The best childhood memories of Yorkshire according to locals ahead of Yorkshire Day 2023 from Yorkshire Coast holidays to schools closing on snow days

Whether it is spending holidays in a caravan along the Yorkshire Coast or making snow angels on a school day during some of the region's worst snow days, Yorkshire has been at the heart of all fond childhood reminiscences.

As we get older, we can’t help but take a step back and remember our childhood days; some of these days may have been negative experiences at the time, but they turn into treasured recollections.

One Yorkshire Post reader wrote: “Long summer evenings spent playing out on the street and waiting for the ice cream van. Schools closing for snow days in winter and going sledging. Nostalgia is great sometimes!”

Best childhood memories of Yorkshire according to locals

“Family picnics and outings all around the moors and the Dales.” - Elizabeth Curle

“Christmas at home, and the Christmas parties for kids at the local club, where mum and dad were members.” - Angela Mossad

“Village church bus trips to the local seaside with parents, siblings and village people …. taking packed lunches, congregating in large halls with other bus trips and venturing onto the beach and frolicking in the sea with other holidaymakers. Falling asleep on the way home exhausted and exhilarated after a long day of sun, sea air, fun and laughter. Stays strong in my memory.” - Pauline Susan French

“Picking bilberries on Ilkley Moor.” - Rebecca Hammond

“Travelling with mam and dad and sis all over Yorkshire in the sidecar of the motorbike; mam on the pillion of the motorbike. Great times.” - Val Sugarman

“Being free and enjoying the dales.” - Jean Graham

“My ‘very Yorkshire’ grandparents.” - Lesley Grayson

“Too many blessings to count!!” - Fiona Santosuosso

“Having a torch and playing Jack Shine Your Light, wandering over the fields, over the railway line and along the canal. Having cockles at Barnsley market. Always feeling safe.” - Christine Bonner

“Staying at my grandparents’ and grandad’s house in Tadcaster, having rides on the ponies. Grandad was headroom to Geoffrey Sith of the beer fame.” - Lal Reed

“Helping grandad rent out deckchairs on South Beach also my grandma's yorkshire puds.” - Wendy Hunt

“Going to Primrose Valley beach on a Sunday in my dad's little car and my mam's lovely picnic.” - Christine Day Barker

“Snow every winter! Sledging on the hill across from our house, making massive snowballs by rolling them all the way home from school, even building an igloo one year.” - Viv Featherstone

“The streets were our playground. We felt safe, Yorkshire was our planet.” - Joan Wigglesworth

“Going to St Anne’s school. Walks to the Tarn on Sundays with my grandad. Podmore’s Scone and chips.” - Jan Barrell

“Shipley Glen, KWV Railway and bilberry picking.” - Ben Roberts

“Going to the east coast and going to the Dales.” - Ian Hopkinson

“Freedom to play and go anywhere.” - Dicco Cliff

“Village day trip to Scarborough, playing in the sand and eating cockles… happy times.” - Bruce Petch

“My very Yorkshire grandparents, all of them which I was lucky enough to have all my grandparents and great grandparents up until about 10 /11 years old.” - Phil Carps Carpenter

“Living in the same street as my primary school and next street as my High School! No long walks home or school buses for me!” - Judith Rowan

“Living by the sea, and still not very far from The countryside.” - Glennis Alexander Adams

“Playing On The Backies/Beck Jumping.” - David Beavers

“Going to the Headingley test match every year with my dad’s cousin trying to watch the ball as Lillie, Thompson, Holding Marshall threw them down.” - Steve Cruise

“Going to Filey.” - Angela Beamish

“Family hols in the 60's rented a house , window seat and sticky squares, near the big slope to the beach with the big riding horses and little Merry Go round. Countryside, villages, Padgets icecream.” - Angela Morgan

“Dad made my sister and I a sledge. We love playing in the snow. We used to go to the top of Ormesby bank and go sleigh riding.” - Deb Barker

“Ilkley outdoor pool in summertime.” - Catherine Elizabeth

“Go kart and BMX bike.” - James Nuttall

“Yorkshire pudding my fav.” - Michael Noble

“Freshly grown Rhubarb.” - Knottingley Small Businesses

“Playing footy until the sun went down.” - Stephen Coan

“Watching trains going through Dacre station.” - George Wilson

“Brimham Rocks.” - Tim Edwards

“Being outside, free roaming with our ponies.” - Nikki Davidson

“Walking from Saltaire over Ilkley Moor to White Wells and back.” - Tom Savory

“Flamborough Head, Holbeck Baths, York.” - Mike Peacock

“Snow in winter and school being closed.” - Margaret Eyre

“Being outside all day.” - Colin Mair

“I was born in Hunslet in 1952 and played on bomb sites and burnt out factories, old air raid shelters, lighting fires, mooching on the moor and railway lines. Hunslet and Holbeck feasts and Xmas visit to Lewis's to end the year.” - Peter Arundale

