www.woodsome.co.uk). Woodsome Hall is a Grade I listed building and is the former home of the Kaye family. The day will include a tour of the buildings and a short guided walk around the nearby village of Almondbury. There will also be the chance to see a small, surviving timber-framed building in the grounds. Refreshments including a basic lunch will be provided. Cost £10 for YVBSG members, £12 for guests. To book, please complete and return the booking form - closing date 1 April 2025.
Annual General Meeting
Thursday 24 April 2025
The 2025 AGM will be held by Zoom in the evening, accompanied by a short talk by Mary Twentyman: Too late to see? Images of Bradford buildings. Attendance is restricted to members only.
Annual Recording Conference
Friday 9 May to Sunday 11 May 2025
This year's conference will be held 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 Shelf 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 walk around Calverley in the afternoon.
Full details are available in the conference programme and booking form (pdf format or Word format). Closing date for booking: 23 April 2025.
Two bursaries of £150 each are available to help attendance at the conference; further details can be found on the Bursary Application Form.
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
- None scheduled at present.