Cowling Moonrakers

Dorothy Holmes Talk
Thursday 1st November saw around 20 members of Moonrakers turn out on a cold but dry evening to the Village Hall to listen to Dorothy Holmes give a talk on her family history in relation to the local history of the village. The interesting angle on the evening's events were the way she weaved her local history stories of interest around the log books of her families transportation company from the past.

The entire group was enthralled by the evenings events, including some very rare and old photographs and documents.
The meeting was closed at 9:00pm with a promise of a second volume and possibly allowing the recording of some of her many memories to CD for future reference and to add to the growing archives of Cowling Moonrakers.

Further press cutting from the Keighley News, July 2007.
(Click image for zoomed version - Press your back button to return)

Further to the success of the Moonraker CD's recording many of the Cowling people's memories of Cowling past. The local press (T&A) ran a short editorial report on the dying of the Yorkshire dialect. Norman Binns one of the contributors who now features on several of the Moonrakers CD recordings was interviewed on the subject along with Mark Wilson & Ken Edgar both Moonraker members.

Click on the following Newspaper cutting to read the report in full.
CD's are available directly from www.cowlingweb.co.uk
(Click image for zoomed version - Press your back button to return)

Following the successful fund raising events held by Cowling Moonrakers a series of historical photo prints have now kindly been framed and donated by the group to Cowling Village Hall. These prints will form part of a growing and permanent display at the village hall for all residents to enjoy. Cowling Moonrakers hopes to be able to add further prints to add to the collection as funds allow.

Our special thanks go to all those who have kindly allowed us to copy these photos over the years for all to enjoy, as well as the individual Moonrakers who have put so much hard work and efforts in fundraising and framing of the prints - Thank you.

Moonrakers website has been updated to reflect a new section to our website 'LINKS'. This will begin to develop and grow as we include local and relevant Internet websites that Moonrakers feel users of this site will find beneficial.

Moonrakers will be making the above presentation to the Skipton & Craven History Society this Thursday 16th February 2006 at the Swadford Centre, Swadford Street, Skipton at 7:30pm. We look forward to an enjoyable presentation to our fellow Skipton enthusiasts.

Please contact Ken Edgar on 01535 630273 or Kevin Brigg on 01535 633162 for further details.

Moonrakers latest Nostalgia afternoon held at St. Andrews on 12th February 2006 was another great success with over 50 people turning out on a rainy Sunday afternoon to come and view photos from the past. As well as this excerpts from the Cowling Voices CD's produced by Moonrakers were available to listen to and purchase, along with a public viewing of the Cowling Moonrakers Website.

More than £130 was raised proceeds of which will go towards framing some of the many photos collected which will then be given to the Village Hall for public viewing.

Please note that the next Moonrakers Nostalgia Afternoon has been changed to the new date of 16th February 2006 - 2pm at St. Andrew's Methodist Church, Cowling. This promises to be another popular and lively event with lots of photos and discussions on the day. Arrive early to avoid disappointment!

9th October 2005, Cowling hosted one of various locations throughout the Craven area celebrating 100 years old motor bus celebrations for Laycock & Stephenson's first bus in Yorkshire in 1905. Cowling Moonrakers were out in force to support this event organised by Aire Valley Transport Collection, with many members wearing period costumes from the time.

October meeting saw a strong turnout of people to view the Cowling Moonrakers website. All sections of the site were studied and comments made on the various aspects of the site including additions and corrections to existing photos and facts. It was agreed to have another Nostalgia afternoon before Christmas, date to be arranged......watch this space.

October meeting - 7:30pm Cowling Village Institute. Internet evening using the local computer facilities to spend an evening looking at the Moonrakers and other local Internet sites with a flavour on local history.

Over 25 people met at Cowling Village Hall for the walk to the Stone Hut, Cowling to view two locals performing the annual, and ancient task of Peat digging. A full description of the task and history was given by the diggers, and the Moonrakers had the chance to have a go at digging themselves. Further pictures and full report can be viewed at www.cowlingweb.co.uk

'Digging Peat' night. A summer's walk to the Stone Hut in Cowling to see the aged old task of Peat digging.

28th April 2005:
Next Moonrakers Meeting - 5th May 2005 (Election Day).

COWLING Moonrakers May meeting will be held on the same day as the UK General Election. As such our venue has changed to St. Andrew's Methodist Church at 7:30pm. We look forward to welcoming all new and existing members to the evening event.

COWLING Moonrakers held their second nostalgia afternoon on Sunday when more than 70 residents enjoyed a presentation of old photographs and documents. As well as the slide show maps of Carr Head Estate from 1923, oil paintings from past and present local artists were on display. The residents brought along old photographs which were copied for inclusion on the website www.moon-rakers.co.uk and to display at future nostalgia events. David Hoyle gave a recital from an old local playwright Alfred Teal, famous for many plays in the 1920s.

10th April 2005:
2nd Nostalgia afternoon, another success.

Moonrakers 2nd Nostalgia afternoon was opened with an introduction by Mark Barnes, Chairman of Cowling Moonrakers. Another huge success with more than 70 residents attending St. Andrew's Methodist Church to see a collection of more than 60 photographs. New photographs brought by attendees were scanned on the day by Mark Wilson, (Cowlingweb), these will be used to display on the website and at future events.

