A Craven Diary: When stuffed boxing badgers were a Victorian craze

Customers will be able to buy the gingerbread prince for £1 from the store’s cake counter. The supermarket is also selling ‘design your own gingerbread man’ kits for £2, for children to make their own versions of their dads.

John Cannan cake shop manager at Morrisons said: “We’ve created a special gingerbread biscuit to pay tribute to the royal couple, as they celebrate the Prince’s first Father’s Day. We hope that dads across the country enjoy eating our gingerbread biscuits which are a popular product of our cake shop counters.”

DEAR, dear, goodness knows what was going on last week when I put Ypres in France, when referring to a key claimed to be to Ypres Cathedral and in the possession of The Folly museum in Settle. Of course, anyone with the most basic knowledge of geography and history, seeing as it was the focus of much fighting in the First World War, knows it is very much in Belgium. I hang my head in shame.

THEY may seem a tad macabre, but stuffed animals drinking tea, knitting - or even boxing - were quite the thing in Victorian times, and it seems, they are making something of a comeback amongst collectors. This pair of boxing badger cubs (pictured, right) is being sold by Tennants Auctioneers, Leyburn, at its forthcoming natural history and taxidermy sale. ‘Boxing Badgers’ is one of only two known anthropomorphic taxidermy cases made by Peter Spicer. Born in 1893 and living until the grand age of 96, Spicer was one of the top Victorian taxidermists, producing taxidermy specimens, such as pheasants, birds of prey, foxes and hares from his shop in Leamington Spa. Boxing badgers was one of the few times he ventured into the craze of anthropomorphic taxidermy, which by all accounts was something even Queen Victoria took to. The badgers were both by their present owner 40 years ago for £21, and when they come under the hammer tomorrow, June 14, are expected to fetch between £3,000 and £5,000. So, if boxing badgers is your thing, and you have some spare cash, get along to the saleroom, or visit the website: tennants.co.uk.

A GROUP of mums had a day out in Clapham recently, travelling by train from Lancaster on the Bentham Line - and not a single one of them bought a pushchair along.

Thanks to the Morecambe Bay Sling library - which loans out ‘baby slings’, or carriers, and the Community Rail Lancashire, the outing was offered to ‘babywearing’ mums.

Karen Bennett, Community Rail Lancashire’s education officer, knows exactly how difficult travelling with a pram can be. She said: “Travelling by train is a lot easier with a sling than with a pram. I had my son, Laurie, in a sling until he was three and I appreciate all the benefits. I want to encourage more parents to use slings rather than prams on a train.”

She added “a sling makes it easier to negotiate station steps, board the train, and not having to find somewhere to keep the pram. Babywearing encourages healthy mental and emotional development and research shows babies who are worn cry less.”

Travel was kindly provided by Northern, for the trip. The mums enjoyed chatting on the journey and got speaking to other passengers. Some of the older children completed the Bentham Line’s activity pack passed on to them by Catherine Huddleston, the Bentham Line’s Community Rail partnership officer.

On arrival at Clapham, the group took the mile and a quarter walk up to the village passing sheep, cows and even a week-old foal on the way. In the village they went for tea and cake in the Reading Room Café. And, as the sun shone down the outside terrace, they exchanged baby wearing tips and Abi and Tamsin, sling consultants advised how best to position their babies.

I’m told, many of the group commented how they had not thought of travelling to the Dales by train and were keen to return – especially with a sling.

The group is pictured at Lancaster Railway Station

ONE wonders what will happen to all the old, redundant red telephone boxes, like this one pictured (above) in the centre of Long Preston, now that BT has offered them all up for adoption. All of the 33 red phone boxes in Craven are being offered for adoption for just £1. BT says it will also consider the adoption of its more modern boxes to house potentially lifesaving defibrillators. BT says so far around 360 payphones have been adopted across the Yorkshire and Humber region in the last 10 years, but there are plenty - like this one in Long Preston - that are slowly rotting and rusting away. For more details on how to apply to adopt a kiosk, visit: bt.com/adopt where application forms and information can be found.

50 years ago, in June, 1969, there was ‘shock and surprise’ following the publication of a report into local government reorganisation. The report called for the dismantling of 1,200 existing councils across the country, and included major changes in Craven. It proposed the scrapping of local urban and rural district councils and their replacement with unitary councils. But while the area from Bradford to Upper Wharfedale, taking in Keighley, Shipley, Baildon, Bingley, Ilkley, Silsden and Skipton and also part of the Skipton rural and Settle rural areas, would go into one new authority, West Craven, Barnoldswick and Earby, would be included in the Burnley unitary area.

ALSO taking place in June, 1969 was a public hearing into the proposed closure of the Skipton - Colne rail line. The hearing at Skipton Town Hall heard from both the objectors and the then British Rail. There was also a petition against the closure, signed by 281 people from across the area. The petition had been started by a Miss Richardson, of Earby, who said she would suffer hardship if the line was to close. Rail travel was quick and trains were far from obsolete, she argued.

MEANWHILE, 100 years ago, in June, 1919, the ‘happiest’ Whitsuntide for years took place in Craven. Called the ‘Victory Whitsuntide’, it being the first following the end of the First World War, the Craven Herald reported that the streets of Skipton had never been as full of people. From the early hours, until late at night, the roads were full of motor cars, motor charabancs, motor cycles, and even horse drawn charabancs. All passing through the town on their way to the Dales, or to the seaside. Whit Monday in Skipton recalled the happy days before the war, with everyone in high spirits, and ‘cheap jacks’ spinning their yarns. The Roman Catholic community of St Stephen’s Church, arranged their Whitsuntide festivities on a pre-war scale and their ‘imposing procession’ created much interest.

THE Craven Herald of June, 1919, also commented on the centenary of the birth of the author, Charles Kingsley, who wrote Westward Ho! and The Water Babies. Kingsley, reported the paper, wrote the larger part of The Water Babies while he was a guest of Walter Morrison at Malham Tarn. He was, said the Herald at the time: “A man of many interests and of extraordinary activities - versatile and virile, parson and poet, radical and reformer, co-operator and Chartist, naturalist and novelist - Kingsley was an impelling force in the Victorian era; and his books will be read with interest while ever the English language exists”.