In her Christmas Day message for the Stray Ferret, the Bishop of Ripon, the Rt Rev Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, reflects on a tough year for the country — but adds that we should be drawn by hope not fear.

A few days before Christmas, I picked up my new glasses. Acquiring varifocals has taken a bit of self-persuasion, as a good deal of my pride got in the way with various phrases-in-my-head associated with the march of time, and getting older.

Plus, I had heard various stories of people wandering about in a fog, and tripping up going downstairs. Too many obstacles in the way then became another phrase-in-the-head.

An Advent carol service in Ripon Cathedral at the end of November rather sealed the deal however, when I struggled to read the words in the service sheet, and realised I would have to do something about it before Christmas.

So, I took myself off to the opticians and after lots of reassurance took the plunge, and thus far I have to say my varifocals have transformed my perspective on all things near and far and everything in-between, and I haven’t tripped up going down the stairs, yet.

The cost however was another matter altogether: eye-watering is one way of describing it, and this seems a reasonable if not necessary starting point for thinking about Christmas, for looking back and looking ahead as I prepare to leave my role as Bishop of Ripon and become Bishop of Newcastle in the new year.

The Rt Rev Dr Helen-Ann Hartley will be leaving Ripon to become Bishop of Newcastle in the New Year.

Pandemic, cost of living, war, uncertainty (insert personal or family list here), a failing economy, strikes. Each one of us will have been impacted by all of these issues, for in many ways they are all inter-related.

In the latter part of this year, I waited anxiously by my phone to hear news of my father who thankfully has come through open-heart surgery and is on a slow road to recovery. I give thanks for the incredible skill of the medical team who cared for him, who work under such pressure day by day.

Perspective is everything when it comes to the Christmas message of God becoming one of us in a weak and vulnerable new-born child. Right there is the whole point of what I believe, and what I seek to do in my role as a Bishop.

It’s because of that narrative that I am drawn by hope and not driven by fear (even if I have to convince myself some days).

And yet it’s not down to me alone, definitely not!  I know that my own perspective has been enriched, challenged and illuminated by so many people and communities who don’t form part of the formal church structures that shape my daily life. Perhaps most of the all the running community: Ripon Runners, Fountains Abbey parkrun in particular.

It is here that I have felt most alive and encouraged: a reminder to me that in my own outward facing role finding the things that nurture and keep me active are vital to who I am and what I do. And I hope I have brought something of the light and peace of God to them too.

You can’t put a price on kindness and gratitude, and that I have received in abundance. Thanks be to God.

Happy Christmas everyone, and all the very best for 2023.

Read more:

• Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal: ‘I shouldn’t need this – but it’s a lifesaver’
• Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal: ‘We had good jobs but we were still struggling’
• Stray Ferret Christmas Appeal: ‘My life collapsed like a wicket’

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.

The Stray Ferret Business Awards 2023 are for businesses across all sectors in the Harrogate district.

Over the next few weeks we will reveal what our judging panel is looking for when it comes to each of the 10 categories.

Next up is the Sustainable Business Award, which is sponsored by the York & North Yorkshire Growth Hub.

This award recognises those businesses that have put sustainability at the top of their agenda.

These businesses are helping drive change and leading the way by reducing their impact on the environment.

Companies looking to enter for the Sustainable Business Award need to provide details of the changes the business has made, the impact the changes have had on the business and wide community with any details of any planned changes.

By giving vital recognition to those who have sustainability at the heart of their business, we hope others will follow their example.

Does your business deserve to win the Sustainable Business Award at the Stray Ferret Business Awards? Entries close on January 16. It’s simple and quick, so enter today!

Click here or the banner below to enter for the Stray Ferret Business Awards, sponsored by Prosperis.

The Stray Ferret Business Awards 2023 are for businesses across all sectors in the Harrogate district.

Over the next few weeks we will reveal what our judging panel is looking for when it comes to each of the 10 categories.

