Roger Ratcliffe
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Hack & cook. Walker & swimmer. Birdwatcher & pencil nerd. Ex Sunday Times Insight team.
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Articles by Roger Ratcliffe
The history behind the Second World War pillboxes scattered along Yorkshire's coast
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The prehistoric ditch which defended Yorkshire from invaders
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The Yorkshire museum with models and tributes to Yorkshire's trawlers
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The historic Yorkshire abbey hailed as being among Europe’s finest medieval churches
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How a fox helped save the life of an airman who crashed in the Yorkshire Dales
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Social care in crisis
Last month, the social care minister Helen Whately found herself on the verge of tears when she addressed a health conference. She was telling a story about her 100-year-old grandmother, who had been taken to hospital after a fall and ended up spending five months there, “mostly waiting for discharge”, in Whately’s own words. The delay had resulted from problems of finding external care for her grandmother.
Local elections - the picture in the north of england
At first glance the ugly heap of rain-sodden mattresses and other discarded rubbish dumped in full view of residents on a council estate is just an isolated local eyesore. But the prevalence of other grotesque fly-tipping messes elsewhere in and around Bradford’s Holme Wood, one of the North’s biggest public sector housing schemes, suggests a more serious problem.
Comeback kipper - Big Issue North
On a busy Friday lunchtime in Leeds’s Kirkgate Market the stalls that most customers appear to be clustered round are those selling fish and seafood. One of the biggest retailers is doing a brisk trade in cod, coley, haddock, salmon and tuna but selling less of a fish that’s tucked away at the back of the display.
The road for every Russian
What is it with the Russians? Why do they allow the Kremlin to wage an unprovoked war against Ukraine? To everyone living outside the nation that has the biggest land mass on earth, its people’s apparent support for the invasion is unfathomable. Incomprehension of Russia is not new, however. Back in the 1930s Winston Churchill confessed that he too was baffled, and famously defined the country as “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma”.
Cottage industry
“My son… he teach me English… sometimes.” Oksana Pobodieova smiled across the small sitting room at 15-year-old Volodymr, nicknamed Vova, who shrugged modestly. “Some words I find hard also,” he said. “I learn English at school in Kyiv but speaking this not so easy here.” Mother and son have been living in West Yorkshire for almost six months. Their problems adapting to new surroundings, especially communicating, are typical of the refugees from the war in Ukraine who began arriving last spring.
Clarion’s call for walkers
The timber shack with brick chimney nestling among trees at the foot of a sloping field doesn’t look like a citadel of radicals. Only when you see a plaque at the door does the building’s revolutionary past becomes clear. “No Pasaran!” it declares (“They shall not pass!” in English). That was the rallying call used by volunteers fighting Franco’s troops in the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War.
New food bank model gives choice to users
Once a shocking symbol of austerity, the cost of living crisis is seeing an even bigger growth in UK food bank numbers. But the soaring demand has prompted a rethink in how they operate. “Food banks as we know them have kind of had their day,” said Lisa Grant, the manager of the biggest food bank in Wakefield.
The whole North’s a stage
“I like this place,” says one of William Shakespeare’s characters in the comedy As You Like It, “and willingly could waste my time in it.” History doesn’t record which particular place inspired these admiring words. But given Shakespeare’s friendship with William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby, and his likely visits to the latter’s home at Knowsley Hall on Merseyside, it is just possible he considered pleasurably wasting his time in a nearby place called Prescot.
Northern state of mind
Where exactly is the North? Who is entitled to call themselves a Northerner? Nailing the precise boundaries of the North of England has been a difficult and ultimately elusive task for generations. Even the author of a new book entitled Northerners was unable to come up with a definitive answer. In the end, he says, the North is almost a state of mind.
New battle of Wakefield
There is no visible red wall in Wakefield but every day the Yorkshire city is described as a “red wall seat”, one of numerous once impregnable fortresses symbolising Labour Party strength in the North. The emblematic walls were smashed down by troops commanded by Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson at the general election of 2019.
