What are the wonders of Yorkshire?

THE search is on to find the new Seven Wonders of the World.

Despite the name, they won't necessarily all be new. The official list of the seven wonders is being updated to take account of modern buildings.

Thus, in the shortlist of 21 candidates for the New Seven Wonders announced yesterday, the Sydney Opera House rubs shoulders with the Acropolis in Athens, the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower with the Taj Mahal and the pyramids.

The 21 finalists have now gone forward for a final year of public voting via the internet, live events and an international TV series produced by Endemol, producers of Big Brother, Changing Rooms and Ready, Steady Cook.

Only one of the 21 shortlisted candidates - Stonehenge - is in Britain. And astonishingly, none is in Yorkshire.

The White Rose county is, however, rich in magnificent monuments and buildings. More than enough for a list of the Seven Wonders of Yorkshire. So what should they be? We asked around:

Jeremy Reed, English Heritage's York-based director of visitor operations for Northern England

Rievaulx Abbey, nestled majestically in the hushed depths of a narrow river valley, would have to be top of his list, Jeremy says. Founded by just 12 monks in 1131, it grew from these modest beginnings to be one of the wealthiest monasteries in medieval England. It was the first Cistercian monastery in the north, and was the nucleus from which many other northern abbeys were founded. It's also a personal favourite of Jeremy's, since he once worked there.

Whitby Abbey would also be on his list, both because of its wondrous position perched dramatically on a cliff top and because of its importance in church history - the Synod of AD664, at which the two branches of early English Christianity, Celtic and Roman, debated the dating of Easter, was held there.

Jeremy's third nomination is Brodsworth Hall near Doncaster, a wonderful mansion rebuilt in a classical Italianate style in the 1860s which is effectively a time capsule conveying a vivid picture of daily life in a great country house. In the 19th century, the Brodsworth estate became one of the greatest cause celebres of English legal history when a mischievous clause in the will of 18th-century merchant and owner Peter Thelluson led to 60 years of legal wrangling by his family. The case is thought to have inspired Charles Dickens' novel Bleak House, recently televised on the BBC.

Jeremy would also want to nominate Castle Howard, and Harewood House.

Dr Arnold Kellett, Yorkshire dialectician and historian

Cromwell's victorious Roundhead armies may have been able to demolish Knaresborough Castle, says Dr Kellett: but they not could destroy the magnificent view from it of the Nidd Gorge. It may be a natural wonder rather than a manmade one, but he'd still like to nominate the view of the Nidd Gorge from Knaresborough Castle as his top Yorkshire wonder. "It's a fairytale gorge. It is 120 feet below the castle and you've got the gorge itself, and the woods on the other side which gives a hint of the Forest of Knaresborough. And on your right you've got the town rising in tiers above the river. There's nothing like it in England." His other nominations: Brimham Rocks and Fountain's Abbey with Studley Royal.

York architect Matthew Laverack

Matthew has no doubt about his nomination: Scarborough's Grand Hotel.

"I was there the other day looking at it. It is the most majestic building - Victorian, of course, with a pepperpot on top. Turrets with a curve and the most fantastic detail. Those Victorians really knew how to build. It's a magnificent building: at the time it was built it was the largest hotel in Europe. The other interesting thing about it is that it is on the site of a house where Anne Bronte died in 1849. She's buried in St Mary's Churchyard."

Kay Hyde of York Tourism Bureau

York Minster, Kay says, because it is "quite simply a masterpiece of religious architecture on the grandest of scales". The largest medieval gothic cathedral in northern Europe, the Minster took more than 250 years to complete. "It contains some of the world's oldest and finest stained glass, has the city's best views from the tower and is rich in historical artifacts, dating back to the Roman age," Kay says. "Staggeringly, prayer has been offered on the site for nearly 1,000 years."

She also nominates York's City Walls, the "longest and finest medieval town walls in England" and Shambles. "It is arguably the best-preserved and most famous medieval thoroughfare in Europe, the only street in York to have been named in the Domesday book of 1086. Although none of the original shop-fronts have survived from medieval times, some properties still have exterior wooden shelves, reminders of when cuts of meat were served from the open windows. The street was made narrow by design to keep the meat from the butchers shops out of direct sunlight. But you can readily imagine Shambles thronged with people and awash with offal and discarded bones."

The outbreaks of the plague that periodically erupted in the city may be blamed on such unsanitary practices. It is easy to picture the noisy, chaotic jumble the street once was, Kay says. Today, the beautiful old buildings have been restored and house cheerful craft shops and quirky boutiques.

Peter Walker, author of the Constable books

Peter's nomination for Yorkshire's greatest wonder is the collection of stone crosses that adorn the North York Moors. There are hundreds of them, he says - and many of them have survived for centuries.

They seem to have had two purposes, Peter says: to serve as boundary markers, and to act as guide posts. They can still be used for navigation today, and the sight of the crosses on the skyline is a distinct feature of the moors. "They merge into the landscape. They have become part of the landscape." His other nominations include Yorkshire's old abbeys, particularly Whitby Abbey, and - from the modern era - the Humber Bridge. "I don't know how they did it, but it is quite amazing!"

Evening Press arts writer Charles Hutchinson

Fountain's Abbey and Studley Royal, without a doubt, says Charles. "Joan Rivers once said she only watched the Wizard of Oz once every three years because it was such a treat she liked to save it up. I know what she means, and in a way I feel like that about Fountain's Abbey - though I think ideally you could go once a season. I love it in the snow; I love it in the autumn; I love it when the stags are roaring in the rutting season. It's an absolutely wonderful place."

His other nominations: the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television at Bradford - "I don't know why the hell it is there, but thank heaven it is" - and the National Railway Museum in York.

York green architect Phil Bixby of Constructive Individuals

Phil nominates Yearsley Swimming Pool, "for using the condensate from the adjacent Rowntree factory - the wonder being that anyone should think sufficiently laterally to realise one could benefit the other".

He also jointly nominates York and Leeds railway stations - "both, now, grand and uplifting but one thoroughly crisp and modern and the other wonderfully elegant and Victorian."

York's millennium bridge also gets a mention: "a beautiful structure that brings together movement and peace; how many people choose it as a place to watch the world go by?" And he's also impressed with Leeds city centre, a dirty, faded place 20 years ago but now "so full of life and people choosing to live in it and above it, often without needing a car."

:: The Yorkshire Tourist Board has come up with its own list of Yorkshire wonders...

York Minster

The Millennium Bridge, York

Castle Howard

Harewood House

Skipton Castle

The Humber Bridge

The Deep, Hull

Salts Mill, Saltaire

The Rotunda, Scarborough

Millennium Art Gallery, Sheffield

Botanical Gardens, Sheffield

:: The 21 global landmarks which are in the running to make the new Seven Wonders of the World are...

01 Acropolis, Athens, Greece

02 Alhambra, Granada, Spain

03 Angkor, Cambodia

04 Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico

05 Christ Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

06 Colosseum, Rome, Italy

07 Easter Island Statues, Chile

08 Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

09 Great Wall, China

10 Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey

11 Kyomizu Temple, Kyoto, Japan

12 Kremlin, Moscow, Russia

13 Machu Picchu, Peru

14 Neuschwanstein Castle, Fussen, Germany

15 Petra, Jordan

16 Pyramids of Giza, Egypt

17 Statue of Liberty, New York, USA

18 Stonehenge, Amesbury, United Kingdom

19 Sydney Opera House, Australia

20 Taj Mahal, Agra, India

21 Timbuktu, Mali

Updated: 10:29 Wednesday, January 04, 2006