.June 2021 ————-BENEFICE NEWS————- June 2021
For enquiries please contact Revd Dr Robert Brown
Priest-in-Charge, Bewcastle, Stapleton and Kirklinton with Hethersgill
A: Greenholme, Bewcastle, Cumbria, CA6 6PW
T: 016977 48438 email: Robert.Brown@BewcastleHouseOfPrayer.org.uk
Notices
Wedding
Christopher James Tinning and Laura Mary Charnock, Saturday 22nd May 2021, St Cuthbert’s Bewcastle
Sunday Services for June:
As the national lockdown continues to ease we maintain two services a month for June and keep the situation under review to develop an ongoing pattern of worship that works for the benefice.
Sunday 6th June, 10am, Morning Prayer, St Mary’s Stapleton
Sunday 20th June, 10am, Holy Baptism, St Mary’s Hethersgill
Sunday 4th July, 6pm, Evensong, St Cuthbert’s Bewcastle
Our churches continue to remain open for private prayer (except Hethersgill).
Funerals: maximum = 30. The maximum number of people that can attend is 30, including the officiant, undertaker, and pallbearers.
Weddings: maximum = 30. This number includes the bride and groom, but not priest or organist.
Baptisms: maximum = church dependent (20-30). Baptisms (christenings) may take place and are now restricted to the maximum number a church can safely hold based on its COVID-19 risk assessment. Presently these are Bewcastle – 20; Stapleton – 30; Hethersgill – 20; Kirklinton – 30.
These numbers include the priest, church staff, parents, godparents and all children.
Note: legal limits on all events are expected to be lifted on 21st June if the COVID situation remains under control.
The Knowe Church plans to reopen for services Sunday July 4th 1.45 pm Rev’d Alister Smeaton is taking the service.
Saturday July 24th & Sunday July 25th 11am to 4pm both days Bewcastle Bazaar in Knowe Church grounds. Refreshments all welcome.
Air Ambulance Collection at Fir Ends School on Friday 11th June. Bags can be dropped off Thursday evening onwards (we usually have a trailer outside for this). Items for collection: Clothing, bedding, curtains, towels, handbags, pairs of shoes. No bric-a-brac. They also collect (in separate bags): old mobile phones, ink and printer cartridges. Any bags can be used but if anyone wants to collect (or distribute to neighbours) official air ambulance bags they can call the school on 01228 675 283 to arrange collection
It may be possible to collect books this time around too – will be confirmed closer to the date.
The school were thrilled to be visited by the new Pride of Cumbria II when the crew collected her from Leeds on Wednesday 28th April. We were treated to a low flyby on the school yard before it hovered over the field for children to get a good look at it. Children also met Miles the Bear
Bewcastle Scouts have continued to run through the pandemic but on line most of the time. They are hoping that face to face meetings will start again in April after Easter.
Contacts are : Simon Barrett 01228 497970 David Harding 07935172942 bewcastlescouts@gmail.com
Bewcastle Book Swap you are invited to come and choose a book or two to read – then return it and change for another ! Our own mini library. Wednesdays 10.30 – noon. Roadhead Village Hall – completely free of charge .Returned and donated books will be kept separate for a week before being reintroduced.