Cost of living is main concern for voters in local elections
Of all the predictions surrounding this year’s local elections, one can be made with absolute certainty. The most-used phrase among council candidates is “on the doorstep”. It is here that old-hand councillors and new hopefuls alike stand wearing party rosettes and bearing leaflets as they ask prospective voters about the issues concerning them most.
Latch tools up for empty homes
Thousands of houses stand empty despite a growing homelessness problem. In Leeds, a charity that addresses this scandal through buying and renovating vacant properties – many of them derelict – has just completed its 100th refurbishment specifically for homeless people. There are over 3,000 long term empty homes in the city, some unoccupied for over 20 years, while around 5,000 people are registered on the city council’s priority A housing list. Thousands more are at risk of homelessness.
Keighley steps up for Ukraine
For over a month now, cars and vans have been following satnav directions through the labyrinth of residential streets above the West Yorkshire town of Keighley to finally roll up outside a former Catholic church and presbytery once known as Our Lady of Victories. Set in large grounds, the stone-built Victorian buildings were given to a local charity for a peppercorn rent when a shortage of priests led to the church’s deconsecration.
Tunnel takes its toll
Neither Gerry and the Pacemakers or anyone else ever recorded a song called Tunnel Under The Mersey. That may explain why this year’s 50th anniversary of one of the road links beneath the river has gone largely unsung. Locally, there were some tributes to those who built it and the eight workmen who lost their lives in the process. Liverpool metro mayor Steve Rotheram described it as “an incredible feat of engineering that changed the Liverpool City Region forever”.
Nelson restores socialist past
In 1906 the Independent Labour Party, forerunner of today’s Labour Party, collected money through penny subscriptions and bazaars to provide a building for working people in the Lancashire mill town of Nelson. It would be “a place for us”, promised a fundraising leaflet at the time, but also for books, entertainment, lectures, meetings and – an indication of how poor living conditions were at that time – baths.
On track for a comeback
The train now standing at Buxton’s platform one is definitely not the 10.52 service to Matlock. It therefore will not be calling at Millers Dale, Monsal Dale, Great Longstone, Hassop, Bakewell, Haddon Hall, Rowsley and Darley Dale. In fact, the tracks have been ripped up. Passengers last took a train along this scenic line through the heart of the Peak District National Park one warm Saturday evening back in June 1968.
Good law project bid to change out of area care
A groundbreaking court case is being mounted in an attempt to stop high numbers of children in care being placed outside their local council area. Campaigners fear that the practice leaves those affected vulnerable to sexual exploitation, poor mental health and recruitment by county lines drugs gangs. The legal challenge, launched by the Good Law Project, is in response to the gradual privatisation of children’s care homes.
‘It’s as if reality didn’t exist’
The word “quantum” has different associations for many people. To lovers of 1970s rock it evokes memoriesof Quantum Jump, a band whose main claim to fame is singing the Guinness Book of Records’ longest word – the 57-letter name of a New Zealand hill – on their only top 10 single, The Lone Ranger.
A wife’s work - Big Issue North
Type “Scargill” into any computer search box and the top result will be Arthur Scargill, president of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) from 1982 to 2002. That’s despite Scargill largely disappearing from view in the two decades since he was the most divisive figure in Britain, his name a byword for militant trade unionism.
Sleigh in their lane
As far as occupations go, reindeer herder is among the more unique vocations. Like chocolate consultant or bed tester, it sounds too fantastical to be a real-life job, especially at this time of year when the thought of Santa and his Christmas elves spring to mind.
Truth and spies - Big Issue North
James Bond is better known for his brawn than his brains. “And his bedroom manners,” adds David Omand, of the world’s most famous secret agent and action man. “But I’m not sure there’s much evidence he ever brought back a single piece of intelligence. And any M16 officer who went round the world introducing himself by his real name in cocktail bars wouldn’t last very long.” Omand knows better than most how real-life spies behave.
