Men-only tradition is put out to pasture in art exhibition

VISITORS to Beverley’s Guildhall are being offered a fresh insight into an historic organisation that broke with tradition for the first time in its 177-year history this year by admitting women.

An exhibition entitled Pastures and Pasture Masters has been extended to look at all the town’s pastures following new legislation.

The change allowed Sarah Walker to become the first female pasture master in an election in March.

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Guildhall curator Fiona Jenkinson said: “The first exhibition in the community museum when it opened 10 years ago was about Beverley Westwood. This was a very popular exhibition and when the legislation was changed we thought it would be a good idea to extend the subject to look at all of the town’s pastures.

“The two less well-known pastures of Swinemoor and Figham were once much more popular, particularly with youngsters who often spent many long days there with jam sandwiches and bottles of pop. We have many lovely stories of people swimming at ‘Brickie Bridge’ on Swinemoor or ‘Chalky’ on Figham. How many of our residents today can remember ‘Grandad Tree’, ‘Hill 60’ or ‘Bump on the Westwood’?”

The pasture masters act as custodians of Beverley’s three areas of common land.