Bernard Ginns: Boltmaker, beer and generosity

GOD’S OWN country or county? The question was posed in Saturday’s edition of The Yorkshire Post.

Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, believes it is the latter. I have heard the Duke of York use the former.

Personally, I like to view Yorkshire as a state, albeit one lacking any sovereign powers, so prefer to describe it as God’s Own Country. Furthermore, The Yorkshire Post is Yorkshire’s National Newspaper, which implies nation.

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Yorkshire is made up of four counties - north, south, east and west - so the use of ‘God’s Own County’ moniker begs the question, which one? I expect this argument will rumble on and look forward to hearing your views. The many qualities of this place we call home will never be in doubt though.

* Some of those qualities were on display at the Beef and Beer dinner in Ilkley on Thursday night. That is, fine food, brilliant beer and natural generosity.

I was a guest of Timothy Taylor, the award-winning Keighley brewer which served up Landlord, Best and the mighty Boltmaker.

Dovecote Park, of Stapleton, provided prime sirloin to 260 guests at Craiglands Hotel for the 10th annual fundraising dinner.

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Tourism chief Gary Verity provided the entertainment with anecdotes from his efforts to bring to Tour de France to God’s Own Country.

The company was excellent. I was on a table with Michael O’Dwyer OBE, clerk of The Brewers’ Company, Tim Clarke, the former chief executive of Mitchells and Butlers and a non-executive director at Timothy Taylor, and Anthony Woodhouse, managing director of historic Dorset brewer and pub operator Hall & Woodhouse.

Charles Dent, the chairman of Timothy Taylor, was master of ceremonies. He is married to Annie, the great-granddaughter of the eponymous brewer and the present High Sheriff of West Yorkshire.

Richard Waring, of Wetherby-based surveyors Thomlinsons, was auctioneer. Prizes ranged from bespoke suits and sailing trips to brewery tours, including one donated by Black Sheep, represented on the night by managing director Rob Theakston.

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The event took on a slightly surreal twist towards the end of the night as Mr Waring auctioned off wooden bulls made by students of the Fab Lab on the Keighley campus of Leeds City College and painted by artist Sally Makllone.

The 4ft by 6ft models of Highland, Aberdeen Angus, Red Devon, Charolais and Hereford bulls went for £400-£500 each. One was sold for pushing £1,000. The beer had clearly been flowing. All in, the evening raised £40,000 for the Sue Ryder Manorlands Hospice near Oxenhope, a cause that deserves the support of the business community.

* Last month, I revealed that insurance giant Aviva is setting up a ‘Digital Garage’ in the area of London known as Silicon Roundabout to develop new digital tools for customers who increasingly expect to be able to do everything online.

David Barral, chief executive of the York-based life division, told me that Aviva will be “at the very forefront in pioneering a digital environment for customers because that’s where they are today and we want to be leading that”.

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Now it seems that the FTSE 100 group is not alone is wanting to get on the front foot with latest technology.

The Financial Times reports that Bank of New York Mellon has created a technology lab in Silicon Valley.

The company said: “We’re looking at the disruptions taking place in other industries - publishing, transportation, hospitality - and now you see a lot of disruption in the payment space and finance.

“We can’t wait for someone to disrupt us and then react. We need to be in offensive mode here.”

A spokeswoman for Aviva said yesterday that the Digital Garage will be open in the new year.