Hawnby village adopts dark skies-friendly lighting

An entire village is switching to dark skies-friendly lighting in a bid to cut light pollution.

Lighting in Hawnby is being swapped as part of a scheme involving Mexborough Estates and North York Moors National Park officials.

It is claimed it will become the first village in England to have every exterior property and street light switched, along with all public spaces.

The Station Inn, in the Yorkshire Dales, has already made the switch.

In total more than 100 lights on 30 properties in Hawnby will be converted, including the village hall and pub.

Alongside the Hawnby project, the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority is also working to safeguard its night sky, with four Dales businesses being awarded grants to make the changes.

These include The Station Inn, close to Ribblehead Viaduct, and The Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes.

Both national parks achieved International Dark Sky Reserve status in December 2020.

The special status was awarded by the International Dark-Sky Association which said the parks were "global leaders in dark-sky conservation".

Mike Hawtin, dark skies officer for the North York Moors National Park, said: "We're aiming to show how relatively easy it can be for communities to take a similar approach to the one at Hawnby and help us protect the pristine qualities of our dark skies.

"There are a few other places in Wales and Scotland which have converted street lights to become dark sky friendly towns or villages, but we think Hawnby will be the first village to go even further by converting both street and external building lighting when the project completes later this year."

In the Yorkshire Dales, staff at The Station Inn said they were already running stargazing evenings, which had proved incredibly popular with people.

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