An objective look at heritage in Yorkshire

Regional museums have chosen 10 artefacts to tell the stories about their area as the BBC launches its History of the World in 100 Objects. Sheena Hastings takes a peek.

IN May and June 1894 Princess Alix of Hesse, grand-daughter of Queen Victoria, visited Harrogate to take the spa waters. She stayed at a discreet lodging house in West Park, which belonged to a couple called Mr and Mrs Allen. On the princess's arrival she did not immediately see Mrs Allen, who had just given birth to twins.

Alix of Hesse had recently become engaged to the Nicholas Romanov, the future Czar Nicholas II. During her stay in Harrogate she apparently became very fond of the family and asked if she could be godmother to the baby boy and girl, requesting that they be named Nicholas and Alix. She gave the children small gifts, and for years afterwards continued to remember them, sending mementos from Russia which included valuable silver goblets.

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It's not known what happened to any gifts sent to young Alix Allen, but decades later the grandson of Nicholas Allen donated to Harrogate's Royal Pump Room Museum a pair of exquisite gold cufflinks fashioned into the double-eagle crest of the Romanovs, and decorated with sapphires and small diamonds. The last Czar and Czarina, Nicholas and Alexandra (Alix), and their children were imprisoned then assassinated by the Bolsheviks in 1918 after the Russian Revolution.

The cufflinks are one item in a list of ten compiled by curators at museums in North Yorkshire that have been chosen to tell part of the history of the county, and they are part of a wider BBC project called A History of the World. Each county's ten artefacts (chosen from the many thousands in the area's museums) can be seen at close quarters on BBC Local websites, and the originals are still in situ at their home museum.

North Yorkshire's ten items also include a rare Egyptian mask, a statue of the Roman Emperor Constantine (proclaimed emperor while on a military campaign in York), the Middleham Jewel and a sketch of Captain Cook's ship Resolution.

The list from West Yorkshire includes the Pontefract Secret Ballot Box, used in 1872 for the first secret ballot in Britain to elect a Member of Parliament – the winner being the Liberal HC Childers.

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"A conversation about Pontefract and liquorice led us to this fantastic item," says museums officer Heather Millard. "When discussing the stamps used to mark the Pontefract cakes, it was revealed that they used the same stamps to mark the wax seals on this Ballot Box in 1872 when it was used to enable people to vote in private without intimidation.

"It's a right that we take for granted now but is a key part of the democratic process.

"It seemed particularly apt to have this featured during a General Election year."

A tiny white embroidered silk dress made for Mrs Titus Salt junior in the 1880s, and worn for a visit made by the Prince and Princess of Wales, reflects the fashions of the time and the economic importance of commerce.

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While her father-in-law was a giant of the textile trade and philanthropist who improved working and living conditions for workers and built the Saltaire model village, his worsted was sent to all over the world and his wealth provided quite a lavish lifestyle for his family.

South Yorkshire's contributions include a carving knife made in the Sheffield area by J Elliott and Sons in Hollis Croft, some time after the company opened in 1795. The knife found its way to the Sioux tribe of native Americans, and was picked up (probably by trading), with a decorated leather sheath made by the Sioux, by John Stuart Wortley, Second Baron of Wharncliffe, during his travels in America in the 1850s.

Another important artefact on the list is a Bible commemorating the night of March 11, 1864, when a reservoir in north west Sheffield burst its banks. Within 40 minutes the reservoir was empty, and the water had swept away everything in its path. There were 240 deaths, 4,000 homes were damaged and 15 bridges and 100 buildings collapsed.

Mary Ann and Joseph North's baby girl Mary was pulled from the water and saved. The family's precious Bible was lost to the flood, but families were issued with new Bibles, inscribed in memory of the dreadful event. The North family Bible was damaged again in the floods in South Yorkshire in 2007.

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The power of South Yorkshire as an industrial force is represented by the River Don Engine, built in 1905 by Davy Brothers in Sheffield and used for 73 years in the city to power a rolling mill at Charles Cammelll's Grimesthorpe Works. Its many tasks included making armour plating for battleships in both world wars.

Items contributed by Leeds City Museum include a Burton's demob suit, a game of Monopoly, the global phenomenon developed in the US but licensed and produced by Leeds company John Waddington from 1935, and the exquisite Leeds Mummy of Nesyamun, one of the finest Egyptian Mummies in existence and the only one in the world to have been securely dated to the 20th Dynasty.

He was brought to Leeds in 1823 by wealthy banker John Blaydes.

Alongside the HOTW curators' lists, the BBC is inviting Yorkshire people to upload to its regional sites photos of items they own and believe or know to be of historical significance.

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A History of the World in 100 Objects continues on Radio 4 at 9.45am on weekdays, and items listed in the Yorkshire and Humber region will be featured on BBC local radio and television programmes in the coming weeks.

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