CHILDREN and staff at Gargrave Primary School decided to celebrate the wedding of one of their teacher’s by staging their own ceremony - complete with edible Haribo wedding rings.

Teacher, Nicola Hesleden is getting married to Scott at the end of the month, and after a challenging year of class closures and lockdowns, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the pupils wanted to bring a bit of sparkle and sunshine to everyone’s lives.

In a beautiful outdoor service led by Rev Andrew Steer of St Andrew’s Church, Gargrave, ‘bride’ Jemima and ‘groom’ Walter of Apple Class were ‘married’.

‘Father of the bride’ Ted walked Jemima down the aisle followed by her bridesmaids and page boy, to the traditional Wedding March as the rest of the school looked on.

Harry, the ‘best man’, took great care of the Haribo rings that were exchanged during the vows.

Following the wedding, a celebration lunch was held for the pupils and staff.

Teacher, Sarah Spensley, said:”We wanted to help Miss Hesleden celebrate her upcoming wedding and show her how it’s done! Jemima and Walter, and the other Apple Class pupils did a wonderful job and put smiles on guests faces. We all wish Nicola and Scott a happy wedding day.”

I’VE been asked to point out that while parking is free at the small car park at Feizor, there is a box for donations to the Air Ambulance by the car park entrance to Elaine’s Cafe.

Lovely Feizor, near Settle, is a great favourite with both walkers and cyclists, many of who stop off at Elaine’s Cafe, most famous for delicious cakes. It was recently featured in one of our walks, supplied by Jonathan Smith, of Where2Walk.

Jonathan’s four and half mile walk takes in some beautiful limestone scenery, can be extended, for the more ambitious of walkers, and includes ‘one of the best cafes in the Dales’ he says. I couldn’t agree more.

FEELING brave enough? Studio Lambert North and Channel 4 are on the hunt for a new wave of brave singletons willing to bare all for the next series of the hit show Naked Attraction, and they are on the search in Craven.

In this daring dating series, hosted by fully-clothed TV presenter Anna Richardson, the clothed ‘picker’ will whittle down a group of six potential suitors, based solely on the power of ‘naked attraction’.

The naked hopefuls stand in individual pods, while one body part is revealed at a time to the picker, who eliminates a person in each round based on what they find least attractive.

The producers say Naked Attraction strips back the trappings of modern dating to just the naked body and ask the question: when we are entirely unfiltered, what do people really find sexually attractive? Others call it a ‘meat market’ and ‘Blind Date in a Brothel’; it did however get more viewers than Big Brother, when it first aired.

Filming for the series is set to begin in the Autumn, adhering to covid-19 filming guidance.

Apply to take part in the show here: https://www.studiolambert.com/take-part-naked-attraction.html

WELL done to green-fingered residents of Cowling who have created a ‘wall of flowers’ (pictured) made up of hanging baskets in the village, following an appeal by new parish councillor, Allan Friswell

Allan put out an appeal on social media for people to donate hanging baskets of flowers to put up on the wall of the former funeral parlour Emmett and Bradley as a way of celebrating the end of coronavirus lockdowns. Allan hopes to make the ‘wall of optimism’ an annual feature.

I hope they’ve been well watered in all this heat.

ON the subject of the environment and cheering us all up, a new partnership between Leeds Building Society and Clapham based Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust (YDMT) aims to dedicate one thousand new broadleaf trees in the Yorkshire Dales to young people.

Leeds Building Society says it will dedicate a newly planted tree for every child’s savings account opened in one of its branches. The promotion runs until November with the young trees planted at Bargh Wood near Stainforth. This beautiful native broadleaf woodland on the Ribble Way has sweeping views towards Penyghent in one direction, and Pendle Hill in the other.

The trees will grow to form an important habitat for wildlife in this exposed area as well as helping to create a resilient woodland that can help mitigate the impacts of climate change. Youngsters who have a tree dedicated to them will be able to visit the woodland and see it grow alongside their savings.

The collaboration also hopes to inspire more families to connect with nature and help them understand the importance of planting trees to reduce our impact on the environment, as well as enjoying these natural spaces for health and wellbeing.

Michael Devlin, deputy chief executive at YDMT, said: “We are thrilled to be working with Leeds Building Society on this special campaign. To be able to inspire families about the vital need to create new woodlands in Yorkshire by opening a children’s savings account is a fantastic opportunity, not only helping to plant much-needed trees but also sparking a lifelong connection and passion for the environment in young people.”

Matt Bartle, director of products at Leeds Building Society, added: “We know how we do business is as important to our members as it is to us and we’re proud to be making progress against the challenging targets we’ve set ourselves to reduce the Society’s carbon footprint.

“Our new partnership with YDMT is our first initiative to demonstrate this green commitment through linking our products with positive environmental action and helping to grow this beautiful native woodland will be a wonderful legacy for our young savers.”

NOW that Craven Museum, in Skipton Town Hall, is open again, it is interesting to go back to its early beginnings and see the amount of ‘stuff’ being donated by so many people. Back in 1929, less than a year after the museum was first set up, and presumably, an appeal put out to owners of interesting artefacts to hand them over, there was regular reports in the Craven Herald on just what ‘stuff’ was being offered.

There was of course the huge man-trap, once used on a shooting estate in Gargrave, as I previously wrote about, and now, I learn of a wooden spade, found at Greenhow, and believed to have been Roman (pictured).

Fashioned in Oak, the spade at the time was described as about three feet long and was found in one of the older levels at the Greenhow Hill lead mines.

And, so the article continued, if antiquarians could agree, it would provide further proof that the mines were worked by Roman miners. Tradition told of mines at Cononley, Thorpe, Grassington and Greenhow being worked during the Roman ‘occupation’, not that everyone at the time went along with that theory. Two nails one at each end of the blade indicated that it was once shod with iron to prevent the wood wearing away. Perhaps, in the newly reopened museum, it can be placed next to the Roman lead ‘pig’ ingot.