WagtailSeptember 2018 • Gressingham editionalso published in Whittington and Arkholme

Gressingham Village Safari SupperSaturday 28 September

Back by popular demand! A three-course meal around the village, with each course at a different house with different guests. Starts with pre-dinner drinks at the Old School Room, where you will be given an envelope to let you know where you are heading for your starter. After your starter, you will be given another envelope with your main course details, then it’s back to the School Room at the end of the evening for pudding and chat.

Would you like to volunteer to host a course? Hosts are given an allowance per person to prepare a starter or main course.

To take part as a host, or just to attend (£10 per person)call Gillian Coulthwaite on 07917 234221 or 015242 21106 or gilliechampers@gmail.com – and don’t forget to state any dietary requirements.

Also coming up in Gressingham Old School Room

Friday 18 October 7pmBuffet Supper with An Arts Society Tour of ScotlandAnthony's illustrated account from May 2019 of visits to stately homes, country houses,two palaces, a chapel and a museum. With quiche, and bread and cheese, organised byLesley and Frank. Bring a bottle! Further details next month.

Friday 8 November 7.30pmWine Tasting lead by Alan CollinsFurther details next month

Notice from Gressingham Parish CouncilThere have been several instances where ‘blue light’ ambulances have struggled to locate houses, with potentially serious consequences! As a result of work done by SallyRiley and Neil Read, guidance notes for every house in Gressingham and Eskrigge have been compiled and submitted to the North West Ambulance Service on behalf of Gressingham Parish Council. These notes have now been added to their database and are accessible by ambulance crews on call-outs.

Ambulance drivers still urge residents to ensure that their house name or number is clearly visible, both day and night.

Minutes of the last Parish Council meeting, and of the Annual Parish Meeting in April, can be found at hornbyvillage.org.uk/organisations/gressingham-parish-council

This edition sponsored by

Notices and eventsSat. 21st September - Tatham Church GRAND JUMBLE SALE in Hornby Institute 2pm

Bric a Brac and Bargains Galore

* The Hornby Singers resume Tuesday 3 September at 7pm in Hornby Institute. No auditions or ability to read music necessary, just a willingness to 'have a go'. Pat 21449

* Hornby Flower club resumes Thursday 19 September 7.30 pm in Hornby Institute. demonstrater Pamela from Flowerfields Florists in Bentham. enjoy the arrangements, refreshments and company.

* Movies start again this Autumn on Fridays at Lower Tatham Church. Dates for your Diaries are 11th October, 8th November and 6th December with a start time of 7.30pm If you wish to go on our mailing list please email us on moviesinthepews@gmail.com orContact Sue on 07836 500091 or Helen on 07802 499934.

Classified adsFinancial ServicesKieron Bassett Financial Services local specialists providing advice in relation to pensions, investments, equity release and more. Free consultation, based in Morecambe. 01524 832057

Health and wellbeingPhysiotherapy Marie Colyer MCSP HCPCBentham 62216 benthamphysio.co.ukLune Valley PhysiotherapyLeah Dalby MCSP HCPC – Maximise potential after surgery, accidents, illness including cancer – leahthephysio.co.uk now based in Whittington 07934 785797

Pre-school and out-of-schoolHornby Day Nursery – a family run nursery with a traditional friendly atmosphere. 30 hours free childcare foreligible 3 & 4 year olds, 15 hours free childcare for eligible 2 year olds. Holidayclub for ages 4 to 11 during all school holidays. Looking for childcare? 015242 22288 info@hornbydaynursery.co.uk

MiscellaneousFuneral Services B&W Funerals (J G Macdonald) – 24 hour Service,

Private Chapel of Rest. Covering the LuneValley and the Dales. 39 Main Street, Ingleton LA6 3EH. Office 41293, Home 61390, Mobile 07758 002260, email jmfunerals@gmail.com

2

Home and GardenPainting and Decorating A Holloway Decorators, interior and exterior, based in Caton, established over 25 years tonyholloway@hms.me.uk 01524 771880Darren Jones Plumbing General plumbing and bathroom installations, Oil and Gas boilers installed and serviced, renewable energy options available – 07738 379328Logs Direct Ltd – local specialists in Winter Fuel. Kiln-dried logs, smokeless fuel, house coal, kindling, firelighters, briquettes and pellets. Also top soil, compost & bark. Collect from us or delivered to your door. www.logsdirect.co.uk 01524 812476Calluna Furnishings, Quernmore creating unique interior upholstery

and soft furnishings, made-to-measure curtains, cushions, re-upholstery, Roman blinds, upholstery, alterations and many more. Free consultation and collection service. 01524 805504 www.callunafurnishings.co.uk info@callunafurnishings.co.uk

PetsBoarding Kennels and dog day-care Aughton Road, Gressingham LA2 8LShelen.burrow@hotmail.com 07766 446272 www.aughtonroadkennels.co.ukDocker Park Kennels & CatteryNo ordinary kennels – your dogs join us around the farm and house, and they love it! We also offer day care. John and Lisa Tamlin 07876 562380www.docker-park-kennels.co.uk

3

WagtailWelcome to the September edition. The next edition is the October edition.

