Another great day for Rosedale when Charlotte Seller, of the Old Police House, married Captain Kenneth Neilson of the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment. After the wedding, the couple will be honeymooning in an undisclosed destination in Thailand, before setting up home in Andover where Kenneth is a staff officer in the Army Inspectorate, part of Army Headquarters there.

The Centenary of the outbreak of W.W.I was marked with a Remembrance Day service and laying of wreaths on behalf of the benefice and the community.  The church was full of people from all five churches.

Pic shows Rosedale & Hartoft W.I. with the Vicar, Michael Sinclair.

On the eve of the 100th anniversary of the start of the Great War on 4 August 1914, we should pause to remember those from Rosedale who gave their lives in that horrific conflict.

A number of local history societies, including Rosedale History Society, are staging a Great War exhibition at the NYM Railway station at Pickering for the next week, after which the Rosdale displays will be shown at Rosedale Show on 16 August.

Finally, there is a planned ‘Lights Out’ throughout the nation on Monday night, 4 August, between 10 and 11pm, when all public buildings will turn off all lights except one per building. Private householders are being encouraged to do the same, with perhaps just one candle or similar small light in a window during the dark hour.

The 2014 Walking Festival in Rosedale was blessed with reasonable weather this year so that around 40 hikers took part in the wide variety of walks over Saturday and Sunday 14 to 15 June.

The Updale branch of the Women’s Institute celebrated its 75th anniversary on Monday evening in the Updale Reading Room with a special pie and pea supper.

Sue Proctor, the current Branch President, welcomed the guest of honour, Christine Field, the Chair of the Yorkshire Federation, four past presidents and 15 members to the special celebration of the founding of the Updale branch in March 1939.

The Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded a £3m grant to protect and raise awareness of one of the unique landscapes of the North York Moors National Park.

The main focus of the project will be the importance of the pioneering ironstone and railway heritage of Grosmont and Rosedale which is being eroded by time.

The project – named ‘This Exploited Land, the trailblazing story of ironstone and railways in the North York Moors’ – will also encourage rare wildlife, wild daffodils, ancient woodlands and the special species of the River Esk.

Linda Chambers, a member of the executive group for the ‘This Exploited Land’ project and secretary of the Rosedale History Society, said: “This is wonderful news for all those who live in Rosedale and the Esk Valley, linked as we are by our industrial heritage.  We hope that our communities will continue to support the project over the coming years – this is a great opportunity not only to help maintain our nationally important sites but also to tell our story to the wider world.”

National Park Authority Fundraising Officer Stephen Croft said: “Key parts of this story have never been told before. We want to capture the public imagination with the story of the forgotten communities, the pioneering ironstone exploitation and the early development of railways along the remote valleys of the North York Moors.”

The ironworks at Grosmont retain rare surviving elements of world-leading innovation in blast-furnace technology forged in the region on Teesside. This contributed to innovative bridge design across the world and eventually to the creation of Sydney’s famous Harbour Bridge.

At the height of its production between 1873 and 1914, about 19 per cent of the world’s demand for iron came from the Cleveland Hills and the North York Moors.

The project will reveal the impact the sudden explosion of industrialisation had on the landscape, its national and international significance and conserve, protect and record the fragile remains of this revolutionary age.

Stephen Croft continued: “We want the landscape to become recognised for its economic and technical influence which extended worldwide. This will satisfy a hunger for recognition in local communities and support the tourism economy. Special links will be made with Teesside which itself has suffered industrial decline.”

The story includes the achievements of railway pioneer George Stephenson who designed the Whitby to Pickering Railway in the early 1830s.  Much of it is still being used today by the North York Moors Railway Trust.

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) announced grants totalling £21m to conserve nine distinctive landscapes in the UK. The investment will ensure a boost for rural areas and provide long-term social, economic and environmental benefits.

HLF’s Landscape Partnership (LP) programme – which has now been running for a decade – is the most significant grant scheme available for landscape-scale projects.  To date, over £160m has been invested in 91 different areas across the UK helping forge new partnerships between public and community bodies and ensuring people are better equipped to understand and tackle the needs of their local landscapes.

