As notified, Gill Lane is due to be closed from from Wednesday 7 May for two days for top dressing work from the Low Bridge junction by the caravan park up to the White Horse junction – weather permitting, it says!

The mobile library service due to vidit Rosedale Abbey today, 19 Match, has been cancelled because of mechanical problems. The next visit will be on Wednesday 2 April from 1.00 to 3.00pm.

The dates and sponsors for the charity coffee mornings held in the Coach House Inn on the first Saturday of each month for the remainder of 2025 are:

1 March – Rosedale Community School

5 April – Moors Bus

3 May – Ryedale Mountain Rescue

7 June – Reading Room/Village Hall

5 July – Yorkshire Cancer Research

2 August – Ryedale Special Families

6 September – Rosedale Church

4 October – Rosedale Community Fund

1 November – Rosedale WI and Craft Fair

6 December – Rosedale History Archive

The events start at 10.00am and end with the ever popular raffle at around 12.00am. Entry is free but donations of items for the raffle and for the coffee and biscuits provided are welcomed – see you all in ’25!

Dear friends,

Tomorrow we celebrate Candlemas – the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, at

9.15 am Hutton (Revd Christine)

9.15 am Rosedale (me)

10.45 am Lastingham (me).

In addition we will be remembering that this is Holocaust Memorial Week, so we will be having a quiet space towards the end of the service at Lastingham so that we can light candles while Maddy plays quiet music.

Please feel welcome to attend any service.

The Festival of Candlemas has a very ancient tradition. Look, for instance, at Candlemas on Wikipedia.

We celebrate the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, while his mother Mary offers a purification offering. The later service of Churching of Women still in the Prayer Book relates to this, but is very little practised today, at least in Britain. Revd Christine has only once been involved in such a service, and I, never.

Also, people in Anglican tradition would bring candles to church on this day to be blessed, and in the Middle Ages made offerings  of candles to the church for its use throughout the year.

Finally – although there is lots more about Candlemas on the web – while some people take down Christmas decorations on Twelfth Night, they are often left up until Candlemas. Since the Wise Men only arrive in our cribs and Nativity sets (strictly) at Epiphany, taking them away six days later hardly gives us a chance to enjoy them, so that’s another reason to leave decorations in place until February 2^nd1

With prayers and blessings,

Revd David

The coffee morning in aid of the Rosedale Football Club held at the Coach House Inn this morning raised the excellent sum of £399 – well done to all who contributed, to those who donated raffle prizes and to the Coach House team for hosting.

Around 45 stalwart locals and visitors gathered on the village green on a cold, drizzly evening to sing carols and enjoy hot mulled cider and mince pies, all in aid of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. Just over £280 was raised for this very important charity (afternote: the amount now stands at £311.40), a sum which exceeds last year’s donations so well done to all.

As ever, heartfelt thanks to all who so generously contributed to the charity, also to Craig and Nicola from Abbey Stores who helped set up the location and to James from Graze on The Green for his outstanding mince pies. We hope the weather next year will be better and with it an even higher donation to the Air Ambulance, a vital emergency service for a remote rural community like Rosedale.

In the meantime a very Happy Christmas and, God willing, a Peaceful New Year to all our viewers, regular and occasional, on this site.

The annual wool gather took place on Thursday morning with farmers from around Rosedale and Hartoft bringing in their wool sacks for collection by British Wool.

Northern Power Grid have provided cold weather care kits comprising hot water bottles, blankets, torches and spare batteries, which are currently available in Rosedale Church. If you know of anyone in Rosedale and Hartoft in need of help in keeping warm please take one.