On Sunday 15th January around 1,750 runners will be taking part in the annual Brass Monkey Half Marathon.
The route passes through Bishopthorpe and surrounding areas so a number of roads will be closed or have restrictions applied for the duration of the event. Full details are on the official flyer which you can view using the link below.
Hope everyone has a great event!
In August and September 1914, men rushed to join the Forces thinking that the war would be over by Christmas. Two years later, in December 1916, another Christmas approached, but there was still no sign of an end to hostilities. The thousands of casualties resulting from the catastrophic Battle of the Somme, which lasted from 1 July to 19 November, would be seared into the consciousness of the nation for generations to come.
Under the circumstances it may seem surprising that, despite the horrors of war, life carried on as best it could at home in Blighty. Diversions were probably a welcome relief to grieving people. On the 12th December 1916, the York and Ainsty Hunt provided one such distraction at Bishopthorpe Palace. The local press reported that it was a rare and picturesque setting. The York and Ainsty Hounds had never before assembled within the grounds of the Archbishop’s home. Adults and children alike gathered in great numbers to enjoy the spectacle. They watched as hounds raced up and down the steps of the Palace entrance where Archbishop Lang greeted his guests.
But the war remained very much in evidence as numerous khaki uniforms mingled with hunting pink. Lady Furness was in command of what was considered to be the largest field of the season and included many officers who were in training at home or on leave from the front. A large proportion of those present were wounded soldiers from local hospitals. Some had arrived on foot, others by traps and motor cars lent by the local gentry. 
The meet also gave the opportunity of welcoming home, Captain, the Rev. Arthur. S. Crawley, Vicar of Bishopthorpe and Chaplain to the Archbishop. Rev. Crawley had recently been awarded the Military Cross for gallantry and devotion to duty; he was acting as a stretcher-bearer while bringing in wounded soldiers under heavy shell-fire. (In 1918 he was also awarded a bar to the M.C. for similar acts of bravery.) Accompanied by his wife, Rev. Crawley, who was home on leave, received hearty congratulations.
After the customary glass of sherry, the field headed for Askham Bog. The sun shone through heavy clouds as the hunters cantered down Back (now Church) Lane followed by cars and traps. The chase covered ground from Dringhouses to Copmanthorpe and Askham Bryan with more than one fox found – and lost – which meant a return to Askham Bog. Apparently, there was brilliant hunting by Steeton Wood and the hounds made the best of the scent and raced on to Colton coming to a check at Bolton Percy.
The Yorkshire Herald suggested that “…the khaki division had a great time, and the gallant heroes home on leave will have something to remember when they return to the trenches.” We can only hope that some returned to ride with the hounds after the war.
Linda Haywood
Source: The Yorkshire Herald: 13 December 1916, p8.
Illustrations from: A History of the York and Ainsty Hunt by William Scarth Dixon (1899)
The Bishopthorpe.net email service is again out of action, and as before it’s due to an insecure email account being accessed and used to generate spam emails. We’ll try to restore the service as soon as possible, but in the meantime please try to ensure you keep your passwords secure and not easily guessable.
Bish.net email is a free service and was originally set up when few people had access to email services of any kind. In the years since then many alternatives have been made available and people have tended to switch to these other services instead, so it’s no longer a great benefit to provide free bish.net emails to the community. Because of this decline in use and the constant problems of keeping the service operational on a daily basis we are considering closing the email service. This would only happen after a period of notice to allow remaining users time to make other arrangements.
What do you think? Please let us know your views…
Update 3/11/16 11:15
Email is now back to normal
Users of the bishopthorpe.net email system (addresses like yourname@bishopthorpe.net) will find that they are currently unable to send or receive emails to/from their accounts. The hosting company suspended the service earlier today due to a large number of spam emails issued from one of the bishopthorpe.net addresses, probably due to lax security on the offending email account. Please be assured though that this does not mean the email system as a whole has been compromised. A single account is the cause of the problem, but the hosting company always invokes suspension of the entire system when problems occur.
At present we are working to restore access, and further status reports will be posted here when the situation has been resolved.
Update 30/10/16
The email service has now been restored. If you experience further problems please get in touch via the ‘contact‘ page.
Please try to keep your email account secure by using a strong password, and changing it if you think it has become compromised.
The small butcher’s shop, with its pleasant blue and white painted frontage situated in the centre of Main Street, is a familiar Bishopthorpe landmark. The butcher’s business, R. H. Dixon & Sons, has served the local community (including a number of Archbishops) for more than a century. Many people still remember Mr. Geoff Dixon who had worked in the shop all his life and died in 2009 aged 95 years.
It is not well known, however, that the business was started by a young butcher, George Scholey who arrived in Bishopthorpe about 1869. George was born in 1849 at Kelfield, the son of Robert Scholey, a farmer. In 1873 he married his cousin, Annie, and brought her to his home, in Bishopthorpe. The couple had eight children: six girls and two sons. Unfortunately, the two sons and one of the girls died in infancy.
Among the local farmers who would have called upon George to slaughter their beasts for market, was Alfred Dixon. Alfred tenanted Moor Farm in Moor Lane, Bishopthorpe. He and his wife, Eliza, and two young children, arrived in Bishopthorpe from Barkston Ash during the 1870s. No doubt the Scholey and Dixon families knew each other well and their children grew up together. Almost inevitably, the eldest son of the Dixon family, Robert Henry, married Edith Annie, the eldest of the Scholey sisters.
The young couple married at St. Andrew’s Church in 1907. Sadly, Annie’s father, George, had died only the previous year leaving Robert Henry to run his father-in-law’s butcher’s shop. Robert lost his own father, Alfred, in 1892 and, with his younger brother, Percy, helped their mother, Eliza, to run Moor Farm. Percy, who was born in Bishopthorpe in 1881, continued to run the farm well into the twentieth-century.
