Tributes to York nature campaigner David Edward Ryder

That’s how David Edward Ryder has been remembered by the team campaigning to save Holgate’s Severus Hill – a group he worked alongside before his death at the age of 85.

“He would drag us up [Severus Hill] as kids, he viewed it as an opportunity to show us nature or the view,” said David’s son Stuart, who led tributes to him.

David, who died on Sunday, October 13, after a short battle with illness, lived near Severus Hill for 61 years and thought of it as a “stepping stone” to other places in the area, Stuart said. “He saw the value of it for future generations.”

Holgate's Severus Hill which David helped campaign to save (Image: Friends of Severus Hill) On the comparison of his father to David Attenborough, Stuart said: “It’s a very good description but he would have hated it, he was a very modest man.

“But I can see why [the group] said it.”

Stuart described David, a father of two and grandfather of five, as “everyone’s friend but nobody’s fool”.

Born in Poppleton Road in 1939, David’s early years were dominated by the Second World War.

A bomb was dropped about four doors away from where the family lived during the York Blitz or Baedeker Raids.

Thankfully, it didn’t explode. 

“The family line would have ended there,” said Stuart.

David evacuated York to live with his aunt and uncle in rural Cheshire from three to six.

It was there that he found a love for nature – particularly fishing – which stayed with him throughout his life.

“It was a passion and something he instilled in us as kids,” said Stuart, 54, who works as a landscape architect for the Environmental Agency.

The old water tower at Severus Hill (Image: Friends of Severus Hill) David attended Acomb Primary School and Manor School, then in Priory Street, after returning to York.

He left school at 14 to support the family after his father Bill, who served as a flight sergeant in the RAF, suffered a stroke and could no longer work.

David started an engineering apprenticeship at Cookes Instruments, in Haxby Road.

He later joined Armstrong Patents – which became Monroe’s and Tenaco – as a production engineer, working through various roles to finish as the factory’s training manager.

“As an engineer, he always tried to solve problems,” said Stuart. “He was always striving to make things better.”

'I can remember watching these mad blokes throwing themselves off cliffs with nothing more than an instruction manual'

Outside of work, David had many hobbies, including aircraft archaeology which stemmed from his father’s time in the RAF.

He and his work colleague Gerry Innes created collages of Second World War aircraft from excavated artefacts, donating them to museums in the UK and Canada.

Stuart said his father and work friends even imported one of the UK’s first hang gliders from California in the early 1970s.

“It caused quite a stir when they flew it over the North York Moors with the police eventually intervening as so many people parked their cars to watch these madmen throw themselves off Sutton Bank it blocked the traffic,” he said. “I can remember watching these mad blokes throwing themselves off cliffs with nothing more than an instruction manual.”

One of David’s friends broke their ankle but there were no other injuries, Stuart added.

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David played rugby – and even met his wife Jean on sports fields.

“They had a very loving relationship,” Stuart said of his parents, who married in 1963.

Jean died in 1995 and David never remarried.

David’s interests turned from rugby to race walking after entering family life, with the birth of Caroline and Stuart.

Nature, particularly his Boroughbridge Road allotment – which he had for almost 70 years – remained a constant feature in his life.

David loved experimenting with gardening, Stuart said, growing huge pumpkins in autumn and putting them in Acomb’s cafes for ‘guess the weight’ competitions to raise money for the NSPCC.

He was also keen artist – skilled at painting water colours – enjoyed cooking and was active in Scouting, becoming a drum major in the St George Day Parade.

David is survived by his children Caroline and Stuart and grandchildren Alex, Amy, Emily, Hannah and Joseph.