Yorkshire Day is an annual celebration dedicated to the historic county of Yorkshire in England. It is observed on August 1st each year and aims to promote pride in Yorkshire’s rich cultural, historical, and industrial heritage. The day often features events such as parades, festivals, exhibitions, and community activities across the region. Yorkshire Day also serves as an opportunity for residents and visitors to celebrate the unique identity, traditions, and contributions of Yorkshire to the broader United Kingdom. The celebration was first established in 1975 by the Yorkshire Ridings Society to commemorate the history and significance of Yorkshire's distinct identity. Here are 24 inventors and innovators for each hour of the blessed day.
1. Joseph Hansom
Patented in 1834, it was a two-wheeled carriage designed for public hire. This innovative design, typically pulled by a single horse, proved to be faster and more maneuverable than the earlier four-wheeled hackney carriages that had been in use since the 1600s, offering a more efficient option for public transportation. Hansom cabs were sold widely and gained popularity abroad, particularly in various cities across Europe and the United States. They quickly became a standard form of public hire vehicle in many urban areas. Additionally, Joseph Hansom was a respected architect known for designing churches and public buildings. He also founded the "Building" magazine, which serves the construction and architecture professions and continues to be published to this day.
2. Joseph Bramah
His invention of the Hydraulic Press (also called a 'Bramah press'), was a machine that exerts pressure on an object so that it can be easily crushed, straightened, or molded for cutting, and with appropriate dies it can cut through materials and shape them. Invented in 1795, the invention significantly advanced industrial processes and machinery, enabling the creation of larger, more complex, and more efficient tools and products.
One particular aspect of the use of hydraulics was his invention of the beer pump (a beer pump engine). It would dispense beer by pumping (pulling) the handle, which was connected via a flexible hose to a beer keg. It now meant kegs could be stored beneath the bar in cool earthen basements instead of previously having one located nearby in the pub at an unfavorable room temperature. These pumps became the most common way of serving beer.
3. John Carr
He designed hospitals, bridges, prisons, and racecourse grandstands, his stand at Kelso is the last remaining and finest example of its building type in Scotland. Other examples are the Hospital de Santo António in Portugal, and the prestigious Harewood House in West Yorkshire. He also designed Buxton Crescent in Derbyshire, which has a similar crescent design shape to the famous Royal Crescent in Bath, Somerset, by English architect John Wood.
York's Knavesmire Racecourse is one of the UK's oldest. Carr designed its first Grandstand in 1754. In their book 'Racecourse Architecture,' Paul Roberts and Isabelle Taylor said of Carr's Grandstand:
"This was not merely York’s first grandstand, nor was it only the first grandstand of any Thoroughbred racecourse, but – in the modern sense of the building type – it was the first grandstand of any sporting venue anywhere in the world."
4. Sir John Fowler
Engineer for the world's first underground railway, the London Metropolitan Railway. This groundbreaking project marked a significant milestone in public transport, as it was the world's first underground railway system, opened in 1863. He was also Chief Engineer for the Forth Bridge in Scotland that connects Fife and Edinburgh in partnership with fellow English engineer Benjamin Baker.
"He was a Victorian engineer who was responsible for the world’s first underground railway (the Metropolitan in London); he was also chief engineer for the Forth Railway Bridge. Fowler transformed this Highland landscape over 30 years, planting 9 million trees and building the suspension bridge over the River Droma here in 1874." - National Trust for Scotland website.
When it was first constructed, it was regarded as the eighth wonder of the world.
"He designed a number of bridges – including the Grosvenor Bridge, which carried the first railway across the Thames – and designed Victoria Station in London and stations in Glasgow, Sheffield, Liverpool and Manchester Central Station, including the 64m-wide train shed roof was the second widest unsupported steel arch in the country, after the roof of St Pancras Station." - Undiscovered Scotland website.
He was also involved in engineering and railway work abroad, with projects in Algeria, Egypt, India, Australia, Belgium, the United States, Germany, France, and Portugal.
In 1865 he became the youngest-ever president of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
5. John Frederick Bateman
He provided water systems in England, Glasgow, Dublin, and Belfast, even as far as Buenos Aires, Naples, Constantinople, and Colombo. His first project was bringing the Ogden Water reservoir to his hometown of Halifax, in 1851. In Glasgow, Scotland, he significantly reduced the bacterial disease cholera with The Loch Katrine Scheme, a significant engineering project implemented in the 19th century, designed to supply clean drinking water to the city. It involved the construction of a system to collect and transfer water from Loch Katrine, a freshwater loch located in the Trossachs region of Scotland, to Glasgow. See the link: "The Loch Katrine scheme brought an unlimited supply of fresh water to the city. Cases of cholera dropped significantly." - Institute of Civil Engineering (ICE).