As the distribution of paper copies of the newsletter is still restricted at present, we have arranged several pick-up points around the Benefice where you can collect a copy from a box. These are: Kirklinton Church porch, Hethersgill Church porch, Stapleton Church, Bewcastle Church, Stapleton Parish Hall Porch, Smithfield Garage office, Garry Phillip’s Garage. This Newsletter can also be downloaded from the following sites: www.Bewcastle.com/news-events, www.BewcastleHouseOfPrayer.org.uk/parish-notices
Deadline for the July 2021 issue is 1pm on Saturday 19th June to Tricia Coombe, Damhead, Lyneholmeford, Roweltown, CA6 6LQ. 016977 48833 or triciacoombe@damhead.me
June 2021———-BENEFICE NEWS———–June 2021
Dear Friends,
As a professional hydrologist I have a natural interest in rivers. Our entire benefice is drained almost exclusively by the River Lyne and her tributaries, which flows south west to join the Border Esk just above its tidal limit at Metal Bridge downstream of Longtown, an area of around 210km2 (roughly 80 square miles). Her flow was measured at the gauging station at Cliff Bridge (Stn. No. 77005) from 1975-2019, with an average of 5.3m3/s, and low flows typically around 0.47 m3/s, or about 9%, indicating quite a flashy river (which we all know anyway!). She is formed by the confluence of her two major tributaries, the Black Lyne, and her smaller sister, the White Lyne, at Low Luckens. Downstream of Low Luckens she is fed by two other burns, the Rae Burn from the north, which drains much of the Solport area and flows into the Lyne near Shankbridge, and the Hether Burn from the east, which begins in the peat moss and joins the Lyne just above Cliff Bridge on the Longtown Road. The major tributary of the Black Lyne is the Bailey Water, which flows south and joins the Black Lyne a short distance downstream of Bailey Mill. The White Lyne’s major tributary is the Kirk Beck, which flows west from the Bewcastle fells passed the church to join the White Lyne at Common Flatt. The highest point in the catchment is Sighty Crag at 518m (1700ft) at the top of the White Lyne, and the average rainfall across the whole area is 1136mm/year, although this rises to more than 1500mm in the wettest parts. At the Met Office climate observation station, we run at Greenholme, average rainfall is around 1200mm/yr.
This river, then, with all her tendril becks and burns, collects water from, and thus joins together, every part of our benefice. She forms a direct link between us all, flowing from the remotest parts of the uplands of the Bewcastle fells, to the fertile lowlands of Kirklinton and on to the Solway Plain. For millions of years she has flowed, shaping and shaped by the banks and braes through which she treads. Long before there were any people here, before the Celtic tribes or the Romans, the Anglos-Saxons or the Vikings, before the Normans or the rievers, or us current inhabitants, this ancient river drew water from the moors, the crags, the woods, the moss, and the soils, enabling plants and trees to grow, providing dwelling places for countless animals, birds and wild beasts, and of course fish. She has given her name to numerous places and dwellings along the way; Blacklyne House, Hole of Lyne, Blackpool Gate, Lyne Bank, Lyneholmeford, all the way down to Hethersgill and Kirk-lyne-ton, just to name a few. She forms an integral and much-loved aspect of our countryside, where so many people love to walk in the quietness of her murmur, to find beauty and peace in her never-ending movement, solitude and comfort in her cool and hidden places among the leaves and the birds.
Of course, much has changed over time, not least land use, especially as farming has intensified over the last 70 years or so, and become more industrialised with the widespread use of herbicides and fertilisers, ancient woodlands have been cleared, and huge areas of monoculture forestry planted. The effect of all these changes coalesces in the river, which gathers them together, and now rarely sees adult salmon or sea trout migrating back up her sinuous length to reach their spawning grounds. In fact, the latest Environment Agency water body classification (2019) shows every part of the river, from her upper reaches to her lowest, failing its chemical status due to contamination (by PBDEs and Mercury compounds) that is particularly dangerous to animal health. It’s a painful reminder that our modern way of life takes its toll on the natural world, which pays the hidden price.
But the flow of water never ceases, and water brings life. Just as the Lyne joins us all together in a single flowing catchment, so our communities are linked through friendship, families, and farming. We are emerging from a long and difficult period, but life is returning. Let us lift our spirits to the God who made us all, and the wide world around us in which we dwell, the One who holds each of us and cares deeply about each soul, in whom we can find rest and peace, acceptance and comfort. And as the summer arrives (we hope!) let warmth and kindness be the river that flows through us and gives life to all around.
Your friend and priest,
Robert