Unusual snow a sort of snow-hail fell with last night’s storm 14-01-2015
It was only a light dusting, but strangely gritty so footsteps and traffic make little impression
Coming up …
More details in church gazette and separate wel-e-bulletins
Wed 14 Jan Parish Council 8 pm Village Hall
Thu 15 Jan WI annual dinner, 7 for 7.30 pm Duke of Wellington
Sun 18 Jan 8th Annual Christmas Lecture, 4-5 pm Village Hall
Sat 24 Jan Family Ceilidh and Burns Supper, from 6.30 pm East Harlsey Village Hall
Congratulations …
Mike & Becky Waddle at Welbury House announce “Our bouncing baby boy was born on the 8th of January 2015 at a weight of 8lbs 8oz. We are still finding a fitting name for him but we’ll keep you posted.” Baby Waddle takes over the proud title of the youngest Welburian. Mike & Becky say they are “incredibly happy parents”.
Welbury Good Neighbour Network
Unexpectedly in need of assistance?
Information redacted for website publication, please contact us if you require further information.
Welbury Parish Council and WI have discussed on several occasions how a villager in need of a little help would know who to contact if their usual point of contact/help isn’t available. Dave, Paul & Rob have all kindly offered to be the first point of contact. They will either provide the help themselves or put the villager in touch with someone who is available to help.
Quiz of the month …
Welbury waterways?
How many named watercourses are there in Welbury parish? What are their names and which is the longest?
Answers from last month (as far as we know; tell us if you know better).
Tallest building? There really aren’t any tall buildings in Welbury. Even farm silos have gone. Applegarth Manor is the tallest house, just over 14 metres to the chimney tops. Next is Welbury House, about 12 m, similar to the new grain drier at Ingram Grange. The tallest structures are the pylons, around 45 m.
Snippets
See bulletins and church gazette for more
Tallest house Applegarth Manor 03-01-2015
Power outage: Electricity was off for about an hour yesterday evening. Northern Powergrid say it was a suspected lightning strike on switch gear. There was a loud thunderclap and some strange snow-hail.
Weather from Rod:
After two very wet months in October and November, December was much drier with just 18 mm of rain all month – the second driest month of the year after September. December began with a cold spell, 5 nights below zero in the first fortnight and the coldest night of the winter (-3.3 °C) on the 12/13th. It then warmed up considerably, with the 18th being the mildest December day we’ve had in the last 4 years (max. 14 °C). The month ended with another cold spell of 3 frosty nights after Boxing Day.
The average monthly temperature of 4.5 °C was much lower than the exceptionally mild December in 2013 (5.9 °C). Up until the 9th, January has been warm, with just 2 frosty nights, quite dry, but very windy.
WI Monthly Report (December)
From Dervor Hanson Julie gave a very warm welcome to all of the members who gathered at her house for a social evening of mince pies and carol singing. There will be no formal meeting in January as we meet at the Duke of Wellington for our Annual Dinner.
Mend of the month …
James Robson writes: This was a replacement rivet used for the ballcock float mechanism on our bathroom toilet cistern. The plastic one had snapped off. The thin end of the rivet can be seen at the centre of this picture (right) just poking out of the black cap. The rivet links the ballcock arm to the rubber valve (inside the green section) to shut off the water flow. It is just pushed through the black piece from the other side, so that the large flat head lies against the rubber of the washer to shut off the water when the cistern is full. All I did was hacksaw a piece off the rivet as it was too long. Working perfectly since just before New Year.
Book of the month …
Some Day I’ll Find You
by
Richard Madeley
I must admit to being a little dubious about embarking upon this novel – just because Richard Madeley reviews fiction, does this mean he is a competent writer of it? Well, actually, it does! This book is a well-written story which progresses at a satisfyingly fast pace, leaving the reader wanting constantly to learn more.
The story concerns James Blackwell, a fighter pilot during World War II.
This man is every girl’s dream – he is charming, handsome and has a slight air of mystery about him. He marries in haste in 1940 and is immediately summoned back to base to prepare for a dangerous mission.
That very day he is shot down over Northern France, leaving behind Diana, his pregnant widow.
Diana subsequently marries and lives in the South of France with her new husband and the daughter who has never known her real father. One morning Diana has a strange encounter in the town square as she hears a voice which makes her blood run cold…….
Richard Madeley has written a captivating novel with many well-drawn characters. He has the ability to engage and retain the readers’ attention throughout.
Sarah Hoiles
Welbury in the Wars
Stories of those serving in World War 2 … Part 4
Previous articles in this series have mentioned most of the Welbury people who served in WW2. It is pleasing that meanwhile we have found Henry Sedman’s daughter Margaret, now Mrs Margaret Steer, living near Salisbury, Wiltshire. Margaret confirms the story of her dad dying in 1947 about the time she was born. Apparently it was TB and not a war injury as such, so this reinforces the view that Henry was not a war casualty and that Welbury is a “doubly thankful” village. Henry was a cousin of Frank Boyes, both having the Sedmans of Lockton Cottage as their grandparents. Margaret has two sons and two grandsons.
One of the best-known names of Welbury’s WW2 veterans is Harry Meynell, renowned as a sportsman and businessman. Harry was the first player in the North Yorks and South Durham League to take 100 wickets in a season. His delicatessen business Harry Meynell Ltd still trades at Stockton’s Castlegate shopping centre, now run by his grandson Les. Harry died suddenly in hospital in his forties, in the 1950s. During the war Harry was a pilot in the RAF. As a small boy his son Terry remembered not knowing who it was as his Dad came home off the bus in uniform, returning after a time away. Harry is the only one of our WW1 or WW2 veterans with a gravestone at St Leonard’s in Welbury.
