Gloves Off: Stories from Cultural Collections & Galleries at the University of Leeds

John Nicholson takes an epic trip through space and time in his first book of poetry, Airedale in Ancient Times. Amid riots and shootings in Bradford, The Bingley Byron also seems to have perfected the knack of writing for more than one audience at a time.  His celebrations of beer and the outlaw life satisfy the pub crowd, while he courts a wealthy mill owner with his sensational morality tales. But how long can he keep them all happy? 

We’ll return with Season 2 of Death of a Poet in March 2027, leading up to a symposium to mark what would have been Tony Harrison’s 90th birthday, and the anniversary of John Nicholson’s death, in April. 

 

Series credits

Presented by Dr RJ Wade

with

Paul Bennett
Dr Adam Bridgen
Dr Vic Clarke
Felix Cryer
Alex Duxbury
Tom Duxbury
Karl Grave
Allan Mirfield
Conrad Nelson
Hadley Nicholson
Sarah Prescott
Catherine Robinson
Elaine Robinson
Harold Robinson
Barrie Rutter
Siân Thomas
Dom Basil Watkins OSB
Glyn Watkins
Professor John Whale

The Bellringers of All Saints Church, Bingley
Jane Callaghan
Ann Cossavella
Karl Grave
Jane Lynch
Helen Mitchell-Hall
Mary Picken
Gary Picken
Peter Tedder

Hydrophone recordings made on location in the River Aire, Saltaire by Daniel Skevington

Produced and edited by Rowland Thomas

Music

The Farmer’s Boy
(Traditional)

Air: ‘O, much lov'd Son, if Death’, from Artaxerxes
(Thomas Arne)

Arranged and performed by Alice Gilmour and The Infernal Cauldron
Sound design by The Infernal Cauldron

Trailer edit by Alex Ramseyer-Bache. Wildlife footage by Tom Duxbury.

The Bingley Byron is the toast of the Bradford arts scene, but trouble’s brewing as he sets out his stall as an establishment rhymer. And back in the present, a descendant of the poet meets his likeness at the University of Leeds. 

Also known as The Orpheus of Bradford and The Airedale Poet, John Nicholson was a Methodist preacher and a tormented drinker, a rambler on Rombald’s Moor and a champion of industry, a conservative and a radical, a woolsorter and a classically-inclined poet.  

He got arrested in London for arguing with a bust of Shakespeare; became a pawn in one of the great political scraps of the 19th century; played the oboe; fathered nine children; and ad-libbed untold quantities of rhyme for his pals in the pub, most of which has been lost to intoxication and the passage of time.  

In 1993 Northern Broadsides legend Barrie Rutter brought him back to life on the stage in Tony Harrison’s play Poetry or Bust. We’ve used Harrison’s archive, held here in Cultural Collections at the University of Leeds, to retrace his steps, in the steps, in turn, of John Nicholson.  

Only a brief biography on The Bingley Byron survives, but we’ve gathered a cast of poets, actors, artists, bellringers, historians, enthusiasts – and a direct descendant – to return to the poems that Nicholson did write down, and the places where he lived and died, to unearth his chaotic, charismatic story. Through his life and work, we think about art, joy, memory, grief, and what we leave behind us.  

From the meadow pipits, skylarks and standing stones of Ilkley Moor to the river at Saltaire where he met his end, join us in the footsteps of The Bingley Byron.  

 

Series credits

Presented by Dr RJ Wade

with

Paul Bennett
Dr Adam Bridgen
Dr Vic Clarke
Felix Cryer
Alex Duxbury
Tom Duxbury
Karl Grave
Allan Mirfield
Conrad Nelson
Hadley Nicholson
Sarah Prescott
Catherine Robinson
Elaine Robinson
Harold Robinson
Barrie Rutter
Siân Thomas
Dom Basil Watkins OSB
Glyn Watkins
Professor John Whale

The Bellringers of All Saints Church, Bingley
Jane Callaghan
Ann Cossavella
Karl Grave
Jane Lynch
Helen Mitchell-Hall
Mary Picken
Gary Picken
Peter Tedder

Hydrophone recordings made on location in the River Aire, Saltaire by Daniel Skevington

Produced and edited by Rowland Thomas

Music

The Farmer’s Boy
(Traditional)

Air: ‘O, much lov'd Son, if Death’, from Artaxerxes
(Thomas Arne)

Arranged and performed by Alice Gilmour and The Infernal Cauldron
Sound design by The Infernal Cauldron

Trailer edit by Alex Ramseyer-Bache. Wildlife footage by Tom Duxbury.

Grief pulls John Nicholson back to his family’s devout Methodism – for now – as The Bingley Byron turns the loss of his young bride into art that retains the power to console the bereaved. 

Also known as The Orpheus of Bradford and The Airedale Poet, John Nicholson was a Methodist preacher and a tormented drinker, a rambler on Rombald’s Moor and a champion of industry, a conservative and a radical, a woolsorter and a classically-inclined poet.  

He got arrested in London for arguing with a bust of Shakespeare; became a pawn in one of the great political scraps of the 19th century; played the oboe; fathered nine children; and ad-libbed untold quantities of rhyme for his pals in the pub, most of which has been lost to intoxication and the passage of time.  

In 1993 Northern Broadsides legend Barrie Rutter brought him back to life on the stage in Tony Harrison’s play Poetry or Bust. We’ve used Harrison’s archive, held here in Cultural Collections at the University of Leeds, to retrace his steps, in the steps, in turn, of John Nicholson.  

