Ruth Yeoman recalls a childhood of picnics, extended family and growing up as part of the very first Scargill Community.

I was born at Amber Cottage, Kettlewell in September 1960. After their marriage in April 1959 my parents joined the Scargill Community; my dad, Richard as the Estate Manager and my mum Shirley to work on the House Team.

It was incredible to be a first-born among such an array of loving and supportive adults; surrogate ’aunts and uncles’, who popped up all over the place; to babysit, to share in a task, to sit next to in the chapel or come to our house so that Mum could share in prayers, to encourage me on through snow up to Hag Dyke at New Year where there was lunch and roaring fires all waiting for us, or pile into the cottage for coffee on a Sunday morning after worship at Kettlewell Parish Church, where Dad became a churchwarden.

The House and grounds at Scargill and the surrounding Dales were a wonderful playground and source of endless adventure and opportunity: Throstles Nest for summer picnics by the river, children’s games during the holidays with families staying at Scargill. Much of the time dad drove around in the Landover. Occasionally I could join him strapped in, as we climbed up rough and ready tracks or down into the valleys. We would meet guests out in the Dales with food and drink to sustain them for the afternoon.

Was the House running low on water? Dad showed me where to look up at the reservoir at the top of the Scar to see if the marker on the water was visible and if not we would cross the road below the House to turn on the pump to bring water up to the necessary level. Apparently dad’s instructions for this are still being used!

Dad seemed pretty fearless and endlessly practical. He was soon taking groups potholing and was a member of the Wharfedale Fell Rescue for almost a decade.

There were sorrows too. I remember a large more muted gathering to dedicate the new Marsh Lounge. Later I was to learn of how Dick Marsh and his fellow climber had both died in an accident on Coniston Old Man.

It was a busy life, but always one where people were ready to pray and be supportive, where needs were the mother of invention, with laughter and fun accompanying the daily round to be ready to welcome the next group of guests.

Looking back I am sure that this early experience of community and lived out Christian faith has shaped my life and the person I have become, together with the many Scargill members from the 1960’swho are still life long family friends. I had a privileged childhood. Thank you Scargill and many congratulations on reaching 60! May you go on shaping lives for good through faith and fellowship in Christ Jesus.

Peter Lewis tells how his holiday at Scargill had quite an unexpected twist!

I  first came to Scargill on a Parish Weekend from Nottingham when I was new to the city and my parish church.  (It was an excellent way to get to know others in the Parish over the weekend and I made friends amongst the community from that first weekend!)  Having returned a number of times on my own or with friends for holidays or workshops, I came in 1991 for a holiday week and became aware during the walks that there were a number of children there with just one parent and keen to be more active, so we organised some extra football games and took a whole group of children off to the swimming pool twice during the week.  Amongst the children were two boys from Nottingham who were on holiday with their father immediately after their parents’ divorce.  The younger boy attached himself to me, telling me jokes all the time and wanting to  walk on the rambles with me.  At the end of the week the two boys told me they were singing in a concert in Nottingham shortly with a youth choir and suggested I should come.  I didn’t think too much more about it and had no way of contacting them, but about a week later some close friends at church asked me if I’d like to come to a youth choir concert which their own son was singing in and I joined them for this.  As soon as I entered the concert hall the two boys I’d met at Scargill recognised me and waved.  In the interval they came and got me to take me off to meet their mum.  She said she’d heard an awful lot about me and perhaps I’d like to bring my Scargill photos round for tea some time.  This was the first stage in a quite unexpected new relationship and we were married in 1994.  We are next month celebrating our Silver Wedding and have two grandchildren – the offspring of the younger boy who wanted to tell me jokes.  Our elder son now lives in Australia and whilst we have visited him there we also maintain contact digitally on a regular basis.  Both my step-sons continue to be amused by the way that this encounter at Scargill changed all our lives!  My wife and I have been back to Scargill many times, as she had also been there in the 1980’s, and we actively promote Scargill in the Derbyshire village churches where we now live. I am a Reader approaching my 34th year of ministry and my wife is active in church music, leading worship and counselling.

I recently told a version of this story at a celebration for the anniversary of the Youth Choir in Nottingham where it caused lots of laughter and amusement!

Peter & Rae are due to visit Scargill again later this summer.