20 Twenty years of THE UPPER WENSLEYDALE NEWSLETTER Issue 218 October 2015 Donation please: 30p suggested or more if you wish. Covering Upper Wensleydale from Wensley to Garsdale Head, with Walden and Bishopdale, Swaledale from Keld to Gunnerside plus Cowgill in Upper Dentdale. 1 2 Published by Upper Wensleydale The Upper Wensleydale Newsletter Newsletter Burnside Coach House, Burtersett Road, Hawes DL8 3NT Tel: 667785 Issue 218 October 2015 Email for submission of articles, what’s ons, letters etc.:[email protected] Features Newsletters on the Web, simply enter Competition 6 “Upper Wensleydale Newsletter” or ____________________________ ‘‘Welcome to Wensleydale’ Guest Editorial 4 Archive copies back to 1995 are in the Dales ________________ ____________ Countryside Museum resources room. Richard Noble 7 ____________________________ Committee: Alan S.Watkinson, From the Farm 9 Malcolm Carruthers, ____________________________ Barry Cruickshanks (Web), Police Report 26 Sue E .Duffield, Karen Jones, ____________________________ Alastair Macintosh, Neil Piper, Karen Prudden Doctor’s Rotas 14 Janet W. Thomson (Treasurer), ____________________________ Peter Wood Practice News 11 Final processing: ____________________________ Sarah Champion, Adrian Janke. Postal distribution: Derek Stephens Sideways Glances 18 ____________________________ What’s On 12 PLEASE NOTE ________________________ Plus all the regulars This web-copy does not contain the commercial adverts which are in the full Newsletter. Whilst we try to ensure that all information is As a general rule we only accept adverts from correct we cannot be held legally responsible within the circulation area and no more than for omissions or inaccuracies in articles, one-third of each issue is taken up with them. adverts or listings, or for any inconvenience caused. Views expressed in articles are the - Advertising sole responsibility of the person by lined. Articles by committee members carry just Boxed adverts: £6, £12, £18 their initials. We appreciate being asked There is a big reduction for six issues or more, before any part of the Newsletter is so for six issues the totals are: reproduced £25, £50 or £75 THE NOVEMBER Greetings etc. £2.00 What’s ons (non-commercial) are free ISSUE WILL BE Contacts for adverts: PRODUCED ON For Hawes area and westward: OCTOBER 26th and 27th Barry Cruickshanks, Ashfield, Hardraw: 667458 DEADLINE FOR COPY For elsewhere: Sue Duffield, Fellside, THURSDAY OCTOBER Thornton Rust: 663504 22nd 3 Guest Editorial (much “lower key” in those days), where we missed We are delighted that Dr Malcolm Petyt has the path and I saw Auntie move much faster than agreed to do a guest editorial. With qualifications usual when we found ourselves in the same field as in Classics and Linguistics, Malcolm spent many a bull! years in Education mainly at Reading University. That was the first of many visits to Aysgarth. But His impressive list of volunteering includes I also stayed several times at the tiny hostel in positions of responsibility in the Ramblers’ Ellingstring; and as I became more adventurous and Association, the National Trust, the Council for came to the Dales by bike, I recall the first time I National Parks, the Yorkshire Dales Society, stopped at Shaws, the hostel at Garsdale Head, after Friends of the Lake District , and for ten years a toiling up from Thwaite Bridge and being passed by Government appointee on the Dales National Park a steam train going up to Hawes Junction. Committee. In his spare time (!) he walks, cycles, How sad it seems that all those hostels are now sails and plays the clarinet (a little, he says). only a memory; and if the Wensleydale line really I am honoured to have been asked to write this had to close, what an opportunity was missed in not “guest editorial” for your 20th anniversary edition. turning it into a walking and cycling route! Yet Congratulations! Wensleydale remains a special place for me, and I am thankful that I am spending my retirement so 2015 seems to be a major year for anniversaries. We have all heard that it is the 800th of Magna Carta close to it. and the 70th since the end of World War II (the first Malcolm Petyt bonfire I can remember). But I see from various commemorative mugs on our shelves that it is significant for several things I have had a long Letter involvement with: it is the 120th anniversary of the Dear Editor, National Trust, the 50th of the Pennine Way (it was I wish to congratulate all persons responsible for the another 12 years before I walked it all), the 80th of groundwork in the top graveyard at St Margaret's the Ramblers’ Association, and the 85th of the Youth Hawes. In 2004 I first discovered old family graves Hostels Association. there with the kind