26. Around Yorkshire by Bicycle: Fred Robinson Butterfield’s Photograph Album

That looks chilly! The Dales in Winter: Kex Gill Pass, Blubberhouses

This week’s Object takes us back to the Yorkshire Dales again, this time by bicycle.  As we already saw, Special Collections is rich in archives and rare books about this beautiful part of Britain: the Dales begin close to Bradford and became a place for recreation and escape for the workers of the West Riding away from the crowded and dirty towns.   J.B. Priestley often wrote of the joy he and his friends experienced in the Dales.

Market Place, Settle

Our Object  is the Fred Robinson Butterfield Collection, photographs taken by Mr Butterfield of the Keighley Road Club, who toured the Dales and other Yorkshire beauty spots during the 1920s and 1930s.  He was first Secretary of the Club and later became an honorary member.  The negatives and prints in the Collection show us the wonderful scenery, quiet roads and varying weather of the Dales long ago.

Sheep in the road “Near Newby Head”

We recently listed the places covered by the photographs.  This list, and the images themselves, will soon be freely available online for Dales lovers everywhere to share and enjoy.

How the photos look in the album: top of Skipton Castle page