My Yorkshire: Artist Ashley Jackson shares his favourite things about the county - from Fred Trueman to Blakey Ridge

What’s your first Yorkshire memory?

A lot of people are rather surprised when they learn that I wasn’t actually born in Yorkshire, but in the Far East, where my dad was the general manager for Tiger Beer. He joined up

when the war started and made arrangements for his family to escape. We never saw him again – he died in the “Forgotten War”, in what was then Burma. When we returned we settled in Barnsley, though for some reason the first thing that I can accurately recall is being high up on a hillside, looking down from Linthwaite, near Huddersfield, and in the valley below there was a train, chuffing along. It was like watching a toy engine with a plume of smoke behind it.

What’s your favourite part of the county – and why?

Anywhere on the moors, on a day when there’s been a bit of rain and there’s a glistening effect, like liquid silver on the drystone walls. There has to be a lot of cloud – not overcast and uniformly grey, however, because that’s just dull. And there has to be some wind against my cheeks. All I can hope to do is to convey that moment in my paintings.

What’s your idea of a perfect day, or a perfect weekend, out in Yorkshire?

To be up on somewhere like Blakey Ridge and to have completed a painting, or to be in Rosedale, sketching and painting. There’s a certain feeling you get when what you’ve worked on over the day turns out to be, well, just right.

Do you have a favourite walk, or view?

The views that I love are like children – you can’t possibly show favour to one over another. I love them all the same. So I love all of Yorkshire, the uplands and the big skies. Oddly enough, I don’t feel very easy painting in an area that is flat. I was once asked to deliver a course in watercolours down in Norfolk – lovely people, but it didn’t suit me at all.

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

It has to be Fred Trueman, who I was very pleased to call a friend. Knowing Fred, he’d be the one who, at the end of the lunch, would expect you to pick up the bill. He was once doing a BBC radio commentary with Brian Johnston and they were debating whether there was going to be a downpour and Freddie said on air: “I know a chap who is brilliant painting skies like that”, and he mentioned my name. The next time that we met he told me that he’d given me a “plug”, and that it was my turn to get the round in! He did, however, own one of my paintings, bless him.

Name one of Yorkshire’s many creative people, in any field – past or present – that you’d like to take for dinner?

The Barnsley-born writer Milly Johnson, who delivers best-selling novels time after time. She’s very talented and great company.

If you had to name your Yorkshire ‘hidden gem’, what would it be?

The Little Chapel, in Heptonstall, which was built back in 1764, and where John Wesley preached – come to think of it, there can’t be many places in Yorkshire where he didn’t. But it’s a lovely building and unusual because it is octagonal in shape.

If you could choose a painting, sculpture or drawing, from or in Yorkshire to own for a day, what would it be?

It’s a piece by my good friend, the sculptor Graham Ibbeson, called The Barnsley Flyer. It shows a young lad with his socks around his ankles and his arms flung wide, as if he is about to take off into the blue. I wish that I had been able to buy the original, I both love it and admire it.

What do you think gives Yorkshire its unique identity?

The incredible diversity of it all. Swaledale is as different to Wharfedale as Barnsley is to Huddersfield. And our accents, which all change from place to place.

Do you have a favourite restaurant, or pub?

We’ve been going to the Three Acres at Emley for as long as I can remember – back then it was a pub that served some food. Now, it has a fine restaurant and the steaks are just out of this world.

Do you have a favourite food shop?

For Anne and me, it’s proper markets and farm shops every time, and the one we go to most is at Bolster Moor, which also has a grand little coffee shop as well.

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

To me, it’s as good as always. It’s a fantastic place to live and the people are still open and friendly. Equally, they don’t suffer fools gladly. So if you are acting like an idiot they will definitely let you know.

If you had to change one thing in, or about Yorkshire, what would that be?

Not a lot, because for me it is still a very caring place, where folk look after one another.

Who is the Yorkshire person that you most admire?

The late Brian Glover, a fine actor and a lovely man, who sadly died too young. He started out as a wrestler before he took to acting. He was born in Sheffield, true, but we always thought of him as part of the “Barnsley Mafia” because of his wonderful performance in Kes. He was a great character and he told me that when he was making the film Brannigan with John Wayne, he made the mistake of sitting in the great man’s canvas on-set chair. He had to be moved quickly away – he’d approached the seat from the front and hadn’t seen that Wayne’s name was printed on the back.

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

Holmfirth. It’s full of lovely people and history. A little market town with a lot of heart.

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today.

Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you'll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app and receive exclusive members-only offers.

So, please - if you can - pay for our work. Just £5 per month is the starting point. If you think that which we are trying to achieve is worth more, you can pay us what you think we are worth. By doing so, you will be investing in something that is becoming increasingly rare. Independent journalism that cares less about right and left and more about right and wrong. Journalism you can trust.

Thank you

James Mitchinson