Events and Activities
An Annual Conference is held over a weekend in spring or early summer. On the first evening there is usually a lecture or training seminar, then the following day is spent in survey teams making plans and drawings of buildings, which are used on the following day to produce an interpretative report. A further lecture, a visit and social events complete the weekend.
An Annual Day School concentrating on a particular topic, with speakers from both Yorkshire and other areas, is held usually in March. Previous day schools have covered Features, Fixtures and Fittings; Recording Techniques; Traditional Buildings of Yorkshire; The Roof over Your Head; Yorkshire's Traditional Farm Buildings; Vernacular Houses and Buildings in Towns; Old Mills and Workshops; The House and Family History; Understanding the Buildings of Estate Villages; Vernacular Buildings in the Landscape; Brick and Tile in Yorkshire's Vernacular Buildings; Vernacular Buildings on Yorkshire's Borders; and Timber-Framed Vernacular Buildings in Yorkshire. The group's AGM is held immediately after the day school.
Field Recording Days are organised to study buildings in a certain area. Survey teams draw and measure buildings, and the report-writing, drawing-up and interpretation take place at home afterwards.
Walkabout Tours of towns and villages, led by a local expert, introduce members to the architecture of an area.
Training Seminars take place occasionally, with topics ranging from identification and interpretation to measuring and drawing skills.
Programme of Events 2010
East Keswick Buildings Event
Sunday 7 February 2010
A joint event to learn more about the buildings of the East Keswick area and look at recent work in other areas by the YVBSG. Everyone welcome but places limited - book soon! Includes a guided walk round the village, talks, optional buffet lunch and tea, and an opportunity to socialise. From 12.15 to 7.30pm - come along for all or just some of the varied activities. To reserve a place, please print, complete and return the booking form, enclosing your fee.
Postscript as of 14 January 2010: As the postal distribution of the booking form has been delayed (it should be sent out very soon), members are invited to complete an electronic version of the form as soon as possible (please disregard the booking deadline) and to email it to David Cant. Payment will be due on the day of the event - if you need to cancel, please do so by Friday 5 February otherwise you will be committed to paying the full fee.
Vernacular Buildings of Market Towns
Saturday 13 March 2010
At this day school, to be again held jointly with the Yorkshire Archaeological Society at Headingley Campus of Leeds Metropolitan University, we will examine the vernacular buildings of market towns in Yorkshire. In addition one paper will look at the work and role of English Heritage in our understanding of these buildings and another will consider what the buildings tell us about the way people lived in the eighteenth century. Talks will include:
- Urban building before the Age of Improvement: some market towns in the Vale of York from the late fifteenth to the mid seventeenth centuries - Barry Harrison
- Seaside and moorside: five towns in north-east Yorkshire - Ian Pattison
- English Heritage and research into market towns - Colum Giles
- Skipton - four hundred years of change on the High Street - Sue Wrathmell
- Thorne: from Royal Hunting Park to Market Town. An 18th Century Merchant's House in the South Yorkshire Fens - Andrew Whitham
- What do buildings tell us about eighteenth century living? - George Sheeran
To reserve a place, please print, complete and return the booking form, enclosing your fee.
The YVBSG will hold its AGM immediately after the talks as usual.
A walk around the Howcans potteries north of Halifax
Sunday 25 April 2010
A two-and-a-half to three hour walk with Stuart Crowther to look at the remains of the once productive potteries around Howcans, and some of the buildings associated with them. The walk is over field paths and some tracks, so suitable footwear should be worn. Start from the car park at the Sportsman Inn, Bradford Old Road, Halifax, West Yorkshire, HX3 6UG (off the A647 Bradford to Halifax road, grid reference SE 093 272) at 10.30am. No need to book. A carvery is available at the pub to provide sustenance after the walk.
Background reading: Yorkshire Potteries by Oxley Grabham (1916, reprint 1971); article in Halifax Antiquarian Transactions 1938 on 'Decadent Local Industries'.
Annual Recording Conference in Beverley
Friday 14 to Sunday 16 May 2010
"Beverley is among the finest of England's small country towns, yet is one of the least well known. Its historic core is remarkably intact, with a great wealth of Georgian and earlier buildings lining the broad straight streets and winding lanes of the medieval town". The Buildings of England. Yorkshire: York and the East Riding by Nikolaus Pevsner and David Neave.
