Yorkshire holds the distinction of being the very first Branch to be created within the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and in 2021 we celebrated our centenary. The inaugural meeting was held in Leeds on the 14th February 1921, and after initially being known as the "Leeds Branch", it was later renamed the Yorkshire Region in 1998.
The past 100 years have seen many changes in the world of engineering and Yorkshire has been at the forefront of innovation and technology. The Region is home to many leading engineering companies and is also at the cutting edge of research, which is shown in the breadth and expertise of our membership.
On the 12th February 2021 we were delighted to hold an online Centenary Celebration Event, with the President, Terry Spall, amongst our line-up of speakers, reflecting on the success of the Region and our past and present activities. If you missed this event, you can catch-up via the IMechE Webinar Hub.
We also take great pride in our published book - “Yorkshire: A Centenary of the IMechE's Oldest Region". Written by one of our past Regional Chairs, Ashley Crossland CEng FIMechE MIET, with contributions from Terry Spall (President), Luke Farmer (current Yorkshire Region Chair) and items from our other Area Committees, the 72 pages and illustrations suitably celebrate the formation of our Region and recount its success. Follow the link to view the book or to download your copy.
Also, there was the centenary article “From Birdcage Walk”, also written by Ashley Crossland, in Issue 1 2021 of Professional Engineering.
Our sincerest thanks go to all who were involved in making our centenary celebrations a success last year and we wish all of our members the very best for the next 100 years!
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Due to COVID-19, many of our planned events over the past 2 years have had to be postponed or cancelled. We hope to be in a position to reschedule some of these during the forthcoming year, as well as continuing to build upon our established series of virtual events within the Region.
The move to online webinars, meetings and activities offers members a greater opportunity to participate in an extensive range of events at a local, national and global level, and makes it easier to get involved with the Institution from the comfort of your own home or workplace.
We hope to be able to make a return to some face-to-face events within our programme in the not-too-distant future.
Your local committees
Your Business Development Manager
Denis Healy has been the Business Development Manager for the Yorkshire Region since 2008, acting as the Institution's primary link with the region's organisations, industry and academia to develop and support the engineering community whilst maintaining strong links with a network of key contacts. Learn more.
Get involved
There are many initiatives going on in this region and there are plenty of great opportunities for you to be involved. This includes for example becoming a mentor and sharing your experience to help others develop, running an event, or joining one of our committees.
To become involved with the Institution's activities in Yorkshire, contact Nicky Baxter.
Contact us
If you have any ideas on how we could improve what we offer then we would very much like to hear from you. Contact us.