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.

The ever popular Christmas Auction in aid of the Reading Room fund was held in a packed out Coach House Inn last Saturday 30 November, with Dave Seller and the team working their way through an amazingly varied selection of lots ranging from an outdoor garden stove, via an electric bicycle to the traditional jars of pickled onions!

The full results of the auction are not yet known but the early count shows that over £3400 was raised, a truly magnificent effort and a great tribute to the generosity of all those who donated so many items for the event, to the auction team who worked through some technical issues to sell off all the lots and to Dave Oakey and his crew in the Coach House for hosting the event. An update will be issued when the final amount is known.

In the meantime, a reminder that Father Christmas and his Ryedale Lions elves will be visiting the village on Wednesday 11 December at around 4pm and Carols on The Green will be held by Abbey Stores on Monday 23 December at 6.30pm.

One of Santa’s elves has whispered in my ear that himself will be visiting Rosedale Abbey on Wednesday 11 December around 4pm if he is not delayed delivering presents elsewhere!

Santa and his team from Ryedale Lions look forward to seeing you all by the school gates in Rosedale Abbey on Wednesday 11 December and in the meantime wishes you all a Happy Christmas and a Peaceful New Year.

And a reminder that Carols on The Green, with delicious mulled scrumpy and mince pies will be on Monday 23 December at 6.30pm by Abbey Stores and will be in aid of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

The coffee morning this Saturday is in support of the Rosedale Community Fund. Since the coffee mornings for the community fund began in 2016 it has over the years supported the following for Rosedale.

• Donation to the air ambulance
• Tubs on the village green and planting
• Village green annual Christmas tree
• Hanging baskets at the school
• Hall hire for First Responders update training
• Children’s Christmas parties and gifts from Santa
• Assisted the make bake and grow
• Decorations and party bags for the Halloween parties
• Donated towards the defib box at the Reading Room and its installation.

Please support the coffee morning. Who knows what will be next in the community.

Also the Domino Drives begin again on the third Thursday of each month for Reading Room funds. First one Thursday 17th October 7.30