This week’s photograph was taken by Katherine Schoon, capturing poppies on Ripon Town Hall for Remembrance Sunday.
Katherine Schoon
Photo of the Week celebrates the Harrogate district. It could be anything from family life to capturing the district’s beauty. We are interested in amateur and professional photographs, in a landscape format.
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The Harrogate branch of the Royal British Legion has issued a plea for volunteers to help with this year’s appeal.
Chairman Mike Comerford said the branch needed six to eight people to distribute poppies and collection tins as well as to take part in street collections.
Poppies were due to start going up in Harrogate today ahead of Remembrance Sunday on November 12. Ripon already has a magnificent display.
Mr Comerford said there was a shortage of volunteers this year because some regular helpers were either too old or unwell to give as much time.
He said volunteers who could drive were required from tomorrow (Tuesday) to distribute the poppies and collection tins on prescribed routes.
Street collections begin on Saturday (October 28) but shops can sell poppies before then.
Six hundred boxes, each containing 150 poppies, are distributed as part of Harrogate’s poppy appeal.
The poppy appeal provides support for members of the Royal Navy, British Army, Royal Air Force, veterans and their families.
The town raised about £50,000 of the £48 million generated nationally by the Royal British Legion last year.
Anyone interested in helping can call Mr Comerford on 07954125891 or email him at mike.comerford@ntlworld.com.
Ripon is ready to pay its respects to the fallen
Remembrance Sunday is three weeks away and Ripon is wrapped in a ribbon of red, with poppy displays at key locations and routes into the city.
Ripon Community Poppy Project, founded by Hazel Barker and former mayor of the city Stuart Martin, created its first display in 2018 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the armistice signed in November 1918.
Every year since then thousands more poppies have been produced by a team of tireless knitters, whose painstaking work adds to the displays that respectfully honour the dead of two world wars and other conflicts.
In addition to Ripon Town Hall, the knitted poppies adorn the bandstand (pictured above) and gates (below) at Spa Gardens, where a Remembrance Sunday Service will be held at 11am on November 12.
The display at the junction of Kirkgate and Duck Hill.
The poppy displays can also be seen on planters outside the cathedral, railings in the city, at roundabouts and all access routes.
On November 9 the Community Poppy Project is holding a Concert of Remembrance at Ripon Cathedral. Starting at 7pm, it will feature Ripon City Band, the Dishforth Military Wives Choir and a performance from Brackenfield School, Harrogate.
Tickets costing £13.50 are available from Stuff 4 Offices on Fishergate and the Wakeman’s House Cafe at Market Place South. Proceeds from the event will help to support the project’s continuing work.
Knaresborough’s Remembrance Sunday parade has been saved after the police decided to stop providing traffic management.
Elliot Foskett, assistant chief constable at North Yorkshire Police, wrote to 32 smaller Royal British Legions in July informing them of what he described as the “difficult but lawful decision” to no longer provide the service.
Larger parades have utilised traffic management companies for many years to ensure public safety.
David Houlgate, vice-chair of Knaresborough Royal British Legion, said the news had left its annual parade in jeopardy.
But today Mr Houlgate said Knaresborough Town Council had agreed to find a traffic management company to oversee the road closure on Sunday, November 12.
This will allow the parade from St John’s Church to the war memorial in the castle grounds to take place as usual.
Mr Houlgate said:
“This is wonderful news for the town and the Royal British Legion but most importantly it enables us all to commemorate in the traditional way and thank those who have lost their lives in the service of their country as well as those who have served and continue to serve to this day.
“It would seem that the sense of community is still very much alive and kicking and we wish to place on record our thanks to Knaresborough Town Council for their intervention. We are extremely grateful to them for this.”
The legion said in a statement it “remained extremely disappointed by the decision taken by North Yorkshire Police”.
Mr Foskett said the decision to no longer provide the service would ensure “police resources remain focused on tackling crime and anti-social behaviour”.
Harrogate and Knaresborough MP calls for police talks on remembrance parades
Harrogate and Knaresborough’s MP Andrew Jones has written to North Yorkshire’s chief constable asking her to reconsider the force’s approach to this year’s remembrance parades.
North Yorkshire Police has said it will no longer provide traffic management for parades, including those on Remembrance Sunday, ending a practice that has lasted for decades.
Knaresborough Royal British Legion has said the decision threatened this year’s parade in the town from taking place.
Mr Jones has called for the police to continue to provide the service this year, as there is little time for alternative arrangements, and then work with community groups so they can take over in future.
North Yorkshire Police claims its decision is due to changes to the law in 2004 and subsequent guidance from professional bodies representing police. It also says it is now out-of-step with other police forces which ceased traffic management of remembrance parades many years ago.
Remembrance Sunday in Knaresboroug. Picture: Charlotte Gale
Mr Jones wrote to North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Zoe Metcalfe asking her to review the force’s decision and reinstate police support at remembrance parades.
His office said today chief constable Lisa Winward had replied “outlining the legal position and the guidance from professional bodies”.
Mr Jones has asked the chief constable asking her to reinstate police traffic management for remembrance parades this year.
