Beverley Bites: 'I love history, I love Beverley and I love food so I started a food tour of the town'
When Emma Hetherington moved to Beverley four years ago, she became obsessed with its history but decided she also very much wanted to be a part of its future.
“I really became interested in history in my mid-twenties,” she explains. “I moved to Beverley four years ago, but I had been coming here for more than 20 years, and I really wanted to absorb myself in Beverley’s history.” She went to Beverley Minster and asked if she could learn to be a volunteer guide and they snapped her hand off. Emma is now a roof guide, taking tours up into the roof of the historic minster. "I really began to learn the history of medieval and Georgian Beverley.”
But it was after she went on a foodie walking tour of Manchester – called Scranchester – a year and a half ago that she got the idea of doing in a similar thing in Beverley.
“I thought it was a great way to really introduce people to a place in terms of walking them round, talking about the history, but also letting them try the local food,” says Emma, a former BBC journalist and communication professional.
“We have so many lovely independents in Beverley that I decided to create Beverley Bites as a way of introducing more people to the history of Beverley and also introducing them to the flavours of the town as well.”
With its medieval street pattern and Gothic Minster, Beverley is steeped in centuries of history. Beverley Bites takes guests on a journey through the fascinating town, weaving together stories of medieval markets, monastic life, and Georgian grandeur with carefully selected food and drink stops that reflect the town’s rich character and community spirit.
“Beverley has always been a place where people came to trade, taste and connect,” says Emma. “This tour revives that spirit, linking historic landmarks with local food and drink being made and sold here in Beverley and East Yorkshire today.”
Tour participants explore key heritage sites and uncover stories from Beverley’s past, while enjoying samples from local, independent cafes, bars and businesses.
“We don’t have ‘Beverley foods’ as such, so it’s trying to make sure that the foods we are giving people are homemade and fresh and all about the local culture.”
Emma says it was difficult to choose which retailers to include in her weekly tours and is already thinking about how she can organise other versions of the tour and include more local independents.
"I started off thinking what was going to be my route, what story was I telling and what made the most sense. I then started to look at the foody places along the route and what time we might be passing. With a 10.30am start, I also needed to think about the order – we didn’t want to start with ice cream.”
The circular tour, which follows the medieval street pattern of Beverley, starts at North Bar Within – the only gate coming in and out of the town.
“Everyone gets themselves a complimentary tea/coffee from Wild Organic Cafe to take with them, and we meet at the medieval merchant’s house. I bring them croissants from TC Patisserie.”
Thierry Condette began making croissants, brioche and fruit tarts at home in 2007 and took them to sell at Beverley’s Saturday market. They soon became very popular, so he expanded to Cottingham market. Pocklington market and Beverley’s Wednesday market. During this time, it was always Thierry and his wife Nicola’s dream to open a shop, and TC Patisserie opened in Beverley in 2008.
“We then walk down towards Saturday Market – I do the tour on a Saturday because of the market, which has been there for more than a thousand years. It’s a modern day market but someone from Medieval times could walk in there and they would recognise half the things that are in there – local foods, vegetables, breads and cheeses. The fact that this market is still serving people with the things they need brings a fantastic connection to the past.” At the market they have a sip of Market Weighton gin or mead supplied by Northmen Spirit, cheese and biscuits from a little cheese stall and then we set off down Toll Gavel – a lovely pedestrianised street that takes you from Saturday Market to Wednesday Market and we spend some time talking about the Medieval guilds in Beverley.” Emma says that Beverley was a flourishing town and inland port in Medieval times, being the tenth biggest town outside of London.
“We wander through and look at various properties and talk about the importance that women played in the history of the town in Medieval and Georgian times,” says Emma.
The tour then stops off at Polly’s Cafe, where they pick up some homemade pies and gravy to eat in a local park.
After Wednesday Market, they walk towards the Minster where people get the chance to spend ten minutes wandering around it, before calling at the Monks Walk pub for a pint of local best bitter.
From there Emma takes the tour up Walkergate where the Medieval fullers would tread the cloth that was produced in the town before visiting Junk Soul Smothered, vegan burger bar and cafe where they are offered a tasting platter of vegan tit bits.
The tour then heads down Hengate and they call into Nelly’s, a very old pub run by Samuel Smith that is still gas lit, before ending up back at North Bar and visiting Gemini Chocolate for an ice cream or truffles.
“The lovely thing about Gemini Chocolates is that the building used to be a secret headquarters for the resistance in the Second World War. I did a lot of research and found that it was where the team met who would have had to take over the resistance had we lost the war to the Nazis. It’s nice that we end in a building that has some real history attached to it,” says Emma.
Tickets for Beverley Bites cost £50 per person. The tour takes approximately four hours and runs every Saturday until September 27. Visit: beverleybites.com