Next up is the Dynamic Leader Award, which is sponsored by Succession Wealth.

This award is designed for those people in the Harrogate district who are driving progress, activity and change in their organisation.

These people have helped guide the business through tough years and are sure to make it thrive in the years to come.

Those looking to enter or nominate need to provide details of how this person leads, including an account of their skills. Also detail how this individual’s style has had a significant impact in the way the business now operates.

Does your boss deserve to win the Dynamic Leader Award at the Stray Ferret Business Awards? Entries close on January 16. It’s simple and quick, so enter today!

Click here or the banner below to enter for the Stray Ferret Business Awards, sponsored by Prosperis.

Police have urged people to be vigilant for sightings of a Ripon man who has been missing for two weeks.

Gavin Dhont, 45, was last seen in the city on Tuesday, December 6 and officers said they are extremely worried for his welfare.

Gavin enjoys walks in areas including the Hell Wath, Studley Roger, Studley Royal Park and along the River Ure. He also enjoys visiting Ripon Wetlands.

North Yorkshire Police has urged people to keep an eye out for him over Christmas.

Inspector Ed Rogerson said: 

“We’re doing everything we can to try and locate Gavin but you, the public, are vital extra eyes and ears to help look for him.

“We know many people will be out and about enjoying the countryside over the festive period and we’d really urge you to be vigilant for any sightings of Gavin.

“We’d also ask everyone in the areas near Gavin’s home and where he is known to walk, to please check any doorbell footage which may give information as to the direction he travelled in.

“If you have any information which could help please call 101 or 999 for an immediate sighting. Your support is invaluable, thank you.”

Read more:

• Police ‘extremely worried’ for Ripon man missing for nine days
• Ripon angler among 57 fined in illegal fishing clampdown

Police are asking residents and business owners in these areas, and along Princess Road and Lead Lane, to check any video doorbells which may hold footage of Gavin.

The force has also issued posters and leaflets in the area to encourage people to keep looking for him.

Gavin Dhont, who has been reported missing for two weeks.

In an appeal last week, Luc, Gavin’s dad, said:

“Gavin if you see or hear this appeal please contact someone. 

“Either call myself or another family member or friend or call the police. 

“We all want to know you are OK and bring you home safely. We are all very worried about you.”

Gavin is described as of thin build with short dark brown hair.

Anyone who has seen him since he went missing or who believes they know his whereabouts is urged to contact North Yorkshire Police as a matter of urgency on 101, or call 999 in an emergency and quote either his name or reference 12220219012.

A Ripon man was among 57 anglers fined in an Environment Agency clampdown on illegal fishing in Yorkshire and the north-east.

The anglers, from Yorkshire and the north-east, were fined a combined £18,766 for fishing without a licence.

Paul Nelson, of Water Skellgate, was caught at Three Lakes, Selby, on March 23 this year. He was fined £220 and ordered to pay costs of £135 and a victim surcharge of £34.

The cases were all heard at Humber Magistrates Court. None of the other offenders were from the Harrogate district and none of the offences took place on waters in the district.

It is illegal to fish without a licence, which costs £30 a year for coarse fishing and £82 for fly-fishing.

Some defendants were also charged with fishing during the close season, which runs from the March 15 to June 15 to allow fish to spawn.

Paul Caygill, Environment Agency fisheries enforcement officer, said:

“We’re continuing to see offenders receive significant fines for fishing illegally and, as these cases demonstrate, we will pursue offenders through the courts and won’t hesitate to take enforcement action where laws are broken.

“All anglers need a valid rod licence. The money raised through the sales of rod licences is re-invested back into the sport and illegal fishing undermines the Environment Agency’s efforts to make fishing sustainable. Anyone found fishing illegally may face prosecution and a fine of up to £2,500.

“Our fisheries enforcement officers routinely carry out licence checks, and we urge anyone with information about illegal fishing to contact us on 0800 807060.”