Mr. David Hoyle gave a recital from Alfred Teal's Craven Echoes book, and oil paintings, Carr Head Auction maps and books from 1923 were on display. Ken Edgar (Moonraker), gave a short talk on Cowling Byenames. Over £79 was raised on the day for Moonrakers to continue their work of preserving the local history to share with all. Rest assured this will not be the last of these popular events.

7th April 2005:
April Moonrakers Meeting - Report

Moonrakers meeting was held at Cowling Village Hall with new and old Moonrakers present. Topics of discussion were the forth coming Nostalgia afternoon, Peter Smith's family album, Ezra Laycock centenary celebrations. Moonrakers were particularly pleased to welcome Trevor & Lynn Smith from Kent who through both Moonrakers and Cowlingweb websites had been in touch to trace their family history from the village and it's surrounding area.

Trevor & Lynn were able to share a wealth of research with the group including links to the Lund, Redman & Thornton families. Cowling Moonrakers would like to personally thank them for making the effort to visit us and share such information.
Picture shows April Moonrakers session and Trevor & Lynn Smith from Kent.

9th March 2005:
Next Moonrakers Meeting - 7th April 2005.
Moonrakers will be holding their next monthly meeting on Thursday 7th April 2005, 7pm at Cowling Village Hall. This will be our penultimate meeting before the Nostalgia afternoon, and a chance for all to contribute to this local history event.

26th February 2005:
Next Moonrakers Meeting - 3rd March 2005.
Moonrakers will be holding their next monthly meeting on Thursday 3rd March 2005, 8pm at Cowling Village Hall. All members and new people are welcome to come along and discuss the varied history of our village, as well as helping in the planning of our next major Nostalgia afternoon in April (see article below for further details).

13th February 2005:
Next Moonrakers Nostalgia Afternoon announced.
Moonrakers are pleased to announce the next Nostalgia afternoon will be on Sunday 10th April, 2005, 2:00pm at St. Andrew's Methodist Church, Cowling. After our last successful event where more than 100 people came along to an afternoon of photos and memories of Cowling past we recommend you turn up early. In addition to the photos show there will also be other events on the day including local dialect readings from Alfred Teal poems. Further details can be obtained by contacting any of the Moonrakers from our contacts page.

1st February 2005:
Message Board added to Moonrakers website.
Users of the Moonrakers website are now able to click on the 'Message Board' section of the navigation bars at the top or bottom of every page to allow comments and replies to visitors postings to be made.
It's a chance for you to express your views and comments, as well as leave messages for fellow Moonrakers!
This section of the site will be monitored regularly by Moonrakers and replies given where appropriate.

28th January 2005:
Villagers taken back in time.
Craven Herald.
MORE than 100 budding historians enjoyed a night of nostalgia in Cowling.
The village's history group, Moonrakers, entertained visitors at St Andrew's Methodist Church*. Participants took the opportunity to view exhibitions, complete with more than 200 photographs, and information on the village in bygone years.

Moonrakers member Ken Edgar said: "A great deal of public participation took place as people recalled events and names from the past appertaining to the pictures electronically projected onto a screen by the group."

For more details, log on to www. moon-rakers .com

Cowling Moonrakers Nostalgia afternoon was a huge surprise to the organisers with more than 100 people coming from in and around the village to view a collection of more than 200 photos.

Many people were turned away as the hall filled to capacity and a second event is now being planned

in the near future to show further photos.

Thank you from all the Moonrakers to all who attended.
Special thanks to Joan Tindale &

David Hoyle for their invaluable knowledge on the day, and Kathie Edgar, Clare Brigg and Diane Ward for their tireless efforts in the kitchens.

Back in time: Moonraker members Kevin Brigg and Maurice Benson with a selection of the ancient documents

History revealed in ancient documents

HISTORIC facts relating to aSouth Craven village will soon be available over the internet, thanks to a group of historians. Documents relating to farming in Cowling in the 1700s were recently snapped up by a Silsden man on eBay, but not before they caught the eye of the village's Moonrakers history group.While the group did not want to own the documents, it felt they were important to the village and asked for the internet seller to send copies. Member Ken Edgar said: "I wason the Cowling village website and someone posted a message saying they had discovered some old documents being auctioned off on eBay. "I was immediately interested in the documents. There are three in total - dating back to the 1700s -with residents' names and details of purchases from Cowling."Mr Edgar then got in touch with the internet seller, who agreed to send him copies of the documents.He continued: "Although we didn't want to purchase the documents, we did have an interest in getting hold of the information written on them. "We will now keep them on file and use them as reference material. "We have lots of old documents, but these are the oldest, even though they're just copies. Ultimately I will type them up and publish a better copy onto our website."

Anyone wanting to view the hard copies can contact members via their website www.moon-rakers.com Members meet on the firsts Thursday of every month at the Bay Horse Pub, in Cowling.

The group plans to hold a special afternoon of nostalgia on Sunday January 23rd, at Cowling Village Hall between 2pm and 4pm.

A slideshow entitled "A History, of Cowling on Screen" will show images on all aspects of village life from years gone by, including mills, churches and transport. Admission is free.
Picture by Stephen Garnett. 2/5/1.

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