Yorkshire showbiz and culture’s enduring debt to county ‘outsiders’ – Yorkshire Post Letters

ALTHOUGH your list of Yorkshire celebrities names those born in the county (The Yorkshire Post, July 31), some who came here from outside Yorkshire have contributed hugely to our cultural heritage deserve a Yorkshire celebration.

Two such individuals who have enriched our lives in Yorkshire are Sir Alec Clegg, the former Chief Education Officer of the West Riding, and Jude Kelly, who was the artistic director of the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds.

Sir Alec Clegg was born in Derbyshire and, as Chief Education Officer in the West Riding, inspired generations of children from 1939 until 1974 when the authority was abolished.

He believed all children have creative talents, championed the role of music, drama, and dance in children’s lives, and insisted the legendary West Riding String Quartet visited schools across the county.

Clegg promoted drama and music in our schools and was key to the founding of Bretton Hall College which opened in 1949 and has produced such writers and artists as Kay Mellor, Colin Welland and John Godber.

Jude Kelly, the former artistic director of the West Yorkshire Playhouse, was born in Liverpool and is director of the Women of the World foundation. She was the founding director of the playhouse in Leeds which she established as a centre for excellence.

In 2006 she became Artistic Director of the Southbank Centre in London, Britain’s largest cultural institution. She has celebrated the achievements of women and girls, made links between the world of the arts, sport, and culture, and represented Britain within UNESCO on cultural matters.

Yorkshire has attracted and been enriched by people from across the country and from all parts of the world who have come to work and live here, and on Yorkshire Day we should celebrate all our international links.

From: Mike Astin, Halifax.

HOW about John Noakes for one of the Celebrity Portraits?

I was a friend of John since school days at Rishworth School, near Ripponden outside Halifax. John was brought up in Shelf between Bradford and Halifax. I spent many holidays with John and his wife Vicky in their home in Mallorca as well as on their boat and on their cruiser on the North American waterways.

Sadly John died in 2017 and I was privileged to give part of the eulogy alongside his Blue Peter colleague Pete Purvis. Half his ashes were sent up in an exploding rocket over the playing fields of Rishworth School the other half scattered on the water in Andraitx harbour, Mallorca.

I hope you are able to add more names to Yorkshire Celebrity Portraits and be able to include my true Yorkshire friend John Noakes.

From: Elizabeth Minkin, Morris Lane, Kirkstall.

I MUCH enjoyed reading your selection of Yorkshire famous faces (The Yorkshire Post, July 31), and I think the remarkable sculptor Kenneth Armitage should certainly be added.

From: Anthony Dixon, York.

SURPRISED not to find Oscar- winning York composer and musician John Barry (Prendergast) in your top 100.

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