Harry and friend when they won their “wings” in the 1940s
Photo: from Emily Simpson (Harry’s sister) Jennifer Curzon, Harry’s niece, has a similar photo
Not much is known about the war service of Margaret Thelma Gaines (nee Fenwick) although she was well known in the village for decades afterwards. Her letters to the Entertainments Committee after the three Christmases 1942-44 show that she served in the ATS in England. She lived on in Welbury with husband George Gaines for many years, until they both died in a tragic road accident in 1992. Her son Barry still lives in the village.
(L to R) Alf Pratt, Wilf Catterick, Harry Meynell, Arnold Pratt
From the 1919/20 school photo in the Welbury book
Finally, Arnold Pratt served in the RAF in R&R units, according to his letters. Arnold was known to a few still living, but his brother Alf, who worked on the railway, was better known since he remained in the village until his death in the 1970s. In their childhood the brothers lived in Wiske Cottage, between Applegarth Manor and the River Wiske, long since demolished. We do not know where or when Arnold died, but there is no record of his having died in service and the CWGC does not have a record against his service number.
Tall-ish buildings (for Welbury)
L: Welbury House from Shire Garth 05-01-2015
R: Grain drier at Ingram Grange 02-01-2015
Welbury Weather for 2014
Rod Bennington started keeping weather records in Welbury from late 2010, with minor interruptions. He sends us this summary of the best and worst of 2013 weather:
- 587 mm of rain, very similar to the 550 mm in 2013
- hottest month was July with average temperature 17.7 °C (cp. 18.9 °C in July 2013)
- hottest day reached 31.8 °C on 26th July (cp. 33 °C on 12th July 2013)
- coldest month was December (average temperature 4.5 °C)
- coldest night was –3.6 °C on 24th March (cp. –8.6 °C on 16th January 2013)
- driest month was September with 15 mm of rain
- wettest month was January with 94 mm of rain
- wettest day was 5th July with 17 mm of rain
A couple of graphs below depict average monthly temperatures & rainfall for 2011 to 2014. The missing point on the rainfall graph (Feb 2011) is where data were lost.
Roger Bennett had 20 solar panels installed on his south facing roof in late 2011 and sends us a set of monthly (gross) generation data for 2014 to compare year on year. December was comparatively bright, but November comparatively dull. Although the monthly distribution varies, the annual totals are remarkably consistent.
Roger’s array rating is 3.8 kW, representing a peak potential momentary output. The panels are tilted at 35 degrees which collects a good spread of insolation over the year. The average generation over the 4376 daylight hours (dull and bright, winter and summer) for the year was about 800 Watts, some 21 % of the rating.
Welbury sporting heroes 2014
Last year’s Sports Person Dave Willey had another great year, captaining the Harlsey team to second in the league and again winning Player of the Year. He topped the league batting averages with 67.29 and 2nd in bowling with 35 wickets at 8.8 runs per wicket. Dave also bagged more Munros in the sensational Torridon area. After her top performances in the last couple of years, Lou Lightfoot had more dancing successes despite work pressures, holding on to her Tyne Tees regional ballroom title for the 3rd year in a row, and medalling in the Nationwide Blackpool finals in October (3rd in classical and 3rd in modern sequence).
2014 was a great year for darts at the Duke of Wellington, with two teams in the Cup Final. The winners were the B team who came here when the Haynes Arms stopped hosting them. As they are not Welbury residents, we can’t include them in the vote for Sports Person, but most of the A team are Welburians, led by captain Andrew Ferriman. Duke of Wellington Gun Club came 6th in its first season in the Cleveland & North Yorks Sporting League 2014. Welbury members include Colin Barker, Les Meynell (Vice Chairman) and Laura Meynell (Secretary).
DoW darts A and B teams on cup final night. Photo Richard Pearson 22-04-2014
In the welly-wanging annual match with Wellington in Somerset, Tracey Taylor did us proud with a throw of 18 metres, beating Kirsty Topping from Wellington, after running the local welly contest at the Duke of Wellington. In the summer Alan Brooks completed the 60-mile Great Glen Challenge by canoe in Scotland. At 16 Alan is a BCU coach level 1 and coaches at Hambleton Paddlers. John Hepworth did the Cleveland standard distance triathlon in May and got a personal best in ‘A Day in the Lakes’ triathlon in June.
What a sporting year it’s been in the Marshall family! Summer Marshall played right back for Thirsk Under-14s representing England in a Hockey World Cup Youth Tournament in Holland.
Yasmin ‘flying in Sheffield photo Louise Marshall 21-09-2014
Younger sister Yasmin Marshall also did well at hockey for Thirsk Under 10s, winning the North Yorkshire Cup and heading the league. Even topping that, Yasmin had an outstanding year for Northallerton Swimming Club, winning Junior Swimmer of the Year, coming 1st in butterfly, 1st in front crawl and 1st in backstroke, breaking numerous club records and competing in many galas around the region. Here she is (left)
Ted Adamski started the year climbing the highest mountain outside the Himalayas (right). Later, despite ailing knees, he completed his 37th Fellsman, the gruelling 60 mile race in the Dales as well as the 270-mile Colorado Trail, climbing over 14,000 feet with a heavy back pack, and the Original Mountain Marathon (the notorious OMM) in October in the Cheviots. Right: Ted above 21,000 feet on Aconcagua
Photo Ted Adamski January 2014
Ted above 21,000ft on Aconcagua
Photo Ted Adamski January 2014