A primary school at West Tanfield, near Ripon, has received a ‘good’ Ofsted rating.

St Nicholas Church of England Primary School on Mowbray Terrace is a mixed primary school with 49 students currently enrolled.

The school has maintained its status as good since 2010.

The report said “pupils thrive at this small and inclusive school” and praised St Nicholas for its “ambitious curriculum”, “exemplary” behaviour from pupils, and “wide range of opportunities”.

The report added:

“The school has a strong spirit of community. It shows genuine care for pupils and works in effective partnership with parents and carers to meet pupils’ individual needs. Pupils enjoy school. They work and play happily with each other and build trusting relationships with staff.”

Headteacher Sarah Taylor said:

‘We are incredibly proud of the excellent feedback in our report and delighted that the report recognised the exemplary behaviour of our pupils and that our school is an inclusive school where children thrive.

“None of this would have been possible without the professionalism and dedication of our school staff who Ofsted recognised as providing all children with a high-quality education.”

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A conservation trust which runs Nosterfield Nature Reserve has been awarded £250,000 to help restore threatened natural habitats.

The 150-acre nature reserve is situated between the Rivers Ure and Swale at West Tanfield, between Ripon and Masham.

It is regarded as North Yorkshire’s premier wetland grassland. However, rare remnant areas of fen and magnesian limestone are in urgent need of attention.

The National Lottery’s Heritage Fund grant will enable Lower Ure Conservation Trust to tackle this by employing three staff and embarking on a project to restore natural habitats at Nosterfield,

The scheme will also improve other areas along the Ure.

Nosterfield is regarded as North Yorkshire’s premier wetland grassland.

Simon Warwick, director of the trust, said it was the biggest grant it had ever received. He added:

“Our animals, plants and invertebrate life have been poorly served by us humans in recent years.  We are one of the most nature-depleted countries in Europe.

“In our small way, let’s hope this is the start of a fightback in this part of North Yorkshire. We are extremely grateful to the National Lottery players to have received this support.”

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The habitat restoration work will focus on wetland and magnesian limestone, including working alongside English Heritage on the neighbouring neolithic monument, Thornborough Henges.

There will be opportunities for local people to get involved through community planting days, which will be held in autumn 2024 and 2025. 

Work at Nosterfield will include includes a range of priority habitats which will be restored, conserved and re-created as part of the project.

Lapwing are among the species that will benefit. Pic: Whitfield Benson

Species such as Bittern, Lapwing, Reed Bunting, Dingy Skipper and Tubular Water-dropwort will benefit from these habitat improvements.

The project, which starts on Monday (July 10) and will last for two-and-a-half years, also aims to connect people with nature by creating a community engagement officer role.

Emma Higgs, project officer at Nosterfield, said:

“One of the most exciting things about the project for me is getting more people involved in securing a future for our wildlife.

“We have some great volunteers  but with more work to be done now  we need more and better trained ones.

“We will be able to employ three new people and one of those roles will be to encourage school children to become involved.”

Simon Warwick and Emma Higgs. Pic: Frank Dwyer

English Heritage has declined to buy a section of Thornborough Henges near Ripon after talks with the landowner broke down.

The cluster of Neolithic monuments above the River Ure consists of three large circular henges that have been described as the Stonehenge of the North. They date back 4,500 years.

The northerly henge is currently on the market for £200,000.

Knight Frank, which is selling the freehold of the land on behalf of owner Richard Bourne-Arton, described it as a “unique opportunity”.

However, English Heritage, which currently manages the central and southern sections of the henge, confirmed that it has decided against purchasing the land.

It said part of the decision was because the site was in better condition than the other two, which were added to Historic England’s heritage at risk register in 2009.

The northern section of Thornborough Henges, which is being marketed by Knight Frank.

The charity added in a statement that it also had “limited resources” to be able to go-ahead with the purchase.

A spokesperson for English Heritage said:

“Of the three henges, the northern henge is the best preserved (it is not on the Heritage at Risk register) and it has recently come up for sale.

“However, English Heritage is a charity with more than 400 sites to care for – the vast majority of which are like Thornborough, free-to-enter but not free-to-maintain – and we have limited resources.”

The move comes after the remaining two sections of the monument were gifted to the public free of charge in February.

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Historic England has described the Neolithic site as “probably the most important single ancient site between Stonehenge and the Orkney Islands in Scotland”.

