Portal:Yorkshire

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The Yorkshire Portal

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in Great Britain. Although Yorkshire is not a current unit of civil administration, it is included in the name of a number of contemporary subdivisions such as Yorkshire and the Humber. The name is familiar and well-understood across the United Kingdom and is in common use. Throughout much of history, Yorkshire has played a prominent role in Great Britain. The Brigantes, who were the largest Celtic Briton tribe held it as their heartland. The Romans made York (from which the county derives its name) one of the two capitals of all Roman Britain. The area was an independent Viking kingdom known as Jórvík for around a century, before being taken by England. Most of the modern day large cities were founded during the Norman period.

The county covered just under 6,000 square miles (15,000 km²) in 1831 and the modern day Yorkshire and the Humber region has a population of around five million. Yorkshire is widely considered to be the greenest area in England, due to both the vast rural countryside of the Yorkshire Dales, North York Moors and some of the major cities, this has led to Yorkshire being nicknamed God's Own County. (read more) . . .

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The Leeds Country Way is a circular long-distance footpath of 62 miles (99 km) around Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is nowhere further than 7 miles (11 km) from Leeds City Square, but is mainly rural with extensive views in the outlying areas of the Leeds metropolitan district. It follows public footpaths and minor lanes, with a few short sections along roads.

A route was first devised by Fred Andrews of the Ramblers Association, and then developed by West Yorkshire County Council in the early 1980s. This council was abolished in 1986, and the path is now under the care of the Countryside section of Leeds City Council. The Leeds Country Way was realigned in 2006, using a route devised by Bob Brewster, to bring it entirely within the boundary of the Leeds metropolitan district (previously it crossed the boundary into Wakefield), and the path was officially relaunched on 26 September 2006 with a revised set of map leaflets and improved waymarking. The path is waymarked in both directions and can be started at any point, but is described here clockwise from the A660 road at Golden Acre Park (grid reference SE267417), divided into parts and sections which correspond with the official map leaflets. (read more . . . )

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Credit: Immanuel Giel
Hawes is a small market town in the Yorkshire Dales, located at the head of Wensleydale the town is famous as being the home of Wensleydale cheese at the Hawes Creamery. (read more . . . ) edit

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Joseph Priestley (13 March 1733 (old style) – February 6, 1804) was an 18th-century British theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works. He is usually credited with the discovery of oxygen gas, although Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Antoine Lavoisier also have such a claim. Priestley was born to an established Dissenting family (i.e., they did not conform to the Church of England) in West Yorkshire.

During his lifetime, Priestley's considerable scientific reputation rested on his invention of soda water, his writings on electricity, and his discovery of several "airs" (gases), the most famous being what Priestley dubbed "dephlogisticated air" (oxygen). However, Priestley's determination to reject what would become the chemical revolution and to cling to phlogiston theory eventually left him isolated within the scientific community.

Priestley's science was integral to his theology, and he consistently tried to fuse Enlightenment rationalism with Christian theism. In his metaphysical texts, Priestley attempted to combine theism, materialism, and determinism, a project that has been called "audacious and original". He believed that a proper understanding of the natural world would promote human progress and eventually bring about the Christian Millennium. Priestley, who strongly believed in the free and open exchange of ideas, advocated toleration and equal rights for religious Dissenters, which also led him to help found Unitarianism. The controversial nature of Priestley's publications combined with his outspoken support of the French Revolution aroused public and governmental suspicion; he was eventually forced to flee to the United States after a mob burned down his home and church in 1791. (read more . . . )