Great Ouseburn may be small but it showed yesterday it has some of the finest gardens in the Harrogate district.

Sixteen private gardens opened for the day as part of the village’s annual garden festival.

They included a wildflower meadow, quirky modern designs, cottage gardens and even one small courtyard garden that doesn’t get any sun for almost half the year.

The festival has grown to become about more than beautiful gardens: there were also concerts by the vocal ensemble Camerata Sonora in St Mary’s Church, a cookery demonstration, wine tasting, gardeners’ question time and displays of Morgan cars and alpacas on the village green.

With cricket on the playing fields and tea and cakes in the school, it made for a quintessentially English experience that even included a downpour, which fortunately did not take place until five minutes before the event was due to end.

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The festival, which raises money for village causes, was the latest of many midsummer open gardens events taking place across the district.

Knaresborough and Marton-cum-Grafton are holding events this weekend.

For further details, click here.

Here are some photos from Great Ouseburn yesterday.

Plans have been approved to build a new permanent classroom at Great Ouseburn Community Primary School.

The school on Main Street in the village was established in 1884 and currently caters for 96 pupils.

North Yorkshire County Council applied to itself for planning permission to demolish an existing pre-fabricated classroom that was built in 2013 in order to replace it with a larger and permanent building.

The current prefabricated classroom is 88 square metres whereas the new building will be more than twice the size at 177 square metres.

The council’s planning and regulatory functions committee met this morning in Northallerton and approved the application.

The plans also include the removal of a tree, landscaping works and a new astroturf sports pitch.

This new unit will be made up of two teaching classrooms that will share cloakroom space and toilets between them with separate teaching storage rooms in each classroom.  Each classroom will provide a minimum of 30 spaces for children.

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A report to councillors ahead of the meeting said although there will be a new sports pitch some grass areas used by children for play will be built upon.

It called this “unfortunate” but said the proposed development would improve the school teaching capabilities as well as cater to the current number of students attending the school.

There were 20 letters of support and three objections.

Councillors asked for the new builds to be resited, solar panels to be added and for the removed tree to be replaced with three semi-mature trees.

Friends of Great Ouseburn School has launched a crowdfunder to raise £75,000 for the project.

It says the council will fund part of it and the school will pay the rest. Work is expected to take place during the summer holidays.

It says:

“We are a small village school, but have grown in numbers to almost double the size that we were four years ago. It is brilliant to have a happy, thriving school, but the rapid increase has come with some issues. We have two classrooms that are too small for a full class and we have been trying to find a solution to this for a couple of years.

“The most vital part of this is the extension of existing classroom space and installation of toilets that will allow our nursery and reception age children to access their own toilets.”

Two churches in the Harrogate district have been awarded grants worth a total of more than £9,000 for repairs.

Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust gave grants totalling £78,000 to 19 churches for repairs, conservation and maintenance work in its latest funding round.

Successful Harrogate district applicants were St Mary’s in Great Ouseburn, which was awarded £6,000 for boundary wall repairs and St John’s in Minskip, near Boroughbridge, which received £3,300 to tackle damp.

Robert Beaumont, churchwarden at St John’s, said the grant “means the world to our little church”,

Mr Beaumont said damp threatened the structure of the church, and was also damaging the interior. He added:

“Specifically, faulty drains and a broken bell tower are causing peeling walls and discolouration inside, as well as a damp exterior.

“In addition, a couple of windows are broken and the floor is uneven in places. Whilst we are able to hold and enjoy our services, the structure of the church has been worrying us for some time.

“We have undertaken some serious fundraising which, together with this grant, will enable us to pay for the whole regeneration project. We have a very strong and committed church council and we have already raised £3,000 towards this specific project.

He added work carried out by local builder Tim Wilkinson will begin in January.

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Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust provides funds for churches, chapels and meeting houses of all Christian denominations within the county of Yorkshire.

Trust chairman Tom Ramsden said:

“Our latest grant awards support a wide variety of churches and projects.

“They range from helping to repair the roof of the Grade II listed St James in Slaithwaite built in 1796, through to helping make watertight Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic chapel in Headingley, built in the 1930s

“We are also delighted to support St John’s Church in Minskip, which is a lovely little church that serves its community so well. It is very rewarding to see at first hand the structural problems that will be tackled and solved, thanks in part to our grant.”

Full list of churches receiving grants

Great Ouseburn, St Mary, £6000 for boundary wall repairs

Minskip, St John, £3300 for bell tower repairs

Leeds, All Hallows, £10,000 for roof repairs

Leeds, Our Lady of Lourdes, £3000 for roof repairs

Leeds, Cathedral Church of St Anne, £3000 for stonework repairs

Leeds, Holy Rosary, £1500 for roof repairs

Clifford, St Edward King and Confessor, £3500 for roof repairs

Baildon, St James £2000, for tower repairs

Bierley, St John the Evangelist, £5000 for clock repairs

Skipwith, St Helen, £7000 for drainage works

Golcar, Providence Methodist, £3500 for window repairs

Slaithwaite, St James, £5000 for roof repairs

Ripponden, Stones Methodist, £5000 for roof repairs

Thornaby, St Peter, £1000 for stonework repairs

Gargrave, St Andrew £1358 for clock repairs

Golcar, St John the Evangelist, £5000 for internal decorations

Goole, St John £4500, for roof repairs

Harome, St Saviour, £3000 for bell turret repairs

Slingsby, All Saints, £4500 for window repairs