December 1998 & January 1999

Many thanks to all the people involved with the newsletter - Mrs Shirley Clark for dealing with the photocopying and distribution to the kind people who give up their time to get the newsletters out to every house in the village.

Tony Ezard deserves praise for all the arm twisting he does to find sponsors (I’m joking!!). Which leads me onto the sponsors of the newsletter, I am tremendously encouraged by the enthusiasm there is for the Rudston Newsletter and your financial help with the cost of the paper and printing is very gratefully received. Thank you to Pamela - my wife - who helps with the newsletter very often, especially with the recent adjustment to "Publisher ‘98 programme." Last but not least, a big thank you to all the hard working contributors, the regulars and all the additional information that you send in.

I’m still not getting many birthday and wedding anniversary greetings etc., so if you wish to embarrass someone - do it! Especially with a photograph! Have a great Christmas, see you in the Bosville Arms....

Colin Campbell

Parish Council News

Hopes are being raised that a satisfactory compromise may be worked out regarding the old car park. East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s representative had met our Chairman outside the court, rather than inside, and discussed the matter. In the end he declared himself to be "on our side" and would try to influence the Valuation Office accordingly. Meanwhile, I just received a form from them which reads as though I am somehow personally responsible for the car park! Anyway, I returned it uncompleted and referred them to the nice gentlemen at the E.R.Y.C.

We failed to get any further with the bottle bank business, I’m afraid, so it’s all down to the caravan park with your empties! Seriously, those without transport who wish to still save them, may be able to arrange with a neighbour to collect theirs too.

This month I was expecting to make advance apologies for the one-way traffic past the churchyard wall while repairs were in progress. Thanks to our local workmen, this will be probably finished when you read this, so I hope no-one was too much inconvenienced. Looks like "a good job, well done!" - Thank You.

A poster from E.Y.R.C. displayed on 1st November had disappeared by the 6th, so for those who missed it, it was advertising Beverley Festival of Christmas on Sunday 13th December.

A more important one is about to go up as I write. The Draft Register of Electors is available for inspection at Post Offices and Libraries - there should be a copy in Rudston. If you know of any changes which should be made to the list, you can contact County Hall directly, or alternatively any member of the Parish Council. The list will be checked through at our next meeting which is on 9th December, just right for their deadline of 16th December.

The main item for the next meeting is Funding for the year 1999/2000 - hopefully our needs will only be modest as usual.

However, first things first. On behalf of the Parish Council, a Happy Christmas when it comes, and a good New Year to all.

P. Crossland (Clerk).

Rudston Church

In village Hall

(Tea served 5pm. Followed by games)

Tickets from Mrs K. Algar

With Christmas coming up –don’t forget that stamps are still needed for the RNLI.

You can drop them in to

S Gilbank, Thank You

Rudston Neighbourhood Watch

We met, we married a long time ago

We worked long hours when wages were low

No TV, nor wireless, no bath, times were hard

Just a cold water tap and a walk down the yard

No holidays abroad, no posh carpets on the floor

But we had coal on the fire and we didn’t lock doors

Our children arrived, no pills in those days

And we brought them up without any State aid

They were quite safe to go and play in the park

And the old folk could go for a walk in the dark

No valium, no drugs and no LSD

We cured most of our ills with a nice cup of tea

But if you were sick you were treated at once

Not fill out a form and come back in six months

No vandals, no mugging, there was nothing to rob

and we were quite rich on a couple of bob

People were happy in those far-off days

Kinder and caring in so many ways

Milkmen and paper boys used to whistle and sing

A night at the pictures was our mad fling

We all got our share of trouble and strife

And we just had to face it , ‘the pattern of life’

But now I’m alone and look back through the years

I don’t think of the bad times, the troubles and tears

I remember the blessings, our home and our love

And that we could share them together

And thank God above!

- anonymous.