The deadline for items for inclusion is 19 September. Please submit all items to editor@wagtail.org.uk. Wagtail is also available online at www.wagtail.org.uk. Many thanks as always to all our contributors and distributors. – Michael Hampson

DirectoryArkholme Post Office Arkholme Village Hall Mondays and Thursdays 2pm to 4pm

Whittington Post Office Whittington Village Hall Thursdays 1.30pm to 3.30pm

Arkholme Baby and Toddler group Emily 07824 349276 or Facebook “Arkholme baby and toddler group”

Arkholme School Headteacher Joy Ingram arkholme.lancs.sch.uk 21418

Arkholme Village Hall 07716 122940 arkholme-village-hall.co.ukfacebook.com/arkholmevillagehall

Arkholme Methodist ChurchRev Steve Charman 01524 33327

Arts Society judieclegg@gmail.com

Beekeepers If you get a swarm of honey bees in your garden call Fred Ayres 01524 811978 who will happily remove and re-home them at no cost

Book Club Simon Acomb 07710 721108

Bowling Club Arkholme Monday evenings David Smith 03330 119 303

Drama Group hornbydrama.org.ukNeil Read 21339 realneed@hotmail.com

Gressingham Old School Room john@lunar.co.uk www.bit.do/OSR-dates

Hornby Singers Tuesdays 7pm to 9pmat Hornby Institute Pat 21449

Hornby Flower Club Demonstrations every month, Thursday evenings 21449

Hornby Swimming Pool 01524 805666

Kirkby Lonsdale Voluntary Car Scheme Car and volunteer driver, 45p per mile measured from driver’s house back to driver’s house 07788 522511

Lunch Club Carole Webb 22202 or Doreen Airey 22023 for retired residents

of the three villages – second Wednesdayof the month from October to May

Police PC3511 James Hodgson phone 101morecambept@lancashire.pnn.police.uk

Sewing Group Sue 71677

Whittington Village Hall Karan Metcalfe facebook.com/WhittingtonVillageHallCoffee Mornings first & third Wednesday of the month, 10.30am to 12noon 71287

Women’s InstituteRosemary Blanchfield 21303

Vicar Revd Michael Hampson vicar@these4parishes.co.uk 21712

Whittington Parish Council Clerk Gillian Newton 14 Marton Drive, Morecambe LA4 6RB 07773678608

Arkholme Parish Council Clerk Claire Helme arkholmepc@gmail.com

Gressingham Parish Council Clerkgressinghampc@gmail.com 21918

Details of all three parish councils, and full minutes for Whittington and Arkholme, are online at https://www.lancaster.gov.uk/the-council-and-democracy/meetings-and-minutes

Gressingham Parish Council agendas and minutes are available online at www.hornbyvillage.org.uk/organisations/gressingham-parish-council

Details of all planning applications are online at lancaster.gov.uk/planning

Local problems can be reported to www.FixMyStreet.com

Local churches and community groups can be listed here for free. Please send additions, updates and corrections to editor@wagtail.org.uk

4

Lune ValleyPeace Pilgrimage

On Saturday 27 July there were Peace displays on different themes in sixdifferent churches from Saint Joseph’s Kirkby Lonsdale

to Saint Margaret’s Hornbyas part of a day of prayer for peace

Whittington filled the church with cascades of poppies,from red at the font to white at the altar, as part of the

theme War and Peace.A world map gave details of more than forty ongoing armed

conflicts around the world.

Arkholme included this display created by Arkholme School as part of the theme Inspirational People of Peace. Other displays highlighted inspirational figures as diverse asNelson Mandela and The Buddha.

Gressingham filled the church with flowers for the themeDarkness to Light, including this, one of many windowdisplays, showing beauty in dark brooding purples and

mauves even as we continue the journey from darknessin the tower to light in dazzling white around the altar.

Streamers ran through Saint Margaret’s from every continentto the Cross – which is also, by ancient tradition, the tree of life, and ‘the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations’. Prayers were written on leaves at the foot of the cross, and window displays highlighted the work of the church throughout the world.

