The War Memorial in Rosedale Abbey’s churchyard has been cleaned for the first time in decades and work is underway to re-paint the names of all those commemorated on the plinth who died in the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War.

Short biographies of all those who fell in the Great War are on display in the church, especially poignant this year as Remembrance Sunday coincides with the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day. Details of local commemorations will be published shortly.

For your diaries – the coffee morning in the coach House Inn on Saturday 6 October from 10.00am to 12.00am will be in aid of the Rosedale History Society. Please come along and enjoy the company and see the displays, while supporting the work of the RHS which is doing research into local historical projects including the 1918 Armistice, the centenary of which is next month.

Also, a reminder that the the usual RHS Tea and Chat will be on Sunday 7 October from 2.00 to 4.00pm at the Updale Reading Room, where there will again be excellent tea and cakes available as well as an extensive archive of research material of local and family history.

It’s that time again – time to cut and rake the conservation area in the Rosedale Abbey churchyard. A team of volunteers from the National Park will come on Friday 5 October at around 10.00 am to cut and rake the conservation area, but local volunteers, with any strimmers, rakes etc, would be very welcome. As an incentive, refreshments will be provided!

If you can spare an hour or so, please come along on Friday – no need to book! This will be the last time that the NYMNP volunteers will be cutting the conservation area and from 2019 onwards it will be purely a local task.

The Angel on the Celestial Ladder on the side of St Mary and St Lawrence Church has been moved up a notch as a result of the outstanding £5000 raised at the the recent Flower Festival.

The fund raising effort continues as can be seen from the height of the ladder. Cards, notebooks and the Rosedale 2019 Calendar are available from the Abbey Stores, Graze on The Green tearooms, the Coach House Inn, Gillies Jones Glass and the Caravan Club site shop. Also keep a look out on this site and on social media for further news about fundraising events for this vitally important cause.

Some more images from the festival in St Mary and St Lawrence Church, which has now concluded after a very successful ten days, as indicated in the amounts raised below:

So far over £4800 (and rising) has been raised through donations and sales, a tremendous result and a fitting tribute to all the hard work of the volunteers who set up and helped throughout the festival and especially to the astonishing generosity of all who donated money to the Appeal – it is hoped that the Angel can now be raised a few notches up to the £20,000 mark on the Celestial Ladder (see the exterior wall at the east end of the church).

A preview evening was held for the Flower Festival on Friday 14 September 2018 in aid of the Save Rosedale Abbey Church Appeal. Close to a hundred people, visitors and locals, attended and enjoyed a very convivial event and were royally entertained by the Eskuleles ukelele band.

Over £600 pounds was raised from donations and sales of Appeal related merchandise, an excellent effort by all involved. Thanks go to all who helped set up the the displays and who who contributed to the Appeal on the evening.

Please remember the church will be open to view the wonderful displays by local groups from 10.00am to 5.00pm each day through to Sunday 23 September, with the Harvest Service followed by a Bring-and-Share supper on Saturday 22 September starting at 6.00pm. All are very welcome to St Mary and St Lawrence Church.

Those of you passing by the church recently will have seen the ‘Stairway To Heaven’ fixed to the east wall which is intended to chart the upward progress of our Save Rosedale Abbey Church Appeal. As will be seen by the angel, the appeal has already reached the £15,000 mark – onwards and upwards!

A reminder that the Rosedale Flower Festival in aid of the Appeal starts this coming Saturday 15 September from 10.00 am and goes on each day until Sunday 23 September – entrance is free. Also there will be a Harvest Service at 6.00pm on Saturday 22 September followed by a Bring-and-Share supper. Again all are most welcome to come.

As part of the Save Rosedale Abbey Church Appeal, there will be a flower festival held in St Mary and St Lawrence Church from Saturday 15 September to Sunday 23 September. Entry, which is free, will be from 10.00 am to 5pm each day.

There will be a Preview Evening in the church on Friday 14 September from 6.30pm – join us for a glass of wine and a chance to see the church in all its floral splendour.

On Saturday 22 September there will be a Harvest Service at 6.00pm followed by a ‘Bring and Share’ Supper.

All are welcome to these events. Over £90,000 is needed to make our church safe and secure for the future and you can help the appeal by making a donation while enjoying your visit to our beautifully decorated church.

The Rosedale FC team played the Snainton Reserves team in the Beckett league at Rosedale Abbey on Saturday 1 September and won an evenly contested game 3-2 in the dying minutes of full time.

The next home game for out team is against Kirkdale on Saturday 15 September with a kick-off at 2.00pm. Please turn out to support our boys – good home support and our famous sloping pitch will help the team to victory!

A team from the Environment Agency were using electric probes to temporarily stun fish in the River Seven by the High Bridge so they could survey populations in the river. As a result the river appears to be in a healthy state as they found numerous brown troutlings and also lampreys.