Bridlington Lions Club have again invited you to their Annual Christmas Concert at The Spa – Bridlington, Monday 21st December. Doors open at 6.15pm and the concert begins at 7.15pm and is due to finish at 9.45pm. North Wolds Lions have organised a coach to pick up people at 6.10pm on Long Street, at the 2 bus stops and then on Eastgate near Doug Clarke’s corner. If you would like to go on the coach, please let June & Mike Sellers know by Friday 18th December, Everyone is welcome!

Tel; 420237.

On Thursday 17th December at 6.45pm in the Village Hall, we invite you to join us for an evening of

Christmas Carols. Light refreshments will be served.

Tickets will be £1.00 for Adults and 50p for Children.

Proceeds are in aid of the village millenium fund.

We are sure it will be a very enjoyable evening, so please come and support us.

There will also be a raffle.

The Christmas party will take place on December 15th at 7.30pm at the Old School.

Leader Joan Jackson, Vote of Thanks Kath Algar,

Hostesses Margaret Reed and Joan Jackson.

Christmas at the

Bosville Arms

Full details are on the notice board at the Bosville for this fun event. The draw for the first round opponents will take place on Sunday 29th November, so get your name down fast.

Following the highly enjoyable evening in September, which raised over £150 for children’s charities. Another Race Evening has been booked for Thursday 10th December.

The sheets for selection of horses will be available on the notice board shortly. Come along, have a good nights entertainment and help the children’s charity.

In January (date to be finalised) a trip to the Black Sheep (Baa) Brewery in Masham is on the cards.

Full details will be posted on the notice board soon. Keep an eye out -- places are limited.

For the festive season the Bosville Arms restaurant has created a special Menu to run along side it’s regular a lá cart and bar meals menu’s.

For pre-booking only, there is a Festive Lunch available daily, (individuals or parties welcome). A superb traditional Christmas Eve Dinner. A wonderful six course Christmas Day Lunch, with all the trimmings. And the big New Years Eve Dinner bash.

(On Christmas Day - numbers will be limited, please book early to avoid disappointment - as of 21st November there are only four places left!!).

For more information contact Eileen or Catherine at the Bosville Arms.

POET’S CORNER

I wanna be a dog

I wanna chase a log

I wanna find a ball

In the misty fog

I said woof woof woof

I wanna be a dog.

I wanna be a hound

I wanna make the

BOW WOW sound

I wanna bury bones

Into the ground

I said woof woof woof

I wanna be a hound

I wanna be a mutt

I wanna have my fur cut

I wanna go to sleep in

An outside hut

I said woof woof woof

I wanna be a mutt

I wanna be called Zap

I wanna doggy flap

I wanna go to sleep

On my owners lap

I said woof woof woof

I wanna be called Zap

I wanna be a star

I wanna drive a car

I wanna be a brilliant

Football star

I wanna score goals

I wanna be Paul Scholes

I wanna drive around in

A big, flash Rolls

I said yeah yeah yeah

I wanna score goals

I wanna play for Hoddle

I wanna sing with Waddle

I wanna coach England

‘cos that would be a doddle

I said yeah yeah yeah

I wanna play for Hoddle

I wanna be a star

That would be real neat

But I don’t think it’ll happen

‘Cos I’ve got two left feet!

By James Knaggs

I wanna be a dog

I wanna be a dog

But all I am is

A big fat frog

I said croak woof croak

By Christopher Walker

I wanna be a star

I wanna go far

I really, really, really wanna

Be a superstar

I wanna make dosh

I wanna look posh

I wanna go to restaurants

And eat fancy nosh

I said yeah yeah yeah

I wanna make dosh

I wanna sing

I wanna let my voice ring

I wanna sing really loud like

A rock ‘n’ roll king

I said yeah yeah yeah

I wanna sing

I wanna be a queen

I wanna be seen

I wanna be on every cinema screen

I said yeah yeah yeah

I wanna be a queen

I wanna be a super star

I wanna be heard near and far

I wanna drive around in

A big flash car

I said yeah yeah yeah

I wanna be a super star

I wanna be a star

To go to the top

But I’ll have to wait

‘Cos I work in a fish shop

By Hannah Cope

Gardening news - December

By Dick Robinson

This is one of the more quiet months in our gardens. the usual autumn clean up of perennial plants should by now be completed, the last few to flower were the lovely michaelmas daisies, and sedum spectablilis last October. The summer vegetables are finished, the sprouts are in season and if lucky enough to have swedes, then at least there is something to enjoy from the plots. The caterpillars made a real mess of my winter cauliflower plants in spite of the spraying: I think my insecticide must be past it’s sell by date!!

