A roundup of the year in the Craven household

Linda’s news

I celebrated my 60^th birthday in March with a party with friends in Leeds. Stephen surprised me with a gluten free fresh cream cake to share with our church family. We had a lovely few days in Lincoln with a lovely meal in an Italian restaurant.  In May I had a small celebration in Sandbach with Stephen’s family.  We had a week’s holiday in Reims, France to round off the birthday celebration (see below).

I still volunteer with the Alzheimer’s Society as a Dementia Friends Ambassador and I recently delivered an Information session to Radiographer students at the University of Leeds. I did my annual memory walk in October, raising over £300. Thank you to those who generously donated. I am still active with the Leeds North and West Foodbank, Bramley Elderly Action, Leeds CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) acting as Membership Secretary, and as a Community Champion raising awareness on Vaccinations.

Unfortunately, earlier in the year (February) I was rushed in to hospital with a suspected stroke (fortunately it wasn’t) and spent 2 weeks having tests. I was diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), a signal failure in my brain affecting speech and cognitive skills. It is a slow recovery with speech therapy and physiotherapy. In October I had a loop recorder implant which is recording my heart beat.

Stephen’s news

At work, we have had a rapid turnover of warehouse volunteers this year. Sadly, foodbank donations have failed to keep up with increasing numbers of people turning to us for help, so we have moved from buying at the local cash-and-carry, to having pallet-load deliveries of common items such as milk, fruit juice, tinned meat and toilet roll. The charity really needs more funds to cover this cost. Thanks so much to those who sponsored me this year (see below) but if you can still offer help, please use the link below:  
donate.giveasyoulive.com/donate?cid=77211#amount

The Geograph project is going well. We have over 8.2 million images in the archive; donations have just about covered costs the last couple of years; our IT team has started using AI to improve the search function and help generate new computer code; we have taken two new trustees on board and launched a user survey; and spent endless committee hours complying with the new Online Safety Act. Meanwhile, I have contributed nearly 3000 photos this year (fewer than recent years but now up to nearly 58,000 total), and enjoyed organising our annual conference (see below).

My church involvement as a lay minister has had a few highlights this year. I had the privilege of delivering the annual Reformation Day sermon in Headingley, quite a highbrow one, as well as leading Evensong there a few times. And leading worship at the magnificent Church of the Epiphany, one of the few grade I listed 20^th century churches in England. We are back there on 21 December. In total contrast, a family service in Bramley saw our mascot Shap act the part of ‘Sleepy Shy Sheep’ in a retelling of one of Jesus’ parables. I also recently started leading a small weekly study group in church, called ‘Cornerstone’.

Family, Holidays and Leisure

Stephen’s mum Stella has had a few health problems. She now has a walking stick, hearing aids and emergency call button, but otherwise still living independently. We visit every 4-6 weeks, and Jo who lives closer supports her regularly.

Right at the start of the year we took ten people from our church to Scargill House for a small groups weekend. Everyone enjoyed it and some have booked to go themselves. We will next be going in April 2026.

It was Stephen’s turn to organise the Geograph annual conference in May, which coincided with Bradford being the UK City of Culture. We were hosted by the University; not the Geography department but the Forensic Archaeology team, who saw parallels between our aims and their project to create 3D models of historic buildings from photographs.  The ‘igloo tour’ wasn’t quite what you might think! We also enjoyed the obligatory curry night and walks to Little Germany and Salt’s Mill.

We followed the conference with a week based in Reims, one of Europe’s most ancient cities and just a day’s journey by train from Leeds.  As well as its own historic sights (Cathedral, Roman arch, Art Deco buildings, etc.) we had a day out by train to Epernay and its champagne caves. The Airbnb style apartment was cheap (under €400 for a week), but we soon found out why!

In August we spent a week in Eastern England with a rail rover ticket, visiting Stephen’s cousin Myk in Gainsborough and his sister Lynne in Cambridge, as well as taking in the Lincolnshire coast, Stamford (surely the archetypal English market town) and the Peterborough beer festival, now the largest in the country as the national one in London will not be happening again. We also had a dodgy experience in a pub in Scunthorpe! 

In September, Stephen took a week to cycle the Trans Pennine Trail from Southport to Bridlington, covering 400km in five days. Starting with a blessing from the vicar of the church in Ainsdale where he was christened in 1962, the route took in canals, old railway lines and country lanes, but also a tough bridleway over the moors with steps, and unsurfaced paths that resulted in a minor injury. But no punctures, thankfully. More importantly, he raised over £1200 for the foodbank.  Linda joined him in Brid for the weekend and we visited one of Linda’s relatives there.

We attended one wedding, of Linda’s friend Claire Kitson. There have been a few deaths: Stephen’s aunt Greta who had lived her whole life in Coventry and is now buried there with her husband and son, our Scargill contemporary Russell Eastham, and our friend Dr Ian Smith who died of cancer at a relatively young age.