No. 16 Carol Singers by Trewhitts’ Farm and Upcoming Community Events!

Carol singers: In the village street beside Trewhitts’ farm 22-12-10

Coming up …

More details in church gazette and separate wel-e-bulletins

Tue 18 Jan pilates classes start 8-9 pm Appleton Wiske VH

Wed 19 Jan Northallerton Forum 7 pm Civic Centre Stonecross

Thu 20 Jan WI 7.30 at Village Hall

Sat 22 Jan wine tasting evening 7.30 at Village Hall (£7 on the night)

Tue 8 Feb Northallerton & D Local History talk 7.30 Sacred Heart hall

Thu 17 Feb WI 7.30 Village Hall

Sat 19 Feb parish church event in Northallerton

Wed 9 Mar Parish Council 8 pm Village Hall (provisional)

Fri 18 Mar WI 7.30 Village Hall

Sat 26 Mar Irish night Village Hall (tickets)

Sun 27 Mar Census 2011

Terry Meynell

Terry Meynell of The Bungalow died peacefully in hospital on 21 December after a long illness. He was aged 74 years. St Leonard’s Church, Welbury, was packed for the funeral service on 10 January following private cremation.
Terry was a great Welbury citizen, living here practically all his life though he was born in nearby Deighton. A leading local businessman for the last half century with the family delicatessen in Stockton, he was well known and well liked far and wide. As a neighbour he has always been big hearted, calm and generous and very easy to get on with. He would be a real asset to any village community. The world could do with more like him.

Quiz of the month …

Bridled joy
How many official public bridleways are there in Welbury parish, where are they and what are they?

No, you can’t count the
church path, even if it is a
bridal way!

Answers from last month
(as far as we know; tell us if you know better).

How many consonants appear in the longest continuous string in any Welbury resident’s name?

Quite a few residents have a 4-consonant string. Have fun working out where these come from: GHTF, RKWR, NGST and CKTH.

There is one overall winner, with TCHCR, a string of 5. That is in the name of our new residents at Rosedean next to the pub, Barry and Norma Hutchcraft. Welcome to Welbury!

Snippets …

See bulletins and church gazette for more details

Christmas Lecture Jacquin Brown 27-12-10

Questions with Martin Brown on “Light and Colour”

Snow: snow lay from first fall 25 Nov
through to first partial thaw mid Dec, then more snow with a White Christmas until second thaw started 28 Dec. Very few remnants of piled snow still remain mid Jan despite the odd dusting and freezing.

Ice: exceptional thick ice morning 9 Jan after light snow overnight, driveways like a sloping skating rink

Grit bins: the Parish Council will be
consulting residents about installing grit bins in Shire Garth and Spring Hill, for use on public roads and footpaths only.

Litter: the Parish Council hopes to
arrange a community litter pick before the verges become overgrown.

Parish Council elections will be 5 May along with District Council elections.

Hottest and coldest days of 2010 were +28 on 22/23 May and -11 on 8th and 21st Dec from Barry Gaines and Rod Bennington’s readings above ground, but below -15 from car readings. Wettest was 20 July with about 3 inches.

Poachers: 3 suspected poachers with 6 lurchers were arrested last weekend after their Mitsubishi got stuck in fields between Appleton Wiske and Deighton and they sought help from a household. Police are concerned about rural crime and ask the public to report suspicious activity and vehicle numbers.

People … Reg Bentham

Reg Bentham has worked around the world and retired to Spring Hill in 1990 with his wife Julie. He was born in Edge Hill, Liverpool, in 1930, in modest family circumstances in hard times. While evacuated to Rhosllanerchrugog in North Wales during the war, he got homesick and returned to Liverpool, only to the Blitz when they “got bombed to hell”. He wasn’t always so unlucky and remains, as we know him, chucklingly cheerful after many adventures.

Sporting life for Reg was “a game of two halves”: football in his youth and shooting in retirement. In his youth there was a strict divide between amateur and professional sport. He had won a scholarship to Liverpool Collegiate School which anchored him in the amateurs. There was no incentive to cross over to the professionals, with no way back and such little pay.

Reg played for Everton B team (the amateurs), winning many trophies including the 1947-48 Liverpool County Football Combination and in 1950-51, with the Collegiate Old Boys, winning all fou main trophies, a feat never equalled before or since. He played with old school pal Leonard Rossitter (the actor) in winning the Lancashire Amateur Cup Final at Manchester City’s Maine Road that year. Reg has lost count of the times he has played at Goodison Park and Anfield.

Younger brother Alan Bentham was even more outstanding, captaining Liverpool, Lancashire and England Schoolboys. Reg sat just behind commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme when Alan captained England Schoolboys at Wembley in 1956. Of course, Reg taught Alan all he knew!

Football wasn’t wasted on Reg. The travel bug sent him to Canada after he passed the civil service exams in 1953. On arrival in Vancouver, after two weeks’ hard travel and sickness, he was offered a game with New Westminster Royals, against the inmates at the State Penitentiary (on the inside). He scored with a header and was offered a job in a plywood factory by the match sponsor. So he got a job within 24 hours of arriving, unheard of in those days.

While in Vancouver and short of money, Reg got a free view of the Commonwealth Games by climbing the camera scaffold. “He was there” to see the classic Jim Peters marathon finish. The Canadian
adventure lasted about 18 months, after which he returned to Liverpool to get a proper job with Phoenix Insurance. Promotion followed promotion, moving him around until his final ten years in Brussels as Managing Director of Phoenix
Continental.

