IT may have escaped my reader's attention (note position of apostrophe), but we Tykes have our very own royal. Not that we see him in Beggarsdale much (nor in Yorkshire for that matter) but Prince Andrew is also the Duke of York.

Now I have never met the lad but he seems a relatively simple sort, mad keen on golf and a real hero as a helicopter pilot in the Falklands. He made a daft marriage to a rather silly lass but I choose not to go into that.

However, young Andrew is up to something which rather appeals to me. As a serving naval officer, he has somehow managed to prise free of London's greedy grasp some of this nation's most historic ships and naval treasures.

They are to be taken from the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich and re-housed where they belong, a new museum being opened in the Cornish port of Falmouth.

I would prefer, of course, that some of them went to Hull, where there is plenty of harbour space to moor the entire Royal Navy, but Cornwall is the next best thing.

Cornishmen are proud, stubborn and much neglected by Whitehall, which makes them blood brothers to we Yorkshire folk. The fact that these provincials are going to get their hands on some of the nation's loot isn't half bad.

The problem, you see, is that the Elgin Marbles are not the only treasures that have been filched by the London museums and art galleries.

The rest of the United Kingdom has been stripped of almost everything of value to please southerners and foreigners who never go to see them anyway.

The reasons for that is not necessarily apathy, although that is very high on the list.

The real reason is that many of these items never get exhibited - they are locked away in vaults where only curators and scholars are allowed access.

It varies very much from museum to museum but anything between 25 per cent and 60 per cent of a collection can be stored in deep, dark cellars. You see, these grand London establishments have bitten off more they can chew: they have grabbed so many treasures that they don't have the space to show them off.

Now I know that they have moved the Royal Armouries to Leeds and not many people are going to see them there, either. That's because the armouries are obliged by Government to charge whacking entrance fees whereas, in London, some of these places are free.

And I never did quite work out what connection Leeds had with armour. York, on the other hand, was one of the cradles of the railways and the National Railway Museum there has been an outstanding success.

These are big cities. What about Mar'ton: couldn't we borrow a Michelangelo for a few days? Or a Beethoven manuscript for Beggarsdale? Not forever but just a week or so at the Institute.

These treasures were, in many cases, left to the nation by wealthy philanthropists. There was a time when I thought "the nation" actually included small country towns and villages. Now I'm not so sure. Perhaps our very own Duke could apply some pressure.

* The Curmudgeon is a satirical column based on a fictitious character in a mythical village.