News

We had a fantastic turnout for our Annual General Meeting in at the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate on 31st January 2026 – so big we’ve had to book a bigger room for 2027!

More than 30 earlybirds took part in our AI for Civic Societies workshop presented by Malcolm Gardner of Wetherby Civic Society, Gill Battarbee of Addingham Civic Society, YHACS trustee John Clarke and YHACS Chair Margaret Hicks-Clarke. You can find the slides plus a training manual in our new Training Guides section.

The agm and quarterly members’ meeting in the afternoon was attended by 62 members. The Chair, Margaret Hicks-Clarke presented the YHACS Annual Report, which was accepted by the meeting. Margaret has one more year of her three-year term of office before she needs to stand for re-election. The President, officers and other trustees all agreed to serve for a further year and were re-elected.

They are: President – Kevin Trickett MBE; Vice Chair – Alan Goodrum; Secretary – Helen Kidman; Treasurer – Jane Lee.

Other Trustees: Paul Cartwright, John Clarke, Ben Cowell, Simon Green, Martin Hamilton, David Moss, Alan Nicholson, Richard Taylor.

Award winners

The annual YHACS/Peter Spawforth Award was won by Ripon Civic Society in recognition of its two-year campaign to stop Ripon Cathedral building on a much-loved park in the heart of the city. Society Co Chairs Richard Taylor and David Winpenny are pictured receiving the trophy, certificate and £200 cheque from Peter Spawforth.

The society submitted objections to the Cathedral’s plans, wrote 20 additional letters and produced detailed documents including a Heritage Impact Assessment and a history of the park and its ancient trees. It also raised a petition that attracted 3,000 signatures. The Cathedral eventually withdrew its application in February 2025.

Second place went to Horbury Civic Society for its initiative to replace older, damaged street name plates with bespoke new signs featuring Horbury’s town crest, carried out in partnership with Wakefield City Council.

Richmond and District Civic Society took third place for re-introducing Heritage Open Days to the town, putting on 16 events attended by 350 people and gaining 16 new members in the process.

YHACS Honorary President Kevin Trickett MBE gave a presentation on Building Pride in Place in 50 Objects and urged civic societies to get involved in their own areas.

YHACS Chair Margaret Hicks-Clarke briefed members on the National Lottery Heritage Fund application and Civic Voice trustees Martin Hamilton, Barry Goodchild and Malcolm Gardner gave a update on Civic Voice developments.

The Spring Members’ meeting will be in Doncaster on 18th April.

Thank you to York Civic Trust for hosting us for a memorable day, including a tour of York’s Snickelways. We also heard about the origins of York Civic Trust, its development over 80 years and a glimpse into the future.

Thank you to Addingham Civic Society for putting on a wonderful summer meeting for us in their beautiful Wharfedale village on Saturday 26th July.

More than 50 representatives from civic societies all over Yorkshire attended, some of whom also took advantage of the morning walks led by Addingham CS members.

Our two excellent speakers kept the audience engaged on contrasting subjects, showing the range of work civic societies are involved with.

Prof Rick Battarbee spoke to us about the environmental partnership work Addingham is doing while Sue Wrathmell from Skipton Civic Society talked about mapping the history of buildings through time. Thank you to both for sharing your experiences with us.

We all appreciated Addingham’s fantastic hospitality, enjoying a generous buffet lunch – and even a doggy bag to take home! About 30 of us gathered at The Fleece the previous evening for dinner and lots of great conversation.

Once again, thank you to Gill Battarbee and Addingham Civic Society trustees and volunteers, who made us so welcome.

Our Autumn Meeting will be on 1st November, hosted by York Civic Trust. I hope to see you there.

More details to come soon.

Thank you

Margaret Hicks-Clarke,
YHACS Chair

Join us for the YHACS Summer Members’ Meeting on Saturday 26^th July in the beautiful village of Addingham, which lies by the River Wharfe between Ilkley and Skipton.

Our hosts at Addingham Civic Society have prepared a great programme for us and, following Hull’s example, are offering us a sandwich lunch prior to the main meeting!

As always, anyone wishing to arrive on the Friday is welcome to join YHACS trustees and members of Addingham Civic Society for dinner at The Fleece in Addingham. The village has no large hotels and Ilkley is the nearest place to stay, about 3 miles away. Our hosts recommend booking early as the area is popular with tourists.