The Authority and its community partners were one of three successful Yorkshire bids for funding. The HLF also awarded grants to the rare, internationally-important wetland at Humberhead Levels in North Lincolnshire and East and South Yorkshire (£1.9m), and to the Ingleborough Dales (£2.1m) for a limestone landscape in the Craven district of the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Professor Sir John Lawton CBE FRS, eminent British ecologist and author of Making Space for Nature: A Review of England’s Wildlife Sites and Ecological Network, added:

“As a passionate advocate of landscape-scale conservation through habitat recreation and restoration, I am delighted to see HLF’s continuing, visionary support for nine more Landscape Partnerships throughout the UK, for the benefits of people, landscapes and wildlife.  And as an adopted Yorkshireman, I cannot help noticing, with considerable pride, that three of them are in the iconic landscapes of God’s own county!”
Fiona Spiers, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund for Yorkshire and the Humber, said:
“This funding has helped forge strong local partnerships which have secured the future of some of our most threatened landscapes. These schemes all demonstrate a need for urgent conservation work to the natural and built heritage as well as reconnecting rural communities to these places.  They are important on many levels, including being an integral part of our health and well-being and a significant contributor to the tourist economy. Yorkshire’s amazing countryside is under ever-increasing pressure and we must act now to make sure it continues to be one of our greatest assets.”

Sadly, Walk 4 had to be cancelled at the last minute, but Walk 3, the History Walk, set off on Sunday afternoon with ten intrepid adventurers defying the weather forecast to walk to Thorgill via the ‘lost houses’ at Ratten Row and then climb up to the mine entrances at Sheriff’s Pit near Medd’s Farm.

There was some heavy rain, but thanks to good planning the group were visiting the old pit pony stables at Medd’s Farm at the time, so were able to take shelter and enjoy a welcome cup of tea kindly provided by Sue Atkinson, while waiting for the showers to pass by.

Thanks also to Paul Grantham, Assistant Ranger at the NYMNP for acting as back marker and to Jay Morrison, our local Ranger for arranging to have heavy bracken and rushes on part of the track up to the mines entrances cut back before the walk.

Entry is free and delicious home made refreshments will be available – and there will be a raffle.

Our Rosedale & Hartoft Treasured Textiles exhibition is now coming together with some wonderful items arriving every day.  If you have anything which you would like to display, either old or new, preferably hand-sewn and with a Rosedale connection, please contact us as soon as possible.
We are also looking for dressmakers’ dummies and freestanding bentwood coat and hatstands to use at the exhibition.  Can anyone help?  If so contact :

Linda Chambers – rosedalehistory@hotmail.co.uk or 01751 417071
or Sue Proctor – rosedalesue@hotmail.co.uk or 01751 417153

If you would like to be on the rota of helpers, please get in touch with Sue.

John Dent, our village caretaker, revealed an unexpected side of his character when he appeared at today’s meeting of the History Society’s tea and chat afternoon dressed as a tart!

In fact, John, a History Society regular, was off to a charity sale of actual tarts at the White Horse Farm Inn in aid of blinded service personnel, a worthy cause and worth the odd ribald remark. Update: the tart auction made £350, an excellent result and thanks again to Christine and Jim at the White Horse.

The next tea and chat meeting of the Rosedale History Society will be on Sunday 4 August at the Updale Reading Room between 2pm and 4pm – all are most welcome. And the tarts will be delicious!

On Monday 11 June, the Rosedale Art Group and History Society combined for a private tour of Fairfax House and the exhibition of Views Of York – 1610 to the Present Day and which is on until 31 August. The exhibition celebrates the 800th anniversary of the granting of York’s first charter by King John.

The tour of the fascinating Georgian town house, described as the finest of its type in England, was conducted by the Director of the York Civic Trust, Peter Brown, who wove an informative and amusing tale of the history for the building, concluding with the exhibition of pictures of York on loan from the British Museum, British Library, the York Art Gallery and from private individuals.

Anyone interested in the the history and development of the county’s ‘capital city’ should visit Fairfax House which is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm and 12.30 to 4 pm on Sundays throughout the summer. There are guided tours at 11 am and 2pm, with no booking required. For more details go to www.fairfaxhouse.co.uk