Ghost Town?
28th March, 2020.
The past week has been a roller coaster for all of us with our daily lives completely changed for a least the next few months. From work to our social lives the fabric has gone, last Friday’s pub/café closures seems so long ago and this week’s shop closures brings home the fact we live in a different world now, Easingwold and Thirsk have gone from bustling town centres to virtual ghost towns over-night....
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Defibrillator arrives in Oulston
28th March, 2020.
With generous financial support from the Easingwold Lions and The League of Friends of St Monica’s Hospital and the help of the Village Hall Committee, Oulston now has a public access defibrillator. It’s available for use by laypeople who are able to assist if there is concern that someone is suffering a cardiac arrest. CPR and calling 999 must not be overlooked.
In pre-virus times it was agreed that there would be a photograph of our kind benefactors at the village hall to formally launch the defibrillator....
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New Plaque for the Jubilee Oak Tree in Stillington
28th March, 2020.
The first two of these photos were printed in The Advertiser dated 20th April 2019, together with an appeal for information about the persons involved. As might have been expected the Village Archive Group already had full details of all the circumstances and persons involved.
The four people standing on the left in the second photo are Dr and Mrs Hughes, Edwin Newman and his sister-in-law Mary Maskill, who formed the committee which raised the funds for a project to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of Their Majesties King George V and Queen Mary on 6th May 1935. It was decided to plant an oak sapling with a protective iron surround and have a plaque which can just be seen in the first photo. The two people on the right are Mr Tom North born in 1851, the oldest man in the village who was asked to perform the ceremonial planting of the tree and on his right, partially obscured, is his son Arthur, who died in WWII. The two children at the front of the photo are Dennis Woodward and Edna Hugill whose birthdays were closest to 6th May....
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Kevin Hollinrake MP
Visited Outwood Academy Easingwold
28th March, 2020.
Local MP, Kevin Hollinrake, has visited a local secondary academy to hear about the exciting sporting facilities currently under construction and meet with students to discuss the academy’s excellent progress.
The MP for Thirsk and Malton made a trip to Outwood Academy Easingwold to speak with staff and students about the progress at the academy since it joined the Outwood Family, and discuss his experiences as a politician to give students an insight.
The academy had the top performing sixth-form in North Yorkshire last year, above both private and selective schools. An incredible 83% of students who took maths at A-Level at the academy achieved an A* or A grade, with 25% of all A-Level students exams being graded at A* or A.
The outstanding achievement of the students resulted in 46% of students going on to study at Russell Group universities, the top group of universities.
While at the academy, the MP was also given a tour of, and update on, the construction work currently taking place at the academy on new sports facilities that will benefit both the academy’s students and wider community.
Kevin Hollinrake MP said: “It was great to visit Outwood Academy Easingwold and speak with the staff and students about the fantastic results the students have achieved, making the academy the highest performing sixth-form in North Yorkshire, and the exciting sporting facilities that are currently being built....
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This Week's Easingwold Advertiser & Weekly News will be in the shops Friday 27th March 2020
26th March, 2020.
This week's paper will be in the shops Friday 27th March 2020 due to a mechanical breakdown.
Town Band’s Win at
North of England Championships
20th March, 2020.
On Saturday 14 March Easingwold Town Band travelled to Durham to take part in the 4th Section contest in the North of England Regional Brass Band Championship – and won! Conducted by their musical director Alistair Shipman, the Band turned in a performance at the Gala Theatre that earned them first place, ahead of six other bands from across the region.
Back with them to Easingwold on the coach came the silver ‘British Bandsmen Challenge Tribute’ cup, the ‘Raymond Evans Memorial Trophy’ for the youngest player in the winning band – percussionist Kathryn Featherstone, aged 12 – and the £200 winner’s prize.
Last time the Band felt strong enough to enter the ‘Regionals’ was back in 1987. This victory brings with it an invitation to take part in the National Brass Band Championship finals in Cheltenham at the end of September. “I’m delighted,” Alistair said, “and although it’s a reward for the commitment and hard work of every one of our players, we all feel that it’s very much a win, too, for the town and our local community....
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Easingwold Town U16 girls
20th March, 2020.
Easingwold Town’s U16 girls produced a brilliant performance on Saturday defeating Fulford Girls 2-0. The win was made even more impressive by the fact Town only fielded 8 players against their counterparts.
It was an even first half with both teams creating chances, with Jess in the Easingwold goal making several good saves while Towns’ lone striker Amelia looked dangerous on the counter.
