A three thousand year old Egyptian mummy must now have its privacy protected, its burial wishes considered and its dignity carefully reviewed. The good folk of Yorkshire might have appreciated similar consideration before the Normans burned their homes, destroyed their cattle and crops, confiscated their land and starved them to death.
Blame Lancashire, specifically Manchester.
Manchester Museum recently asserted the rights of mummies in the case of Asru, an Egyptian woman who lived around 700 BC. Her body was unwrapped in Manchester in 1825 and displayed almost continuously for two centuries. In September 2026, following consultation with very, very, intelligent people, the museum removed her from public view out of respect for her wishes. Meanwhile, 100,000 Yorkshire folk remain buried from public view and Liver/Mancunian, Andy Burnham is busy celebrating those responsible with his 2027 Year of the Normans.
William the Bastard’s victory at Hastings in 1066 did not secure immediate acceptance of Norman rule. Resistance continued, and in 1069 northern rebellion presented a major challenge to his authority. William’s response became known as the Harrying of the North. Scorched earth and the target was God’s own county of Yorkshire.
During the winter of 1069–70, his forces devastated settlements and destroyed crops, livestock and food supplies. People were slaughtered, others fled, and the destruction of the means of survival brought famine and despairing columns of refugees. This was cruel and unusual punishment extending way beyond the armed opponents of Norman rule. The chronicler Orderic Vitalis accused William of having “punished the innocent with the guilty”. He claimed that more than 100,000 people died of hunger. Some historians have described the Harrying of Yorkshire as ‘genocide’. William E. Kapelle used the term in The Norman Conquest of the North (1979).
Is a Yorkshireman worth less respect than a desiccated Egyptian? Should Alice Roberts and Phil Harding go around, willy-nilly, digging up Anglo-Saxons and poking them about in tents whilst describing traumatic bone deformities?
If Manchester can respect hollowed out ancient Egyptians, how about some basic courtesy toward Yorkshire skelingtons?