Pub pride will be at stake tomorrow when Knaresborough’s annual tug of war match over the River Nidd takes place.
The festive fun and frivolity sees teams from the neighbouring Half Moon and Mother Shipton Inn take the strain on either side of the river and try to pull each other towards the water’s edge.
Nobody actually enters the Nidd these days but the sight of locals holding a specially made long rope and trying to avoid sliding down a muddy bank is something to behold, and attracts a huge crowd of up to 1,000 people.
Half Moon landlord Tom Clarkson, who is organising the event, said the Knaresborough town crier would be introducing the event and Knaresborough Lions would marshal the crowds that gather in the narrow area.
The event will also raise money for Frank’s Fund, a charity set up by the Ashton family in 2019 following the death of their 14-year-old son, Frank, to Ewing sarcoma, a form of bone cancer.
Last year’s tug of war — the first after covid — was won by default by the Half Moon, which entered teams on both sides of the river, but Mr Clarkson said he hoped the two pubs would both provide men’s and women’s teams this year.
Drinks will be available from 11am and there will be an outside bar run by local brewery Roosters.
The action gets underway beneath Low Bridge at high noon and will feature best of three pulls between separate men’s and women’s teams.
Mr Clarkson said:
“It’s a cracking day that we hope will raise a lot of money for Frank’s Fund.”
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Photo of the Week: Fountains Abbey at night
This week’s photograph was taken by John Shepherd, capturing the moon shining over Fountains Abbey at the Christmas illumination night.
John Shepherd
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.
Landmark Knaresborough pub soldThe Half Moon pub in Knaresborough has been sold.
The free house on Abbey Road has been bought by Trust Inns, a Chorley-based company that owns nearly 500 pubs in England, Scotland and Wales.
The landmark pub is close to the town’s Low Bridge and has been extensively refurbished in recent years.
A team from the Half Moon takes part in the annual tug-of-war competition over the River Nidd against punters from nearby Mother Shipton’s Inn, although the event has been cancelled for the last two years due to covid.
Trust Inns tweeted news of its new purchase today, and included a photo of the pub’s new landlord, Tom.
https://twitter.com/trustinnsuk/status/1518969438405632002?s=20&t=fejl1LtYkJh3DBFS29WLXA
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Knaresborough’s Boxing Day tug of war cancelled due to covid
The annual Boxing Day tug of war over the River Nidd in Knaresborough has been cancelled due to growing covid uncertainty.
The festive tradition attracts as many as 1,000 spectators to the banks of the Nidd and the bridge between the Half Moon and Mother Shipton’s Inn to watch teams from the two pubs compete.
But the Half Moon has announced on its Facebook page that the event will not take place because it does not want to “risk people’s health or the NHS’s ability to cope”.
It said:
“Sorry everyone but we’ve taken the decision today to cancel the tug of war event this year. The covid case numbers etc are all going the wrong way to make the event safe. Even though it’s outdoors, spectators are literally shoulder to shoulder over the bridge and on the river banks.
“We also can’t restrict the numbers of people who might attend to watch it so it would be impossible to properly manage/check NHS covid passes/ask people to put masks on etc.
“We are gutted as it’s such a fun event, a wonderful Knaresborough tradition and great for the community and our charities but hopefully we’ll get to do it next year.”
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Five possible cases of the Omicron variant have been found in the Harrogate district.
With the Prime Minister warning of a “tidal wave” of Omicron cases set to spread across the UK, it remains to be seen how many other events in the district are cancelled in the weeks ahead.