Neither sides managed to take their chances in the first half but Easingwold looked the more dangerous, with the back three of Jodie, Ellie and Daisy standing firm....
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The Peas Duo in Stillington
20th March, 2020.
The Peas are a remarkable couple of very skilled musicians. They can both play a varied range of instruments and sing at the same time. Their repertoire is chosen from popular music from the Eighties and Nineties performed by Rick Astley, The Spice Girls and others but they rework it into a more modern rock ‘n rolling beat to make the songs feel new. Among the instruments they play, usually more than one at a time, are acoustic guitar, double bass, foot drums, kazoos, beat boxing and mouth trumpets, all blended into super sweet harmonies....
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Brandsby WI visit Tennant's Auction House
20th March, 2020.
On a beautiful, although very windy morning 14 members of Brandsby WI took the picturesque journey to Leyburn to visit Tennant’s Auction House. The stone building looked spectacular in the sun. After a refreshing coffee, the members wandered around the various sale rooms admiring the exhibits and recalling their childhood memories or remembering things they had in the attic....
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Easingwold Harriers U8 v Poppleton Tigers
13th March, 2020.
The Harriers knew that this was going to be a tough game but went in with their normal can-do attitude. Unfortunately, Harriers only had a squad of 5 for the game, no substitutes, which restricted their options and gave them no time to rest tired legs.
They started with a different formation, 2 in defence rather than solitary defender, in the hope of blunting the Tigers attack. Poppleton had the ball in the back of the net within the first minute mainly due to having two very skilful players in particular who seemed to waltz through the Harriers to attack.
They managed to score another 4 times before it was halfway through the first half, despite Sammy pulling off some great saves. At that point it was looking like it would be a rugby score....
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Local Charities Working Together To Help Patients With Cancer
13th March, 2020.
Over the last 12 months Easingwold District Community Care Association [EDCCA], York Against Cancer [YAC] and The Friends of St Monica’s have worked together to help patients from the Easingwold area who are suffering from cancer and need to travel to The Bexley Wing at St James’s Hospital, Leeds for radiotherapy treatment. Typically patients need to travel to Leeds every Monday to Friday for 3weeks.
YAC have run a minibus service from York to St James’s since 2007. The minibus makes a return journey Monday to Friday each week. With invaluable financial support from The Friends of St Monica’s, one year ago EDCCA extended the scope of its community car scheme to take patients from the Easingwold area to meet up with the YAC minibus.
EDCCA volunteer drivers collect people from their homes and drive them to Rawcliffe Park and Ride site where they meet up with the YAC minibus. Upon their return from Leeds, they are then met at the Rawcliffe P+R and transported home.
Over the last year we have helped 7 local people with this scheme. This has entailed over 200 return journeys to Rawcliffe P+R by EDCCA volunteer drivers....
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“ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH,
DEAR FRIENDS!”
13th March, 2020.
Again, the troops from Easingwold Parish Church heard the call of duty and mustered at the Parish Rooms last Friday on a humanitarian mission to provide a lunch of soup and a roll, followed by tea or coffee. This was an event arranged by Churches Together in Easingwold and District (CTED), being the first in a series on the Fridays in Lent. These simple meals are a stark reminder that, for many people in the world, such might be the only meal they have all day. The lunches are served in return for donations, which will be sent to the charities Christian Aid and CAFOD. On subsequent Fridays, lunches will be served at the Methodist Church, at the Catholic Church Hall, and by Raskelf Church members....
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Coffee morning & raffle
13th March, 2020.
On Friday 6th March, JG Fielder & Son Funeral Directors and JW Myers Memorials held a coffee morning and raffle in aid of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
Although apprehensive of how many visitors we would have to our new offices on Chapel Street, our event was really well supported by the local community. We had a steady flow of visitors for coffee, cake and sandwiches and sold plenty of raffle tickets on the day.
The Yorkshire Air Ambulance volunteers were also in attendance with their stall and we were pleased to have them here....
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Maths Month at Easingwold Primary School
6th March, 2020.
Children at Easingwold Primary School have had lots of fun learning opportunities during their recent maths month. The month started by entering a York Sumdog competition. Sumdog is a maths app that allows students to play against each other and practice key maths skills. The competition was against other schools in the local area and across York who had also entered. Congratulations to Harley Shipley, Harrison Ledger, and Safiyya Bennett, who were our top three point scorers and to Mrs Hargreaves' class who were the highest scoring class of the competition.