PROGRAMME

Here is the draft programme for the weekend:

Friday 25^th July

7pm Evening Meal at The Fleece in Addingham. Parking is at The Fleece, or opposite in the Memorial Hall Car Park (free)

Saturday 26^th July

10am Walk 1: The Story of Addingham in Blue Plaques (participants max 15). Meet at The Hub, above the Old Library on Main Street.

10am  Walk 2:  Managing Village Green Spaces for Nature (participants max 20). Meet at the Memorial Hall Car Park

12 noon           Sandwich lunch at the Memorial Hall, which is the venue for the main meeting has plenty of parking.

1-4pm             Members’ Meeting, at the Memorial Hall, including a presentation by Prof Rick Battarbee on “Worrying about water for people and nature: past, present and  future”

The rest of the agenda will be confirmed nearer the time.

Please could you confirm whether you’re able to join us by emailing  info@yhacs.org.uk stating which events you’d like to attend:

• Friday night dinner
• Walk 1
• Walk 2
• Free sandwich lunch
• Main meeting

INFORMATION

Accommodation

Please book early as hotels in the area are busy during the summer  months.

Addingham has no large hotels.  The Craven Heifer has a few rooms which are good (and the food is good). There are various B & Bs and Air B&Bs. 

Ilkley has a fair number of hotels and is just 3 miles from Addingham. Suggestions are:

• The Crescent
• The Riverside
• Craiglands
• The Cow and Calf 
• The Wheatley.

There are also numerous B & Bs and Air B&Bs. 

Bolton Abbey is a couple of miles from Addingham and has the Devonshire Arms, which is excellent but expensive. 

Skipton also has a few hotels and is 7 miles from Addingham.

Transport

Trains run from Leeds and Bradford to Keighley, Skipton and Ilkley

Buses run from Keighley, Skipton and Ilkley to Addingham

Parking in Addingham

Memorial Hall Car Park

There are two small Bradford-owned pay and display car parks in Addingham., one on Bolton Road and one on Main Street.

There are electric charging points in the Bolton Road car park.

Thank you Addingham for being such generous hosts for what promises to be a great event.

I look forward to seeing you all in Addingham!

YHACS will be holding its Spring Members’ Meeting in the historic port of Hull on Saturday 26^th April.

The event is being hosted by Hull Civic Society at Wilberforce House Learning Centre, High St, in Hull’s Old Town from 1pm-4pm.

We are delighted to be welcoming Civic Voice’s new Chief Executive, Rob Hattersley, as one of our speakers.He is keen to get to know as many civic societies as possible as he settles into his new role.

John Scotney, of Hull Civic Society, will give a talk on the historic buildings of Hull and there will be more discussion on our National Lottery bid and the results of our survey. We also look forward to hearing news, views and ideas from our member societies in our Just A Minute slot. Please email info@yhacs.org.uk if you wish to tell us what your society is up to.

Friday

Those who fancy travelling over on the Friday will be very welcome to join us for at 7 for 7.30pm for a meal at The Minerva in Nelson Street, a historic pub overlooking the Marina and River Humber.

There are no planned activities for Friday afternoon but you may want to walk around the Marina and regenerated Fruit Market area or visit some of Hull’s free museums or renowned Ferens Art Gallery – www.hullmuseums.co.uk/venues.

Saturday morning

On Saturday morning, there will be a guided walk around Hull’s Old Town, starting at 10am and finishing in time for lunch. Hull Civic Society have generously offered to treat us to a sandwich buffet at the Sailmakers Arms, High Street, which is open to everyone attending the afternoon meeting. Who said there was no such thing as a free lunch? Thank you, Hull.

Staying over?

Hull is well served with accommodation at varying ends of the scale. The Premier Inn Hull City Centre, in Tower Street HU9 1TQ, is within a few minutes’ walking distance of the both Wilberforce House and The Minerva. It has on-site car parking costing £7 for 24 hours.

For those arriving by train and wanting something closer to the railway station, there is the Holiday Inn Express, 80 Ferensway, HU2 8LN. You can leave your luggage at the hotel and take a short bus ride (or 20-minute walk) to the Old Town.

I’d be grateful if you could let us know asap if you plan to attend so Hull Civic Society can confirm numbers with the venues.

