Locals win New Year honours

Amongst them is retired hill farmer, John Sayer, who received the MBE for his service to hill farming and conservation in the Yorkshire Dales.

Mr Sayer, 68, of Low Ryelands Farm, Arncliffe, is married to Elaine and has two daughters, Carol and Angela.

He described the honour linked to his two decades' connection with the National Farmers' Union as LFA (Lesser Favoured Areas) Delegate to London, as astonishing.

"It was a real bombshell; you could have knocked me down with a feather," said a delighted Mr Sayer.

Although he describes himself as an ordinary person, his work with the NFU and his willingness to act as messenger between the 'grass root farmers and people at the top' has obviously been looked at as much more.

He also worked for the Ministry of Agriculture on its hill farming advisory committee and for eight years was on the farmers' advisory committee of the Redesdale (CRRT) Experimental Husbandry Farm, in Northumberland. He was also chosen by the Secretary of State to be a member of the National Park Committee, a post he held for three years.

Mr Sayer was one of those who took up the challenge of getting grants paid for dry stone wall maintenance and repair.

Also receiving an MBE for his sterling work in steering the Grassington Millennium project to completion is Terry Woodhead, of Garrs Lane, Grassington.

The £637,000 project to refurbish and extend the Devonshire Institute, better known as the town hall, was a huge success.

Mr Woodhead is married to Suzanne and has two children, Simon and Samantha. He worked as an off-shore construction engineer until his retirement.

His vocation in the construction field found him taking on the mantle of project manager for the town hall scheme which took four years to complete.

Speaking about his MBE, he said: "I am delighted but want to say that the millennium project was completed through the efforts of many people. The project itself was the brainchild of Dr Andrew Jackson. He was the chap who started it all off and a group of very able and willing people carried it through. It was because of the talents of all those people involved that the project was completed on time and within budget.

Mr Woodhead helped the committee raise the necessary funding which included more than £101,000 being realised locally through residents, organisations and businesses.

The award of an MBE in the New Year's Honours List came as a complete shock to Cross Hills' Allan Clough.

Mr Clough, 75, is a tireless worker for many causes, with his award presented for services to the community.

Many Herald readers will know Mr Clough for his work with Glusburn Institute and the village's youth theatre. But he has also been chairman of the Airedale Cardiac Support Group for the last six years and was one of the group's founder members.

"I'm absolutely delighted and this has come as a complete surprise," he said, speaking from his home in Park Road.

As a boy, he was involved in the production of Pantomimes at Glusburn Institute.

His work in the performances continues today and his creation of the flying ballet scenes led to the panto being featured on television in the 1980s.

The institute has always been dear to his heart and he has worked hard to secure the future of the Victorian building.

He helped form the management committee, which looks after the building and was instrumental in securing thousands of pounds worth of funding to improve facilities.

The latest £88,000 scheme has seen essential building work to bring the institute up to new fire safety standards and provide new stage equipment.

His work in amateur dramatics led him to be awarded a life membership of the Keighley Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society, an honour conferred on only two others in the society's history.

Mr Clough is a partner in a successful engineering business based in Keighley. He was forced to give up as managing director following heart problems which led to a double bypass operation.

This spurred on his work at Airedale Hospital in which he played a major part in fundraising for a cardiac catheterisation lab.

Mr Clough also helped to form the Keighley and District Engineering Association, which still flourishes today to provide training for young engineers.

A former head boy of Ermysted's Grammar School, Skipton, will be no stranger to Buckingham Palace when he goes to receive his OBE.

Paul Alfred Bradstock, who is 59 today, received the award for his services to economic innovation in Oxfordshire.

He said: "It was a great surprise and I feel very privileged. It reflects on everyone that I work with in the company."

Mr Bradstock attended Ermysted's from the age of 12, following primary school in Malta. His father who was in the Navy was drafted abroad and Mr Bradstock was left to continue his education in Skipton.

In 1957 he was head boy before heading to Oxford University to study for a science degree. On completing the course, he married Patricia Watson, his childhood sweetheart who had studied at Skipton Girls' High. The ceremony took place at Holy Trinity Church and the reception at the Overdale Club which was on the site of Skipton Building Society.

In his first job at J and P Engineering in Reading, Mr Bradstock designed the first ever medical scanner. This success led to the chance to travel abroad. He later worked for Oxford Instruments, and whilst there he set up the Oxford Trust of which he is now director.

He was invited by the Chinese Government to give lectures over there and has since travelled to other countries doing the same sort of work. He has on a number of occasions been invited to Palace garden parties because of the importance of his engineering work.

Mr Bradstock has two sons Peter and Simon and regularly returns to Skipton to visit his father, Tom, and his wife, Gerry. Tom said: "I am just extremely proud that he has done all this."

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