SKIPTON'S Greatwood and Horse Close community took part the World's Biggest Coffee Morning for Macmillan. With the help of the pop-up cafe, Scoff, they raised £191. Pictured are Mary Jensen, Sandra Callender, and Scoff chef, Ray Marfell.

MEANWHILE, Greatwood and Horse Close residents have also been encouraged to sign up for a free weight loss and fitness programme.

Members of the 'healthy lifestyles' team from Craven Swimming Pool and Fitness Centre visited the centre to talk to residents about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. Sessions could be run at the centre, in Aireville Park, in the future if there is enough interest from the community. As an introduction, residents were offered the chance to find out their Body Mass Index (BMI) to see if they were eligible for the course, which offers 12 weeks free access to nutritional advice, exercise classes and concessionary use of facilities at the pool and fitness centre. Volunteer, John Manley, who has already signed up said he would like to see classes run at the community centre. “It’s a good idea – there are a lot of people who this would benefit,” he said.

“The first week I found it quite hard work but like with all exercise you start off and it feels hard and then after a while it’s not so bad.

“It’s not just about exercise, it’s about your whole lifestyle, looking at diet and sleep as well.” Pictured are, Carol Manley, Sheena Ford, John Manley, Neil Harrison and Yorkshire Housing’s Karen McIntyre.

Funding for the programme has been provided by North Yorkshire County Council’s Public Health Team to help people to manage their weight to avoid such issues as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and other health conditions. To find out more, contact Craven Swimming Pool and Fitness Centre on 01756 792805 or complete the online application form on the website at cravendc.gov.uk/Healthylifestyles

MIDDLE aged women were the subject of a series looking at 'the seven ages of woman' in the Craven Herald of 1916. Writer 'Madge' Humphrey disputed the saying that 'women are not worth looking at after 40 years old' and rather that middle aged women were in fact 'one of the assets of the nation'. Between the ages of 40 and 60, she said, women had all their energies in full force and were capable of good work. The years should not be allowed to disappear in 'dullness, in the trivial routine of ordering and eating meals, in interviewing dressmakers and in growing more dowdy and frumpish every day'. No, said Madge, the modern middle aged woman embraced her grey hair and some were the handsomest in London society. So, there you have it.

THE quirky headline 'greedy cow paid the supreme penalty, and plumber was not to blame' caught the eye in the Craven Herald of 1966 -one can only imagine how many 'hits' it would have received had the paper's website been up and running back then. It reported the case of a farmer who had sued a plumber, who on repairing a burst pipe had left the door to a food store open. A cow had got in, and had 'blown up' after overfeeding, and had died, leaving the farmer £55 out of pocket. The Judge sided with the plumber, however, saying it was unreasonable to expect a workman to anticipate cows coming from the fields, into a farmyard and through three doors to get to fodder bins.

IT was one of the speediest full meetings of Craven District Council, certainly in the experience of my colleague last week. Less than half an hour after it started, councillors had galloped through the agenda, which included a summary of the activities in the last quarter of chairman, Cllr Chris Moorby. Even an excluded item at the end failed to hold them up. I understand even those councillors from North Craven managed to get past Coniston Cold before the road was closed at 8am for repairs to the bridge.

INSIDE news has come to me of some of the goings on at the annual cross country run at Ermysted's Grammar School in Skipton. Many of the boys are very experienced runners, competing at both county and national level. But for others, it is a chance to dress up in fancy dress and have some fun - who in fact can not recall similar goings on at their own cross country runs at their old schools, if they had them? I hear say of one lad who cleverly covered himself in a suit of leaves in order to hide in bushes, so he could lay low and join the race at a later stage. A lad dressed up a cow a couple of years ago, got caught in high winds and the head ended up in a tree. Many short cuts are taken, while others fake injury, dramatically falling into mud, or twisting ankles.

ONE of my colleagues brings me news of her mother and her daily efforts to keep the Red Kite who visit her garden well fed. By the sound of it, the Kite - which are very impressively sized birds of prey which have enjoyed great success following reintroduction in the Thames Valley - have become almost tame visitors to her garden. And its hardly surprising, seeing as they seem to be fed on steak, organic chicken, and pork chops. In fact, the only thing they are not fed, it seems, are the dead mice and rats, that the resident cats catch. My colleague tells me, her mother, despite much telling otherwise, refuses to accept the birds will eat such things, and much prefer their meat carefully cut from the bone, and diced into mouth sized chunks.