Dalesman

Last updated

The Yorkshire Dalesman
Dalesman April Cover.png
A typical front cover
EditorMick Smith
Former editorsSee editors section below
FrequencyMonthly
Circulation 28,217 [1]
PublisherCountry Publications
Founded1939
Country United Kingdom
Based in Skipton
LanguageEnglish
Website www.dalesman.co.uk
ISSN 0011-5800

Dalesman is a British monthly regional magazine, based in Skipton, serving the English county of Yorkshire. Its first edition was published in March 1939, under the original title of The Yorkshire Dalesman: A Monthly Magazine of Dales' Life and Industry. [2]

Contents

Although originally only serving the Yorkshire Dales, the magazine later expanded to cover the whole county of Yorkshire, focusing on the countryside. [3] It is the biggest selling regional consumer magazine in the UK and Yorkshire's best-selling magazine. [4] [5]

Content

The magazine covers the people, landscapes and heritage of Yorkshire. Dalesman covers the whole of Yorkshire, though it has a rural focus that takes in the Yorkshire Dales, North York Moors, Yorkshire Wolds and Yorkshire coast, along with the county capital of York. Each issue contains stories about the people and places of Yorkshire, articles on crafts, history and nature, alongside photographs and paintings of Yorkshire scenery.

Along with factual features and interviews, there are also short stories, puzzles, guided walks, plus numerous jokes and cartoons, some in Yorkshire dialect. [6] The magazine has a popular Reader's Club. [7]

Many famous writers have contributed to Dalesman, including J. B. Priestley, Ella Pontefract, Bill Cowley and Alan Bennett. Current regular contributors include "Bard of Barnsley" Ian McMillan, Nicholas Rhea, who wrote the Constable books that the TV series Heartbeat was based on, Ashley Jackson, and cartoonists Tony Husband and Karl Dixon.

Popular monthly features include Diary of a Yorkshire Farmer's Wife, Signs and Wonders (amusing signs spotted around Yorkshire), Wild Yorkshire, My Best Day Out and Round About the Ridings. Aside from A Dalesman's Diary – which has been included from issue one – the magazine's longest-running feature is the Old Amos cartoon.

The cartoon has been a fixture in Dalesman since May 1953, making Old Amos four years older than fellow northern cartoon character Andy Capp. Just two artists have drawn Old Amos over the last six decades: father and son Rowland and Pete Lindup. Pete carried on immediately after Rowland's death in 1989. Old Amos is a bearded gentleman who dishes out quotable [8] wisdom and advice, often in Yorkshire dialect. [9]

History

Initially called The Yorkshire Dalesman, the magazine was founded in 1939 by former Leeds journalist Harry J. Scott, with the first edition published in April of that year. He ran the magazine from the front room of his home in the small Dales village of Clapham, North Yorkshire. [2]

Writing in the first issue, Scott remarked: "Although it may require a word of explanation, the appearance of the first number of a magazine devoted to the Yorkshire Dales needs no apology. The surprising thing is that Dales lovers should have lacked a magazine for so long." He continued: "It is to serve the interests of this great community that "The Yorkshire Dalesman" has been founded, ending: "On this programme, I offer this first number of 'The Yorkshire Dalesman' for your consideration, pleading only for its many shortcomings that no magazine reaches maturity in its first number." [10]

Also writing in that first edition was J. B. Priestley: "I am glad to learn that our beloved Dales are to have their own magazine and I wish the venture the success it deserves". He described his love of Yorkshire's "high hills and grey-green valleys and lovely peace", adding: "So please see that your new magazine fights to keep them all unspoilt." [11]

After eight years of publication, Scott bowed to public pressure and expanded the coverage of the magazine to the entirety of Yorkshire. In March 1947, the editor wrote: "We have decided that from our next number The Yorkshire Dalesman, while giving no less space each month than in the past to the western dales, shall be enlarged to include all the Yorkshire countryside, the moors and dales of north-east Yorkshire, the hills of Cleveland, the cloughs and valleys of the Yorkshire-Lancashire border, the Plain of York and the high moorlands of Teesdale, no less than the rolling lands of Bowland and the fells and dales of the western Pennines." [12]

A year later, the magazine's title was changed to The Dalesman. By now, the circulation had risen to 13,000 and Scott wrote in March 1948: "It has been a mark of the pleasant friendly bond which has always existed between this magazine and its readers and almost from our first appearance our title was shortened in conversation, in letters and over bookstall counters to "The Dalesman". "Has The Dalesman come yet?" is a familiar phrase in most Yorkshire villages. It would ill become us, therefore, after such friendly treatment, to insist on our full name and title, and we have decided to accept, gratefully, our readers' choice. From our next issue, which is the first of our tenth year, we shall become simply and plainly The Dalesman. This will imply no change in style or policy. It will give us greater scope to look over the Yorkshire border on occasion and hobnob with our neighbours." [13]

In 1955, the Dalesman outgrew Scott's home, at Fellside, Clapham, and new offices were opened elsewhere in the village. It remained in Clapham until 2000. The magazine is now produced near its original home, in offices at Skipton Castle.

