ABOUT a month ago, we featured on the Craven Curiosities page an iron sign commemorating the re-planting of woodland at West Marton in 1908. We have now been sent by a reader a picture of another sign (below) identical in every way, apart from the date, which is somewhat earlier, 1898. This one was spotted near Bolton Abbey in West Bank Wood, on the bridleway to Halton Moor. I wonder how many others there are about.

JEFF Kent, writer, musician, publisher, campaigner, hillwalker and speaker, has just published the first-ever guide to the 833 hills of Yorkshire to reach the magic mini-mountain four-figure height.Yorkshire’s 1,000-Foot Peaks details all the peaks identified by Jeff between 2015 and 2019, outlining how they were discovered, the criteria on which they were selected, and summarising the main hill ranged on which they are located. They are listed in descending order, with their heights in feet and metres, and include the grid references of their summits. He says: “All of the peaks are described in detail, with comments on their main features, including their shapes, slopes, prominences, subsidiary physical features, river sources, woodlands, trig points, prehistoric and historic sites, existing settlements, industrial sites, telecommunications structures and major communications routes.”

The book is available from bookshops and Amazon and signed copies can be ordered from Jeff’s website: witancreations.com.

THE festive season has been well underway for a couple of weeks now at Country Harvest food hall and gift shop in Ingleton, which recently held a special Christmas event, featuring actual reindeer, Santa, Carnforth’s Salvation Army Band and a giant snowglobe. Hundreds of people lined up to have their pictures taken inside the giant globe, including members of staff, who took this ‘staff selfie’ (right) while children lined up to have their own ‘santa selfies’ in the Christmas cabin.

Country Harvest, on the A65 just outside Ingleton, has become something of a pre-Christmas stop off for families with its twinkly festive lights. Owner Mike Clark said: “We opened a Christmas Cabin three years ago and it’s turned into a festive tradition for thousands of customers who say they can’t imagine Christmas without it! We also like to put on a free festive event for all the families who live nearby and our customers from further afield – it was a great night on and I’d like to thank Holme-based Odin Events for managing the snowglobe so professionally and for Everley Buckley bringing his reindeer down from Cumbria and the Salvation Army Band making it such a great event. I always say we’ve got the best of not both worlds, but three worlds here at Country Harvest as we are on the cusp of Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cumbria and it was great to have attractions from those counties here at our Christmas event. We hope our customers enjoyed it as much as we did.”

ON the subject of hill walking and possible Christmas presents, Saltaire based Skyware Press have some excellent guide books on long distance walks.

The Dales Way is an 80 mile route from Ilkley to the shores of lake Windermere following the rivers Wharfe, Dee and Lune while Lady Anne’s Way takes the route Lady Anne Clifford would have taken as she restored her castles in the Yorkshire Dales and Eden Valley. For more experienced walkers Wainwright’s Coast to Coast walk is a must and for the ultimate Yorkshire Dales challenge why not tackle A Dales High way – 90 miles from Saltaire to Appleby with the option of a ride on the Settle Carlisle railway line to finish.

Skyware Press have guidebooks to all these walks and more which they supply direct from their website first class post free. See www.skyware.co.uk

AGAIN on the subject of walking, Kathleen Kinder, writer of the guide book, St Alkelda’s Way, pictured above, will on Tuesday, December 3 be selling and signing copies of the book from 10am to 2pm at Holy Ascension Church, Settle. St Alkelda’s Way pilgrimage is a three to four day, self-guided, 33 mile walk from St Alkelda’s Church, Giggleswick, to St Mary and St Alkelda’s Church in Middleham. They are the only two churches to have St Alkelda as patronal saint.

She says: “In the last few years, pilgrimage walks have become very popular both nationally and internationally. Modern pilgrimage is open to everyone, no matter what beliefs are held. The pilgrimage follows ancient trackways which must have been used by this Anglo-Saxon 9th century saint of the Dales.”

The pilgrimage is the first of its kind to go through the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and earlier this year, the website: alkeldasway.info, designed by Richard Handford, with the text and most of the photographs supplied by Kathleen became available for people to use as they followed the route. Kathleen says it soon became apparent that a modern pilgrimage walk is different from an everyday walk in the country. “One of the main aims of the web site, and especially of the guide book is to recover a heritage in the Yorkshire Dales which is in danger of being lost, an aim acknowledged by the authorities who supplied the funding for the publication of the book.”

The guide book, which has been funded by the national park and by North Yorkshire County Council, gives details of the national park’s beautiful and varied environment, describes human evidence and activity, past and present features of the landscape, natural and man-made, its religious presence, our living heritage, questions to ponder, and mysteries to share. All are brought into the daily route descriptions in an attempt to provide a ‘companion along the way’, and to make the pilgrimage experience as invigorating, enjoyable and as stimulating as possible, says Kathleen. The book also includes insights into the early medieval history of the Dales which relate to the St Alkelda story, and which have never been published before. Kathleen will give a talk on Wednesday, December 4 from 2pm to 4pm at St Alkelda’s Church, Giggleswick, when copies of the book, at £7, will be available to buy. All proceeds will go to St Alkelda’s.

100 YEARS ago, on November 28, 1919, the Craven Herald reported on how the war memorial committee of Skipton Council resigned following a difference of opinion on a suitable memorial to those who had fought and died in the First World War. Councillors were also left with the problem of what to do with the Victorian mansion, Whinfield, on Keighley Road, which had been bought with the intention of turning it into a YMCA memorial for the young people of the area.

At the Elm Tree Inn, Embsay, in November, 1919, a number of dwelling houses in the village were sold at auction. They included two houses in Cragg View Terrace, containing drawing room, living room, scullery, three bedrooms and a cellar, and one of them a bathroom. They were sold for £415 and £456, for the one with the bathroom. A house in East View was bought for £175, while ‘Holme House’ in West Lane, together with an adjoining cottage, and garden were sold for £565. Two cottages at the bottom of West Lane, with small gardens, went for £235. A joiners shop at the top of West End went for £104, while a house, shop and five cottages, with gardens, at Millholme, Embsay, were bought by Embsay Shed Company for £918.

At Steeton Railway Station there is a very dangerous level crossing, which has been the scene of more than one fatal accident, it was reported in November, 1919.