A Knaresborough club for young farmers is to collect Christmas trees for charity again.
Knaresborough Young Farmers Club, which celebrates its 75th anniversary next year, will be collecting used trees on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 January.
This is the second year the collection is taking place after the response to the first left chairman Katy Addyman “gobsmacked”.
She said:
“We thought we might get 10 trees, we might get 15.
“Literally within a week we had 200, 250 trees. We had to close the booking form because we were just gobsmacked by the demand for it.”
The Christmas tree collection will take place in Harrogate, Pannal and Starbeck on Saturday 6 January.
Collections in Knaresborough and the surrounding villages of Farnham, Ferrensby, Follifoot, Goldsborough, Kirk Deighton, Lingerfield, Little Ribston, North Deighton, Scotton and Spofforth will take place the following day.
A minimum donation of £5 per tree is required to raise money for their chosen charities.
You can book a collection online.
Once collected, the trees will be put in a wood chipper to make bedding for cows.
The proceeds will go to MS Society and Harrogate charity Saint Michael’s Hospice.
Ms Addyman said:
“One of the biggest supporters of the club suffers with MS.
“We chose the MS Society as a way of giving back to him.”
Knaresborough Young Farmers Club has noticed a rise in young people taking an interest in agriculture. A few years ago, the club had “two or three” junior members, or, members aged between 10 and 16. Today, there are 30.
Ms Addyman credits the documentary series Clarkson’s Farm with the increase in members.
Her own history with the club is less recent: her father was also chairman.
She said:
“When I told my dad I was joining young farmers, he was like ‘Oh my God, you don’t know what you’re letting yourself in for!'”
Knaresborough Young Farmers Club accepts members between the ages of 10 and 28. Anyone interested in joining can email yfcknaresborough@gmail.com.
Boroughbridge collection
Boroughbridge Young Farmers Club is offering a similar service on January 7. It will be collecting trees from the town and nearby villages.
Booking isn’t required — people are asked to leave th e tree outside their home or on the street and pay £5 cash when it is collected. The service raises money for Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
Further details are here.
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Pannal Scouts sell Christmas trees to raise money for hall improvements
The 1st Pannal Scout Group is selling Christmas trees to raise funds for the renovation of its scout hall.
The group, which celebrated its 75th anniversary this year, has more than 100 members aged four to 24.
The hall, which is on Spring Lane near Harrogate, has undergone renovations to make the building more accessible, including the installation of a disabled toilet and ramp. There is also a new outbuilding and mezzanine level in the existing hall.
The group hopes its latest festive initiative will raise another £1,500 to fund the final improvements to the building, which will be unveiled in January 2024.
Scout leader Andy Bielby told the Stray Ferret:
“Our group turned 75 last month and we’re just finishing up some exciting renovations to our scout hall which we hope will keep us going for many more years.
“This year we’re using the funds raised to complete some amazing transformation work to our scout hall in Pannal.
“We’ve been lucky to get some grant funding to bring the hall up to date. Unfortunately, that funding restricted us to certain uses so we’re raising money towards some more modest repairs and painting!”
The locally-supplied Nordmann fir trees, which range from 3ft – 8ft, can be ordered online and collected from the Scout Hall.
Prices start at £25.
Read more:
- Harrogate village doctors’ surgery to close
- ‘Absolutely sickening’: 20 Christmas trees stolen in Knaresborough
‘Absolutely sickening’: 20 Christmas trees stolen in Knaresborough
A trader who runs a business group in Knaresborough has said she is “absolutely sickened” after about 20 Christmas trees were stolen.
Natalie Horner, co-founder of Knaresborough Business Collective, organises the annual distribution of Christmas trees to shops in Knaresborough. The trees make the town more festive and any left over are given to charity.
The trees had been delivered and were in the process of being sent out this week when burglars struck last night.
In a social media post this morning Ms Horner, whose own commercial printing business Sid Horner and Son was burgled six days earlier, said:
“I cannot believe I’m posting this six days after my shop was burgled. Last night two men came and robbed around 20 trees.
“We are going to do our best to get as many shops done as possible but it means we will be short now and will have to refund some businesses.
“The saddest part is any trees left over every year we donate to charities and people who can’t afford a tree.”
The post said the criminals had also broken festoon lights, adding:
“I’m absolutely sickened somebody would do this and it’s just a constant battle at the moment and we are done in.
“If anybody hears of trees for sale or sees them in somebody’s garden today please message us. Also please check CCTV If you are on the High Street as we believe they left via the bottom end of the High Street.”
It’s not the first time one of the collective, which organises initiatives that boost the town centre, has suffered criminal damage.
Several scarecrows that formed part of a half-term trail for children to enjoy last month were vandalised.
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Christmas tree disposal service provides vital funding for Ripon Walled Garden
With the time to take down Christmas decorations fast approaching, people living in the Ripon area are being urged to support a local charity and help the environment.
