Pannal and festive season

Hey anyone remember Herman Munster/ Well that is who my poor husband looks like. He has two rows of stitches across his forehead. Two black eyes, stitches on his neck and a cauliflower ear. I am out and about he is not. Hopefully he will be ok for Christmas when everyone comes up. All fifteen of us here. Be a tight squeeze but great fun.
I met Howard West today. He writes the column on Pannal for the Harrogate Advertiser. Only clubs and societies mind as that is all that is required now. My great friend Malcolm Neesam does not write for the paper anymore as his articles very much appreciated by the newspaper buying public but not by the newspaper decided he was being too restricted in what he was being told to say so has left exactly as I did. Shame. Wonder if through this policy there will be a newspaper in a few years time. Now back to Howard. I had not met him before so invited him round for coffee. Made a cake and he brought some lovely biscuits so we were set up for a long chat which we did. Can't say we set the world (Pannal) to rights but we tried.
Carols around the tree on Pannal Green on Monday. I hope to be there and hopefully Bas too. A nice start to Christmas. I will take this opportunity to wish everyone in the village a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Health (I don't do prosperous) New Year. Enjoy the relative peace as in 2016 building will start on the old Dunlopillo site and Pannal will never be the same again. On a happier note Fifty years we have lived here. My parents lived at Oatlands so there is not much I do not know about the history of the area and all the changes that have taken place. Looking back what am I proud of apart from my lovely husband and four lovely children and our grandchildren. It was being Chairman of The Harrogate Society and also Chairman of the Friends of the Valley Gardens in 1984 when there was every danger of the Sun Pavilion and the Colonnades being knocked down to provide a car park. Yes this is true. So I gathered together Geoffrey Smith, James Herriot (Alf White) and David Bellamy all personalities I knew a fantastic treasurer and right hand man Stephen Barnes and we did it. We saved the buildings. Nearer home Spacey Houses farm and outbuildings. English Heritage listed them for me as they said they were one of the most complete set of ancient (1600s) buildings they had seen. I am now trying my best with the old Police Training site which was Pannal Ash College and before that Southern College built in 1840. I have everything to do with the old school, trophies, school magazines, photographs, paintings and even school blazers and caps. I am also in touch with the headmasters daughter who lives in Eastbourne and is in her eighties. Unfortunately I could not save Ancient Spacey Houses Hotel and we went on holiday to South Africa and they demolished it in my absence. Such a dreadful shame.
See you all in the New Year. Be good!!!!!!