My Yorkshire: David Venables

Your first Yorkshire memory?

I arrived in Doncaster in the spring of 1950. I was a country boy with a south Tyneside accent, uprooted from family and friends and transported to a strange land of grey black buildings, buses that moved along wires, crowded streets, large stores, noisy traffic and factory chimneys. However, it wasn't long before this scabby-kneed boy was out adventuring. There was that sense of elation that life couldn't get better than this as you bounded out of the front gate to the sounds of a mother's voice trailing off in the butterscotch- scented wind of Parkinson's Toffee factory. She was shouting: "And don't come back until it's time for tea." I suspect that that doesn't happen today.

Your favourite part of the county?

I have spent a great deal of my working life and holidays in all parts. I have loved the breathtaking coastline along Flamborough Head, Bempton Cliffs up to Robin Hood's Bay and Staithes. I've gawped at the tempestuous and impressive scenes of the Craven landscape and those great hills of the Pennines – Ingleborough, Whernside and Penyghent. I loved to lie down on a high fell on a clear day and look skywards, following the clouds as they described the circumference of the earth – real moments of being at one with nature and place. It is probably the reason I don't paint many landscapes – the realisation that you cannot compete with nature. So my favoured part of the county is also my source of inspiration – anywhere in the south and west of Yorkshire.

What's your idea of a perfect day or weekend in Yorkshire?

Taking time out with the family over the weekend in Whitby or Robin Hood's Bay. To be invigorated by the salty air, explore the rock pools and searching for ammonites. Eating al fresco with a good bottle of lightly chilled wine, then taking the steam train down to Pickering. Enjoying the view at the Esk valley as it steamed its way down to its destination, and ending the day with a family meal and conversation on the day's adventures.

Do you have a favourite walk or view?

I have always been attracted to river walks in particular. Being a Piscean may have something to do with it. One of my favourites is along the Swale from Richmond to Easby Abbey; there is a quiet charm to the vale while alongside the river moves unevenly bubbling and falling along its winding course.

Which Yorkshire sportsman, past or present would you like to take for lunch?

Bruce Woodcock. A son of Doncaster and the one-time heavyweight champion of Britain and the British Empire. A modest man who shunned publicity. He was a childhood local hero who I only knew from photographs. I could put all those hero-worshipping questions that I was never able to ask.

Which Yorkshire stage or screen star, past or present would you like to take to dinner?

Like me, he was born in the North-East, but he came from Jarrow. He trained as an architect before taking up writing and moving to Hull. He was a lover of jazz, and a brilliant writer for theatre and screen – he is the late and much-missed Alan Plater. I am also a huge fan of Barry Rutter, and his Northern Broadsides company, so maybe I can take them all to a banquet somewhere?

Your Yorkshire hidden gem?

St Martin's on the Hill, Scarborough. It's a wonderful testament to the work of the Pre-Raphaelites like William Morris, Burne-Jones and Rossetti. The interior decoration remains for me a remarkable tour-de-force in applied arts, and a dedication to man's creative spirit.

Your favourite Yorkshire book, author, artist or CD?

My book would be a bound collection of stories written by Yorkshire writers, from the late Fifties to the early Sixties, people like David Storey, Keith Waterhouse and John Brain. My author would be JB Priestley, simply because of the variety of written work, from social history, to fiction and plays. My CD would be anything by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, and my artist would be the incredible Henry Moore.

Has Yorkshire influenced your work?

It is a constant source of inspiration because it is where I live and work, and it is also home. Though I am from the country I'm not a country man; for me, inspiration is those wonderful Victorian buildings once blackened by the smoke of industry, the porridge-faced man at the bar, the woman struggling home with the shopping, the stooped miner and the weary train driver. The simple everyday things in life give my work meaning, and they allow me to create my own version

of Yorkshire.

Do you have a favourite food shop?

The entire food hall in Doncaster Market. It is housed in the robust 19th century neo-classical building, echoing the strength of a town that was then going places. It is veritable cornucopia of food, colour and aromas, which tease the senses, and for me it has to be the biggest and best food shop in Yorkshire, and a foodie's paradise.

How do you think Yorkshire has changed for better or for worse in the time that you have known it?

Just as an example of the way that life has altered course since the Fifties, I give you the humble men's haircutting establishment. Once called "The Barbers", it is no longer the province of men. No more the red and white pole signifying its once historical tonsorial trade, no more the tab-rolling men, cloth capped, sitting on worn leathered, and brass-studded horse-hair seats, with their eyes cantering through the racing pages of the "Pink 'Un". There were unaccompanied young boys reading the Beano, waiting to get a fringe that would satisfy a tidy mother. With the advent of unisex salons the "Anything for the weekend, sir?" was definitely out. The "Barber" sign then became "Gents' hairdresser", only to be altered some time later to "Hair Stylist", and then in the present day, the pretentious "Hair Artiste". Is their no-one out there that can stop this hair-raising dilemma? Is there a proper gent's "Barber" anywhere these days?

Who is the Yorkshire person you most admire?

I admire all those Yorkshire people who have stayed, worked and helped improve the lives of others and who sustain and share the rich inheritance that Yorkshire offers.

Do you have a favourite restaurant or pub?

The Plough in West Laith Gate, Doncaster. A no frills or furbelows pub that has seen little change to its interior since 1934 when the Hewitt's brewery did a refurbishment. A generational pub where no loud music interrupts the beer and banter that flows across the public bar, as an uninterrupted stream of good ale lubricates the larynx and turns us all into poets, pundits and philosophers. Could this be the last refuge for the Yorkshire Drinking man?

Do you follow sport in the county?

I do – I happen to live in a town noted for its racing history and earliest classic, the St Leger, its football team the Rovers, and its rugby league team the Dons. It also has a huge boxing tradition. One couldn't help but be aware and be touched by that special magic that a child takes with him when kicking a ball, or taking a wicket, or scoring a try.

If a stranger to Yorkshire only had time to visit one place, it would be?

I would hire a helicopter and set them down on Ingleborough to give a sense of Yorkshire breadth and scale, and then fly down to Bolton Abbey the gateway to the dales.

The painters Turner and Ruskin as well as other colourists of the 19th century, Cox and Girtin, for example, found it a perfect idyll. Then we'd go on to West Yorkshire and the Calder Valley where the industrial revolution and countryside were juxtaposed.

Then back to South Yorkshire and a great pint of Barnsley Bitter to round off the day.

YP MAG 23/10/10