He said:
“Remembrance is about our public services coming together and facilitating a collective act of tribute not just to those who have fallen in our armed forces but those in the emergency services who have given their lives that we can be free.
“The parades are an integral part of this and an important tradition that will be lost without traffic management.
“The sudden decision by North Yorkshire Police has endangered that tradition and left little time to put in place alternative arrangements.”
Recognising the police want to stop traffic management duties, Mr Jones has asked Ms Winward to meet with him and parade organisers to discuss “a managed handover of traffic management to volunteers, community groups or council staff”.
He said:
“If the police want to stop traffic management for remembrance it is an operational decision. I think it is a poor decision but in the final analysis it is their decision to take.
“But the sudden announcement means there is little opportunity to save this year’s parades. That is why I am asking them to reconsider the approach for this year and then work with community groups to ensure they have the capacity and knowledge to provide the support for future years.
“I am hopeful that by taking a constructive and collaborative approach we can save these much-loved parts of our remembrance in which the police join and in which we remember the fallen among their number too.”
North Yorkshire Police confirms it will no longer manage Remembrance Day traffic
North Yorkshire Police has confirmed it will no longer close roads or manage traffic for Remembrance Day parades in North Yorkshire.
Knaresborough Royal British Legion revealed yesterday its annual parade was in jeopardy after police said they would no longer support it.
Vice-chair David Houlgate said the decision “almost certainly means there will be no Remembrance Day parade in Knaresborough as things currently stand” because the legion, as a charity, could not justify the cost incurred by managing traffic itself.
The force said today the ruling applied throughout the county and would enable it to focus on fighting crime.
In a joint letter from North Yorkshire Police and highways authority North Yorkshire Council, assistant chief constable Elliot Foskett said the new arrangements would “be in place for 2023 and beyond”.
The letter, sent to branches of the Royal British Legion, added:
“For many years, North Yorkshire Police has continued to provide a traffic management function to smaller Remembrance Day events like the one held in your community.
“In line with the legislation, the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing have stressed that policing should not take responsibility for closing roads or managing traffic, other than in an emergency.
“This is to make sure police resources remain focused on tackling crime and anti-social behaviour.
“With immediate effect, North Yorkshire Police has repositioned to fully comply and will not be undertaking routine traffic management for any Remembrance Day events in 2023 and in subsequent years.”
The letter said organisations will now need a temporary traffic regulation order from North Yorkshire Council and will have to appoint “suitably qualified persons to implement associated traffic management i.e. signs and barriers etc”.
Those British legion branches affected now have to decide whether to go down this route or re-route or cancel parades.
Mike Comerford, chairman of the Harrogate Victory branch of the Royal British Legion said the police had not provided traffic management for its parade for many years.
Mr Comerford said the service had been provided recently by Harrogate Borough Council, which was abolished at the end of March, and he would contact the successor authority, North Yorkshire Council, to see if this arrangement remained in place.
Ripon’s Remembrance Sunday parade is managed by members of the armed forces.
War veteran to launch Harrogate war memorial centenary commemorations
A war veteran is set to launch Harrogate war memorial’s centenary commemorations this year.
The 12-week commemorations will begin on September 1 and mark 100 years to the day after the memorial was unveiled in Prospect Square.
World War Two veteran Sheila Pantin, who lives in Harrogate and will celebrate her own 100th birthday in October, will launch the programme.
She won a scholarship to Leeds Girls’ High School aged 11, and went on to become one of the first women in this country to earn her public service vehicle licence.
Sheila joined the army aged just 17 and trained as an ambulance and staff car driver with the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the women’s branch of the British Army, rising to the rank of sergeant.
She was also one of the first British service women to enter a German concentration camp in April 1945.
The Harrogate war memorial.
After being posted abroad in autumn 1944, she was detailed to lead a convoy of about ten three-tonne Bedford lorries across France and Belgium entering into Nazi Germany from Holland.
When she got there she was asked if she wanted to work in the camps.
Reflecting on the time, Sheila said:
“I thought they meant barracks but it turned out they didn’t mean that at all. There was the camp with this huge entrance and an awful lot of huts surrounded by barbed wire fencing.
“We were entering Belsen. I could see our boys digging out mass graves to give the bodies proper burials.
“The only people left alive were in rags and were in a terrible state. They didn’t even know how to eat.”
It was Sheila’s job to look after the survivors in the camp, to clean them, dress them, show them how to use a knife and fork, to try to restore a little humanity after the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust.
As part of the war memorial centenary commemoration programme, a series of events will be held including 15 illustrates talked running from September 1 to Remembrance Sunday on November 12.
Meanwhile, to mark the anniversary, the names of 1,163 service men and women who died in the two World Wars and are etched onto the Harrogate memorial will feature in a multimedia exhibition called More than a Name on a Memorial.
Sheila will also give a talk on her experience during the war on Wednesday, September 27.
The exhibition and talks will be held at the West Park United Reformed Church and are free to attend.
More details of the centenary commemorations are available here.
A foggy day of remembrance across the Harrogate districtFrom Ripon Cathedral to Knaresborough Fire Station, people fell silent for two minutes across the Harrogate district today to pay their respects to the war dead.