6. Peter Auty
Every Christmas it's a tradition in the UK to show the short animated film 'The Snowman,' a children’s fantasy story written by English author Raymond Briggs and made for TV in 1982. But even though Welsh boy Aled Jones may have sung The Snowman theme "Walking in the Air" as a chart single, it was Yorkshire boy Peter Auty who sang it on the actual TV film. Peter's voice had broken by the time it was put out as a song three years later, so they had Aled record it.
7. Edward Victor Appleton
Nobel Prize winner in 1947 in Physics for proving the existence of the ionosphere in the upper atmosphere. He had a series of experiments in 1924 with radio waves sent into the atmosphere and back, which culminated in the discovery of another layer in 1926, the 'Appleton Layer,' named after him, which was the highest region of the ionosphere called the 'F-region,' a layer responsible for reflecting shortwave radio round the world. It led to the military development of radar in World War Two. In 1939 he became secretary of the government’s Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, where he worked on radar and the atomic bomb during the war. He was knighted in 1941.
8. Thomas Hawkshaw
So many engineering projects exist at home and abroad, including the Severn Railway Tunnel, which the Thoresby Society (the historical society for Leeds and district) states was, 'For a century, it was the longest underwater tunnel in the world.'"
His accomplishments ranged from bridges, canals, docks, railway lines, and train buildings to the magnificent Lockwood Viaduct in West Yorkshire, which was called "one of the most stupendous structures of ancient or modern times."
His many ventures abroad include taking charge of the Bolivian Copper Mines in Venezuela, where:
"He managed a workforce of 1200 who worked in the mines. He improved the primitive transport links by constructing a wide new cart road and developed the navigation system to the port. Ships could then take it back to St. Helens, near Liverpool, to be smelted." - Freshwood website; Sir John Hawkshaw - Charmouth's Famous Railway Engineer.
And the railways of:
"the Riga and Dunaburg and the Dunaburg and Witepsk Railways in Russia, the Government railways in Mauritius, and the great ship-canal from Amsterdam to the North Sea."- Taken from the website Architects of Manchester, which is about his works there and not his Yorkshire heritage.
9. Edward Akroyd
He is credited with establishing the first school bank in the world, the Yorkshire Penny Bank, which he founded in 1859, following his earlier creation of the Provident Union in 1850, aimed at helping the working class save money. The Yorkshire Penny Bank was designed to promote savings and financial inclusion specifically for the working populace of Yorkshire, allowing individuals to save small amounts—often just pennies. Although it primarily served residents of Yorkshire, it did not impose strict restrictions on individuals from outside the region wishing to open accounts or utilize its services. Akroyd recognized the importance of supporting local economic development and small tradesmen, which led to the bank introducing cheque books in 1872, facilitating transactions for its patrons. Today, his former residence, Bankfield, located in Halifax, is home to the Bankfield Museum, which focuses on his history, local history, and international culture.
10. Sally Wainwright
A TV writer, producer, and playwright. She has won numerous awards, including for Gentleman Jack and Happy Valley and many more. Her latest popular one is Renegade Nell, about a female outlaw set in 1705. She even once wrote 57 episodes for the popular soap opera Coronation Street.
11. John Waddington
Founder of the board and card game maker Waddingtons, which produced some of the best games of all time, such as Cluedo, invented by fellow Anthony Ernest Pratt, and the football game Subbuteo, invented by Peter Adolph, who patented it in 1948 and sold the game to Waddingtons in 1970.
12. Samson Fox
The Man who Captured Sunlight - the name of a play in his honour in 2022, held in Harrogate's Royal Hall that he was instrumental in building. He famously ‘bottled the sun’ as Harrogate’s streets became the first thoroughfares in the world to be lit with his Fox Water-Gas. He was also elected Mayor of Harrogate. Write of the play Gavin Collinson said: “Samson Fox is one of the Victorian era’s greatest enigmas. A Northern genius whose inventions shaped our world..."
One of his inventions was the corrugated boiler flue, which improved the efficiency and safety of steam boilers and heating systems at his Leeds Forge Company, known for producing 'Best Yorkshire' iron for locomotive and marine engine parts and forgings. This innovation was said to have saved thousands of lives and revolutionized steamship engine construction.