The second editor was W. R. ("Bill") Mitchell, who worked with Scott before taking the editor's chair. Mitchell remembers meeting the "tweed-clad, pipe-smoking" Scott in the offices of the Craven Herald newspaper in Skipton, shortly before he joined the magazine. Scott's unique greeting was 'Hail to thee, Blithe Spirit'. [14] After working as the editor, Mitchell was awarded the MBE for his services to journalism in Yorkshire and Cumbria. He was admitted by the University of Bradford to the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters. He has also received the Golden Eagle Award from the Outdoor Writers' and Photographers' Guild, which cited him as one of the founding fathers of outdoor writing. [15]

When Mitchell retired in 1988, he was the subject of a Yorkshire Television documentary narrated by playwright Alan Bennett, who concluded the programme by saying: "The Dalesman has proved to be something of a river; it just goes flowing on – and like a river it is, I hope, unstoppable." [16]

Editors

There have been nine editors since the Dalesman was founded in 1939. [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. B. Priestley</span> English writer (1894–1984)

John Boynton Priestley was an English novelist, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and social commentator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lyke Wake Walk</span> Challenge walk in North Yorkshire, England

The Lyke Wake Walk is a 40-mile (64 km) challenge walk across the highest and widest part of the North York Moors National Park in North Yorkshire, England. The route remembers the many corpses carried over the moors on old coffin routes and the ancient burial mounds encountered on the way; the name derives from a lyke, the corpse and the wake - watching over the deceased. Its associated club has a social structure, culture and rituals based on the walk and Christian and folklore traditions from the area through which it passes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skipton</span> Town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England

Skipton is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. Historically in the East Division of Staincliffe Wapentake in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is on the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal to the south of the Yorkshire Dales. It is situated 27 miles (43 km) north-west of Leeds and 38 miles (61 km) west of York. At the 2021 Census, the population was 14,623. The town has been listed as one of the best and happiest places to live in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craven District</span> Former local government district in North Yorkshire, England

Craven was a non-metropolitan district in the west of North Yorkshire, centred on the market town of Skipton. The name Craven is much older than the modern district and encompassed a larger area. This history is also reflected in the way the term is still commonly used, such as by the Church of England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Settle, North Yorkshire</span> Market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England

Settle is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town had a population of 2,421 in the 2001 census, increasing to 2,564 at the 2011 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kettlewell</span> Village in North Yorkshire, England

Kettlewell is a village in Upper Wharfedale, North Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it lies 6 miles (10 km) north of Grassington, at the point where Wharfedale is joined by a minor road which leads north-east from the village over Park Rash Pass to Coverdale. Great Whernside rises to the east. The population of the civil parish was 322 at the 2011 census, with an estimated population of 340 in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clapham, North Yorkshire</span> Village in North Yorkshire, England

Clapham is a village in the civil parish of Clapham cum Newby in the former Craven District of North Yorkshire, England. It was previously in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It lies within the Yorkshire Dales National Park, 6 miles (10 km) north-west of Settle, and just off the A65 road.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skipton and Ripon (UK Parliament constituency)</span> Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1983 onwards

Skipton and Ripon is a constituency in North Yorkshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Julian Smith, a Conservative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rowten Pot</span>

Rowten Pot is one of several entrances into the 27-kilometre (17 mi) long cave system that drains Kingsdale in North Yorkshire, England. Its entrance is a shaft some 27 metres (89 ft) long, 10 metres (33 ft) wide, and at the southern end 72 metres (236 ft) deep.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shipley railway station</span> Railway station in West Yorkshire, England

Shipley railway station serves the market town of Shipley in West Yorkshire, England. It is 2+34 miles (4.4 km) north of Bradford Forster Square and 10+34 miles (17.3 km) north-west of Leeds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saltaire railway station</span> Railway station in West Yorkshire, England

Saltaire railway station serves the Victorian model village of Saltaire near Shipley in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated 3+12 miles (6 km) north of Bradford Forster Square.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bingley railway station</span> Railway station in West Yorkshire, England

Bingley is a grade II listed railway station that serves the market town of Bingley in West Yorkshire, England. It is located 13.5 miles (21.7 km) from Leeds and 5.5 miles (8.9 km) away from Bradford Forster Square, on the Airedale line; services are operated by Northern Trains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newton Dale Halt railway station</span> Railway station in North Yorkshire, England

Newton Dale Halt railway station is a request stop on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and serves as a stopping off point for walkers around Newton Dale and Cropton Forest in the North York Moors National Park, North Yorkshire, England. When the station was opened, the station signs were written as Newtondale Halt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hebden, North Yorkshire</span> Village and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England

Hebden is a village and civil parish in the former Craven District of North Yorkshire, England, and one of four villages in the ecclesiastical parish of Linton. It lies near Grimwith Reservoir and Grassington, in Wharfedale in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. In 2011 it had a population of 246.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Douk Cave</span> Cave in North Yorkshire, England

