The Lyke Wake Company Limited

Lyke Wake Walk Exhibition at Ryedale Folk Museum

At the annual 'wake' in 2003 when it was agreed to let the club fade away, it was realised there was a need to redistribute the archives, heirlooms and other artefacts that had become part of Lyke Wake Folklore over the previous half century.
When club ceased to exist on 1st October 2005, there had been general agreement that the money held in the Len Douglas Memorial Fund should be donated to the moorland rescue teams. The trustees (Les Brigham, Rosie Horsman & Paul Sherwood) used some of this money to replace the Ben Hingston Memorial Seat in the grounds of the Raven Hall Hotel,Ravenscar, and the remaining £700 was donated to the Cleveland Search & Rescue Team--there was a proviso that it was used to purchase specific equipment. The Scarborough based team did not even respond to our offer and therefore got nothing.

The formal archives of the former club, the 'Centuries' (minutes) book and all the historic correspondence was deposited at the County Records Office in Northallerton

The less formal & more  interesting archives, such as the photographic  collections, press cuttings and various thesis that had been submitted over the years, along with such things as the Goulton Tankard, the club Mace, (unfortunately John Cowley, the Horrible Hornblower did not want to give the horn) the Gledhill-Illingworth cup and a couple of artists impressions of Bill Cowley along with a multitude of other small objects, ties, badges etc were all given to the Ryedale Folk Museum at Hutton-le-Hole for an exhibition.

A new building was been erected on the museum site supposedly to house a lot of this collection, complete with a bier that the museum already had.  The end wall of this glazed building has part of the route map etched onto the glass.

Some of the paper & photographic archives are only going to be viewed & examined by prior appointment. But as time goes by the museum hope to have more material on permanent display.

However, for the past two years there is no sign of any Lyke Wake material in the building.

Any walkers that have any memorabilia about
the walk or the former club were invited to donate (or loan) items to the museum for use in this exhibition.

Mike Benson the former curator & the instigator of this plan has now left the museum. I have no information on possible future developments the museum can be contacted by phone 01751-417367  I hope to clarify this in the near future.

   ©  Photographs by  Sheila Ruane