IN an unusual move Skipton’s Alexander’s Bar and Kitchen asked the 4,750 followers of its Facebook page to choose the theme for its New Year’s Eve event. In the end, more than 200 responded to the poll, creating a strong margin in favour of an ’80s style party. In addition to a guest DJ, fireworks at midnight, fancy dress and a five course retro inspired meal, there will be a professional ‘Mr T’ lookalike regaling party goers with jibes from the hit ’80s TV show, The A Team.

Susannah Daley, owner of Alexander’s says she expects plenty of people coming along dressed as television and pop icons, while food for the night will include some classic 80s favourites.

“Fans of the ’80s will love what we have in store for New Year’s Eve – expect plenty of retro styling, staff dressed up as television and pop icons along with a five course ’80s inspired meal from our executive chef, Struan Macintyre, which will include classic favourites like Mushroom Supreme Vol au Vent and Maraschino Cherry Baked Alaska.”

Other events in the Alexander’s festive calendar include a Boxing Day ‘all day breakfasty brunch’ and a ‘Hair of Hog’ New Year’s Day Hog Roast.

THE Craven Herald of 1968 reported on the ‘menace’ of the wild mink. One of the critters had been spotted by a part time water bailiff as he carried out maintenance work at Newhouses Tarn, Horton-in-Ribblesdale. He promptly shot the mink, which turned out to be an adult male, dead. The paper reported that mink were a ‘destructive creature’ that not only killed fish and wildfowl, but also played ‘havoc’ with poultry runs and in pheasant preserves. Its increase in numbers was worrying said the paper at the time. The area’s pest control warden for the Ministry of Agriculture, and based at Slaidburn, had dispatched more than 100 of the animals in the previous two years.

AN interesting court case appeared in the Craven Herald of 100 years ago, just after the ending of the First World War, involving a mother and daughter, who had clearly fallen out. Before His Honour Judge Macklin, at the Skipton County Court, a Skipton woman, described as a ‘spinster’ brought a claim against her mother, a widow. The plaintiff said her mother was refusing to hand over a sewing machine that she claimed she had bought seven years earlier. The Judge agreed with the daughter, and ordered that the sewing machine be handed over within three days.

THE Craven Arms at Appletreewick recently received a call out of the blue from a man clearing a house in Manchester, pub owner David Aynesworth tells me. During the clearing of the house, the man had found a number of old photographs in a biscuit tin, (including this one, pictured). “He traced the Craven Arms via the internet,” David tells me. “The photograph shows the Spencer Family who had the pub for many years. Isabella Spencer (top left in the picture) had just taken over following the death of her husband Hartley Spencer who died in 1898. Isabella’s maiden name was Metcalfe and came from nearby Barden.” The original photographs were researched by Sandie Weatherhead, of Appletreewick, and were given to David and Sue Spencer, who still live in the area. A number of the photographs have been enlarged, and now take pride of place in the pub. David tells me when the photographs were taken, the pub was also a farm, as was the case with most Dales pubs. “It continued as such until around 1960 as did the White Lion at Cray farmed by Major Horner,” he tells me. “In the early days pubs gradually came into being perhaps beginning with the farmer’s wife brewing ale in the kitchen and selling it to passers by as a supplement to the main source of income which was farming.”

THE Buckden Singers were lucky enough to be awarded £1,000 from the Calor Rural Community Fund earlier this year. The singing group, which has been going for more than 10 years and now has around 50 members, used the money towards the buying of a new piano, to be used in performances.

Now, the choir is in a Christmas video put together by the energy provider, featuring the many different projects its annual funding scheme has helped over the last two years.

The aim of the Calor Rural Community Fund is to give off-grid communities the chance to gain grants for projects. With a total fund of £50,000, this year the scheme offered funding for 21 different projects, with prize pots ranging from £1,000 up to £5,000. The annual scheme returns in spring 2019, to find out more, visit: calor.co.uk/communityfund/about-the-fund/. To watch the Calor 12 Days of Christmas video, go to: youtube.com/watch?v=zBSODID3vA0.

I HAVE been contacted by someone keen to trace old photographs of Aireville School, Skipton in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Angela is looking for class photographs of the school, now Skipton Academy, taken in the years 1956 to 1963. Anyone able to help can contact her via email at: Littleroman81@hotmail.com.

OUR friends, The Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association, (UWFRA) based in Grassington, were recently delighted to feature on the front cover of Mountain Rescue magazine with a picture taken by one of their members, Sara Spillett. The magazine is ‘the only official magazine for mountain rescue in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland’, so excellent coverage for the volunteer team. The magazine also carried an in depth feature on the team, which in August celebrated its 70th anniversary. The birthday celebrations were interrupted on the day when just before midnight, the team was called out to search for two cavers reported overdue from a trip through Dowbergill, near Kettlewell. The team has 65 members and is on call every day of the year, to save both people and animals.

AN interesting quirk of localised language recently came up in the Craven Herald office when a colleague said how her mother, who was originally from Leeds, would when scrutinising the skies, and whether it was likely to rain - or not - depending on the amount of blue sky, would comment: “There’s not enough to make an apron”. Another colleague responded that her grandmother, who was a Cockney, would when checking the skies, would say there was ‘not enough blue to make a Dutchman’s trousers’. Depending on whether there was enough - or not - would determine whether the family ventured out.

A NEW puzzle book has been created by Julian Morgan based on the memoirs and television series written by the famous vet and author Alf Wight OBE - otherwise known as James Herriot.

Julian, of Duggleby, best known for his books of Yorkshire-themed puzzles and sonnets, has created a book of 50 puzzles based on the memoirs of James Herriot.

Julian says: “Kate Pawlett, centre manager of the World of James Herriot in Thirsk made the suggestion for the puzzle book and I was delighted to be asked. “It includes animals and ailments, colleagues and customers, potions and powders of the original eight books of memoirs as well as on-screen portrayals of vets and locations both real and fictional. The book should put even the most ardent Herriot fans to the test.” Ian Ashton, managing director of the World of James Herriot, added: “I’m delighted that we can offer our visitors this new addition to our range. Julian’s puzzles will bring new ways for readers to connect again with the stories they love.”

Copies of the book can be obtained at the World of James Herriot or via the attraction’s online shop at: worldofjamesherriot.com

FINALLY, with Christmas almost upon us, Co-op Insurance tells me that four in five pet owners have their festive season ‘dampened’ by naughty pets. According to their research, playful pets - that’s cats and dogs - pull down the Christmas tree in a quarter of homes, while a fifth have had to take their pets to the emergency vet over Christmas. Peckish pets prove to put a downer on the day with one in every 16 owners admitting that their pet ate the most important part of Christmas dinner, the turkey.