Reg at Rufforth (near York) Samantha Nixon 2010

After retirement the Bentham bug stirred his restlessness again as he looked for a sport that was “not too physical”. He had heard a “pop, pop, pop” noise every Sunday and knew Verity next door was a buttoner at Welbury Grange Gun Club so he went to see Mick Barker to find out what it was all about.

Self-taught, with no proper lessons and without getting a gun “fitted”, Reg had his own style of lining up the moving target in his sights, instead of the orthodox way of looking over the sights at the target. No hope, then? Well, in three years he made the England (veterans) squad and won the English and British Open veterans Handicap-By-Distance trophies in 1995.

Where are they now … Ernie Wade

Ernie Wade is a true native of Welbury, actually being born here (at Garden House in 1933), as are his three sisters Rita, Irene and Barbara. Rita (Metcalf) died in 2002, Irene (Tyler), now 80, lives in Northallerton and Barbara (Grainge), now 74, in Eaglescliffe. Ernie left Welbury half a century ago but retains vivid and detailed memories of his childhood years here, many
of them recorded in the Welbury book.

Gillian and Ernie at Garden House 12-1-11

Ernie left Welbury in 1959 to join Durham County Fire Brigade at Stockton, having some previous training from five years as a regular in the RAF. This led to a lifetime career with many promotions in the Fire Service, ending up as Divisional Officer based in Durham and responsible for half the county.

Ernie’s career development included
numerous training courses and
qualifications, as trainee and as instructor, often for weeks at a time at the world renowned Fire Service College at Moreton in the Marsh. Kenneth Horne was wartime CO at the RAF base there, from which
came the “Much Binding in the Marsh” theme tune! The College in its modern form was opened by the Queen on 17 May 1974, when Ernie met and dined with her.

The fire service is so much more than
putting out fires. Ernie experienced many crises and dangerous situations, dealing with road accidents, collapsing buildings
and dead bodies. More happily it brought Ernie and Gillian together. She came from Coxhoe and served in the Control Room at Durham headquarters. They met at a
Brigade Ball in Hartlepool in 1960 and
married in 1963. After several early moves in County Durham with the job, they are settled in Durham City.

Gillian was on board with Ernie at one
memorable incident with a damaged
turntable ladder. As they pulled up at the New Inn traffic lights in Durham, the 5- stage ladder shot forward like a 70-foot unicorn horn.

Ernie and Gillian have two sons, born in County Durham. Paul is a health and safety consultant, while David is a rocket scientist turned satellite insurance expert, visiting space centres around the world. Ernie is Ron Wade’s cousin. Ron’s dad Jack and Ernie’s dad Reg were brothers
who came to Welbury from Leeming.

When he left school in the 1940s, Ernie worked for six months at Applegarth Manor, where among other things he built the farm road round past the Manor. It was a delight to see Ernie and Gillian on 12th Jan this year at Garden House, his birth
place, and a treat to re-visit Applegarth Manor (Hill House), for which we are especially grateful to Ron and Elaine as they were busy dealing with their winter leaks. Ernie has lots more to tell us yet about his Welbury days.

Nostalgia at the Manor 12-1-11

Welbury Walks No. 6 …

The other Green Lane

One of Welbury’s public bridleways takes off from “Snowman Corner” on the Harlsey road and runs east along Willey’s farm lane. This is officially Green Lane as distinct from Mankin Lane at the other end of the village. The bridleway comes out at the junction of roads to East and West Rounton and offers a straight walk to the fishing pond on the East Rounton lane. There is a little used designated public footpath from the Village Hall through Glebe Farm to a point 200 metres along the Green Lane bridleway, but this is not recommended as it can be intrusive and crosses the railway without a safe crossing. It’s easier round the road.

Start & finish: at level crossing
Distance (to pond & back): 3.6 km (2.2 miles)
Time: 45 mins
Stiles: 0; Gates: 5
Wheelchair access: no

Wellies advised if wet
Sketch map not exact
More photos in Gallery from the walk on Sunday 9 Jan

Directions:
From level crossing, take road E and fork L through open Gate1 along Green Lane. Pass steel-fenced TPEP pipeline compound on your R, going through open Gate2 and keeping hedge on your L until chicane to R through Gate3. Keep going E now with hedge on your R to closed Gate4. Chicane to L crossing parish boundary into West Rounton parish and continue E now with hedge on your L again until Gate5 opens to road. Cross road and another parish boundary into East Harlsey parish. Carry on E down lane towards E Rounton to find fishing pond in field on R accessed by gates. Return same route.

Snowman corner E along Willeys’ drive 9-1-11

Gate 3 chicane R keep tree on your R 9-1-11

Gallery 1 … from Walk 6 on 9-1-11

Icy Green Lane past the Trans Pennine Ethylene Pipeline (TPEP) valve compound VR3 – wellies advised if wet

The 220km former ICI pipeline was commissioned in 1967. This compound in Welbury parish contains the third valve along the pipeline from Wilton in Teesside. Valves are used to isolate and empty sections of the pipeline when necessary for work such as last year’s diversion by the A1 extension.

There’s a great hissing and gushing as the high pressure is released. The pipeline is now owned and maintained by Saudi company SABIC who helpfully provided technical information to wel-e-news. They always stress the importance of controlling work within 50 metres of the pipeline and provide a free service via 0800 318105.