Colin Douthwaite has kindly sent us some photos of the flood which hit his house in Fryton in the early hours of last Thursday. Like his neighbour Lesley, Colin’s house was completely flooded, with water up to 6 inches deep in the ground floor. Yesterday, he was still in the process of throwing out furniture and other ruined contents.
Colin says: “I looked out at 3am and saw all the water so went to all the neighbours adjacent (five of them) banging on doors to wake them up. No.1 priority was to wake Lesley up next door. When Fryton floods it doesn’t do it by halves but this is the worst we have seen in 24 years here.”
The Parish Council are looking into how to stop any recurrence of such flooding in the future.
Photos below: gates, front door and kitchen at Squirrel Cottage, and view from upstairs.
There will be NO mobile Post Office visit to Slingsby on Thursday 28th and Friday 29th January as the van is having an MOT. Our reporter on the ground heard this from Helen, who drives the mobile post office van.
This means that Wednesday will now be the only PO visit this week.
Following the wonderful way in which everyone contributed to window displays and lights across the village in December, we wondered whether anyone was up for digging out the fairy lights, or doing some drawings, arranging some flowers and/or generally bringing some light to daily walks around the village?
Traditionally, the beginning of February was celebrated by the Gaelic tradition, especially in Northern Ireland and Scotland, as ‘Imbolc’ – a festival half-way between the winter solstice and spring equinox. It heralded the beginning of Spring – with lighter mornings and longer evenings, birdsong resuming and signs of new life in the buds and green shoots appearing on trees and hedgerows. In the Christian tradition, the 2nd February is celebrated as ‘Candlemas’, commemorating the presentation of Jesus at the Temple. It has always been associated with the lighting of candles and once again, signs of green shoots, such as the snowdrops now appearing in the churchyard and gardens around the village.
Could we put together a ‘Festival of Light’ for Slingsby at the beginning of February? Perhaps from 1st to 15th February?
Why not dig out the Christmas Fairy lights again (it’s a tragedy they only get used once a year!), or draw some lovely snowdrops or other early Spring flowers, or light a candle in the window, to cheer everyone up as we go on our daily walks and get through another month of lockdown?
Church and chapel have kindly signed up to do something ‘special’ – watch out especially on the 2nd February for candles in the churchyard. We hope this might also be a sign of comfort to those we have lost in the village this year, most recently of course dear Pat.
With hope that this sparks some enthusiasm for our wonderful sense of village community …. and hope for brighter days ahead.
The flood which affected parts of Fryton on Thursday has now receded but the clear up continues for at least one unlucky householder.
The ground floor of Lesley Deighton’s house was flooded to several inches and had to be pumped out (see to right of photo above) and then the contents removed to the street.
We understand that during the summer, the environment agency cleared all the stream vegetation on the banks of Wath Beck. In Fryton, this was mainly on the village side, and so this seems to have caused the flood water to flood North Farm farmyard and the village . Prior to the agency’s work, the bulk of the flood water escaped on to the opposite banks and fields, away from the village.
Our thanks to Councillor Gawen Dickinson for providing information and photos.
Lesley’s daughter has set up a GoFundMe page to help with the extensive costs:
The snow and ice has brought flocks of birds in again to our gardens and bird tables and the annual RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch is upon us again. This always takes place in the last weekend of January, which this year is 29th – 31st January. In Slingsby, records of birds have been made on and off over the last 120 years, and these track the changes in the numbers of each species seen in and near the village over time, as agriculture and the weather patterns have changed. In recent years the Slingsby Local History Group has collected records. If you take part in the RSPB watch or prefer to carry out your own more informal count in your garden for an hour sometime that weekend, please send us* a copy of your list to add to the Slingsby bird archive. A simple email list will be fine. Please record the largest number of each species you see at any one time during the hour you are watching. *Then send your list of birds to [email protected] To find out more about the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch go to https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/ Thank you Margaret Mackinder
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