On 7th February, we took part in Number Day which raised £78 for the NSPCC. The children dressed up in all sorts of creative ways linking to number, shape and measure.
We have also been able to run lots of different maths clubs this month including; Super Mover Times Tables, dominoes, coding club, Times Tables Rock Stars, Sumdog, geometric drawing and Lego club....
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Library …. Indian dance …what’s going on????
6th March, 2020.
During the half term holiday, we had a visit from two amazing dancers, Kim and Kali, from the Balbur Singh dance company based in Leeds. They blended traditional Indian Kathak with modern and contemporary dance, interweaved with Indian storytelling. They were so talented that to the delight of the children they also incorporated Harry Potter and Ed Sheridan into the dance workshop. It was truly wonderful to see the children fully engaged with the dance. The event was free and kindly sponsored by the library service.
Kim and Kali please, please come back....
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Local Badminton Coach Wins Gold!
6th March, 2020.
Denis Cleary, our very own badminton coach, who coaches at the Galtres Centre, won the singles gold medal in the Yorkshire Masters Gold Badminton Tournament held in York at the weekend.
250 badminton players travelled from as far a field as Austria, Scotland, Ireland and the south coast to compete in one of the most prestigious tournaments held in the UK. This event was over three days with singles, doubles and mixed games of badminton....
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Outwood Academy Easingwold Awarded IQM Award
6th March, 2020.
Outwood Academy Easingwold, based on York Road, was awarded the Inclusion Quality Mark Award by IQM. The award provides UK schools with a nationally recognized validation of their inclusive practice and ongoing commitment to developing educational inclusion.
The academy’s success comes after a long assessment process, which was split into two phases beginning with a self-evaluation followed by a two-day assessment by the IQM team.
Laura Eddery, Principal at Outwood Academy Easingwold, said: “We are delighted to have been accredited with the IQM Award, showing that inclusion at all levels is paramount to us.
“At Outwood we believe that every child deserves the best education, no matter their start in life and we work tirelessly to ensure we deliver on this belief. This accreditation is testament to that work.”
There are over 5,500 academies and schools in the UK who have either received an IQM Inclusive School Award, or are actively working towards meeting the standard required....
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Floods Still Causing Problems
28th February, 2020.
I still keep hearing on Minster FM that the Tollerton to Newton on Ouse road is closed, almost two weeks since it first closed due to the recent bad weather. Many other parts of the region from Skipton on Swale down to Topcliffe, Thornton Bridge (Helperby) Linton Locks etc have been closed to flooding and then reopened once the flood waters have subsided but the road to Newton from Tollerton has had no such respite. So, I decided to take a look myself....
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Aid for Australian Animals
28th February, 2020.
Many of you will have seen the recent Bushfires in Australia. It is estimated that over 1 billion animals have perished and many thousands more have suffered horrific burns and are now also starving. Their natural source of food has been totally wiped out from the fires.
All year round the Australian Crafters make items to help the wildlife. But with the unprecedented fires, they simply could not keep up with demand.
On the 4th of January the UK set up a network of local hubs in order to help the Australian crafters keep up with the supply of items needed for the plight of the badly burned/orphaned animals.
Easingwold got its own hub on the 7th January, to help with the huge task of getting as many craft items made as they could. They included Joey Pouches with liners for the orphaned Kangaroos, Koalas, Wombats. Nests for Possums, bat wraps and sugar glider wraps, snake catchers, you name it.
Expecting just maybe 20-30 to start knitting a plea was put out.
Within 1 week, just over 500 people had joined the group and were all busy crafting items....
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True Grit
28th February, 2020.
On Saturday evening (22nd February), 100 cyclists took on the Yorkshire True Grit “Dark Skies” challenge event.
Headquartered at Coxwold Village Hall these intrepid cyclists journeyed into the North York Moors via gravel tracks through local forests to reach the Cleveland Way above Boltby. From there they battled strong winds to begin their descent back to Coxwold via the woods above Wass and Ampleforth before their final loop took them around Yearsley Woods.
Totalling 50 miles, Yorkshire True Grit “Dark Skies” event sets off at 4pm, and riders head for the hills as the sun goes down. Cyclists travel from all over the UK to take part in this event – this year the quickest rider completed the route in 3 hours 35 minutes and had come from Kent to take part. The final rider completed the challenge in just over 6 hours....
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Friday Frolics at Springhill Court
28th February, 2020.
Easingwold District Community Care Association are running a Friday Frolics event every third Friday afternoon of the month. The first one was last Friday and over 50 people, including residents of Springhill Court, EDCCA Day Centre attendees, staff and their families came to see Monet who is a miniature pony from KL Pony Therapy based in Northallerton.