“Going on day trips to the Yorkshire Coast and to Leeds on shopping trips.” - Rachel Marsh

“Looking in local quarries for frogs and newts in Rotherham 50 years back outdoors most of the time unless at school.” - Neil Thomas

“Chubbing for wood for bonfire night.” - David Turner

“Making Dens out of straw bales.” - John Steel

“Going out till evening walking. Playing swimming. In the river and dam. Best days when I was a lass.” - Kathleen Hassanali

“Walking with Grandad on the moors and the smell of his cigar.” - Irene Rhines

“Fishing for tadpoles at Temple Newsam.” - Carol Chetwynd

“Travelling to the old Craven Park, Hull to watch my beloved Hull Kingston Rovers. Even watched a game on Christmas day, got there on the train and bus from our home in Beverley! About 1968 I think.” - Peter Thompson

“The beautiful Yorkshire Moors and the sea.” - Patricia Sherris

“Red Squirrels, sadly didn't appreciate them now the Greys have wiped the Reds out.” - Brian Mo

“Everything about Ardsley, Kendray Monk Bretton, and Bradford. Also my family and friends, most of whom are long gone.” - Marjorie Hall

“Stickle-back fishing down The Carr in Donnie, early 50s.” - Angie-Pat Smalley

“Lailkin out on't swings.” - Frank Cardwell

“Saturday matinees at the local flix.” - Ian Chappell

“Visiting relatives in the moors, swimming in the sea and eating fish and chips.” - James Calvert

“Building a sandcastle on Filey beach.” - Burton Marsland

“Summer holidays in Bridlington.” - June Mary Howlett

“White frost winters.” - Martin Paterson

“Summer days at Burnsall or Bolton Abbey, trips to the seaside, Ilkley lido, being dragged around the markets, walking through Bradford fish market! Long summer evenings spent playing out on the street and waiting for the ice cream van. Schools closing for snow days in winter and going sledging. At bonfire night the older kids would go progging then the whole street would turn up to the bonfire and we would have pork pie and peas and treacle toffee and watch the fireworks and have a sparkler. Nostalgia is great sometimes!” - Lisa Fox

“Picnics at Sutton Bank and picking bilberry’s as the gliders swished over our heads!” - Heather Wight

“Holidays in a caravan at Runswick Bay.” - Barbara Hall

“Freedom. To go out all day with my brother and sister and friends. Take jam sandwiches and spend all day exploring and having fun like the famous five. Life was so much fun then.” - Lynne Drennan Fender

“Really lucky to live in a small village. Spent our days climbing trees,padding in the river just generally having fun all day long. A love of nature is always with me. Now I will take our grandson's to show them our playground.” - Betty Rollinson

“Bryan’s fish and chip shop.” - Joanne Farnhill Paish

“Going to SHIPLEY ON LITTLE Train family outings once a year.” - Kathleen Cross

“Bluebells picking with our older neighbours in bluebell woods.” - Kath Burns

“Roaming the countryside, with my gang.” - Harvey Walters

“Sitting in the back of the family car in the pub car park with crisps and pop whilst dad was drinking inside.” - Dan James

“My grandmother lived in North Ormsby, I went there in the mid sixties, the thing I can remember is all the soot that covered everywhere and the sky full of it. My real memory was during the winter I decided to take the train from Middlesbrough to Whitby. The train had a snow plough on the front of the train and from what the guard told us there were doubts about us getting through. Since then I have been back to Whitby every year in March for my holiday. I love Yorkshire, the place and the people, please don't let it change.” - Mike Renton

“Going up to Ilkley moor or down to the river Wharfe and making a day of it. Roaming around York and Harrogate. The Abbey ruins. Too many to choose from.” - Rob Carroll

“Going to the cattle market, then into our lovely town that once was. Then have a ride on the roundabout. Nothing worth going for now, definitely nothing for the children.” - Jacqui Hall

“Going round Leeds market with my Nanna Pearl. Chippy Tea every Friday, lemon Tops and arcades at Scarborough beach, climbing at brimham rocks, fun at the paddling pool in Ripon. Ripley ice cream after shopping in Harrogate good times.” - Danielle Hughes-Francis

“Bolton Abbey River in a blow up dinghy!” - Helen Lambert

“The tape player in the car going dicky when driving past RAF Fylingdales.” - Lee Hauxwell