Only a brief biography on The Bingley Byron survives, but we’ve gathered a cast of poets, actors, artists, bellringers, historians, enthusiasts – and a direct descendant – to return to the poems that Nicholson did write down, and the places where he lived and died, to unearth his chaotic, charismatic story. Through his life and work, we think about art, joy, memory, grief, and what we leave behind us.  

From the meadow pipits, skylarks and standing stones of Ilkley Moor to the river at Saltaire where he met his end, join us in the footsteps of The Bingley Byron.  

Series credits

Presented by Dr RJ Wade

with

Paul Bennett
Dr Adam Bridgen
Dr Vic Clarke
Felix Cryer
Alex Duxbury
Tom Duxbury
Karl Grave
Allan Mirfield
Conrad Nelson
Hadley Nicholson
Sarah Prescott
Catherine Robinson
Elaine Robinson
Harold Robinson
Barrie Rutter
Siân Thomas
Dom Basil Watkins OSB
Glyn Watkins
Professor John Whale

The Bellringers of All Saints Church, Bingley
Jane Callaghan
Ann Cossavella
Karl Grave
Jane Lynch
Helen Mitchell-Hall
Mary Picken
Gary Picken
Peter Tedder

Hydrophone recordings made on location in the River Aire, Saltaire by Daniel Skevington

Produced and edited by Rowland Thomas

Music

The Farmer’s Boy
(Traditional)

Air: ‘O, much lov'd Son, if Death’, from Artaxerxes
(Thomas Arne)

Arranged and performed by Alice Gilmour and The Infernal Cauldron
Sound design by The Infernal Cauldron

Trailer edit by Alex Ramseyer-Bache. Wildlife footage by Tom Duxbury.

Also known as The Orpheus of Bradford and The Airedale Poet, John Nicholson was a Methodist preacher and a tormented drinker, a rambler on Rombald’s Moor and a champion of industry, a conservative and a radical, a woolsorter and a classically-inclined poet.  

He got arrested in London for arguing with a bust of Shakespeare; became a pawn in one of the great political scraps of the 19th century; played the oboe; fathered nine children; and ad-libbed untold quantities of rhyme for his pals in the pub, most of which has been lost to intoxication and the passage of time.  

In 1993 Northern Broadsides legend Barrie Rutter brought him back to life on the stage in Tony Harrison’s play Poetry or Bust. We’ve used Harrison’s archive, held here in Cultural Collections at the University of Leeds, to retrace his steps, in the steps, in turn, of John Nicholson.  

Only a brief biography on The Bingley Byron survives, but we’ve gathered a cast of poets, actors, artists, bellringers, historians, enthusiasts – and a direct descendant – to return to the poems that Nicholson did write down, and the places where he lived and died, to unearth his chaotic, charismatic story. Through his life and work, we think about art, joy, memory, grief, and what we leave behind us.  

From the meadow pipits, skylarks and standing stones of Ilkley Moor to the river at Saltaire where he met his end, join us in the footsteps of The Bingley Byron.  

Series credits

Presented by Dr RJ Wade

with

Paul Bennett
Dr Adam Bridgen
Dr Vic Clarke
Felix Cryer
Alex Duxbury
Tom Duxbury
Karl Grave
Allan Mirfield
Conrad Nelson
Hadley Nicholson
Sarah Prescott
Catherine Robinson
Elaine Robinson
Harold Robinson
Barrie Rutter
Siân Thomas
Dom Basil Watkins OSB
Glyn Watkins
Professor John Whale

The Bellringers of All Saints Church, Bingley
Jane Callaghan
Ann Cossavella
Karl Grave
Jane Lynch
Helen Mitchell-Hall
Mary Picken
Gary Picken
Peter Tedder

Hydrophone recordings made on location in the River Aire, Saltaire by Daniel Skevington

Produced and edited by Rowland Thomas

Music

The Farmer’s Boy
(Traditional)

Air: ‘O, much lov'd Son, if Death’, from Artaxerxes
(Thomas Arne)

Arranged and performed by Alice Gilmour and The Infernal Cauldron
Sound design by The Infernal Cauldron

Trailer edit by Alex Ramseyer-Bache. Wildlife footage by Tom Duxbury.

“I think there’s never been a more exciting time to be a human being…”
 
In this special instalment of Contemporary Conversations, produced in partnership with the Cultural Institute, we explore the rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and the urgent questions the technology is raising about skills, ethics, the future of work and what it means to be creative.
 
Writer and broadcaster Nick Ahad chairs a panel of AI specialists:
 
Omar Karim, AI Creative Director and filmmaker, Digital Strategist Katie Moffat, and Dr Dibyadyuti Roy, Associate Professor in Cultural Studies, Media Studies and Digital Humanities in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds, discuss the opportunities and the threats that AI presents for the creative industries.
 
They underscore the importance of demystifying the technology behind large language models – and recognising its limitations. They ask whether it’s possible to use AI ethically, and how the disproportionately negative effects of its expansion on the Global South might be addressed.
 
Who controls the pace of its evolution? What can we expect to see in the coming months and years? How can we keep human judgement and imagination at the centre of creative practice?
 
Produced by University of Leeds Galleries & Cultural Collections in partnership with the Cultural Institute.
 
Recorded in HELIX at the University of Leeds, 18 March 2026.