Monet and his handler Vickie spent the afternoon in the lounge with everyone. He was a delight and Vickie ensured that everyone had a chance to stroke Monet whilst enthusiastically explaining all about him and the other ponies in their care....
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Crowds flock to hear The Yorkshire Vet
21st February, 2020.
Peter Wright, star of the hit TV series The Yorkshire Vet, received a warm welcome from a packed audience at the Galtres Centre.
At an event organized to raise funds for Yorkshire Cancer Research, Peter spoke about his early days as a young trainee working in Thirsk with Alf Wight, better known as James Herriot.
Now a hugely experienced vet, Peter has followed in Alf’s footsteps and become a famous name in his own right with nine series of The Yorkshire Vet under his belt and two successful books published.
He entertained a sell-out audience with tales about the real-life characters made famous in the All Creatures Great and Small books and TV programmes in the 1970s and 80s.
Peter also talked about his experiences filming The Yorkshire Vet, including two recent confrontations with an injured, bad tempered reindeer, and his long friendship with Steve and Jean Green....
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Tree Planting at Millfield
21st February, 2020.
There has been lots of activity going on in Millfield. Easingwold Green Spaces Group have been planting 16 trees to act as screening at the top end of the mown section. These have been carefully selected and are all native species that will enhance this area. They have been planted carefully, about 10 metres apart and in front of the line of willow trees already well established.
These willows are fast growing, but short lived and the new additions will eventually replace them as a screen from the estate behind.
Not only will these new trees enhance this attractive area but also, at a time of global warming help us to do our bit to increase this areas carbon sink. We will not live to admire them in their full glory, but they will be an asset to future generations....
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Sutton and Huby Gardening Club,
February 2020
21st February, 2020.
We held our first ever meeting in the village hall at Huby, which has been beautifully restored, for our latest talk. After many years the club had outgrown the Huby Chapel. The club is most grateful to the chapel supporters for their help over the decades and to the village hall committee for their kind welcome.
We were lucky to get Clive Dawson tell us about the restoration of York Cemetery into “an oasis in the city”. The York Cemetery company, set up in 1837, ran this private cemetery after laying it out with elaborate borders and extensive tree planting as a public park, the first in York. After the graveyards inside the walls were closed in 1854 the company was able to be generous towards its shareholders. As it became almost full and the York Crematorium became more popular, the income fell, and the company ended upgoing bankrupt in 1966. A “Bereaved Relatives Group” anxious to keep access to the graves took over and a gardener took over to dig and tend the graves for the group....
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Easingwold and District U3A February Meeting
21st February, 2020.
On Tuesday we had yet another really interesting talk, this month by John Cossham from York. It was very appropriate at this time, with many floods in UK, that he was talking to us about climate change. He has studied green issues since the 1980’s and lives with an extremely low carbon footprint.
He explained to us what greenhouse gases were and that without any the average temperature of the Earth would be 18*C. With greenhouse gases the average is +14.5*C. Some of the gases occur naturally. Others are due to human activity. Carbon dioxide is produced by most living things during aerobic respiration but it is also released when we burn fossil hydrocarbons. Methane is produced by sheep and cattle, termites, some bacteria and from wetlands and rice paddies. Natural gas is also methane. Nitrous oxide is produced by manures and over-fertilized soils....
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EASINGWOLD AND DISTRICT CHEQUE PRESENTATION February 2020
14th February, 2020.
Kurts Club are one of those unsung charitable groups that make Easingwold a better place. Volunteers giving up their own time to help about a dozen residents between the ages of 20 – 70 who have various mental health issues. They are offering a much needed service and indeed they have been doing this for a considerable time! Managers Julie Kitchen who helps run the Club has been doing this for the past thirteen years, while Linda Bryan is not that far behind.
The name is taken from the room at the Galtres Centre that they use for their sessions and they are a bit like a little family where everyone supports one another. The members talk and discuss their problems as well as taking part in a program of planned activities, eg crafts, music, literature, well-being and writing poetry etc – for many members it is their only social activity each week outside of home....
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EASINGWOLD TOWN - SATURDAY 8TH FEBRUARY 1ST XI 4 KIRBYMOORSIDE 2
14th February, 2020.
The Town maintained their position in the top six of the Premier Division with a hard earned 4-2 victory over Kirbymoorside. With the 2nd XI having no game the town had a full bench and welcomed back W. Gough,B. Ryder and T. Rushworth.
