The coffee morning in aid of the Women’s Institute held at the Coach house Inn on Saturday 4 November raise just short of £330 and the Church Appeal stall in the craft fair raised £200 – excellent results and a tribute to the generosity of those who attended.

As always, many thanks to all who contributed their time to organising the two events, to all who contributed prizes for the raffle, to those who also gave donations to the WI and the ‘Save Rosedale Abbey Church’ appeal and to Dave Oakey and the team at the Coach House for the excellent coffee and biscuits.

A group of local volunteers, armed with buckets and spades on Saturday 28 October, dug down through the mud and discovered the original upstream entrance to the Reeking Gill culvert, with Shaun Doughty having used a digger to clear the site (see previous update on 4 October). Work will now continue to shift the rest of the debris from the entrance and expose more of the large stone archway. Muscle power and determination won the day and well done to all.

Work has also been done to clear some of the smaller culverts along the old railway line so that water no longer builds up and threatens the integrity of the track bed.

A fuller progress report will be given around the New Year, so that all can see how this marvellous project is progressing. Meanwhile please look at the NYMNPA call for volunteers poster and join in.

A craft fair and the Women’s Institute Coffee Morning will be held at the Coach House Inn, Rosedale Abbey, on Saturday 4 November starting at 10.00am. On display and for sale will be hand-made, high quality local crafts including jewellery, Christmas cards, calendars, gifts and decorations, cushions, turned wood and much more.

So come along, enjoy a cup of coffee, the raffle and cake sale and support our local WI, then browse at the craft fair for those special Christmas gifts.

We wish a warm Rosedale welcome to Helen and Graig, the new proprietors of Abbey Stores. Currently they are busy re-stocking the shop but are open for business apart from the tea room which they hope to have up and running by Monday 23 October.

Call in any time to say hello and watch this space for further details of opening times and the like once they have settled in.

Update: from 23 October, Abbey Stores will be open from 08.30 to 5.00pm every day of the week for breakfast, light lunches and teas.

Work on the Land Of Iron project continues apace in Rosedale. The repair done to the track at Stone Kilns is greening up nicely and will be barely visible from a distance by this time next year:

New, bigger interpretation boards have been placed at the three kiln sites:

Work is currently ongoing to clear the upsteam entrance to the major culvert under Reeking Gill to prevent the dangerous build up of water behind the embankment:

Sunshine, showers and a blustery wind typified show day at Rosedale on Saturday 19 August, but as usual the crowds of locals and visitors came out and enjoyed the varied displays of horses and other livestock, exhibitions, trade stands and live music throughout the day.

Much thanks to all on the Show Committee and to the volunteers who manned the gates and controlled the traffic to make the day such a success.

Thanks must also go to all those who donated to the Rosedale Abbey church repair appeal by buying the excellent calendars on offer or by giving directly or both. The grand sum of  £546.30 was raised for this vital cause.

The remaining calendars will be on sale shortly in the village between now and the church appeal sponsored coffee morning in the Coach House Inn on Saturday 2 September from 10.00 to 12.00 am – in the meantime, if you have any queries, please call 01751 417071 and leave a message.

Thanks again to all who helped make this Saturday such a special day for Rosedale.

As part of the appeal to raise funds to save St Mary and St Lawrence Church in Rosedale Abbey, a 2018 calendar has been produced which will be on sale at Rosedale Show on 19 August in the Rosedale History Society tent on Row F and also in the Church Tea Tent by the entrance to the main ring, for £10 a copy with envelope.

The calendar is a lovely reminder of Rosedale and will make an ideal Christmas present, so please make an effort to buy at least one to help us raise the funds for the urgent  repairs needed to the church.

The calendar will also be on sale at the church repair appeal coffee morning at the Coach House Inn on Saturday 2 September  between 10.00 and 12.00 am – please make a note of the time and date for your diaries.

Not much progress to report as the recent wet weather has prevented work on the site. Some restoration of the approaches to the kilns area is needed and the immediate area of the workings needs tidying up.

All the main work is now completed and the portakabins and plant have been removed from the area as of today. All that remains is to restore the approaches to the work site by the kilns and top dress the new pathway. The next phase will be to clear the culverts at Reeking Gill to prevent further erosion there.