As we proceed through the years 2014 to 2018, I intend to publish the names of the fallen from Bishopthorpe in both Link and Bishopthorpe dot net in the month which marked the centenary of their deaths.

On the last day of July, 1917, and the first day of the Third Battle of Ypres, two Bishopthorpe men died on the same day. Not only did they die on the same day, they were both serving with the same Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment.

As well as spending a few moments thinking of these men and their families, I hope that you find the details of some interest.

OUTRAM, Frank

Private, No. 15029, 2 Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s Own).
Killed in action 31 July, 1917, aged 23, in the Westhoek/Bellewaarde area, during the first day of the Third Battle of Ypres, commonly known as the Battle of Passchendaele.

SMITH, John Arthur

Private, Service No. 32278, D Company, 2 Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s Own).
Died 31 July, 1917, aged 28, at Ypres, in Belgium.

Their bodies were never found and they are both commemorated on Panel 21 of the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ypres.

They both had home addresses in Bishopthorpe, but neither is commemorated on Bishopthorpe’s War Memorial.

Remember them.

Ken Haywood

A new entry for Keep Your Pet has recently been published in the “Charities” section of the Purple Pages directory, so Bish dot net thought residents might like to know a bit more about it.

Keep Your Pet is a scheme that results from a collaboration between Age UK York, Age UK Selby and the RSPCA York Harrogate and District. The scheme aims to provide a short term solution for older or vulnerable pet owners in the York and Selby area, providing services to enable the pet owner to cope with a health or other emergency without the additional worry of having to organize care for their pets. The services include fostering, sitting, walking or feeding any kind of domestic pet.

A local couple, Steve and Dee Marshall, got involved with KYP after their beloved cat died and the house seemed very empty. They volunteered to be pet fosterers and fostered Ben on 3 separate occasions. Sadly his owner died and Ben finished up in RSPCA. When they heard of this they offered to adopt him permanently and he’s now been living happily with them for 3 years.

They’re both keen to promote the charity and help more people to benefit from the services, as well as raising awareness and hopefully attracting more foster carers and volunteers. Steve is a member of the Alterego ceilidh band, and will be performing with the band in a fundraising event at Bishopthorpe Social Club on 21st October.

More details of the event will follow nearer the time, meanwhile save the date!

If you’d like to know more about Keep Your Pet, see the details here and also take a look at the Purple Pages entry here.

As we proceed through the years 2014 to 2018, I intend to publish the names of the fallen from Bishopthorpe in both Link and Bishopthorpe dot net in the month which marked the centenary of their deaths.

As well as spending a few moments thinking of this man and his family, I hope that you find the details of some interest.

SIMPSON, George Henry

Sapper, No. 145570, 208 Company, Royal Engineers.
Died of wounds, on 25 April, 1917, aged 29, at 1st Canadian Casualty Clearing Station, near Arras, France.
Buried at Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension, Grave No. II. D. 70.

George Simpson died a hundred years ago today.

Remember him.

Ken Haywood

The Bishopthorpe.net email service is once again out of action, and as before it’s due to an insecure email account being accessed and used to generate spam emails. Under these circumstances the web hosting company disable the entire outgoing email service to prevent any further spam attacks compromising the system. We’ll try to restore the service as soon as possible, but please do ensure you keep your email account passwords secure and not easily guessable.

This is becoming a regular problem with the bish.net email service, and it again raises the question of whether it’s sensible to keep providing this free service. As users are probably aware, 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 again considering closing the email service. This would only happen after a period of notice to allow remaining users time to make other arrangements, but please be aware that this free service is likely to close this year, and make other arrangements for email where necessary.

A notice will be posted here once the current service is operational again.

Update 26/04/17:

The problem has been resolved and email should now be operating normally again.

As we proceed through the years 2014 to 2018, I intend to publish the names of the fallen from Bishopthorpe in both Link and Bishopthorpe dot net in the month which marked the centenary of their deaths.

As well as spending a few moments thinking of this man and his family, I hope that you find the details of some interest.

BOWLBY, Stephenson
Private, No. 200984, 2/5th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s Own).
Died of sickness in Woodside Red Cross Hospital, Glasgow, 10 April, 1917, aged 26. Buried in Bishopthorpe Churchyard.

Although he died of a serious illness in a hospital in Glasgow, Private Bowlby had already served on the Western Front with his battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment.

He is commemorated on Bishopthorpe’s War Memorial and his place of burial in St. Andrew’s Churchyard is marked by a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone.

Remember him.

Ken Haywood

In her book, Early Victorian Railway Excursions – The Million Go Forth, Susan Major looks at the impact of cheap railway travel on the lives of ordinary people in early Victorian times.  For the first time, they were able to travel long distances from home and take part in leisure activities in great numbers.

Susan will be giving an illustrated talk about her research to The Bishopthorpe Local History Group on Tuesday, 14 March 2017 at 7.30 pm, Bishopthorpe Methodist Hall, Sim Balk Lane.

The cost to non-members is £3.50 on the door and includes light refreshments.

• Green King – Patron Saints Ale
• Belhaven – Grand Slam
• Hadrian Border – Ouseburn Porter
• Abbeydale – Absolution
• Old Mill – March Mist
• Black Sheep – Special Ale
• St Peters – Hoppy T’ale
• G2 – Orion
• Chantry – Teaser
• Otter – Spring
• Spire – HoPink Mad
• Treboom – Spring Blonde
• plus 3 ciders to choose from :
  • Duddas Tun – Cherry
  • Orchard Pig – Hog Father
  • Snailsbank – Orchard Dry

For all the details you can see the flyer here Beer Festival 2017. You can email the Club on bishopthorpeclub@gmail.com or telephone 01904 707185.

In response to the previous post, the details regarding booking a stall at this year’s Village Gala at Bishopthorpe Palace is as follows:

Saturday 24th June 2017 between 12 noon and 4.00pm.

Cost of pitch: £5.

To make a booking or obtain further details contact:

Catherine Davies, 43 Main Street, Bishopthorpe, York YO23 2RA.  Telephone: (01904) 704216.

Deadline to make a booking is end of March 2017.

Bishopthorpe dot net has had a few enquiries recently from people and organisations asking for details about this year’s Gala.

Unfortunately the only information we have so far is that the date has been agreed for Saturday 24th June at the Palace, so we haven’t been able to help much. Does anyone have more details, such as who to contact to discuss booking a stall etc?

Tuesday, 7 February 2017 at 7.30pm.

Bishopthorpe Methodist Church Hall.

Bishopthorpe Local History Group welcomes Alastair Fitter of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust who will give an illustrated talk on The History of Askham Bog.

Askham Bog was the Trust’s first reserve, gifted to, the then, Yorkshire Naturalists’ Trust in 1946 by Sir Francis Terry and Arnold Rowntree; they bought it to save it from development.  It is now a Site of Special Scientific Interest and, within the last two years, has been saved again from the polluting effects of proposed nearby development.  Being so close to York the reserve remains a vulnerable site.  With this important historical and ecological site on our doorstep, please do come and hear more about it from Alastair.

This talk has been arranged both to increase our local history understanding and in support of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s work in managing and protecting the site.

Talks are free to members of Bishopthorpe Local History Group.  Non – members are very welcome at a charge of £3.50 per meeting.  This includes light refreshments.

For full details of the 2017 Bishopthorpe Local History Group programme, please click here.