The Town were soon on the front foot and dominated the early stages and it was no surprise when they went in front, a corner from the right being swept home by N. Kennedy. P. Floyd was virtually a spectator and after several near misses it became two when a fine move down the right ended with J. Gath’s superb cross being headed home at the far post by J. Cryer.
T. Rushworth replaced the injured J. Gath at half time, slotting in at fullback with O. Longbottom moving wide right....
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Drumming Up Support For Parkinson’s UK
14th February, 2020.
A taiko drumming workshop and afternoon tea event was held at Shipton Community Centre on Saturday Feb 8th to raise money and awareness for Parkinson’s UK. A total of 20 people took part in the workshop with a further 20 coming for the afternoon tea which was accompanied by short performances.
The workshop was hosted by Kaminari UK Taiko drummers, a local community taiko drumming group who are celebrating 10 years since the group was formed. Taiko drumming is a style of drumming which is originally from Japan, but it has been gaining popularity in this corner of North Yorkshire....
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DESPITE STORM CIARA …..
14th February, 2020.
……. we assembled for an interesting and enjoyable Family Service on the second Sunday of the month at Easingwold Parish Church, for the fifth of our special late afternoon services for families, to which all are welcome.
There was a very relaxed atmosphere, with refreshments to start with, and congregation participation encouraged!
We were welcomed by Rev. Deacon Lottie Cranfield, who introduced the theme for the afternoon as “Love”, especially appropriate as Valentine’s Day approaches! After an opening hymn, and prayers and scripture readings on the topic of love, Lottie distributed Smarties®, noting that, although they are very different on the outside, they are just the same on the inside. This expresses how Jesus loves us all since, despite our outer differences, like Smarties® we are all similar on the inside....
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Easingwold Primary School Playground Markings
7th February, 2020.
The children at Easingwold Primary School have been enjoying some new playground markings this week. Funds for the playground update have been raised by EPIC, our committed and hardworking PTA, along with a very generous grant from the Broadacres Community Development Fund. Events have been very well supported by families and friends of the school to raise funds for projects such as this. The playground revamp concludes our well-being month and will support the children in keeping active and help them to adopt healthy lifelong habits. After school on Friday 31st January....
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Easingwold Town Council Reminds Speeding Drivers
7th February, 2020.
Readers may have noticed some new traffic signs over the past week on the York Road outside of the Secondary School.
These are Vehicle Activated Signs (VAS) purchased by your Town Council as speed reminders for drivers in order to improve road safety for our residents.
North Yorkshire County Council gave permission last year for Town and Parish Councils to purchase and use their own units subject to certain safeguards. Easingwold Town Council is among the first Council's in the Hambleton area to take advantage of this scheme.
It may surprise people that Easingwold has an unusual population balance where a much higher proportion of our residents are over 50 years old (nearly 70%!). Unfortunately the older you are, the much less likely you are to survive even a mild collision with a car or truck in an accident. In fact government statistics show that if a car travelling at 30mph hits a pedestrian of 50 years old, there is a 50% chance of a fatality....
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Worrier to Warrior….
7th February, 2020.
That was the theme for the Library ‘Writing for fun ‘ group , stories came gushing out, a person fighting OCD, a warrior queen from the Brigantes tribe, a woman who couldn’t sleep, a poem with the tide rushing through your toes and a dark story involving glass slivers ground up in a strawberry gateaux, what more creativity can you have in one library !!! Our next project is to write a children’s story for our ‘Inspire a Child’ project.
The ‘Knit n Natter’ group continues to go from strength to strength and we now have around 14 people who get together in the library to share their skills and learn from each other. At the moment we have got people knitting and crocheting a whole range of different things from hats, gloves, children’s clothes and toys, baby outfits, blankets and socks. It’s great to have experienced people on hand when we’re trying to learn new techniques....
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Forest of Galtres Camera Club
7th February, 2020.
Peter Rushton LRPS was judge for the evening. Each person entering the annual portfolio competition submitted six images and as Peter said, the portfolio needed to consist of a cohesive set of images that told a story. There needed to be evidence of good technique, exposure, post processing and pin sharp results. Subjects ranged from Vanishing Points to St Pancras, from People Watching to Belfast.
Peter delivered comprehensive comments, finding much to praise in each entry and, as appropriate, suggestions for aspects of an image that could be improved. He gave highly commended to David Loads’ portfolio of plants. Pete liked the good use of depth of field and the avoidance of distracting backgrounds....
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