"It was adopted by the Navy and the great shipping lines, and production was licensed in Germany and the USA, on lucrative terms. Then, in the 1880s, he developed steel under-frames for railway wagons, lighter than before yet capable of supporting heavier loads. They sold world-wide, and in the USA Fox struck a smart deal with railway salesman ‘Diamond’ Jim Brady for manufacture in Illinois, in return for a hefty commission." - The Thoresby Society, The Historical Society for Leeds and District.
In 1879 the Pretoria, first ocean-going steamship to trial the flue while transporting troops to the Zulu War in South Africa completed the journey in a record 24 days.
Incidentally, one of the famous battles in the Zulu war was Rorkes Drift, 22 and 23 of January 1879, which had a substantial English element:
"Of the 122 soldiers of the 24th Regiment present at the Battle of Rorke's Drift, 49 are known to have been of English nationality, 32 were Welsh, 16 were Irish, 1 was a Scot, and 3 were born overseas. The nationalities of the remaining 21 are unknown." - Norman Holme (1999) The Noble 24th p. 383
You can also find extra info from this well informed link: rorkesdriftvc.com - Popular Myths A quote from it:
“And no-one, I'm sorry to say, sang Men of Harlech; the regimental march in 1879 was The Warwickshire Lads."*
13. Kay Mellor
An Actress, scriptwriter, producer, and director. She was known for creating popular television series such as Band of Gold, Fat Friends, and The Syndicate, as well as co-creating CITV's children's drama Children's Ward.
14. Titus Salt
Founded 'Saltaire' a spinning and weaving mill, particularly in the wool from the Alpaca animal. He created an entire village of houses, a park, school, library, recreation and learning institute and outdoor sport facilities around the mill. It was designed by local Yorkshire English architects Henry Lockwood and William Mason.
15. John Smeaton
An eminent civil engineer of bridges, canals, harbours and lighthouses. He is said to have coined the term “Civil Engineer" to distinguish from "Engineer" that usually referred to a military engineer at the time. He founded the Society of Civil Engineers in 1771.
16. Percy Shaw
He invented a fixed road light called "Cat's Eye" because of the reflective qualities of a cat's eyes, which reflect light back when motorists' headlights shine on it. This made it easier for motorists to identify the divisions between lanes and the edges of the road at night.
17. Harry Brearley
The inventor of stainless steel. While trying to develop a corrosion-resistant alloy for gun barrels, he discovered that adding chromium to steel prevented rust. Due to its durability and resistance to corrosion, stainless steel is now used in countless applications, from kitchenware to skyscrapers.
18. William Herbert Hatfield
Airplane pioneer who laid its founding principles. He is referred to as the 'Father of Aviation.' It is said he etched a design of a modern airplane on a silver disk. It also showed the forces that govern flight and how these forces operated. His plane had a fixed main wing, a fuselage, a cruciform tail unit with surfaces for vertical and horizontal control, a cockpit for the pilot, and a rudimentary means of propulsion that consisted of revolving vanes, a precursor to the propeller.
Cayley had established the basic principles of the modern airplane and constructed a series of models to demonstrate his ideas. And in 1804 he flew the first successful glider model of which there is any record. It was remarked by one aeronautical historian, C. H. Gibbs-Smith, as the first “true airplane flight."
In 1909 Wilbur Wright (of the famous American Wright Brothers and their contribution to flight) gave the following appraisal:
"About 100 years ago an Englishman, Sir George Cayley, carried the science of flying to a point which had never been reached before and which it scarcely reached again during the last century."
While the French pioneer Charles Dolfuss (1923) stated the following:
"The aeroplane is a British invention: it was conceived in all essentials by Sir George Cayley, the great English engineer who worked in the first half of the 19th.Century."
According to 'British Heritage Travel,' he had many other accomplishments:
"He designed an artificial hand for one of his tenant’s sons and patented a self-righting lifeboat, a caterpillar tractor and a forerunner to the modern tank. An ardent champion of railway safety, he invented brakes, the cowcatcher and signal systems for railways. He is also responsible for the tensioned spoked wheel that made possible both the bicycle and the London Eye Ferris wheel. And in 1832 Cayley established the British Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1838 he founded the Royal Polytechnic Institution, now the University of Westminster, and served as its chair for many years. The Aeronautical Society for which he campaigned was formed nine years after his death in 1857."
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