Robert Henry and Edith Annie Dixon settled into George Scholey’s large house, known as Walnut House, situated in the grounds next to the butcher’s shop. The couple had two sons, Arthur and Geoffrey; both boys having been given the middle name of Scholey. The two brothers followed in their relatives’ footsteps and became butchers. Geoffrey did not marry, but Arthur married Hilda Agnes Sandberg in 1942 and it is their son, Robert, who to this day, continues to provide the village with excellent fare.
Linda Haywood
Bishopthorpe Local History Group is grateful to Mr. Robert Dixon for giving his permission to scan and display family photographs.
Rina Siyengwa is a Sociology PhD student at the University of York, and has contacted Bishopthorpe.net to help publicise a survey she is running around pollution and pollution monitoring.
The survey is aimed at all York residents and is designed to get an understanding of residents’ attitude to monitoring pollution and access to pollution information.
If you’d like to help by completing the survey, please click the link below to start. All replies are confidential and you do not need to provide any personal information.
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/T9WKFGX
Thanks for helping.
On Sunday, 9th October, villagers from Bishopthorpe joined the nation in celebrating the great British apple! Throughout the land, apples were gathered from gardens and orchards for a mass apple pressing experience.
Link editor, Carole Green, seen left, organised the Bishopthorpe event which started with her team helping to pick apples of all varieties. By Sunday afternoon, the Village Hall forecourt was a sea of green and red fruit. Volunteers washed and chopped apples and piled them into the press. Strong men turned the wheel and we all watched as the amber-coloured liquid trickled out to be collected in jugs.
Villagers arrived throughout the afternoon with yet more apples and all were rewarded with pints of delicious fresh apple juice.
Thanks are due to Carole and all volunteers who made the occasion a very pleasant community event.
On Saturday 22nd October the 5:15’s are playing live in the Club. Top York covers band playing Mod, 60’s, Two-Tone, and Reggae. Get to the Club and get dancing. Doors open at 19.30. FREE ENTRY, ALL WELCOME.
The 5:15’s faithfully play Modernist anthems from the 60’s through each revival. Top musicians with a desire to make each gig special promise you a cracking night. Think Weller meets Entwistle and Moon accompanied by Rod the Mod who brought his mate Woody and you’ve just about got the picture.
The session will be delivered jointly between a number of council teams and external agencies, including: the Environment and Community Officers, Neighbourhood Enforcement Team, Waste Management, Public Realm, York CVS and the Environment Agency. It will be delivered in a number of formats including practical demonstrations and display material and information on the following topics:
1. Get Ready for Winter – an opportunity to see and hear our plans for our winter maintenance programme, see one of our gritting vehicles in action and look at the ways in which you can get involved at a local level.
2. Promoting the ways in which residents can get involved in the many volunteering roles within the city including Snow Wardens, Litter Pickers, graffiti removal.
3. How to sign up to be a Flood Warden, including what the role involves, through the Environment Agency.
4. CVS will be there recruiting volunteers for their “Ready for Anything” – the voluntary sector’s emergency response campaign.
5. Promoting the Council’s commitment to digital solutions and the customers ability to report issues directly through our on-line reporting tool https://www.york.gov.uk/reportproblems plus the One Planet York App.
6. Promoting recycling and waste management.
Information from Rural Action Yorkshire
One-off grants are available to families and individuals on low incomes, to help with their winter bills. The payment is expected to be about £140.
Customers can either apply online via their electricity supplier or telephone them.
For support with the Warm Home Discount application and other energy matters such as debt or switching suppliers, contact Kate Unwin, the Yorkshire Energy Doctor, on 07738 818391 or 01757 249100.
Families can also talk to Warm and Well in North Yorkshire for a wider variety of support around being cold at home.
Call 01904 704177 or go to their website: http://first4contact.org
The next meeting of the Bishopthorpe Ward Committee starts at 6:30 on Wednesday 21st September at the Old School.
Full details are on the poster which can be seen here:-
Marcus Collumb, Practice Manager, writes: The Old School Medical Practice asks for the views of our registered patients each year in an Annual Survey, this year all the questions have been designed and agreed with the Patient Participation Group. As a Practice we encourage registered patients to share their views with us about the services and standards we currently provide in Copmanthorpe, Bishopthorpe and outlying villages. Our patient’s views are important and help influence future developments.
You can pick up a copy at the Copmanthorpe or Bishopthorpe surgeries now.
The results from the Annual Survey and any proposed actions will be discussed with the Practice Patient Participation Group.
The next meeting of the Practice Patient Participation Group will be held on Wednesday 28th September 2016 at St Andrew’s Church Hall, Bishopthorpe from 18.00 to 19.30.
The following meeting will be held on Wednesday 26th October 2016 at the Old School Surgery, Copmanthorpe from 18.00 to 19.30.
If you have any questions about the Survey or the Practice Patient Participation Group please do contact Marcus Collumb, Practice Manager, by emailing osmg.ppg@nhs.net or by telephone 01904 706455.
The Community First Responders team in Bishopthorpe is looking to recruit new volunteers in the local area, to help provide life-saving treatment to patients in the vital first few minutes of a medical emergency, until an ambulance arrives.
Take a look at the details in the leaflet that can be downloaded here First Responder Recruitment for Bishopthorpe or by clicking on the logo, and please get in touch using any of the contact methods below if you think you could help to save lives in the local community.
Saturday 24th September. Bishopthorpe Sports and Social Club are holding a charity event in aid of Help For Heroes, featuring one of York’s top bands, “The Supermodels”, plus raffle and disco.
Tickets are available from behind the bar and are priced at £6.
Doors open at 19.30 and all are welcome.
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