With nights drawing in and a nip in the air it’s time to get out the jumpers and think of those autumnal days when Lottie Shaw’s award winning Yorkshire treats are just perfect. With warming ginger and spiced fruit cakes they certainly fit hand in glove with the cooler weather. They’re just perfect to stock up in readiness for Bonfire Night.

But do we really know the story of arguably the most notorious Yorkshireman after Dick Turpin… York born, Guy Fawkes? No? So open some Lottie Shaw’s Seriously Good Yorkshire Parkin, cut yourself a slice of our new gooey treacle tart or snap one of our crunchy ginger biscuits and pour yourself a cup of Yorkshire tea. Then we shall begin.

Guy Fawkes was born in Stonegate, York in the late fifteen hundreds to a well to do family. His father, a lawyer, died when Guy was eight and his mother married a Catholic at a time when Catholicism was outlawed. Guy was sent to St Peter’s School in York (where to this day there is no ‘Guy’ on top of the annual bonfire in deference to their infamous pupil).

After selling the family home Fawkes went to fight for both Spain and France before trying to drum up support abroad to overthrow James 1 and restore a Catholic monarch. When his plan received little or no support he returned to England and joined a band of co conspirators and the Gunpowder Plot was made.

Hiring an undercroft directly under the House of Lords, they concealed barrels of gunpowder under firewood with Fawkes as the keeper, and it was here he was discovered guarding his ‘bonfire’ on November 5th 1605.

Tortured tried and put to death along with his co conspirators, the King ordered the burning of bonfires to celebrate his escape from being blown up and Plot Night was born.

Now how was that Autumnal treat and that cup of tea? Lottie Shaw’s history of making traditional authentic Yorkshire fayre doesn’t quite go back to the gunpowder plot but with a hundred years of history we are proud to continue bringing the true taste of Yorkshire to the nation.