Please respond to info@yhacs.org.uk stating which events you’d like to attend:

• Friday night dinner
• Saturday morning walk
• Free sandwich lunch
• Main meeting

I look forward to seeing you in Hull!

Margaret Hicks-Clarke

Chair, YHACS

From the Chair…

It was wonderful to see so many of you at the YHACS annual general meeting in Harrogate on 25th January, despite Storm Eowyn threatening to blow us all away!

If you weren’t able to make it, you missed an excellent day. I hope you will be able to join us at our Spring Members’ Meeting in Hull in April.

Congratulations to our YHACS/Peter Spawforth Award winners – 1. Goole, 2. Grimsby, Cleethorpes and District, 3. Pontefract – and to Scarborough, which won the Richard Ward Memorial Prize. Well done to all.

Helping to judge our awards is an annual highlight for me, as it shows the breadth and depth of what goes on all year round in our societies across Yorkshire and the Humber. It also highlights best practice that we can all learn from. Sharing ideas and networking with other civic societies are valuable benefits of belonging to YHACS.

There are a few societies we haven’t seen for a while. Please keep in touch. We’d love to see you at our next event in Hull.

See you soon, Margaret

25th January 2025, Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate

Dear friends,

It is my great pleasure to invite you to attend my first
Annual General Meeting as Chair of YHACS, to be held at the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate on Saturday 25th January 2025. Where did 2024 go?

The agm will start at 1pm and will be followed by our annual awards and regular quarterly meeting, ending no later than 4pm. As last year, we will be accommodated in the Library (turn right from the lobby and down to the end of the corridor).

Our officers and committee members have done an excellent job over the past year and I am pleased that they have all agreed to stand for re-election. The position of Chair is a
three-year term. We still have three vacancies on the committee and any member of YHACS or a YHACS member society may put themselves forward for nomination. I have attached the relevant form and would urge you to consider joining us. Drop me an email if you’d like to know more. The more capacity we have, the more we can do to help our member societies.

Friday Night

Some of the committee will be staying over in Harrogate on Friday 24th January and would be delighted if you could join us for dinner at the hotel on Friday evening, at your own
expense. You don’t have to be staying at the hotel to take part. We aim to meet in the bar at 7pm and eat at 7.30pm. Remember to pay for your parking at the hotel reception on arrival.

If you would like to stay overnight at the Old Swan on Friday 24^th we have arranged a special dinner, bed and breakfast rate with the hotel for a limited number of rooms. The prices are:

Classic single bedded rooms @ £115.00 per room, dinner bed & breakfast.

Classic double occupancy bedrooms @ £155.00 per room, dinner bed & breakfast.

To access this rate you need to call the hotel reservations team on 01423 500055 option 1, state it’s for the Old Swan Hotel and quote ‘YHACS Meeting’. It is not possible to get this rate online, so you do need to ring.

Saturday Morning

On Saturday morning at 10.30am, Harrogate Civic Society has arranged for a talk by one of its members, Terry Williams, on the New Park area of Harrogate. New Park was a working-class
area and as industrial as Harrogate ever got, so is an aspect of Harrogate’s history often
overshadowed by the stories of the wealthy visitors who came to take the waters. Terry has also established a New Park heritage centre at the school where he used to teach.

If you wish to purchase lunch (bar meals) at the hotel, please arrive in good time – before 12 noon if possible. Please bear in mind the annual general meeting will start promptly at 1pm

Parking and Travel

Please be aware that the hotel car park costs £10 per day (or part day). This applies to
attendees on Saturday and also anyone joining us for dinner on Friday evening. Please obtain a voucher from the hotel on arrival and display it on your windscreen.

There are other car parks nearby and the railway station is about half a mile away.

Please get in touch if you have any questions.

Thank you,

Margaret Hicks-Clarke, YHACS Chair

We’re off to the seaside for our YHACS Summer Members’ Event. It is being hosted by Grimsby, Cleethorpes and District Civic Society at the Memorial Hall in Grimsby Road, Cleethorpes, from 1pm to 4pm on Saturday 13^th July. The venue has parking and is within easy walking distance of Cleethorpes railway station.

