Roger Hutton
Roger Hutton is the new chairman of Yorkshire County Cricket Club. A distant relative of the great Len Hutton, Roger is joint managing partner of Clarion Solicitors, a law firm in Leeds. He lives at Birstwith, near Harrogate.
What is your first Yorkshire memory? We lived in Saltaire and my first memory is of my mother taking me into Bradford city centre and going to Brown Muff ’s, the department store. I can remember being impressed with the size of the Victorian buildings and the wealth and power that they represented. My father, Robin, was Len Hutton’s second cousin and I inherited my love of cricket from my dad. Aged 11, I remember copying Sir Len’s stance opening the batting for Ben Rhydding’s Under-14s. While I may have looked the part, I was out for a golden duck.
What is your favourite part of the county and why? I believe the most beautiful part of the country is the Yorkshire Dales. We are fortunate to live in Birstwith. I love the colours, the contours and the stone walls you see in the Dales.
What is your idea of a perfect day or perfect weekend out in Yorkshire? Two days at Headingley watching either Yorkshire or England. I like the wit of the crowd, its knowledge and having a beer with your friends. I remember going with my father for the first time. I’d be seven or eight, and recall Yorkshire making a poor start in a Roses game. What stood out was the humour. Lots of men were smoking pipes in those days and I fell in love with cricket thanks to my father.
Do you have a favourite walk or view? Going up Panorama Woods towards Ilkley Moor and Addingham. Once you’re on top of the moor, the views across towards Harrogate are stunning.
Which Yorkshire sportsman or sportswoman, past or present, would you like to take out for lunch? I think Fred Trueman in his pomp as a great Yorkshire and England fast bowler would be good company. I love the power, the passion and courage he showed. I’d loved to have chatted to Fred about how he unsettled batsmen, how he got inside their head and how a fast bowler intimidates his opponent.
If you had a hidden Yorkshire gem, what would it be? One spot I really like taking the family to is How Stean Gorge in Nidderdale. It’s not far from Pateley Bridge. It’s pretty and when you look at the rock pools, the caves, the beck and waterfalls, it’s a different world.
If you could choose somewhere or some object from Yorkshire to own for a day, what would it be? A special place to have just to yourself for 24 hours would be Bolton Abbey. I love the history, the ruins and the scenery, which is why I spent lots of time there with my parents.
What do you think it is that gives Yorkshire its unique identity? I do believe Yorkshire people are special and have an identity which no one wants to lose. We are gritty, speak directly and clearly, often with a smile. We also have a strong sense of what is right and what’s wrong. The other thing is this: Yorkshire people have a dry wit which can be combined with certain hardness.
Do you follow other sports in Yorkshire and, if so, what? I’m fond of hockey and played at Ben Rhydding, near Ilkley, from the age of 11 to 35. It’s an enjoyable sport and what’s interesting is that Ben Rhydding has a very good vets’ team who’ve won the national cup and represented the club abroad in tournaments.
Do you have a favourite restaurant or pub? I’ve worked in Leeds for 30 years and have enjoyed going to two city centre pubs: the Town Hall Tavern where you get a great mix of characters, ranging from lawyers to construction workers, and the other is the Vic, behind the Town Hall.
The atmosphere is really good there. As for restaurants I’d go for William & Victoria on Cold Bath Road in Harrogate. I love
the shepherd’s pie and their red wine is lovely.
Do you have a favourite food shop? I’ve always loved fish and chips, so going to Harry Ramsden’s when we lived in Guiseley was special. Now, we like Graveley’s on Cheltenham Parade in Harrogate. George & Joseph, the cheesemongers in Chapel Allerton, Leeds, is outstanding. I love the Richard III Wensleydale.
How do you think Yorkshire has changed, for the better or worse, since you’ve known it? Definitely for the better. I love tradition, but you’ve got to embrace change because it creates energy and new challenges. There are so many positive things happening. Yorkshire’s major cities are talking to each other, education is blossoming and look at the culture, retail and food sectors in Leeds.
If you had to change one thing about Yorkshire what would it be? I’d make sure cricket was played in every school because you can learn so much from the sport. I’m delighted when I see the Asian community playing matches in Roundhay Park because it’s what I love, but it’s such a shame that cricket is absent in many state schools.
Who is the Yorkshire person you admire the most? My father, Robin, who died three years ago, aged 98. He was one of the fairest men you could meet. Calm and resilient, he taught history at Fulneck School in Pudsey for 45 years.
What would you like to achieve as chairman of Yorkshire County Cricket Club? One aim is to see Headingley, the best Test ground outside London, as full as often as possible. We have excellent facilities and I’d like to see them used by the wider community.
Do you have a favourite Yorkshire entertainer, musician or author? Wuthering Heights is a great piece of fiction. When you go to Haworth and see the Parsonage, you feel the history of the Brontës and the ruggedness of the moors.
If a stranger came to Yorkshire and you had the time to take that person to one place only, where would that be? I’d meet that person at Leeds station and immediately go for a pint at the Town Hall Tavern or the Vic. We’d then walk to Headingley and go to a Test match.
As is so often the case in life, happenstance played a part in Jonathan Manby becoming a cooper. “I always liked the idea of working with wood and oak especially,” he says. “First of all I wanted to make furniture and I studied at what was Jacob Kramer College in Leeds with this in mind, but afterwards this job came up and I applied for it and ended up making casks.” That was 25 years ago and he’s been doing it ever since. The job in question was apprentice cooper at Theakston’s Brewery in North Yorkshire, and now he’s a master cooper having trained an apprentice himself.
Coopering is a craft soaked in history. The word ‘‘cooper’’ itself is derived from the Latin ‘‘cupa’’, meaning tun or barrel, and the oldest known depiction of a cask was found in an Egyptian pyramid and dates way back to 2960 BC.
“At one point coopering was very popular and there were different classes of coopering,” says Jonathan. “We’re classed as wet coopers, but you also had dry coopers who made things like flour casks and gunpowder casks, and you had fish coopers working on the dockside making herrings casks. Everything was carried in casks at one point and you can tell how popular it was by the fact there are so many people with the surname ‘Cooper’, which relates to the trade.”
Today, the craft survives through knowledge being passed down by the few remaining masters, people like Jonathan. An apprentice becomes a journeyman cooper and only once they have trained an apprentice can they can call themselves a master cooper.
The Masham-based brewery is one of the few in the country committed to making and repairing traditional oak casks and having its own cooper and apprentice.
Theakston’s still makes traditional oak casks to store and transport its famous ales as it has done ever since the family-run company was started back in 1827.
Jonathan enjoys working with oak because it’s tactile and at the same time strong and reliable. “Wood is the best material to work with. It’s a natural material, every piece of timber you pick up is different and that makes it interesting, and sometimes a bit of a challenge.”
Coopering isn’t a skill that can be mastered quickly and it takes an apprentice up to four years to become adept at the job. “You start off with straight pieces of timber and join them up and make them into a beer-type cask. But you can’t pick it up from a textbook, it requires handson experience because it’s all about hand-eye coordination to get the angles on the staves. It can’t be written down, you have to pass the skills down.”
For all his experience, and despite the fact he’s a ‘‘master’’ in his trade, he says that he’s still learning. “Every piece of timber is unique, the grain runs out in a different direction so you’re constantly learning. It’s not like working with plastic where it’s uniform all the way through.”
There’s a desire to continue using wooden casks and preserve what is an ancient and skilled art. “We’re a small family brewery and when all the larger breweries were going on to metal