The three large circular earthworks are each more than 100 metres in diameter.

Construction firms Tarmac and Lightwater Holdings gifted the site into the legal ownership of Historic England, which is a non-departmental public body, although it is managed by the charity English Heritage.

The site is located near West Tanfield, between Ripon and Masham, just outside the Harrogate district.

More than 13,000 journeys were taken using the on demand YorBus service in its first year of operation.

Data from North Yorkshire County Council showed that 13,426 journeys had been taken by the end of July, requested by 850 riders.

In July 2022, there was an average of 51 trips per day.

The bus service serves an area to the north and west of Ripon including Masham, West Tanfield and Bedale.

The pilot scheme, started in July 2021, has now been extended for another year.

The statistics are included in a report on the service’s first year which will be discussed by the council’s Skipton and Ripon area committee next week.

Increasing journey numbers

Journey numbers have gradually increased since the start of the year.

Despite this, the council almost doubled fares for the service at the start of August to £2 for an adult and £1 for a child.

The number of journeys is also roughly seven times the council’s target for the scheme.

It initially hoped that 885 journeys would have been taken after six months.

However, the Transport Action Network has accused the council of setting the target deliberately low.

YorBus covers 217 square kilometres to the north and west of Ripon

Councillor Keane Duncan, the county council’s executive member for transport, celebrated YorBus’s first year in July. He said:

“YorBus has proved incredibly popular since its launch in July 2021, with extremely positive feedback from users.

“We will continue to review this demand-responsive service to help us explore rolling out YorBus to other parts of the county.”

The report also stated that almost half of users would drive if the service was not available. It argued:

“This shows that YorBus is helping to encourage North Yorkshire residents away from the private motor vehicle and onto public transport.”

£229,000 has been allocated to the service for 2022/23.

Next steps

The council will now look at its future plans for on demand YorBus service.

This could include group discount tickets, a joint promotion campaign with the National Trust and investigating the viability of rolling out of YorBus to other parts of the county.

A new branch of the Women’s Institute could be set up in West Tanfield if a meeting in the village pub proves popular.

The WI previously had a branch in the village which closed down – but a meeting is being held later this month to discuss setting up a new one.

Margaret Merrall, a WI advisor who helps communities to set up and run WIs, said the suggestion came from local women.

“Two ladies approached us about setting up a WI in West Tanfield. They had been in another WI locally but one of them lives in West Tanfield and thought there might be interest in a WI in the village.

“When we met a fortnight ago, they already had about 10 people interested before we had even announced the meeting.

“Now we’ve set a date, we’re hopeful of getting a good number of people there and having some volunteers for the committee to get things started.”

The initial meeting takes place at the Bruce Arms on Wednesday, August 24 at 7pm.

If there is enough support, a new WI will be formed and its members will choose when and where they meet each month, as well as what they do at the meetings.

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While the stereotypical image of WI meetings is of talks in dusty village halls, in reality many groups prefer a more active approach. Belly dancing, gin tasting and bushcraft skills have all been on the agenda for WIs in the Harrogate district in recent years.

When a new Wi is established, it becomes part of the national organisation, as well as a region – in this case, North Yorkshire West Federation of WIs. The federation will support it by paying for the costs of its first three meetings, before members’ fees – just £44 per person for a full year – are used to pay for hall hire, speakers and other expenses.

Margaret added:

“I tend to stay quite close to a new WI for about a year. I’ll pop to a couple of committee meetings and make sure everything is going well.

“It has been a hard couple of years with covid in every walk of life. We’re pleased to be opening a new WI – our first since the pandemic – and we hope it’s something the community will really enjoy.”

A popular children’s “play café” near Ripon is closing its doors in September.

Little Beans, in West Tanfield, launched three years ago as a role play and messy play café for under six-year-olds.

An announcement on the business’s Facebook page said the venue at Village Farm, on Main Street, would close on Friday, September 2.

Owner Emma Terry wrote:

“It is with a heavy heart that as of September 2, Little Beans will be closing its doors and the Imagination Centre will only be doing private parties and events in external venues.

“This decision hasn’t been made easily and has been taken out of our hands.

“We would just like to thank all of our customers, past and present, who have supported us over the last three years, especially through the biggest pandemic we have ever seen.

“We have made some lovely friends along the way and will truly miss each and every one of you.”

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There will be a number of events taking place at the café over the summer and a farewell party is being planned on September 2.

Ms Terry added: