Zohrah Zancudi
Zohrah is the director of public services for Calderdale Council. Zohrah was included on the Northern Power Women 2019 Power List, a list of 50 women recognised as role models in terms of promoting gender equality. She is married to Ian Cockerill, and between them they have nine grown-up children.
What’s your first Yorkshire memory? I was born in Manchester and grew up in Halton. Although I visited as a child, my first real memory of Yorkshire stems from 1986 when I moved to Teesside. I fell in love with its industrial urban landscape, rugged coastline and the stunning landscape of the North York Moors.
What’s your favourite part of the county and why? Calderdale, where I live and work. The beautiful green of the valley with its distinctive towns, from Todmorden and Hebden Bridge, to Halifax, Brighouse and Rastrick, where I live, is stunning. There’s something here for everyone, whether that’s walking, cycling, theatre, art, music or shopping.
What’s your idea of a perfect weekend/day out in Yorkshire? I recently had an old school friend come to visit. We started our day with breakfast at Pride and Provenance in Halifax followed by a lovely walk around the Piece Hall. We then headed up to the Brontë Parsonage in Haworth and walked up Penistone Hill whilst listening to the wonderful audio experience of Shall Earth No More Inspire Me, featuring the poems of Emily Brontë set to music and performed by folk group the Unthanks. A quick visit home to collect
4 my dog Ted for a walk along the canal up to Cromwell Bottom nature reserve and back to Brighouse for fish and chips at Blakeley’s. Perfect!
Do you have a favourite walk, or view? Wainhouse Tower in Halifax. For me, it’s the stories of people that become woven into the fabric of a place that brings them to life. To learn that a long-standing feud between neighbours John Wainhouse and Henry Edwards led to the construction of an 84-metre chimney (that was never used) but allowed Wainhouse to look into his neighbour’s estate is fantastic. It’s the tallest structure in Calderdale and the tallest folly in the world and looks majestic against the skyline.
Which Yorkshire sportsman, past or present, would you like to take for lunch? It would be
Sheffield heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill. Not only did she win a gold medal in the London 2012 Olympics, but to win the World Championships the year after having her son was astounding. She’s an inspiration, particularly to female athletes, demonstrating that motherhood and athletics can go together, although as any parent will tell you, doing anything with a young baby can be hard work.
Which Yorkshire stage or screen star (past or present) would you like to take for lunch, and why? I think lunch with Dame Judi Dench would be amazing. From Shakespeare to James Bond and Queen Victoria to Red Joan, the conversation would be great.
If you had to name your Yorkshire ‘hidden gem’, what or where would it be? Without a doubt Cattersty Sands, Skinningrove. This lovely hidden little gem of a beach on the North Yorkshire coast is one of my favourites.
Do you have a favourite restaurant or pub? Can I have three? Breakfast or rather Sunday brunch at Pride and Provenance, Halifax; Sunday lunch at the Robin Hood, Cragg Vale; and dinner at Gimbals, Sowerby Bridge. I particularly love its Thursday night taster menu.
Do you have a favourite food shop? Probably Villa Farm Shop, Huddersfield, and I’ve recently discovered By The Gram at Kershaws, Brighouse, where you take and fill your own empty containers, which is great as I’m trying to make a real effort to cut down on plastic packaging.
If you could choose somewhere, or
some object, from or in Yorkshire to own for a day, what would it be? I think I’d like my own steam train to have afternoon tea in style with all my friends whilst chugging through the beautiful Yorkshire countryside.
What do you think gives Yorkshire its unique identity? Its people. Whilst Guy Fawkes, the Brontës,
Captain James Cook and many, many more have put Yorkshire on the map and taken the county out into the world, it’s the everyday kindness and resilience of Yorkshire people that make the place what it is. There are so many examples of how people come together during times of need, such as the terrible floods at Christmas in 2015 and again recently, and, for me, it’s that community spirit that sets the county apart.
How do you think that Yorkshire has changed, for better or for worse, in the time that you’ve known it? There’s a palpable buzz around Calderdale which has grown and grown over the last five years. The Piece Hall – and more recently Sally Wainwright’s Anne Lister TV drama, Gentleman Jack – has been a real catalyst for the area. Whether it’s independent music trails, arts festivals, 1940s weekends or food markets, there’s just so much going on, making it a great place to live and work.
Who is your favourite Yorkshire book/author/artist/CD/ performer.? The brilliant Sally Wainwright. I mentioned earlier that I love the stories that bring a place to life, and what greater story than that of Anne Lister? We’ve seen a huge increase in visitors coming to Shibden Hall and to other places connected with Anne’s life like Halifax Minster. We’ve had visitors from as far away as Australia. And not forgetting Happy Valley and Last Tango in Halifax, of course – the impact of Sally’s work has been absolutely amazing.
If a stranger to Yorkshire only had time to visit one place, it would be? That’s really hard to answer. If I could only choose one place, I think I’d have to say York for its history, culture, food, drink, and shopping.
From Kenneth Branagh taking the title role in Richard III in 2002, to John McCrae starring in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie 15 years later, Sheffield’s Crucible has set a high benchmark in recent years. This success was underlined last month when Sheffield Theatres, which consists of the Crucible, Sheffield Lyceum and Studio, took home a crown from a glittering national ceremony – not for the first time. It was at the Stage Awards, organised by the theatre industry’s newspaper The Stage, where Sheffield made history, taking the Regional
Theatre of the Year award back to the Steel City for an unprecedented fourth time.
Having secured the trophy in 2013, 2014 and 2017, to win again in 2020 is remarkable. To borrow and adapt a line from playwright Oscar Wilde, to win it once is impressive, to win it four times suggests something quite out of the ordinary is happening in South Yorkshire.
Indeed, not only did the fourth Regional Theatre of the Year Award come back to Sheffield from the London Stage Awards ceremony, but also the Achievement in Technical Theatre Award, an entirely new category which was created for the 2020 ceremony.
So, a fourth win of the big award, a win for an inaugural award, and the praise of the industry in general.
It seems like Sheffield Theatres is definitely doing something right.
Conventional wisdom perhaps suggests that any organisation should do one thing and do it well. But that’s not how Robert Hastie sees it.
“What is it we are doing? Well, we are blessed in that we are made up of three theatres that cater to an enormous audience. We strive to be somewhere that can have something for everyone.