In spite of an indifferent summer, the gardens in Rudston were a picture, remember our Open Gardens in July, and having attended many shows I must say the vegetables as well as flowers were of top quality. Fruit not so good this time, so I am looking for a better apple year, one cannot be without the apple pies. For the keen show exhibitor, now is the month when the seed of those giant onions is sown in heat, usually on Boxing Day, special strains of the Kelsea onion are best, the Scots know how to grow these winners. Boxing Day is also a good time to prune the grape vine by cutting back those young shoots leaving two dormant buds only. Finally, for energetic folk who are inclined to the habit of jogging or aerobics, might I suggest an hour or two digging the garden in readiness for the new season’s sowing and planting.

Looking Back at 1998 - Here we are in December, at the end of a most unusual year in the garden, late frosts last spring ruined many a fruit crop, and where the plums escaped - more trouble appeared in September when some plums dried up, the skins cracked and the leaves fell off as brown shrivelled up bits of tissue paper. The potato growers had a good crop of earlies but the dreaded Blight hit some other second and main crops.

Tomatoes seemed to stay green for a long time, one gardener I know in Bridlington never picked a red tom until mid September, and the caterpillars on greens had a feast day in August & September. Rust on chrysanths, red spider mite on peaches and foliage plants, and a strange brown trouble on onions: why don’t I concrete the plot down? well it’s because of the "call of the soil." it’s in the blood, so stop grumbling and look forward to a better year.

At this time of our gardening season I’m always reminded of a senior gardener I worked under as a young man, he grew lots of apples, that’s when I really became keen on this fruit, he always extolled the old cooking variety "peasgood Nonsuch" a giant of a fruit and grand for those apple dumplings. Now this apple was raised by a lady, a Mrs Peasgood of Stamford, Lincs, in 1858 from the seed of the old Catshead Codlin, itself an old English apple of the 1600’s.

Peasgood Nonsuch is a large green apple that turns a golden yellow with a slight flush and a few stripes, a show variety, an old tree used to grow in the Lodge Garden at the Pickering Park, Hull and, of course, it was widely grown in the old estate wall gardens. It’s said to be the parent of that superb show apple "Charles Ross"; do we have trees in the East Riding I wonder? of Mrs Peasgood winner?

We who grow our plants on the Yorkshire Wolds often think our soils do not need a dressing of lime , there being lots of chalk very near the surface in many cases. One tends to forget that it’s rained on our Wolds for millions of years and soluble calcium does wash downwards to lower regions, those of us who use hard water know only too well how the elements in the kettles become what mother called "furred up" Also, every mother used to tell the children how important it was to eat up our cabbage, etc. or else our teeth and bones would suffer. For those who grow vegetables the same principle applies, a good supply of calcium is vital to good plant development. Crops can become soft if short of this plant food, bruising of soft tissues when handling of produce is partly due to the plant being short of calcium. Sprouts, Iceberg |lettuce, celery, cauliflower’s and spinach all can be damaged and lots of gardeners know about those small brown spots in the flesh of apples; this is known as Bitter Pit - also due to the shortage of calcium. A good looking cabbage or lettuce can also have a brown centre when cut into, this too is often due to a lack of calcium. the soil itself needs this element from time to time, calcium applied as lime or ground chalk sweetens a sour soil just as sugar sweetens tea. Keen gardeners have a soil test done to tell if their soil needs a dressing of lime, it’s called the pH test, this measures the degree of acidity or alkalinity in the samples. Simple test kits are available and make a nice gift for the gardener at Christmas; this is a hint!!

