Room with a View

 

The view from the window at the back of the Visitor Centre is a picture on a beautiful Good Friday afternoon ...... 

 

and makes an ideal viewing point to watch Mr Rukin's ewes and lambs.

 

The patchwork of fields, dotted with traditional dales barns and divided by a zigzag of stone walls is marred only slightly by the electricity cables.  Will they ever be buried underground?  The steepness of the terrain and the ground rock would make it a difficult process.  On reflection, a few overhead cables is decidedly more preferable than life without electricity!

 

Keld Countryside & Heritage Centre Events 2014

Events Programme for 2014

The new Events Programme for 2014 highlighting all events and activities taking place in Keld can be picked up in the centre.  It can also be found in tourist information centres in Reeth and Hawes as well as most pubs, cafes and tourist centres in the dale.

Full details of all activities can be found at our website www.tkrc.org.uk

In brief:

Friday 18th April - Good Friday Walk

Saturday 10th May - Birds of Upper Swaledale Guided Walk

Sunday 8th June - Meadows & Moorland Guided Farm Walk

Saturday 28th June - Wildflower Walk

Sunday 13th June - Kisdon Classic Circular Guided Walk

Sunday 27th July - Keld Remembered - Talk by Joan Moody of her childhood in Keld

Saturday 23rd August - Storytelling Walk with Rhoda 

Saturday 13th September - The Lead Mines of Keld - Talk by Tony & Margaret Brennan

Tour de France Weekend 4th - 6th July

The centre will be staffed and there will be craft based demonstration over the weekend.

Christmas in Keld

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL WHO VISIT KELD

The church door; always open

A real tree, decorated and dressed, awaits visitors who stay in The Manse over Christmas.

The tree outside the Countryside & Heritage Centre is still standing despite being blown and battered by gales and rain over the past week.  In the background, The Manse, which is home to a family from Bournemouth for the Christmas holidays

Keld Festival Weekend

Keld has celebrated the 60th anniversary of the arrival of mains electricity to the village and the centenary of a remarkable historical dispute when in 1913 dancing was banned in the Literary Institute.



The Lantern Parade took place, at dusk, on Friday 8th November and was widely supported by the children from Reeth & Gunnerside Primary School, The 2 Dales Nursery, parents, grandparents and residents of the upper dale.

The children had tea in the Public Hall followed by a puppet show which they all thoroughly enjoyed.

Then came the moment the children had been waiting for!  They collected the lanterns they had so carefully made in school and a procession of over sixty children, excited to be walking out in the dark, made there way around the village.

The atmosphere was electric.  The children carried their lantern high and sang a German lantern song, learnt in school, during the procession.

The parade ended in the little square outside the church and the Literary Institute, where the children sang 'Swaledale'.

Debbie Allan, professional photographer, from Scenicview Gallery, Reeth came to the Lantern Parade to take photographs.  The Keld Resource Centre are extremely grateful to Debbie for allowing us to use her photographs as without them there would be no record of this event.
Please visit www.scenicview.co.uk or call in at Scenicview Gallery to view more of Debbie's work.

The next evening, to celebrate the 1913 dancing dispute, what else but a evening of dancing! The Centenary Ceilidh, with local Ceilidh Band, Cobbler's Jig, was a stomping success. The Public Hall, decorated with lanterns from the parade, was full and everyone danced the night away.  The hot supper supplied by Keld Lodge was excellent and the usual table-groaning, calorie-busting selection of deserts provided by supporters of the Keld Resource Centre were delicious.
A local person was overheard saying 'Tonight reminds me of how dances in Keld used to be; everyone joining in and being so friendly.'

Remembrance Sunday

Our Remembrance Day Service began beside the War Memorial on the roadside at the top of the village.

Local resident, Adrian France played The Reveille.

Following a three minute silence, 'For the Fallen' and prayers by Reverend Stephen Collinson the service continued in church.

Keld Festival makes full page in Northern Echo

Excitement is brewing as the Keld Festival Weekend approaches. The village is celebrating two important events in its history; the centenary of the 1913 dispute and arrival of mains electricity, a mere 60 years ago,
in 1953.

The Northern Echo devoted a full page report under the headline Dancing with the Devil.

Reporter, Mike Amos, did us proud and wrote a superb article about the goings-on in Keld 100 years ago when the village was in uproar because the trustees of the Literary Institute closed the place down when they discovered dances were taking place into the 'wee hours'.  The article includes interviews with Clive Davies, project manager of the Keld Resource Centre and Ernest Whitehead, the only remaining resident of Keld who remembers mains electricity arriving in the village.
Visit www.northernecho.co.uk to read the full story. Type Dancing with the Devil in the search box.  The article was printed on Tuesday 5th November.

Friday 8th November - Lantern Parade at approx. 4.30 p.m.
Around 70 children from Reeth & Gunnerside School and the 2 Dales Nursery plus a few more will walk in procession with the lanterns they made in school, singing as they go.

Saturday 9th November - Celebration Ceilidh
Keld Public Hall from 7.30 p.m.

COME AND CELEBRATE WITH US - EVERYONE WELCOME

Lantern Making for the Lantern Parade - Friday 8th November

All the pupils from Gunnerside & Reeth School have been busy making lanterns for the Lantern Parade on Friday 8th November as part of the Keld Festival Weekend.

The Lantern Parade is to mark the 60th anniversary of mains electricity arriving in Keld Village.
To these 21st century children, sixty years ago is 'the olden days', but it is, in fact, very recent history. 

Thanks go to the Yorkshire Dales National Parks for providing the willow and to the children and staff of Reeth & Gunnerside Federated Primary School for their enthusiasm and support.

We are all looking forward to event and in particular keeping our fingers crossed for good weather!
More photographs and a full report after the event.