A memorial dedicated to Yorkshire botanist Nan Sykes was unveiled in Silpho, honoring her life and environmental work.
The unveiling happened in Silpho, north of Scarborough, at a meadow. Family and friends attended the ceremony. The memorial has a ragstone base, donated by Spaunton Estate, and a limestone slab on top from Aislaby Quarry. A corn buttercup flower is carved into the stone, and the inscription reads, ‘She saw a world in a wildflower’.
Attendees could add their mark to the stone using a mallet and chisel. Nan’s daughter, Rachael Smye, spoke and admired the effort put into the memorial, adding that her mother loved the landscape.
Ian Carstairs, founder of the Carstairs Trust, said it’s a privilege to host the memorial, honoring an exceptional botanist and highlighting the importance of wildlife conservation. Peter Coates, who designed the memorial, hopes it’s a place for pause where people remember Nan and what she stood for. He added that the wildflower represents fragile life.
Nan Sykes was born in York in 1923, and from a young age she loved natural history and often played at Backhouse Nursery. World War II interrupted her studies, and she worked as a Land Girl on farms, tracking tractors replacing horses. She then became a journalist, working for the Yorkshire Observer, the Yorkshire Gazette, and later the Gazette and Herald, even skiing to report a farmer’s story.
Nan became a self-taught botanist, studying flowers because she couldn’t follow birds. She wrote books about wildflowers and left a photography collection. She also renovated local properties and built a Wildlife Centre at Ravenscar, which she later sold to the National Trust.
You can find Nan’s memorial off the road from East Ayton to Hackness. Turn right in Hackness heading towards Scarborough, then turn left to Silpho. The memorial is 300 meters down the path, before the phone box.