Stories to make you smile from across Yorkshire

3 hours ago

Chloe AslettYorkshire

News image — This week we feature a clog maker, Winnie the Pooh garden and hedgehog rescue

Supplied Three photos in a line: one of a man holding a pair of clogs, one of a garden with a river made of blue pebbles and a model of Winnie the Pooh, and one of a sleeping hedgehog on some newspaper. — This week we feature a clog maker, Winnie the Pooh garden and hedgehog rescue

Every week in Yorkshire we have uplifting and feel-good stories about people, places and animals across our region - and we like to shout about them.

This week we feature a hedgehog named after its rescuer, a Winnie the Pooh community garden and the local roots of the borderless language Esperanto.

Keeping clog making alive

Simon Brock A man in a navy boiler suit with short dark hair and glasses holds up a pair of blue clogs. — Simon Brock said the process of clog making takes about a week from start to finish

One of the UK's last remaining clog makers said crafting the old-fashioned footwear was his "happy place".

Simon Brock, who is based in Walkley, Sheffield, qualified as a timber specialist then taught himself leatherwork, and sold his first pair of clogs in 2018.

He occasionally gets an order from a community descended from Welsh people in South America, who order the shoes for step dancing.

Pooh's garden

BBC/Richard Fox Two women sit in a highly designed garden next to prop honey pots with a bridge in the background and model Winnie the Pooh and Piglet characters. — Erica Ward and Emma Hudson worked with students to create the Horticap charity's garden

Students joined staff and volunteers at disability charity Horticap to create a Winnie the Pooh-themed garden.

Emma Hudson, who works at the charity, said helpers went home "looking like Smurfs, blue from head to toe" after painting pebbles for the river.

The project received the highest number of points ever awarded to a community garden at the Harrogate Spring Flower show.

Erica Ward said the team would be "absolutely over the moon".

'Fantastic' hedgehog rescue

Yorkshire Water A hedgehog which is curled up and lying in a bed of shredded newspaper. — The hedgehog has been named Bailey after the technician who rescued her

Yorkshire Water technician Bailey Hall was on a job at a farm in Wakefield when he spotted a hedgehog trapped inside a water meter.

The animal, named Bailey after him, was rescued using specialist digging equipment and taken to Prickly Edge Hedgehog Rescue in Leeds.

Hall said he was glad he checked in the meter chamber, saying it was "great to know she is doing well".

The rescue charity said it was a "fantastic outcome".

Roots of borderless language

Joel Saget/Getty A poster promoting the Esperanto language. Cartoon people stand on a bridge and say Esperanto words. — Esperanto was created by a Polish eye specialist and linguist in 1887

Esperanto is a borderless language developed in 1887, which aimed to be easy to learn and understand, and ultimately help to bring people together.

The first society for the language in the UK was established in West Yorkshire in 1902.

Jack Warren, president of the Yorkshire Federation of Esperantists, said his mother learned it in the early 1930s and gave him a dictionary when he was a boy.

The 78-year-old from Sheffield said he was drawn in by a community that "wanted to make the world a better place".

Chernobyl kids recall 'magical' trips

Supplied A young woman and two young girls hugging and smiling at the camera. The woman at the back has long blonde hair. The two children in front have fringes and their hair is tied up into a ponytail. They're sitting on a sofa which has a floral patterned throw over it. Behind them is a yellow, red and white tapestry. — Beth Knoth with Olga and Katya, who spent summers and Christmases in the UK

Two women from Belarus have spoken of their "magical" holidays in Yorkshire in the wake of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which happened 40 years ago.

Olga and Katya Staravoitova grew up in Mogilev, an area severely affected by radioactive contamination.

For eight years, they spent summers and Christmases with the Quarmby family, who live near Driffield and decided to help in 1999 after hearing about the difference respite breaks could make to children's lives.

"I remember those days were filled with joy," Katya, now 28, recalls. "They not only supported us with entertainment, they also financially supported us, emotionally, educational support as well. I'm so grateful."

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