This is the Yorkshire Vernacular Buildings Study Group's 35th weekend conference on recording and interpreting buildings. These conferences are aimed both at beginners wishing to learn how to record vernacular buildings and people with more experience seeking to increase their knowledge and understanding.
To reserve a place, please print, complete and return the booking form, enclosing your fee.
Photographing Historic Buildings Training Day - postponed
Saturday 19 June 2010
This day was intended to offer training in preparation for the proposed Timber-Framed Buildings in the Historic East Riding and City of Hull project. Disappointingly, our bid for HLF funding was recently turned down and we have therefore decided to postpone this training until we have explored alternative options and found a way of taking the project forward. We apologise to all those who have already expressed interest; we hope to rearrange the event at some time.
Visit to Birthwaite Hall and other buildings in the Barnsley area
Saturday 26 June 2010
A day in South Yorkshire organised by Kevin Illingworth. We hope to visit the following buildings (travelling by car):
- West Wing, Birthwaite Hall, Darton. The west wing of a large seventeenth century H-plan house has two storeys with attics and cellars. Followed by morning coffee/tea.
- Birthwaite Hall Farm. A range of decorated seventeenth century two- and three-storeyed farm buildings.
- Mill of the Black Monks, Grange Lane (A633), Cundy Cross, opposite Monk Bretton Priory. We will have lunch at this public house/restaurant. Formerly a water-powered mill of 1635 (with earlier origins), it was raised six feet by hydraulic jacks in 1989-90. Many features of interest including spiral dripmould stops, 'goblet' chamfer stops (find them!), and early incised graffiti. The Mill, expected to re-open May/June, was visited by Peter Thornborrow's WEA members in the early 1990s, and by the YVBSG in 1999.
- New Hall Farm, Doncaster Road (off), A635, Ardsley. Visit to an early sixteenth century five-bay cruck-framed barn. Retains three cruck trusses (originally five). This barn will soon be converted into an educational centre for schoolchildren, and if the builders arrive before 26 June and erect scaffolding, the owner has suggested that we visit the barn at a later date.
Meet at Birthwaite Hall at 10.30am. The house is on the east side of the A637, about one-and-a-half miles south of junction 38 of the M1 motorway and about 4 miles north-west of Barnsley. A landmark will be an LWB Landrover (colour: blue and limestone) at the entrance to the drive. If you'd like to come, please telephone Kevin Illingworth on 01422 844941, leaving your phone number and saying whether you want to eat at the Mill. Numbers will be limited to 25.
Timber-Framed Buildings in the Thirsk Area
Sunday 4 July 2010
An excursion to look at buildings with Barry Harrison. The proposed outline for the day is as follows:
- 10.30 - Assemble outside the Fleece Inn on the south side of Thirsk Market Place. Walk around the town centre viewing urban timber-framed buildings.
- 11.45 Walk over fields (about 15 minutes each way) to see timber buildings in the village of Sowerby.
- 13.00 Lunch break.
- 14.15 Visit (by car) to timber buildings in villages south-east of Thirsk. Selection from Carlton Husthwaite, Husthwaite, Baxby, Coxwold, Thirlby and Kilburn.
- 17.30 Back at Thirsk.
It is hoped to arrange some internal visits, including a visit to the base-cruck hall at Baxby. Please be prepared to share cars for the afternoon visits. There is long-term parking (£2 per day) in the large car park just to the north of the Market Place. Advance booking is essential as numbers will be limited to 20. Applications to Barry Harrison, 17 Whitby Avenue, Guisborough TS14 7AP, telephone 01287 633182, email gyseburn@yahoo.co.uk.
Conference Review Day
Sunday 19 September 2010
A day to review the buildings recorded at the annual conference in Beverley in May. Details to follow.
Next Committee Meeting
Sunday 3 October 2010
The next committee meeting will be held on Sunday 3 October 2010. If you'd like to bring any matter to the attention of the Committee, or if you have any suggestions for future activities, please contact the Secretary, David Crook, before the meeting.