Steve Broadbent

My Yorkshire Roots I am very proud of my Yorkshire roots. I was born and brought up in Leeds, as were both my parents and all four of my grandparents. Six of my eight great grandparents, and at least 10 of the 16 in the generation above them, (which takes us back to before 1800), were all born, and as far as I am aware lived all their lives, in the West Riding. And, through a direct line from my father's mother, Christiana Dawtrey, I can trace, with some but of course not total certainty, right back to Robert de Haute Rive, originally from Alencon, Normandy, who, by 1069 was the Norman Baron of Elslack, the castle built just west of Skipton to mark the boundary between Yorkshire and the outside world, while the soldiers of William The Conqueror (whom, ironically, I played in my only appearance on stage ever, my primary school class play, age eight) brought remedial action to bear on the irate folk of my home county....

At the other end of the historic scale, to show how close history really is, my eldest paternal uncle, William, was killed, along with tens of thousands of others on both sides, on July 1, 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. How the world has changed - my youngest paternal uncle, John (my father's father had 15 known children) - died only in 2005, while my father (child number 11) is still very much alive and kicking at 93, thank God, the last of the 15.

I would always be very interested to hear from anyone with DAWTREY in their family tree, or any Broadbents that might be related. As they say, you can tell a Yorkshireman, but you can't tell him much.

The photo (right) shows, a few years ago, my wife Viv, our wonderful Border Collie dog Macintosh (here because they both deserve a mention!!). Sadly, Mac died in Octotber 2007 at the agea of 15 and a half, not bad! Viv has recently moved on to tread her own path.