Once again, Ripon Walled Garden, operated by the Ripon Community Link charity, is running its popular and environmentally friendly tree collection and disposal scheme to raise funds to support the delivery and development of the services it provides for adults with learning disabilities.
The charity’s chief executive Victoria Ashley, said:
“Our Christmas fundraising campaigns are vital to the charity, every penny raised through our tree sales and tree collection service directly benefits local people with learning disabilities by helping to pay for staff costs and gas and electricity bills throughout the year to provide services, five days a week to over 55 individuals living with a learning disability.
“The monies raised from suggested donations for the tree collection and recycling service has never been more needed as we all feel the impact of the cost-of-living crisis.
Ms Ashley, added:
“We are extremely proud to partner with Lightwater Quarries and Rudding Park Hotel who are both supporting the Tree Collection Campaign.
“In addition to volunteering to help us collect the Christmas Trees, Lightwater quarries over the last 3 years helped us purchase of a new minibus; supplied the concrete foundations for a new green house and a much needed toilet block, foundations and fundraising for a new classroom building as well as transform the look and feel of the charities main retail area, all of which ultimately help to provide much needed ongoing funds.
“Rudding Park has provided support in so many ways, on site, with events, teams helping us manage our woodland, providing golf sessions for our service users, and we are especially grateful for their donation of an overnight stay at Rudding Park as our Christmas Raffle prize which has helped us raise £2,430 this Christmas.“
Carolyn Sands, chair of the charity, pointed out:
“Ripon Walled Garden provides day care and learning opportunities for so many individuals and respite for their families.”
People living within a five mile radius of Ripon Walled Garden’s HG4 3HN postcode can book the service up until 5pm on Wednesday (January 4) via the Ripon Community Link website: www.riponcommunitylink.org or by calling 01765 609229.
The suggested donation is £7 for a tree up to 10 foot in height and £10 for a tree of 10 foot and above.
Read more:
Photo of the Week: Christmas across the district
This week we have a selection of photographs celebrating Christmas day across the Harrogate district.
Photographs by Kate Filippi and Brittany Thompson
Photographs by Helen Sunderland and Jenni Foley
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.
Send your photographs to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk for a chance to be featured next week, we reserve the right to adjust and crop images to fit into our format.
Knaresborough businesses take over Christmas tree duties from chamberA group of Knaresborough businesses has said it will put up Christmas trees in the town this year instead of Knaresborough Chamber of Trade.
The chamber has traditionally installed about 65 four-foot high trees on shopfronts and buildings around the town.
But local businesses said the chamber had indicated it was no longer able to do so and therefore they had stepped in.
A chamber meeting last week saw numerous people walk out and board positions left unfilled following an acrimonious vote not to set up a Business Improvement District.
Two local business owners, Annie Wilkinson-Gill of the Crystal Buddha and Natalie Horner of Sid Horner and Son, said they had taken the lead on the Christmas tree project and have set up a Facebook page for businesses to place orders.
The two women said they had made a completely fresh start, ordering the trees from Stockeld Park as well as new solar powered lights.
Ms Horner said:
“Chamber said they were going to cancel the trees this year as sadly they weren’t able to do them, so a few of us independent business owners decided to come together as it would be such a shame for Knaresborough not to have Christmas trees.
“This is a really huge community project and so many wonderful businesses have come together to make it happen.”
The trees will be put up by volunteers during November.
Read more:
- Business owners walk out of Knaresborough chamber meeting over rejected BID
- Green Shoots: Knaresborough mum sells eco alternative to clingfilm
The pair of business owners are also hoping to use the new Knaresborough Business Collective Facebook page to organise other events and projects.
The Stray Ferret tried to contact members of the chamber but had not received a reply by the time of publication.
Christmas waste and recycling in the Harrogate districtWaste and recycling centres in the Harrogate district will be open every day over the festive period except Christmas Day, Boxing Day, December 30 and New Year’s Day.
The North Yorkshire County Council household waste recycling centres on Wetherby Road and Pennypot Lane in Harrogate, and Dallamires Crescent in Ripon will be open from 8.30am to 4pm.
The centres accept discarded electrical goods, Christmas packaging, broken Christmas lights, household batteries and Christmas trees.
Good reusable toys can be donated to the Reuse Santa appeal within the reuse containers at the recycling centres. Toys will go to the No Wrong Door campaign and other charities.
Wrapping paper that passes the scrunch test (if you scrunch the paper in your hand and it stays in a ball) can be put in blue recycling bags for kerbside collection. Check collection dates over the holiday period.
Read more:
North Yorkshire County Council’s household waste recycling centres in the district are managed on the council’s behalf by private firm Yorwaste.
County Councillor Andrew Lee, executive member for business and environmental services, said:
“Working together, the county council and Yorwaste are continuing to give residents the opportunity to recycle as much as they can over this Christmas period.”