Best thing: Boasts an incredible wealth of artists, sculptors, painters, writers and actors
Local food: Dock Pudding (made with dock leaves, nettles, oatmeal, onions and more); Grandma Wild’s award-winning Oaties; Andrew Jones’ pork and apple Figit Pie
Events: World Coal Carrying Championships, Ossett, Wakefield; the Rush Cart Ceremony, Saddleworth, uses about 1,500 reed bundles; Hepworth Feast commemorates the end of the plague in the village; World Dock Pudding Championship, Mytholmroyd
Heroes: Geoffrey Boycott; Alan Titchmarsh; Jeremy Paxman; John Smeaton, the father of civil engineering; Thomas Fairfax, Parliamentarian commander-in-chief; Jilly Cooper
Inventions: In 1888, inventor Louis Le Prince recorded the first moving images on film in Leeds; Percy Shaw patented the reflective catseye in 1934; Joseph Aspdin invented Portland cement in 1824; James Henry Atkinson invented a mousetrap called Little Nipper in 1897
Battle: The Battle of Wakefield of 1460 was a crushing Lancastrian victory during the Wars of the Roses. Richard, Duke of York, was killed
What they say: ‘Awaken on all my dear moorlands, The wind in its glory and pride! O call me from valleys and highlands, To walk by the hill-river’s side!’ (Emily Brontë)
Artistic connections: The Brontë sisters; Henry Moore: Alan Bennett; Ted Hughes; J. B. Priestley; David Hockney; Peter O’Toole; James Mason; Alfred Austin, Poet Laureate after Tennyson; Barbara Hepworth
Worst thing: The Last of the Summer Wine is the world’s longest-running sitcom
Industry: In 1884, Michael Marks had a stall at Kirkgate Market in Leeds, which grew until he needed an accountant, Thomas Spencer, and thus was Marks & Spencer born
Houses: Harewood House was Adam’s biggest single commission; the Paine mansion Nostell Priory
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Country Life's entirely unofficial Chelsea Flower Show 2025 awardsThe RHS's judges give out awards based on strict criteria rather than vibes — and while there's a place for the former, we think the latter is worthwhile too. With that in mind, Country Life's team at the Royal Hospital Chelsea have awarded their own alternative prizes from the 2025 RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
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The prawn identity: Tom Parker Bowles on his love of the classic prawn cocktailIt’s as retro as a pair of corduroy flares, but the classic dish is a lily that needs no gilding, says our columnist.
