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The little chap, not much bigger than the tin of tuna he was eating from, had wandered into the garden of Michael and Nicola Ingham.

Nichola, who runs TLC acupuncture, massage and hair and beauty, in Providence Quarter, in Skipton, said she hadn’t seen a hedgehog in the garden for more than seven years.

She had put a tin of tuna out for her hens – which apparently love it – and he came along and helped himself.

“He was not at all nervous about us and just chomped away on the fish.

“Hedgehogs are on the decline around the country so we were especially pleased to see him,” she said.

Hedgehogs are meat eaters and anyone wishing to feed them should put out meaty cat or dog food, or indeed, tuna.

Never give hedgehogs milk because they are intolerant to the lactose and it makes them ill.

This time of year the hoglets are busy foraging for earthworms and other meaty morsels around gardens in order to pile on enough weight so they can safely hibernate through the winter.

ON the subject of hedgehogs, a colleague here in the Craven Herald offices tells me she was on her way to Craven Leisure and had just turned off from Gargrave Road to be confronted by a hedgehog walking up the road towards her. She stopped the car, put on her hazard lights and carefully picked it up and moved it away from danger in the grounds of Craven College, it struggling to negotiate the high kerb. What she had not expected was how sore her hands were for some time afterwards.

THE Royal Armouries in Leeds is promising plenty of family entertainment throughout the young school summer holidays, from an outdoor maze, daily combat demonstrations, exciting performances, and dressing up and craft activities. The museum has an extraordinary collection of objects once belonging to monarchs from around the world, including the arms and armour of King Henry VIII, armours commissioned for courtiers of Queen Elizabeth I, the hunting weapons of the Empress of Russia, and much more.

Throughout the summer visitors can pick up a special royal treasure trail and have fun discovering all sorts of regal connections in the museum’s objects. For younger children, there will also be an area for playing dress up and to have a go at craft activities. Beginning on Saturday, the outside square will be transformed with a royal maze where visitors can get lost in history. Visitors can also enjoy the Armouries newly re-furbished restaurant ‘The Master’s’, serving a selection of snacks, hot drinks and meals with fantastic views onto Leeds Dock. Meanwhile, over the August Bank Holiday, the museum will be welcoming King Charles II, the ‘Merry Monarch’, as part of its ongoing Monarchs season of events. King Charles was known for his love of horse racing and the museum will be entertaining His Majesty in its outdoor arena with a weekend of special horse shows, showcasing the ‘sport of kings’, Spanish dressage and a flamboyant Life Guard drill.

The museum is open from 10 am to 5 pm and the daily summer holiday programme is free to attend. Tickets for the August Bank Holiday horse shows can be purchased through Eventbrite.

THERE have been a lot of improvements completed recently at Aireville Park in Skipton, but 50 years ago, the park was enjoying the opening of its new attraction, the pitch and putt course. In August, 1969, the Craven Herald reported that the nine hole course was officially opened by the chairman of Skipton Urban District Council, John Gunby, and the chairman of Skipton Rural Council, Mr W Stockdale. Mr Gunby was pictured with his chains of office, still with diamonds in place, teeing off. It was quite an occasion, as it also included the then MP, Burnaby Drayson and county councillors. The idea of the pitch and putt had first surfaced in 1965 and had originally meant to be 18 holes. There was at the time a charge of four shillings per game, including a returnable deposit of two shillings.

AT the same time Skipton was celebrating the opening of its new leisure facility, the world was watching the first men to land on the moon. The Herald reported that for years people had laughed about the prospect, but now it was a reality. ‘Fact indeed, had caught up with fantasy’ said the paper, commenting on the remarkable pictures of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. ‘By now, our minds are so conditioned to near miracles of technology, we would not have been much more impressed had the return to the Earth been made via Mars. Now, the inventions of man crowd upon each other so quickly that we are left bemused and bewildered by them. Never before has the human mind had such a battering.”

Everyone would require a spell of re-thinking to adjust to the new conditions and that man had set foot outside his own planet, that the moon was not made of cheese and that it was in fact a ‘cheerless, distinctly inedible terrain of rock and dust’.

MY walking colleague took this picture of caterpillars (above) while out walking recently. She tells me they caught her by surprise, firstly because caterpillars don’t appear as numerous as they once were, and also because there were so many of them, all clustered together on a nettle. It seems they are either to be Red Admiral or Peacock butterflies, unless anyone knows any different.

PEOPLE of all ages are being urged to get on their bikes for a week of cycling fun in Pendle from Saturday August 17 to Sunday August 25.

Pendle Council has teamed up with cycling organisations including Cycle Sport Pendle, Go Velo, Pendle Leisure Trust’s Up and Active Team and Cyclists’ Touring Club for a ‘summer of cycling fun’.

The full week’s programme of 17 events can be downloaded from the website: visitpendle.com/fun

And copies are available from Pendle libraries, and the Pendle Leisure Trust centres in Barnoldswick.

Events include, on Sunday August 18, there’ll be a Cyclists’ Touring Club ride to Cromwell Bridge in the Ribble Valley and an evening ride on Tuesday August20 too, with more details on all their rides and where to meet at: burnleyandpendlectc.co.uk

A HUNDRED years ago, Earby ‘fairly eclipsed itself’ in its second day of peace celebrations, following the signing of the Peace Treaty in Versailles, at the conclusion of the First World War. For the second Saturday running, there was an ‘exceptionally smart muster’ of ex-servicemen, reported the Herald. Around 600 attended, half of who were in uniform, either Khaki or blue. A procession included various Sunday School contingents, gaily decorated wagons, mounted troopers and Morris dancers. Earby Brass Band also took part, scouts and schools. A ‘plain, neat memorial shrine’ was erected in the shape of a ‘stout wooden cross, painted white’ at the junction of Skipton Road and Victoria Road’.

Civic leaders also discussed the best way to remember those who had died in the war. The War Memorial Committee, after considering several alternatives, narrowed it down to two, to present to the ratepayers - ‘slipper and shower baths’, estimated to cost £1,000, and a small park with tennis courts and a bowling green. The committee estimated about one in eight of the population had been in some kind of uniform, and the people owed it to those who had made sacrifice on their behalf to provide a memorial worthy of the town.