My trips to Yorkshire communities showed me the best of the countryside - Stuart Minting

Among those who have been treated at the centre on the outskirts of the town centre are Graham Lee, the Grand National winning jockey who suffered severe spinal injuries after being unseated in the stalls at Newcastle in 2023.

It’s probably easier to name those northern jockeys who haven’t been treated there at some time during their careers during its 10-year history.

And this month that landmark date was celebrated by many considered the great and the good of horseracing.

Among them was the aforementioned Lee, who said he was hoping to use the centre’s hydrotherapy pool with a hoist which is set to be introduced.

Both he and legendary former jockey and journalist Brough Scott praised the beauty of its setting, and the cutting technology equipment it houses.

Former trainer Jack Berry, who the facility is named after, was there for the 10th anniversary celebrations.

Instantly recognisable in the parade ring for wearing red shirts, Jack still done his favoured shirts when he goes to the races.

The former jockey and prolific fundraiser told Country Post: “The minute someone has a fall, we’re onto it. They come here when they’re finished with the hospitals, and some of the cases are quite dire.”

Over the last decade, Jack Berry House has offered more than 51,000 one-to-one physio appointments, about 30,000 of which are to licensed professional jockeys and long-term IJF beneficiaries, with the remainder going to the wider racing community.

And the fundraising still continues as it takes £1m a year to keep Jack Berry House running, with the 22nd annual ‘Red Shirt Night’ charity meeting being held at Pontefract racecourse on Friday July 18.

The evening meeting will raise revenue for ‘The House That Jack Built’.

***

A trip to the East Yorkshire village of Nafferton, near Driffield, was an eyeopener earlier this month.

Few of the county’s locations can lay claim to having large water features at their heart, but Nafferton boasts a stunning mere, spring-fed from an underlying chalk aquifer, as well as by a small, culverted stream from the north, extending across 1.7 acres.

Well worth a visit, especially as next weekend Nafferton Sports and Recreation Club stages the village’s annual Beer, Cider and Gin Festival.