YP Comment: Discovering our unusual history

HISTORICAL treasures are all around us, if we would only have the curiosity to look for them.

And so the 1,000 unusual and lesser-known gems given protected status by Historic England amount to a sort of guidebook to the nooks and crannies of our heritage, well worth a moment’s pause to admire.

In Yorkshire, we have half-a- dozen Victorian lamp-posts in Harrogate, still lighting the way as faithfully as they did when introduced in 1848, and in Castleton, near Whitby, a rare stone clapper bridge from the 18th century.

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These are not glamorous attractions, but historically important even so, and richly deserving of the recognition they have now received.

They are more than just monuments. In their own quiet way, they tell us a little of the history of our county, of how it grew into a place of commerce and industrial activity. Every object, however humble, has its story to relate.