Cerys Matthews: Bread and poetry - Big Issue North
For most of us, the past few months have represented challenges, difficulties and in some cases huge sadness. Cerys Matthews has had her fair share of trials over the period but she’s not one to wallow in self-pity. “We lost our dad recently. He died of Covid and it was really hard on my mother as it was on many families. We couldn’t go to the funeral and all of that. But we were in the same boat as everyone else,” says the singer.
Pilot’s new lessons for ‘nursery for fish’
The words “sea meadows” conjure up a fantasy underwater world of emerald green fields grazed by creatures of the deep, perhaps something from Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. But sea meadows are real, and while you may not find anything more exotic than a seahorse or spider crab feeding there, in the UK they are in danger of disappearing.
Swans around - Big Issue North
Virginia is 27 years old and already on her third husband. She divides her time between summers in Iceland and winters in Lancashire, where she has become a bit of a local celebrity. In the next couple of weeks – perhaps by the time you read this – Virginia will head south to England. She’ll be accompanied by some of her children, which at the last count were said to total more than 60. Whether she has now moved on to husband number four is news that’s awaited with more than a little interest.
When it comes to new Covid
I am prepared to hold up my hands and admit to not knowing the current coronavirus distancing rules that relate to where I live. My village lies a few miles to the north of Bradford, and in the summer it was excluded from tighter restrictions imposed on the city itself. Then it was lumped back in with Bradford again, but only – I think – for some specific measures. But which ones? And are local restrictions now superseded by the rule of six? Everyone I ask hasn’t a clue.
Season of plenty
John Keats praised autumn as the “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”. While some lament the onset of rain and the fading light, for foragers it’s one of the most exciting times of the year. Blackberries, sloes, elderberries and rosehips are ripening in the bushes, and beech, hazel and sweet chestnuts dangle temptingly from the trees. In our woodlands and fields fungi can lie dormant underground for years, then mushrooms spring up overnight like a sprinkling of fairy dust.
Coming up for air
In the first half of this year, the impossible happened. The sources of air pollution – widely seen as an inevitable side-effect of modern life – were switched off. Social media flooded with images of previously polluted cities, from LA to Milan, suddenly enjoying blue skies and clean air. The Indian capital Delhi – frequently top of the world’s most polluted city chart – saw a 60 per cent reduction in particulate pollution (PM2.5) from March to April, compared to the same period in 2019.
Don McCullin: darkness and light
In Unreasonable Behaviour, his 1990 autobiography, photographer Sir Don McCullin talks about working in a warzone, describing the experience as a “schizophrenic trip”. “You cannot equate what is going on with anything else in life,” he writes. “If you have known white sheets, and comfort, and peace in the real world, and then you find yourself living like a sewer rat, not knowing day from night, you cannot put the two worlds together.” Yet put those two worlds together is what he continually did.
Select - Big Issue North
Online Open City Documentary Festival is moving online to celebrate the art of non-fiction through 48 new films. This year’s selection will include powerful films such as Sunless Showers (Mehrad Oskouei, 2019), a look at women imprisoned in Tehran for the murder of abusive family members, and Bird Island (pictured). All films are screened online and feature Q&As from the directors.
Lancashire to shake up
Lancashire risks being “sold down the river” by rapid local government reorganisation, according to the county council’s Labour opposition. Azhar Ali, leader of the Labour group on Lancashire County Council, believes Conservative proposals to streamline Lancashire’s 15 district councils into three unitaries could result in thousands of people losing their jobs when it is not clear who would pick up the bill for redundancies and pensions.
New northern accent appears
You may think your accent identifies you as specifically coming from northern cities like Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Manchester or Sheffield but for some people the computer says no. That’s the basic finding of a new study of how people speak in the north of England. Research has shown that a new and more generic northern accent is evolving, although not for everyone. This accent is shared by educated and largely middle class city dwellers, and has been given the name of general northern English.
The right move isn’t
Posh people are mocked for the things they’re supposed to say while queueing at Waitrose, although to me “Sebastian, stop hitting your sister or you won’t get any brioche” sounds like a parody.
Who gives a dam?