A word of caution, where lime hating plants are growing such as heather’s, rhododendrons, azaleas, magnolias, oxydendrons and camellias, do not use any form of calcium, and remember - do not use our hard water on this group of plants!! The old -fashioned rain water butt was useful, soft water was also nice on the skin and my Grandmother used to say it was "saving on soap". How times have changed...

This is a recipe I was given over 20 years ago. It’s very simple, keeps moist and has no fat – unless you put some on after it’s made!

Mrs Constance Stephenson

½ lb Demerara Sugar

¾ pt Cold Strained Tea

1 lb Self Raising Flour

1 or 2 Eggs (as you prefer)

Soak the dried fruit and sugar in the cold tea and leave overnight.

Next day, stir in the flour and eggs.

Put into 2 well greased loaf tins and bake in a moderate oven at Gas mark 4 (325°F - 350°F) for 1-1½ hours.

Soak fruit for 3 days in ¼pt of Sherry.

Ingredients

1lb (400g) Mixed fruit

4oz (100g) Chopped raisins

4oz (100g) Cherries (quartered)

6oz (150g) Soft margarine

6oz (150g) Moist brown sugar (muscovado or barbados)

1 Lemon rind (grated)

1 Orange rind (grated)

3 Eggs

1tbsp Black treacle

2oz (50g) Almonds

4oz (100g) Plain flour

2oz (50g) Self raising flour

1 tsp Mixed spice

Cream marg, sugar, lemon and orange rinds, treacle, almonds and eggs in a bowl.

Sift flour and spice. Add to bowl and beat well. Stir in soaked fruit.

Place in 8" (20cm) round tin lined with greaseproof paper.

Bake in centre of cool oven (275°F, 140°c) for about

45 minutes. Cook on low temperature to keep it moist and crumbly.

Stores for up to 3 months.

Gardening News, January 1999

By Dick Robinson

Nature News

By Tony Ezard

A Northern Spirit

After a lifetime’s work on the railway, he now picked up his lamp by habit. The day’s rain had stopped and a thick mist was rolling in from the sea. Tom considered himself fortunate to live in a friendly East Coast village - one of the few on the line to have kept it’s station. His walk would take him in that direction, some 300 yards, but at the moment invisible in the fog.

Just then he heard a whistle - a steam train’s whistle! Other sounds came to him as he approached the level crossing by the station. A double clang announced the closing of the crossing gates to road traffic (what happened to the automatic barriers?) A semaphore signal clunked down (hadn’t that been replaced by colour lights years ago?)

Next came the unmistakable sound of a steam locomotive working up the gradient from Bridlington. His eyes beginning to sparkle, Tom found himself nearly breaking into a run, in order to reach the station at the same time as the train. Out of the fog, slowing for the station, loomed the Hull engine "Wildebeeste" at the head of a five-coach train. It stopped, enveloped in steam, with steam almost hiding the carriages from view. Wondering why he hadn’t seen the guard, let alone any passengers, Tom was half-way down the platform when he heard another sound.

With horror, he realised it was the two-tone horn of a modern diesel unit. Knowing it’s driver would not be able to see the stationery steam train, he quickly fumbled his lamp to the red aspect and switching on, hurried down the platform waving it aloft. The diesel train appeared, it’s driver must have seen him, but continued braking gradually with no sign of panic.

Instead of a sickening crash, there was the hissing of an opening electrically-operated door alongside Tom. Weakly, he subsided onto the step, to be half-caught by a startled young lady guard.

"Are you alright?" she asked, "You look as though you’ve seen a ghost!" Taking a minute to regain his composure, and noticing the name on the diesel’s side, he answered "Maybe not a ghost - but certainly a Northern Spirit!"

by Philip Crossland

Thank you to everyone who supported our appeal for Shoe Boxes for Romania. Ian was able to deliver 140 boxes plus many donations of £1 coins donors had fixed to the boxes. We received support from Burton Agnes School and the Methodist Churches at Hunmanby and Burton Fleming and we know the boxes will reach the children in good time for Christmas. Again, many thanks and a Happy Christmas to everyone.

Ian & Audrey Forbes