Read more:

• ‘Hundreds’ of fish killed by pollution on Harrogate’s Oak Beck
• Andrew Jones MP ‘confident’ of achieving bathing water status for River Nidd

The Environment Agency, which is a non-departmental public body, carries out enforcement work all year round and is supported by partners including the police and the Angling Trust.

About £25 million is raised annually through fishing licences. This money pays for stocking waters with half a million fish and improving rivers and fisheries.

Any angler aged 13 or over, fishing on a river, stream, drain, canal or stillwater needs a licence to fish. Junior licences are free for 13 to 16-year-olds. Licences are available here.

The Stray Ferret Business Awards 2023 are for businesses across all sectors in the Harrogate district.

Over the next few weeks we will reveal what our judging panel is looking for when it comes to each of the 10 categories.

Next up is the Business Growth Award, which is sponsored by Raworths.

This award is designed to recognise those businesses that have seen significant growth in the last three years.

Business growth could be measured either financially, by employee numbers of market share increase.

Companies looking to enter for the Business Growth Award need to provide evidence of the growth, background information as to the reason for growth and plans for the future.

Does your business deserve to win the Business Growth Award at the Stray Ferret Business Awards? Entries close on January 16. It’s simple and quick, so enter today!

Click here or the banner below to enter for the Stray Ferret Business Awards, sponsored by Prosperis.

The Stray Ferret Business Awards 2023 are for businesses across all sectors in the Harrogate district.

Over the next few weeks we will reveal what our judging panel is looking for when it comes to each of the 10 categories.

First up is the Inclusivity Award, which is sponsored by Kempston-Parkes Chartered Surveyors.

This award is designed to give vital recognition to a company that has demonstrated working practices with a proactive approach to inclusivity.

These businesses have made employees and customers feel welcome, safe and free to be themselves, regardless of nationalities, gender, race or sexual orientations.

Companies looking to enter for the Inclusivity Award need to provide details of its policy for inclusivity and, if applicable, provide and example where it has given significant support to an employee or customer.

By giving vital recognition to those who have inclusivity at the heart of their business, we hope others will follow their example.

Does your business deserve to win the Inclusivity Award at the Stray Ferret Business Awards? Entries close on January 16. It’s simple and quick, so enter today!

Click here or the banner below to enter for the Stray Ferret Business Awards, sponsored by Prosperis.

A former pupil of Ripon Grammar School has discovered the oldest known map of the stars hidden in an ancient manuscript.

Dr Peter Williams, who left the school in 1989, is a leading biblical historian at the University of Cambridge.

He made the discovery while researching a Bible manuscript belonging to the Museum of the Bible in Washington DC. Dr Williams said:

The ancient parchment, which came from a monastery in Egypt, is a palimpsest – a manuscript with text which had been rubbed out and new writing placed on top. Dr Williams explained:

“In the early Middle Ages when papyrus had become scarce and the invention of paper in the west was still centuries away, there was a huge shortage of writing material.

“Consequently, if you found an old manuscript in a script or language you didn’t use you would probably rub it out to put new writing on top.

“Now modern imaging techniques are enabling us to read faint text that was rubbed out over a millennium ago, sometimes even if all the ink has been removed.”

The text underneath turned out to come from around the sixth century AD, with the text on top from the ninth.

Read more:

• Harrogate leisure chief defends Ripon pool location amid ground stability concern
• Ripon teacher died after accidental fall in Italian Dolomites, coroner rules

Dr Williams had set his teams of summer interns at the Tyndale House research institute he leads the task of trying to decipher just what had been rubbed out 10 years ago and one student, Jamie Klair, discovered some of it was about astronomy.

But it was during last year’s covid lockdown, as Dr Williams was studying a page which his teams of scholars hadn’t managed to crack, that he realised he was seeing star co-ordinates, which turned out to be of the constellation Corona Borealis.