Deep within one of the thickest, darkest forests in Yorkshire a fascinating experiment is in progress. A couple of beavers have been, well, doing what they do best and beavering away at building dams over streams with piles of sticks. It is less than two years since a male and female beaver were let loose in this part of the North York Moors.
Community contact
Medical professionals and health campaigners in Sheffield have set up a coronavirus track and trace scheme because of their frustration at government inaction.
Venues stage rescue request
Owners of the Leeds venue that is the most active in the UK’s grassroots music scene have warned the sector is under threat without urgent action from the government. Nathan Clark of the Brudenell Social Club believes that an immediate £50 million support package and a cut in VAT on ticket prices will be required to save grassroots venues, which have been forced to close during the coronavirus crisis. Local bands The Brudenell hosts more than 500 live events each year.
Roger Ratcliffe’s looking
To paraphrase Guy Garvey’s brilliant song Grounds for Divorce, I’ve been working on a cocktail called Lockdown Loosener.
Annabel Scholey:
Annabel Scholey is using this interview to cash in some hard-earned adult time. The actor, 36, best known for her roles in BBC One’s legal drama The Split and musical romcom Walking on Sunshine, gave birth to her daughter Marnie 18 months ago, and has clearly closed the door for the occasion. There’s no background noise on the phone line, no chromatic tones of Peppa Pig or the crashing of hard plastics followed by a wail – only silence. “It’s so unbelievable that the plot actually happened.
Win a picker
How hard can it be to pick a strawberry? “Unless you want to give a load of mushy ones to mum for making jam it’s quite difficult work,” says Janet Oldroyd, one of Yorkshire’s biggest soft fruit growers. “We either get the English workers or we don’t pick the crops. They would just go to waste.” This has caused her a huge headache.
A boiler-suited A&E nurse struggles to speak out
I first spoke to this magazine back in March, when my colleagues and I were bracing ourselves for an uncertain future working on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, I have been working as a nurse on the coronavirus area in A&E at a hospital in the North West. We’re wearing boiler suits now because we have run out of surgical gowns.
Facing down the virus
The media focus during the coronavirus pandemic has, understandably, been on the politicians and frontline workers whose job is to keep us safe. Unless it has touched our families personally, for many of us stuck at home the reality of what the disease entails can become dangerously abstract. So what is it like to contract and eventually beat this terrible disease? And how does it feel to emerge from hospital into a society that has been radically reshaped by a global health emergency?
Street scene
Traditionally the stomping ground of the chisel-jawed, long-limbed and ethereal, a catwalk might be an unusual place to find a Manchester scally lad. But a sea of change is sweeping over the fashion industry, and one agency in Manchester is being inundated with requests for just that.
Outsider art
Artist Jan Williams distinctly remembers stepping inside the flat of her recently deceased uncle, Ron Gittins, for the first time. “You could hardly move as the place was absolutely chock-full of stuff. There were things everywhere and you could only just see these massive fireplaces looming over boxes, a pram and piles of wood.
Grow up - Big Issue North
The coronavirus crisis is highlighting the vulnerability of the just-in-time food supply chain on which supermarkets depend, according to Dr Charlie Clutterbuck, who runs the online Sustainable Food Guide from north Lancashire. He believes the health emergency should force a major government rethink on how a small number of giant companies are permitted to control the UK’s food industry, and instigate a major drive to increase home-grown produce.
Roger Ratcliffe accounts for increased capital flight
More and more people are quitting London to go in search of a better quality of life. But where on earth are they finding this idyllic Shangri-la? Why, right here in the north of England. According to Office for National Statistics number-crunchers, the rate at which Londoners move north has doubled since 2014. Many of them are heading for the main cities, with Sheffield registering a 12 per cent increase in escapees from the capital in 2018 alone and Leeds seeing a 5 per cent rise the same year.
Give abuse research a hand
Researchers are developing ways to identify paedophiles from their hands – but need help from the public to take the work further. A multi-disciplinary team from Lancaster University is investigating what makes human hands unique but needs 5,000 citizen scientists to contribute to the first searchable database of their anatomy and variations.
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