Those who fancy travelling over on the Friday can join us for fish and chips at Papa’s on Cleethorpes Pier https://papasfishandchips.com/cleethorpes/ . The restaurant also caters for those who prefer meat and for vegans. It has a bar and wonderful views along the Humber estuary – idyllic on a beautiful summer’s evening (which we’ve booked with the Met Office by the way!).

Also on Friday, the Civic Society is organising a walk around The Kasbah, the Grimsby Docks Regeneration Project, at 1pm.

On Saturday morning there will be a guided walk around Cleethorpes’ Blue Plaques starting at 10am and finishing in time for you to have lunch at one of the town’s many cafes and pubs before the meeting starts.

Guest speakers at the main meeting will include Paul Fenwick, who will recount the extraordinary story of the Butterfly Bombs dropped on Grimsby in the Second World War, and Emma Lindgard, who will tell us about some of the historical aspects of Cleethorpes. Ian Harvey, Director of Civic Voice, will also be speaking.

There will be the usual round-up of YHACS news and a chance to hear from other societies in our Just A Minute slot. I apologise that we ran out of time for this at our January meeting but we’ll definitely make time for it in July. One of the most positive aspects of our meetings is sharing ideas and good practice.

The Kingsway Hotel on the seafront at Cleethorpes has offered us a deal for the Friday night if you mention YHACS. A double room with breakfast is £115, without breakfast £90. A single with breakfast is £90, without £75. Sea view rooms are available at £140 or £115, room only. Other hotels and guest houses can be found by accessing the Visit North East Lincolnshire website https://www.discovernortheastlincolnshire.co.uk/ .

PLEASE COULD YOU REGISTER AS SOON AS POSSIBLE SO WE HAVE A BETTER IDEA OF THE NUMBERS.

Please respond to info@yhacs.org.uk stating which events you’d like to attend:

• Friday night dinner (7pm)
• Saturday morning walk around Cleethorpes Blue Plaques (10am)
• Main meeting (1pm)
• Friday walk around The Kasbah, Grimsby Docks Regeneration Project (1pm)

Hope to see you there!

Thank you to Wakefield Civic Society for hosting a hugely successful Spring Convention on behalf of Civic Voice and YHACS.

The event, at CAPA College and Café Create, Wakefield, on April 12^th and 13^th attracted more than 90 attendees from across the country and our regional societies. The theme was Regenerating of Our Towns and Cities and drew on Wakefield’s experience as a successful Heritage Action Zone partnership.

On Friday, April 12^th, Kevin Trickett MBE, President of Wakefield Civic Society and YHACS, led an informative and entertaining walk around the Westgate Heritage Action Zone, where we learned how the “Merrie City” had developed over the centuries and saw how buildings dating back as far as 1590 had benefited from the regeneration initiative.

In the evening we met for an excellent meal at Café Create, where we enjoyed much conversation and conviviality. Our speaker was Helen Featherstone, Director of England, North at the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The following morning we assembled at CAPA College, a performing arts centre of excellence for students aged 16 to 18 from all over the North. We were all impressed by its state-of-the-art facilities and passion of its principal, Clare Nicholson. Several incredibly talented students sang and played for us.

A string of speakers kept up a rapid-fire pace and had us thoroughly engaged throughout the day on a variety of topics linked to the regeneration theme.

The line-up was: Simon Lightwood MP for Wakefield; Clare Elliott, Service Director, Economic Growth and Skills, Wakefield Council; Richard Butterfield, Partnerships Team Leader, North East & Yorkshire Region, Historic England; Jonathan Maud, Chairman and Managing Director, Rushbond plc; Paul Gwilliam, Westgate Heritage Action Zone project manager, Wakefield Council; Paul Cartwright, Chair, Pontefract Civic Society and YHACS Committee member; Julie Russell, Service Director, Arts, Culture and Leisure, Wakefield Council; Louise Clare, Senior Engagement Manager, National Lottery Heritage Fund; Tony Wade, Co-Director, Edgelands Arts; Margaret
Hicks-Clarke, Chair YHACS and Chair of Goole Civic Society; Kevin Trickett MBE, President, Wakefield Civic Society and Honorary President, YHACS; Martin Hamilton, Chair, Civic Voice, Director of Leeds Civic Trust and YHACS Committee member.

A full report on the Spring Convention will appear in the next issue of the YHACS newsletter, Society Insight.