Saint Joseph’s highlighted the Lune Valley Refugee Sponsorshipproject, with a starkly symbolic display of boots and rucksack,

5

LUNE VALLEY

PEACEPILGRIMAGE

Sunday ServicesWhittington Arkholme Gressingham

1 September 9.30am SoP - 9.30am HC8 September - 9.30am HC 8am HC15 September 9.30am HC - 9.30am HC22 September - 9.30am HC -29 September 10.30am HC - -

SoP Songs of Praise – HC Holy Communion

Hornby 10.45am Parish Communion every Sundayexcept 29 September, United Benefice Service in Whittington

8am Holy Communion 1 and 15 September

while Saint Mary’s placed a crown of thorns, woven from barbed wire, betweensymbols of ordinary comfortable living on one side, and street homelessness, as

close as Lancaster and Morecambe, on the other.

Thirty-two people walked the ten miles from Saint Joseph’s Kirkby Lonsdaleto Saint Margaret’s Hornby, through sunshine and rain along the Lune,

praying every hour, and visiting each church along the way.More than fifty people gathered for the closing act of worship.

Join us Sunday by Sunday as we continue to pray for PeacePeace Within, Peace with God, Peace with our Neighbour, and Peace with the Universe

6

A welcome for children every Sundayat any of our services, with weekly children’sactivity sheets based on the gospel for the day

children must bring an adult to church with them

Youth-led service every month10.45am at Saint Margaret’s Hornby

Parish Communion with our young peoplehelping to lead the service, plus the Junior Choir

Sundays 8 September and 13 October� all ages welcome �

children must bring an adult to church with them

One of our church volunteers can take your good-quality surplus gardenproduce (fresh home-grown fruit and veg) directly to the Lancaster City of Sanctuaryweekly gathering for Lancaster-based asylum-seekers and refugees every Monday.

Asylum-seekers in the UK live in hostels on a minimal allowance while theirrefugee status is assessed. They have very little opportunity to access fresh fruit andvegetables. Take items to Saint Margaret’s Church Hornby each weekend for collection.

Sunday 29 September 10.30am• United Benefice Service •

in Whittingtonfor the Patronal Festival

of Saint Michael the ArchangelAll four parishes gather in Whittington

on the traditional Quarter Dayof Michaelmas

No separate services elsewhere that day

Vicar: Revd Michael Hampson ‧ vicar@these4parishes.co.uk ‧ 015242 21712Curate: Sister Judith OCMM ‧ sisterjudithocmm@gmail.com 03330 119563‧

Weekly bulletin and more online: www.these4parishes.co.uk

7

SAINT MICHAELDEFENDEROF JUSTICEAND PEACE

Sunday 6 October9.30am

• Harvest Festival •

at GressinghamParish Church

The weather in ArkholmeRobin McIlveen

June Weather in Arkholme17 Slightly Wet Days (less than 5mm) together adding up to 18.7mm 7 Decidedly Wet Days (from 5mm to just under 25mm) adding up to a further 71.5mm24 Rain Days altogether adding up to 90.2mm (3.6 inches) – leaving 6 dry daysWettest Day 7th-8th with 22.9mm

July Weather in Arkholme14 Slightly Wet Days (less than 5mm) together adding up to 21.7mm 5 Decidedly Wet Days (from 5mm to just under 25mm) adding up to a further 73.8mm19 Rain Days altogether adding up to 95.5mm (3.8 inches) – leaving 12 dry daysWettest Day 23rd-24th with 22.0mm

June and July continued the fairly typical 90mm monthly totals restored in May, after a very wet March and a dry April. The Decidedly Wet Days in June and July each gave about 80% of the monthly totals, but July had 12 completely dry days, compared with June’s 6, which gave July a dryer feel, and kept afternoon temperatures over and around 20°C. Then a very warm airstream took the afternoon maximum up to 29°C on July 23, and 30°C (86°F) on the 25th, which is really warm for our northwest climate.

Around that time, England was covered by an area of shallow low pressures which produced locally severe thundershowers over many parts. We were staying in lower Wensleydale then, and had some moderate thunder showers one afternoon, which produced severe flood damage only a few miles away.

Warm, humid air streams often produce thundershowers in summer, and may do so again before this summer is out. They usually develop from the late morning onwards, as the sun warms local land surfaces (especially sun-facing slopes). Invisible balloons of buoyant air rise and become visible as they chill and fill with cloud. This condensation releases latent heat which further warms the rising cloudy air, which can tower up to 30,000 feet in an hour or two, and generate torrential rain, and hail, and thunder.

The rising cloudy air is at the prime mover. The tiny cloud droplets swell and merge to produce big rain drops, and the presence of ice crystals in the upper parts of the cloud produces hail. The bigger the updraft, the larger is the hail – peas, beans, golf balls, even cricket balls are possible. Your Airbus on its way to Europe will steer well clear, since the updrafts are dangerously turbulent.

