“Twenty things you may not know about Yorkshire”

Surrey-born freelance writer Christopher Winn admits he was “frightened indeed” when he set out to write I Never Knew That About Yorkshire, stating he was “very aware that I had to get this one right, Yorkshire people are quite rightly proud of their county and I needed to do my research”.

Well, that last quote couldn’t have been more apt when on the first fact printed he managed to get it wrong stating, York’s ancient walls are three miles long when in fact they are just over two miles (2.2 to be precise).

This is a distance that has stuck with me since junior school days from trips to the Castle Museum and lectures from the legendary Mrs Wright, back in the early 1960s.

References can also be found of York’s walls ranging between two-and-a-half and three miles, but vague as they are this could include the full tour taking in the gaps between the sections.

Though he is a brave man to try and tell Yorkshire folk about their county, this southerner should have been more precise with his wording and measurements.

Pip Burke, Osbaldwick Lane, York.