Thousands of people stood 20-deep in the fog around the war memorial in Harrogate for the traditional parade and outdoor service.
Thousands of people also gathered at Spa Gardens and on nearby streets in Ripon, where services were held at the war memorial and in Ripon Cathedral.
Ripon Spa Gardens
Starbeck observed a minute’s silence at 11am before the main ceremony at 3pm.
Starbeck war memorial
Further afield, Junior soldiers from Harrogate’s Army Foundation College took part in a Remembrance Sunday service at Merville Battery, France, as part of a trip learning about the Normandy invasion.
Junior soldiers from Harrogate in France today. Pic: Matt Allen / MOD Crown Copyright 2022
Besides the formal ceremonies, many people took time out of their day to observe the two-minute silence.
Firefighters at Knaresborough lined up to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Knaresborough Fire Station
It marked the culmination of commemorations, which started with a minute’s silence on Friday. November 11 at 11am.
Pateley Bridge, which traditionally holds its main service on the 11th whatever the day, did so again this year.
Harrogate’s Ashville College also held a service on Friday before students and staff, along with members of the governing body and former pupils, gathered in front of the memorial to hold a two-minute silence and to lay wreaths and poppies.
Of the 300 former Ashvillians called up in the First World War, 38 died in the conflict. Eight of those were killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.
In the Second World War, 465 former pupils and teachers volunteered for the forces, and of those 59 were killed.
Ashville College
Thousands of people gathered at Spa Gardens and on nearby streets, as Ripon remembered the dead of two world wars and other conflicts this morning.
Services were held at the war memorial and in Ripon Cathedral, with both attended by the Bishop of Ripon the Rt Revd Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, the Dean of Ripon the Very Revd. John Dobson (pictured below) and clergy from the cathedral.
Spa Gardens, which like all other parts of the city has been decorated with thousands of red hand-knitted poppies created by the Ripon Community Poppy Project, provided a fitting backdrop for the ceremony at the memorial.
It was here that Andrew Cowie, president of the Ripon branch of the Royal British Legion, read out almost 400 names that appear on memorials at the gardens and in the cathedral.
Following a two-minute silence, wreaths were laid, including one on behalf of Ripon City Council, put in place by the Mayor of Ripon Councillor Sid Hawke (pictured below).
Wreaths were also laid by other dignitaries and representatives of all branches of the armed forces and the emergency services.
The service included hymns accompanied by Ripon City Band and the Last Post and Reveille played by Linda Graham, while lone piper Peter Spencer, of the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service Pipe Band played the lament Flowers of the Forest. which preceded the two-minute silence.
Royal Engineers from Claro Barracks, were present, alongside retired service men and women and members of the Ripon Branch of the Royal British Legion.
Following the service in Spa Gardens 60 soldiers based at Claro Barracks led a march to the cathedral, passing Ripon Town Hall, where the mayor took the salute.
Guide to Remembrance Day services in the Harrogate district
No Annual Remembrance services will take place across the district this weekend to honour the fallen.
Below is a list of events. If you know of others, let us know so we can add them to this guide. Email us at contact@thestrayferret.co.uk.
Sunday November 13: 11am – Remembrance Sunday service at the war memorial in Spa Gardens, where there will be a two-minute silence before wreaths are laid in honour of the fallen, by civic dignitaries, members of the armed forces, the RBL and representatives of other organisations.
Those planning to attend are asked to arrive by 10.30am.
Town centre
Sunday November 13:
Town Centre
10.30am – Parade and wreath laying ceremony at the Harrogate war memorial. The service will include the Army Foundation College, the Royal British Legion, regimental associations, uniformed cadets and scouts and guides.
Stonefall Cemetery
1pm – Harrogate Brigantes Rotary has arranged a service for 1pm at the Commonwealth War Graves. Wreaths will be laid by the Harrogate Mayoress, Andrew Jones MP, the Army Foundation College and representatives from the Commonwealth.
Starbeck
11am – gathering of residents at the war memorial on the Starbeck High Street.
3pm — Ceremony at Starbeck war memorial. The service will include the Royal British Legion, uniformed cadets, the brigades, students from Starbeck Primary Academy and local churches.
Sunday, November 13: 11am – ceremony at Knaresborough war memorial attended by local officials and Harrogate Army Foundation College.
Friday, November 11: A service takes place at the Cenotaph in the Pateley Bridge & Bewerley Recreation Park led by the Church in the Dales and the last post will be sounded. There will also be a contingent of 40 junior soldiers attending who will be marching in public for the first time since joining the Harrogate Army Foundation College.
Following this the young soldiers will march to the Pateley Bridge & Bewerley Memorial Hall on Park Road.
There will also be a display of the Nidderdale people who went to war and returned and those who didn’t, displayed by Folk Finders Family History.
Sunday, November 13: 10.15am – ceremony at Summerbridge war memorial
10am Service at St James’s Church followed by a parade and wreath laying at Boroughbridge war memorial from 10.45am.
If you want to make a donation to the Royal British Legion click here.