Memorial Unveiled to Yorkshire Botanist who ‘Saw the World in a Wildflower’

A memorial to a well-known Yorkshire journalist and botanist who ‘saw the world in a wildflower’ has been unveiled on moorland at Silpho, near Scarborough.

Nan Sykes, who worked on several York newspapers and on the Gazette and Herald, died in 2020 at the age of 96.

York-based conservation group The Carstairs Countryside Trust commissioned sculptor Peter Coates of Brawby, North Yorkshire, to create a memorial to Nan as a ‘mark in time’ for the significance of her work and her life-long commitment to the environment.

Nan became a journalist, firstly in York on the now-defunct Yorkshire Observer and Yorkshire Gazette, then with the Gazette and Herald. One severe winter she skied from her home in Pickering to Bonfield Ghyll to report on how the farmer was coping after being totally cut off for weeks. The story appeared in the national papers.

Nan was a totally self-taught botanist, turned to studying flowers after finding her eyesight couldn’t follow birds fast enough. She published several books, including Wild Plants and their Habitats in the North York Moors, A Picture Guide to the Wild Flowers of North East Yorkshire and Wild Flower Walks around Ryedale. She also left a remarkable photographic archive and species records.

She also renovated many local properties, most notably a cottage at Ravenscar where she built the Wildlife Centre which she subsequently sold to the National Trust.

The memorial to Nan was unveiled in front of family and friends, beside a remote meadow owned by the Trust in Silpho, to the north of Scarborough.

The memorial is a base slab of ragstone, donated from the moorlands of Spaunton Estate, topped by an inscribed limestone slab from Aislaby Quarry, with an inset detail of a carved corn buttercup flower.  The inscription pays moving tribute to Nan: ‘She saw a world in a wildflower’.

Those attending the ceremony were invited to make their own ‘mark in time’ into the base stone of the memorial, using a mallet and chisel provided.

Nan’s daughter, Rachael Smye, says:

“I can’t believe the effort and vision that has gone into this memorial. My mother was well before her time. She would have been honoured to be remembered in such an apt and wonderful way. She would have loved the way the stone settles gently into the landscape with views of her beloved moors all around.”

Ian Carstairs, OBE, founder of the Carstairs Countryside Trust says:

“It is a privilege to be able to site this memorial stone on the Trust’s land.  Its unveiling is a mark in time for an exceptional botanist and a message that the conservation of wildlife matters both now and into the future.”

Sculptor Peter Coates, who has created the memorial, says:

“This simple arrangement of moor stones serves both as a place to pause and a place to remember. The large unhewn blocks hold a small wildflower in the upper part of the cantilevered section of the top stone which, I hope, communicates a sense of the more fragile and hidden life now thriving in this large and sometimes harsh landscape.
 
“Raising a stone in a remarkable landscape is a very affecting act; all the more poignant to do so in memory of one who has given a lifetime of skill and knowledge to the protection and enhancement of the vulnerable elements of its ecosystem.”

To visit Nan’s memorial, take the road from East Ayton to Hackness. In Hackness, turn to the right on the road to Scarborough, then shortly afterwards take a left turn to Silpho. The memorial lies about 300 metres down the bridleway track on the left, just before the telephone kiosk on the right.