help of This last name brings back my first memories of Mr Jim Alderson, now deceased. At that time the Wensleydale. Like Alan Watkinson, I am not a whole area seemed rather sad and neglected. On native Dalesman and we both spent our early years another occasion a number of headstones had been in Bradford. My great-grandfather had to move laid flat (for safety?). This summer I was delighted there for work after our family had been farmers in to note how well cared for the whole plot now the Bolton Abbey area since at least the 1400s. My appears with well-trimmed grass around the graves. father’s family retained a great love for the Dales. Yours sincerely, We had no car until well into my teens, so most of Jean Day, Thornton Rust our trips were by bus into the Southern Dales. But my father’s unmarried sister had been involved with the YHA since its early days, and when I was 11 she took me on my first hostelling trip. After our first night in Kettlewell, we climbed over into Bishopdale, where Auntie Margaret looked sadly at the site of The Rookery, which had served as Bishopdale Hostel until it was demolished a year or two earlier. We pushed on to Aysgarth, where a replacement Hostel now occupied a former sanatorium. That first stay at Aysgarth is especially memorable because the Warden, Robert Gummerson, was great trainer of Labradors. Each evening he got Mij to play dominoes with one of the Mystery picture. Last month’s was of Bow Bridge, hostellers – and the dog often won! That visit Askrigg. Where is this lime kiln? included a walk to the Falls and on to Castle Bolton 4 News from St Oswald’s, Askrigg Eunice the Ewe Gift Day St Oswald’s Gift Day was very well supported with donations so far totaling £2,114.50. A big ‘Thank you’ to everyone who has contributed to generously I was hiding in Andrew Ramsden’s bench on page 31 last month. Winner: Jean Charlton, Widnes. towards the church. Donations can still be made to the Vicar, Parish Office or a member of the PCC. Friends of St Oswald’s Family History Group The newly launched Friends of St Oswald’s has also Meetings of the Upper Dales Family History Group proved very successful with a current total of 58 continue on Wednesday, October 28th, at 2.00pm in members. If you would like to subscribe to become a Fremington Sunday School when the speaker is Sam Friend, please contact the Parish Office (650800, or Woods on ‘The North Riding’s Forgotten Admiral’ - email [email protected]) for an the fascinating story of Sir Christopher George application form. Francis Maurice Cradock from Hartforth and his Harvest at St Oswald’s naval career, culminating in one of the naval On Sunday October 18th, St Oswald’s will be disasters of the Great War. celebrating Harvest with a special outdoor service at On Saturday, November 7th, from 1.00 to 3.30pm, Lowlands Farm, Askrigg (weather permitting!) – we will be running a drop-in family history thanks to the Hodgson family. We will be Computer Club in Hudson House, Reeth, suitable acknowledging the hard work of our local farmers for everyone, from complete beginners to more and those further afield and thanking God for all that experienced researchers, who would like to pick up he provides us. However, this year, our Harvest some fresh ideas. If you have a wifi enabled laptop collection is going to focus more on those who are bring it along or use one of our desk top computers. not as fortunate as us and who need our help. We Stay as long as you like – no need to book. Group will be supporting the Christian Aid Refugee Crisis members are on hand to help you get started; £3 for Appeal by collecting money to fund vital supplies the first two hours, then £1 per hour. and resources for all the refugees crossing the Non-members are very welcome at all events. Mediterranean from the Middle East in search of a better life in Europe. We will all have seen the For further details phone 0743 2677 783, email terrible pictures on the television and heard the plight [email protected] or see the website of some of these people who are facing great danger www.upperdalesfhg.org.uk for details of all events in trying to secure the future of their families. Over and the worldwide email discussion group forthcoming months, as the weather deteriorates, Tracy Little their plight in refugee camps or on their journeys will become much worse and we would like to do all we can to help provide them with food, shelter, clothing, blankets, hygiene and sanitation products etc, etc. Your donation to our Christian Aid Harvest Appeal will help to fund these essential items. Please come along and enjoy the service (which will be held in Church in the event of inclement weather) or pick up an envelope from the back of the church to make your donation.