11:30am Friday 23rd July 2010
A party of geologists spent an instructive day in the Clapham district. A way was made through fields to Austwick, where a section in a gravel pit was examined. The valley here was evidently a lake in the glacial period, the water being held up by the ice in Morecambe Bay, and the gravel deposited in the lake.
Earby Brass Band was promoting a contest, which would take place in the grounds adjoining the band room. The sum of £40 would be given in prize money.
With perfect weather for haymaking and a crop that even brought smiles to the faces of Craven farmers, it was natural to hear memories of the “good old days”. Abraham Tillotson, 79, of Carleton, claimed he had worked in Skipton hayfields for 75 summers. In his younger days he was a cricketer and all round athlete and could still wield a rake.
Ancient steps leading from the elevated walk on The Bailey to the roadway at Skipton had gone. In their place, at a point opposite the Overdale Country Club, was a neat concrete ramp with protective rails. While new stone steps would have been in keeping with tradition, the sloping ramp was said to be easier for people with prams.
It had, on the whole, been a disappointing holiday fortnight for Skipton. Rain was the order of the day and had fallen during most of the entire period. Indeed, those who came back from visiting resorts returned with gloomy faces.
Since it opened in May 1958, there had been over 2,000 hostellers at the Katherine Bruce Glasier Memorial Hostel at Earby. The warden said there had been visitors from all over the world including Japan, the West Indies, New Zealand and Australia.
Skipton’s Christ Church School took its successful production of “The Triumph of Lady Anne Clifford” to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London. It was one of only two primary schools in the country to be chosen to bring a close to the Music Advisers’ National Association’s annual conference.
South Craven people who sought action about overgrown verges outside their homes got more than they bargained for. For North Yorkshire workmen, complete with weedkiller packs and pressure sprays, not only rid them of unwanted grass and weeds, but also their much-valued shrubs. Householders in Bradley, Farnhill and Kildwick could not believe their eyes when the greenery they had planted began to wither.
There were plenty of sore knees when intrepid racers crawled two-and-a-half miles between Horton-in-Ribblesdale and the Helwith Bridge Hotel to raise money for the 1985 British Speleological Expedition to Mexico. There were about 30 “crawlers” raising money for the caving expedition through sponsorship and other donations. First was Geoff Crossley in less than one-and-a-half hours, followed by Pete O’Neill, with Julian Smith third.
Borrowers and investors with Skipton Building Society were each up to £1,000 richer as the organisation handed back £50 million in profits to its members. In a move which surprised the financial markets, Skipton became the first building society to hand over “loyalty” payments. It was seen as another move to spike the attempts of so-called carpetbaggers to convert the society into a company owned by shareholders with one-off windfall payments.
Dot Cotton, Albert Square’s gossip with a heart of gold, was to be the celebrity guest at Barnoldswick Gala. Local Round Tablers, who organised the event, had scored a real coup by signing up the busy EastEnders’ soap star June Brown.
A specially-designed wristwatch to assist carers of the elderly or disabled had been invented by South Craven School pupil Richard Jowett. Richard, 17, invented the device as part of his design and technology A-level after his grandmother fell and could not raise the alarm. The device measured the pulse rate and movement of the wearer and was linked to the carer’s telephone line.
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