He discovered it was a fragment from the 2,100-year-old catalogue of the stars by the Greek astronomer and founder of trigonometry Hipparchus, a much noted chart of celestial bodies which was thought to be lost to the ages.

They are the earliest star coordinates preserved in any manuscript. The resulting paper co-authored by Dr Williams and published in the Journal for the History of Astronomy, said:

“Hipparchus’s lost Star Catalogue is famous in the history of science as the earliest known attempt to record accurate co-ordinates of many celestial objects observable with the naked eye,”

“This new evidence is the most authoritative to date and allows major progress in the reconstruction of Hipparchus’s Star Catalogue.”

The fragment has enlightened our understanding of ancient astronomy, which appears to have been a remarkably accurate discipline, with Hipparchus’s measurements correct to within one degree of the stars’ actual positions. Some 300 years later, the Greek mathematician and astronomer Ptolemy wrote his Almagest, the oldest star catalogue known to historians before this discovery.

Dr Peter Williams during his Ripon Grammar days

Dr Williams studied Greek, Latin and music at A-level at Ripon, where he was deputy head boy.

He went on to read classics and Hebrew at Cambridge, and now combines his love of old languages with research on the Bible.

Having studied for an MPhil and PhD at Cambridge, apart from a brief residency as senior lecturer in theology at the University of Aberdeen, Dr Williams has remained at the University of Cambridge, where he is an affiliated lecturer in the faculty of divinity, since leaving Ripon.

North Yorkshire county councillors in Ripon and Skipton have rejected a call to pilot 20 mph zones.

Campaigners backing the 20’s Plenty For Us initiative say reducing speed limits to 20 mph on residential streets and in town and village centres would make streets safer for pedestrians and reduce road casualties.

The initiative has been backed by over 100 parish councils in North Yorkshire, with many residents growing frustrated at speeding motorists, particularly in rural areas. However, critics have voiced concerns about the cost and how the zones would be enforced by police.

This year, North Yorkshire County Council’s executive approved a policy to introduce 20 mph speed limits on a “targeted, evidence-based approach”. This followed a review by the authority’s transport, economy and environment overview and scrutiny committee, which will revisit the issue in January.

‘They save lives’

The 20’s Plenty campaign inspired Green Party member for Skipton North and Embsay-with-Eastby division, David Noland, to propose a motion at this week’s Skipton and Ripon area constituency committee of the county council recommending 20mph zones are created in any village or town centre where “benefit has been identified”.

Cllr Noland said:

“[20mph zones] are popular, save lives, reduce the severity of injuries, CO2 emissions and potholes. They are sustainable and will hopefully encourage more people to walk and cycle. If this committee says we support it, it puts a bit of pressure on [executive member for highways] Cllr Duncan.”

In November, a similar motion was passed at the Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee. But in Skipton and Ripon, it received a skeptical response from councillors.

Read more:

• 20mph speed limits to be investigated in Harrogate and Knaresborough
• Ripon teacher died after accidental fall in Italian Dolomites, coroner rules

Conservative councillor for Settle & Penyghent, David Staveley, described the analysis that underpins 20’s Plenty “questionable at best” and said residents in Skipton and Ripon “would not appreciate being guinea pigs” in any pilot. He added:

“I won’t support this, it’s fundamentally flawed in its approach. I don’t see it will give the benefits it claims”.

‘What’s the point?’

North Yorkshire Police has previously come out against countywide 20 mph zones due to the increased costs involved.

David Ireton, Conservative councillor for Bentham and Ingleton, said the force “refuses to enforce” 20 mph speed limits, adding, “that causes major problems with residents. They say, what’s the point in having it?”.

Liberal Democrat councillor for Pateley Bridge and Nidderdale, Andrew Murday, said he backed 20’s Plenty but would wait for the outcome of the county council meeting on the subject next month. He said:

“I’m going to abstain. I support 20’s Plenty, mainly because it does reduce injuries but if it’s coming to the council I’ll leave it to them”.