Great Douk Cave is a shallow cave system lying beneath the limestone bench of Ingleborough in Chapel-le-Dale, North Yorkshire, England. It is popular with beginners and escorted groups, as it offers straightforward caving, and it is possible to follow the cave from where a stream emerges at a small waterfall to a second entrance close to where it sinks 600 yards (549 m) further up the hill. It lies within the Ingleborough Site of Special Scientific Interest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chelker Reservoir</span> Reservoir in North Yorkshire, England

Chelker Reservoir is a man-made lake in North Yorkshire, England. It lies in the parish of Draughton, immediately north of the A65 road, between Skipton and the village of Addingham. It was put into service in 1866 and serves the Bradford area; it is currently owned by Yorkshire Water. The reservoir's main inflow is the River Wharfe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Settle Stories</span> Charity founded in 2011

Settle Stories is a registered charity and company founded in 2011 by Sita Brand, following the running of the Settle Storytelling Festival in 2010. The charity seeks to promote storytelling for individuals, communities and organisations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">W. R. Mitchell</span> British writer and editor

William Reginald Mitchell was a British writer who was the editor of Dalesman magazine for twenty years and over a sixty-year period wrote over 200 books, hundreds of articles, and delivered many talks on the history and physical and natural evolution of North Britain, with particular emphasis on the Yorkshire Dales, Lancashire and the Lake District. These include the regions' biographies, social history, topography, and natural history. In the course of his career Mitchell made and collected many taped interviews with people of these regions - now housed at the Universities of Leeds and Bradford - representing a unique archive of dialect and history.

Henry John Athelson Scott was founding editor of the Dalesman magazine, in Yorkshire, northern England. He established the journal, originally called The Yorkshire Dalesman, from the front room of his cottage in Clapham, North Yorkshire, in 1939. He remained editor, then managing director, of The Dalesman and sister magazine Cumbria until his death in 1978, aged 76. In the meantime The Dalesman grew to become Britain's best-selling regional magazine. Scott was also an early BBC royal correspondent. During the late 1930s he described a number of royal visits to the north of England for broadcast on the BBC's Northern Programme. Later in his career he wrote a number of books about his beloved Yorkshire and his business became a prolific publisher of books in the North of England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dandry Mire Viaduct</span> A railway viaduct in Cumbria, England

Dandry Mire Viaduct,, is a railway viaduct on the Settle & Carlisle line in Cumbria, England. It is just north of Garsdale station, 21 miles (34 km) from Settle, and 51 miles (82 km) south of Carlisle. When the Settle & Carlisle line was being built, the traversing of Dandry Mire was to have been by use of an embankment, but the bog swallowed all of the material poured into it, so a trench was dug instead, and a viaduct constructed. The viaduct, which is 227 yards (208 m) long and 50 feet (15 m) high, is still open to traffic on the railway, and is a prominent landmark at the head of Garsdale.

References

  1. "Consumer Magazines Circulation Certificate" (PDF). ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  2. 1 2 "The story of Dalesman magazine" (PDF). North Craven Building Preservation Trust (NCBPT). Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  3. Wainwright, Martin (14 November 2012). "New editor for the Dalesman". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  4. "Mag ABCs: 137 out 516 consumer mags put on circ year on year, full breakdown". Press Gazette. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  5. "Dalesman Media Pack" (PDF). Country Publications. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 31 May 2013.
  6. "Buy Dalesman magazine subscription". Unique Magazines. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  7. "Dalesman Magazine". Dalesman. Retrieved 31 May 2013.
  8. "Quotes about Old Amos". goodreads. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  9. Adrian, Braddy (10 May 2013). "Yorkshire sage Old Amos celebrates 60 years of wit and wisdom". Dalesman. Retrieved 31 May 2013.
  10. Scott, Harry (March 1939). "A Yorkshire Dalesman's Diary". The Yorkshire Dalesman. Vol. 1, no. 1. p. 3.
  11. Priestley, J. B. (March 1939). "Mr. J. B. Priestley Wishes Success to 'The Yorkshire Dalesman'". The Yorkshire Dalesman. Vol. 1, no. 1. p. 2.
  12. Scott, Harry (March 1947). "A Yorkshire Dalesman's Diary". The Yorkshire Dalesman. Vol. 8, no. 12. p. 271.
  13. Scott, Harry (March 1948). "A Yorkshire Dalesman's Diary". The Yorkshire Dalesman. Vol. 9, no. 12. p. 428.
  14. "WR Mitchell: Hail to thee, Blithe Spirit". Settle Stories. Archived from the original on 14 October 2012. Retrieved 31 May 2013.
  15. "YDS President". The Yorkshire Dales Society. Archived from the original on 21 August 2013. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  16. Joy, David (April 1988). "A Dalesman's Diary". The Dalesman: 19. ISSN   0011-5800.
  17. "Magazine editor bows out after 40-year career". Hold the Front Page. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  18. "Editor swaps newspapers for country life". Hold the Front Page. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  19. "Editor made redundant six years ago returns to 'hot seat' with regional title". Hold the Front Page. 19 September 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  20. "Regional title unveils new editor as incumbent prepares to depart". Hold the Front Page. 20 August 2021. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  21. Sharman, David (29 March 2022). "Publisher appoints new editor after two incumbents quit posts". Hold the Front Page. Retrieved 27 April 2022.