Hail falling through tiny ice crystals rising in the updrafts can generate millions of volts between the cloud and the underlying surface, which spark lightning flashes several crooked miles long. On one thundery evening in Arkholme, I listened to distantcontinuous thunder for over 5 minutes, as the thunder clouds round the Lune value produced perhaps 50 flashes of lightning in that time.

Robin McIlveen

By the end of July, there have been 80 dry days in the 212 days of 2019, 90 Slightly Wet Days giving 108mm of rain, 41 Decidedly Wet Days giving 488mm, and one Extremely Wet Day giving 27mm, a total of 132 Rain Days, giving 623mm of rain (24.5 inches). If rainfall were to continue at this rate for the full year, the annual total would be a fairly typical 1073mm.

8

Arkholme and District WIHeather Slater came to Gressingham to regale members with herexperiences as a matron in boarding schools. To our amazement shebegan her life as ‘Miss Heather’ as soon as she left school! Her parents and head teachers conferred and informed her that she was not academic and that an interview was arranged at a boys’ school where an assistant was needed. Young Heather took the train the following Monday, was interviewed and went home to prepare to take over in two weeks’ time. And ‘take over’ it was; the current matron had left and Heather was dropped in at the deep end with fifty young boarders to care for. Her main qualification seems to be that she too had been a boarder. Her anecdotes demonstratedan empathy with the boys to whom her many little kindnesses must have made life bearable so, perhaps, those employers were wiser than it seemed. After a year Heather went to get nursing training and was tempted to remain but returned to her boys and remained as ‘Miss Heather’ in a variety of schools in many parts of the country for many years. This led her to Saudi Arabia to care for young princes within the royal family – but that’s another tale!

Four volunteers to model at our fashion show on 11 October were found without any arm twisting – thanks girls. During October LFWI offer lunch with Jim Wight, a Nordic Walking taster, and a workshop on taking better photographs on your mobile phone. This year, Lancashire Day can be celebrated on 27 November in Bolton-le-Sands. 2020 sees a holidayin Scotland with a visit to the V&A in Dundee.

We next meet at 7.30pm in Gressingham Old School Room on Monday 9 September. Steve Hinde will talk about policing in the past and three murders in Lancaster. As always, new members and visitors will be welcome.

Gerald writes...Sarah Gilbert neé Postlethwaite has been in touch. Her family lived at South View during the war, and she attended Arkholme school with her younger sister. She remembers visiting Charlie Ireland the basket maker, and he made her a doll’s cradle for her Christmas present. Her father was a Colonel in The Royal Engineers, and his regiment was tasked with blowing up the bridges behind the retreating British Army as they made for Dunkirk. They were too late to escape via Dunkirk, but got one of the last boats that left from Cherbourg, arriving in Portsmouth two days later, where he rang his wife to tell her he was safe. Sarah is busy writing her war-time memories, and wanted some photos of Arkholme and any information I could give her. I look forward to reading her small booklet when it is finished.

Alan Blackburn of Loyne Park has recently been appointed Professor of Geography atLancaster University. Well done Alan, I am sure your students benefit from your expertise enormously.

The next dance in the Village Hall is on 7 September, when Denis Westmorland will beplaying his very own Lakeland music for the dancers.

Gerald Hodgson

9

WagtailMNDA Charity AuctionSaturday 28 September 7.30pmHornby Institute Auction of both items and promises. Time to viewitems and promises before the auction starts. Pluslive music and bar. Donations of auctionable itemsand promises to Bill Taylor as soon as possibleplease: taylor.bill44@icloud.com

Arkholme Community Coffee MorningWednesday 28 August � 11am start � all welcome � Arkholme Village Hall

Arkholme Late Summer Picnic and Sports DaySaturday 31 August � Sports Day (all ages) 10.45am for 11am startPicnic 12.30pm onwards � barbecue, ice cream, cakes � Arkholme Village Hall

Pre-loved wedding event Go to browse and buy, or book a table (£15) to sell, bridal gowns and bridesmaid dresses, mother of the bride outfits, veils, gents suits, hats, accessories, venue decorations. Hornby Institute 26 October 11am-2pm. 07548 250922.

Electric wheelchair for sale Invacare Esprit Action 4NG, purchased October 2017, with cape and back bag. Max user weight 125kg. Seat width 40cm, seat height 51cm, seat depth 46cm, handles height 91cm. £1,500ono – Gillian Newton 07773 678608

This edition of Wagtail is sponsored by Logs Direct

10