Barwick-in-Elmet Historical Society

Today's News (Tomorrow's History)

Part 5. 2008 onwards

This information is provided by the Barwick in Elmet Historical Society.

May 2008

The society's regular meeting place, John Rylie House, has been found to be structurally unsafe during the course of current building alterations. As a result the Society's winter meetings may have to be relocated - possibly to Scholes. One immediate effect of the problem has been that we cannot use our resource centre which is part of the JR House. We have "rescued" all our documents and they are dispersed among society members for the time being.

Arrangements are well in hand for the maypole raising at the end of May. The successful organisation of the day devised for the last raising day has been retained for this year. The garlands have been made and are to be taken around the neighbourhood from 12th May.

We have become aware of a publication which will interest people who are interested in Anglo-Saxon and Viking history. It is "Yorkshire - a gazetteer of Anglo-Saxon and Viking Sites by Guy Points. (ISBN 978-0-9557679-0-6 pub. Rihtspell Publishing) The gazetteer includes The Parish Church in Barwick-in-Elmet. More information

April 2008

Global warning is beginning to be widely accepted and the British obsession with the weather is even more of a topic. There is however little evidence of any drastic change in our weather. Last month we had our fair share of march winds and, now, by mid-April we are receiving our traditional share of showers. Hopefully this will bring forth May flowers.

This month we have experienced a number of delays on the roads from the parish. A gas pipeline is in the course of being laid from Aberford to Pannal as part of the national gas grid. A base has been established for the project in a field to the north of the A64 near Potterton to which enormous steel pipes are being delivered. The pipe line has crossed under the A64 requiring temporary traffic lights to be erected on the busy road. At the same time, the road to Garforth has been completely closed for two weeks to allow the bridge over the Cock Beck to be repaired. There is a need to plan journies, much to the frustration of those who have recently become dependent upon satellite navigation.

The May Queen for this year's maypole ceremonies has been elected. She is India Wilson. India has lived in Barwick all her life and attends Boston Spa School.

News has broken that the Rector, Rev. Brunel James, is to leave the parish in May to take up the post of Chaplain to the Archbishop of York.

March 2008

The first week in March has brought high winds which have blown down yet one more tree from the banking at the Wendel Hill ditch, damaging more of the earthworks and falling into neighbouring property. Today (9th) the owner of the ditch is in the process of having two more trees (which are in a dangerous condition) thinned at the top before arrival of the strong winds forecast for tomorrow. This week has also seen the return of eight sheep (with lambs) to Hall Tower Field to keep up their good work. One of the shops on Main Street Barwick, formerly Wildblood's butcher's shop and latterly Twigs, has been taken on by a contract caterer. Twigs now occupies Tillotson's TV shop. Thus while direct retail sales serving just the village are being replaced by shops which serve a larger locality with flowers, bikes and contract catering.

Easter has been exceptionally early this year. On Easter Saturday (22nd)we awoke to a snow covered world. By 11 a.m. it had melted. On Easter Sunday, we woke up to a heavy snowfall. It was several inches deep. Local resident,Chris Ashe, was up early and took this photograph of the maypole the day before it is due to be taken down.

Photo: Chris Ashe

On Bank Holiday Monday, 24th, the day the pole came down. By 10.a.m. it was taken down by a crane attended by a group of men in reflective jackets and hard hats. The longest part of the task - unsplicing the pole ready for conveyance by tractor to a place of safety - followed.

The pole coming down 27 hours later.

The villages have a new bus service which began on the week beginning 17th march. The service, run by Geldard's, consists of two buses running in opposite directions between Aberford, Barwick, Scholes, Seacroft, Crossgates, Colton and Garforth ending up in Aberford. As the buses are used to operate school runs, the service will not operate at those times.

February 2008

13th Feb. The month has been uneventful so far. It is dries and at present we have heavy frosts and fog in the mornings. Today yours truly has seen his first daffodil in the garden. Spring is almost here. In the background in the village people are working (sewing rosettes for the maypole garlands) and planning for this year's maypole festivities.

On Saturday 16th, there was the second Coffee Morning and Table Top Sale held in the village hall in Barwick to raise funds for the maintenance and refurbishment of the village hall. The event was very well attended to the point where there was a crush at some of the stalls. One stall was occupied by the owner of The Boyle's newly opened cycle shop getting to know the local inhabitants. The shop is now fully opened.

On 19th/20th the area was affected by low temperatures and initially some fog. It resulted in a spectacular rime frost. When the fog lifted, one of the society's members, Peter Styles, was out in Barwick with his camera and recorded the event.

Jack Heap's Field

Main Street facing north

The Methodist Church

24th Feb. The curlews are back in the fields to the north of the Garforth Golf Club. This along with the blooming of the daffodils makes it feel that spring is just around the corner.

27th Feb. At just before 0100 GMT. those inhabitants of the parish who sleep lightly were awakened by an earthquake of 5.2 magnitude. Although the epicentre was at Market Rasen in Lincolnshire, the light sleepers among us reported that it was quite a noticeable quake. The rest of us slept on blissful ignorance.

January 2008

Last month saw the launch of a parish web site - http://barwickandscholes.com/ - which to some extent lifts some of the need for this web page, which has brought an eclectic mixture of news from the parish. The parish web site, launched by a church initiative and with support from the parish Council, has a news section which includes the council minutes. We will continue with our own mix of news.

Another mild winter (so far) seems to re-confirm global warming. We had a very slight fall of snow on the 3rd January. It didn't last the day. There has been frost on some nights and temperatures in the range 1-8°C. On some days there have been heavy falls of rain although there has been no local flooding.

It is now some seven years since the red kite was re-introduced into this area. It is now not unusual to see the bird in the countryside around the parish - a sure sign that the bird is breeding and well settled in the area.

It is now two months since sheep were introduced to Hall Tower Field to control the growth of the grass and unwanted shrubbery and trees. Their presence has transformed the field and the land looks better for it. The public appear to have treated the filed with more respect since their introduction.

The information boards which were installed several months ago are able to impart quite a lot of information about the earthworks. In particular the illustrations can help to show what the site must have looked like at the time the site was developed. However, there are gaps which the boards cannot fill. In order to expand the information about the earthworks we have developed an audio tour of the site. This month has seen the introduction of this recorded tour which you can download from this site . Load it into your mp3 player, print off the accompanying map and you can tour the earthworks yourself. The route of the audio tour starts at the maypole and covers Hall Tower Field and most of the perimeter of the site using public roads and footpaths.

Today January 2001 to December 2002
Today January 2003 to December 2004
Today January 2005 to December 2005
Today January 2006 to December 2007
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